The Cold War: Yalta and Potsdam

What happened at Yalta and Potsdam

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  • Created by: SG
  • Created on: 13-04-12 10:37

The Yalta Conference

In Febuary 1945 it was clear Germany was losing the war, so the big 3- Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met to discuss what was going to happen. They agreed that:

  • Germany would be split into 4 zones and it would pay reperations
  • There would be a mixture of communist and non communists in government in Poland, called a 'National Unity'
  • The Declaration of Liberated Europe- free elections would be held
  • When Germany was defeated, Russia would help fight against Japan

The only main disagreement was about where the borders of Poland should be- Stalin wanted more of Poland and the other two had to accept.

They presented a very together public image, but in reality, they really didn't get on that well.

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The Potsdam Conference

In May 1945, allied troops reached Berlin & the war was won. There was another conference in July 1945, but Roosevelt had been replaced by Truman and Churchill by Atlee. This time, there were open disagreements on:

  • Where the boundaries of Germany should exactly be
  • Russia wanted more reperations than America and Britain wanted
  • Stalin had arrested non-communist leaders of Poland which made Truman angry
  • Communists had to power in eastern europe which caused alarm
  • Truman hadn't told Stalin about the atomic bomb- he was furious

But they still agreed on: Nazi leaders to be put on trial, Germany was to be given the "chance to...rebuild its life on a democratic and peaceful basis" and it was currently to be run by a control council

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Why the grand alliance fell apart

In 1945 the US, USSR & UK were allied against Hitler- but by 1949 they had fallen apart because:

  • Stalin didn't trust Truman
  • Truman didn't trust Stalin because he thought that Stalin had no intention of a free Poland
  • America had droped the atomic bomb on Japan, Russia had developed their own atomic weapons
  • Everyone is scared of each other,
  • Russia and America have different ideologies
  • Truman thinks Stalin is another Hitler
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The History of the USA and USSR

  • The USA, Uk and USSR were united only to defeat Hitler
  • In the russian civil war of 1917 british and american troops were sent to fight against the communists
  • Therefore they were wary of each other
  • In the 20's in america there was a red scare and people who had radical political ideas were arrested
  • Also, in Britain 1926 the government reacted fiercely to a general strike as they thought it was engineered by agents of the USSR
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Comments

DAVIDTENNANTILOVEYOU

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Amazing...:-D

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