Cold War Revision Notes

USSR- Communist State

·         One party dictatorship

·         No free elections

·         Everyone earned the same

·         No freedom of speech

·         Strict censorship

·         Media owned and controlled by government

·         State owned industry and agriculture

·         Government planned the economy

·         Individual lives tightly controlled

USA- Capitalist / Democratic State

·         More than one option to vote for

·         Free elections

·         Ability to earn more depending on your skill set or experience

·         Press able to criticise the government

·         Industry and agriculture owned by individuals

·         Government interfere as little as possible into the lives of ordinary people

Yalta Conference (February 1945)

THE ATTITUDE OF THE LEADERS

v  Stalin (USSR):obsessed with the security of the USSR. He wanted the Soviet Union to retain the Polish territory he had taken in 1939 as part of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He also wanted to make sure the new government of Poland would be friendly towards the Soviet Union.

v  Roosevelt (USA): very ill (in 2 months he would die). He was keen that democracy should be introduced in to Eastern Europe. However he trusted Stalin and wanted to make sure that the USA and USSR remained on good terms after the war

v  Churchill (Britain): very concerned about the future of Poland and Eastern Europe. He did not trust Stalin. He wanted to stop Stalin from imposing communism on the territory taken by the Red Army. Britain had gone to war in 1939 to help Poland and Churchill did not want to abandon Poland to Soviet control

AGREEMENTS

·         Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan once Germany was defeated

·         All 3 agreed to join the United Nations.

·         Germany and Berlin to be divided into four zones of occupation (Br, Fr, USA, USSR)

·         Stalin to have ‘a sphere of influence' in Eastern Europe.

·         ‘Free elections' to be held to decide governments countries liberated from Nazi occupation

However there was a dispute over Poland:

Stalin insisted on a ‘friendly government’ in Poland. The West demanded free elections in Poland.

Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945)

The leaders present were Stalin (USSR), Truman (USA), and Attlee (Britain)

AGREEMENTS

·         Ban the Nazi Party and prosecute surviving Nazis as war criminals

·         The details of the German-Polish borders on the rivers Oder and Neisse were finally agreed

·         Confirmed the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation

DISAGREEMENTS

1.       Reparations - Stalin demanded $20 billion compensation. This figure was rejected by Truman and Attlee – they did not want to make the same mistakes as at Versailles.

2.       Atomic Bomb – On 16th August, during the Potsdam Conference, the USA successfully tested their first A Bomb. Truman informed Stalin about it, but was not willing to share the technology. This made Stalin even more suspicious of the West and encouraged him to begin an arms race to make the USSR’s weapons equal in…