Section A: early tension between East and West

• when was the grand alliance made?

  1941
• who was in the grand alliance?

  the usa, the ussr, and the uk
• what was the purpose of the grand alliance?

  to defeat the nazis
• when was the tehran conference?

  november 1943
• who was the leader of the usa in 1941?

  roosevelt
• who was the leader of the ussr in 1941?

  stalin
• who was the leader of the uk in 1941?

  churchill
• what were the consequences of the tehran conference?

  1. The USA and the UK would open a ‘second front’ by launching an attack on Germany in Western Europe (this would become D-Day).
  2. The agreement on the second front pleased Stalin and annoyed Churchill, who wanted a ‘second front’ in the Balkans instead.
  3. It was agreed Stalin would declare war against Japan once the war in Europe was over.
  4. Germany would have to surrender unconditionally.
  5. It was agreed an international body would be set up to settle disputes through discussion (this became the U.N.)
• when was the yalta conference?

  february 1945
• what were the consequences of the yalta conference?

  1. germany would be split into four zones to be administered by the usa, ussr, britain and france
  2. agreed germany would pay $20 billion in reparations, half of which would go to the ussr
  3. the united nations was set up
  4. stalin agreed that the liberated countries in eastern europe would be allowed free elections (went back on it)
  5. poland's borders would return back to their position in 1921 (this gave the ussr significant gains)
  6. was disagreement about the future of poland, the usa wanted free elections, and the ussr wanted a communist government
• when was did the united nations first meet?

  25th april 1945
• when was the potsdam conference?

  august 1945
• who were the big three at the potsdam conference?

  truman, attlee, and stalin
• when did germany surrender?

  may 1945
• what were the agreements at potsdam?

  1. although germany was divided into four zones, they agreed to run the economy as a whole (this never really happened, with each side getting separate currencies later)
  2. berlin would also be divided into four zones
  3. there was disagreement about whether to charge reparations, so each country was allowed to take reparations from its own zone
  4. the ussr was allowed to take a quarter of the industrial equipment from other zones
• what were the disagreements at potsdam?

  1. truman objected to the red army occupying eastern europe; this led to ongoing disagreement over the governments in these countries
  2. truman objected to the polish borders that had already been agreed
• britain and the usa = ...?

  capitialist democracies
• the ussr = ...?

  a communist dictatorship
• what was stalin convinced?

  that the west wanted to destroy communism
• truman was more... than roosevelt.

  more suspicious of the ussr
• when did the usa drop an atomic bomb on hiroshima?

  6th of august 1945
• when did the usa drop an atomic bomb on nagasaki?

  9th of august 1945
• what were the consequences of the atomic bombs?

  1. over 120,000 japanese civilians were killed
  2. knowing only the usa knew how to make this bomb made truman more confident at potsdam
  3. the countries of western europe felt more secure placing themselves under american protection
  4. stalin felt even more determined to create a buffer zone of communist countries in eastern europe to protect the ussr from the west
  5. soviet scientists developed their own bomb on 29th august 1949
  6. cold war tensions increased
• who was the american ambassador in the usa at this time?

  kennan
• what did kennan write?

  the long telegram
• when did kennan write the long telegram?

  in 1946
• what did the long telegram say?

  said stalin wanted to see the destruction of capitalism around the world but would back down in the face of strong resistance
• what did the long telegram lead to?

  the american government to adopt a strong policy of containment
• what is containment?

  the US foreign policy of preventing the spread of communism during the Cold War
• what did novikov's telegram say?

  said the usa wanted to use their massive military power to dominate the world
• what did the red army do in 1944 and 1945?

  the red army took control of bulgaria, romania and eastern parts of germany. voters were intimidated into voting communist
• what did the red army do in 1947 to hungary?

  voters in hungary were intimidated into voting communist; by 1949 hungary was a one-party communist state
• what happened to poland in 1947?

  poland also had supposedly free elections in 1947, but pro-democracy politicians either were imprisoned or fled
• what happened to czechoslovakia in february 1948?

  communists staged a coup in czechoslovakia; the non-communist leader Benes was forced out and replaced by the pro-soviet communist Klement Gottwald