cold war

• The Grand Alliance was formed between the USA, the Soviet Union, and Britain to defeat Germany and Japan in the Second World War
• Although the grand alliance had been formed there was no real change in how they viewed each other
• The USA and Britain remained suspicious of communism
• Stalin realized that the West would not take any actions that made the Soviet Union stronger in the long run
• The Soviet Union, Britain, and the USA were ruled according to very different ideologies
• The USA was capitalist, and the Soviet Union was communist
• During the 1930s, both the USA and Britain had been critical of the methods used by Stalin to industrialize the Soviet Union and the human cost involved
• Stalin was a strong opponent of Hitler, so it suited the USA and Britain to work with the Soviet Union to defeat Germany during the Second World War
• After the war, it was clear that relations were likely to become strained due to ideological differences
• Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin are often referred to as 'the Big Three'
• Roosevelt believed in democracy but compromised and formed an alliance with Stalin
• Roosevelt needed Soviet support against Japan
• Roosevelt believed any long-term settlement would only be possible if the Soviet Union was accepted as a superpower and partner in peace
• Churchill was deeply suspicious of Stalin due to his political attitudes and traditional values
• Stalin strengthened one-party rule in the Soviet Union and cut back on people's individual rights
• Stalin was convinced that the West wanted to destroy communism, so the Soviet Union had to stand firm in negotiations with the USA and Britain
• a cold war is when there is no actual fighting
• the cold war was between 1945-1991
• the cold war was between the ussr and the usa
• Britain and the USA were suspicious of the soviet union because they have different political beliefs
• The soviet union was suspicious of Britain and the USA because they thought they wanted to destroy communism
• The USA was suspicious of Britain because of their imperialism
• In November 1943 there was a meeting in Tehran between the leaders to discus how to defeat Hitler
• In February 1945 there was a meeting in Yalta to discus what to do with Germany after the war
• In Tehran they decided Britain would open a second front with Germany, and Stalin would declare war on Japan
• In Yalta, they decided they would set up the UN, Germany would be split into four zones and Polands boarders would be returned to original
• In July-August 1945 there was a meeting in Potsdam to finalise the plans for after the war
• In Potsdam they decided to also split Berlin into four zones and the country in control would pay for it's reparations
• On 6 August 1945 the USA exploded an atom bomb over Hiroshima (a japanese city) and killed 120,000 civilians
• The use of the atomic bombs made Stalin want to create a buffer zone of communist friendly countries around the USSR (the soviet satellite states)
• On 9 August 1945, the USA dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki
• By 1964, Britain, China and the USSR also had atomic bombs
• The atomic bomb increased tensions in the cold war because they were more reluctant to go to war but had started an arms race
• George Kennan's long telegram in 1946 from the Soviet union to America reported that Stalin wanted the destruction of capitalism and but believed that everywhere wanted to destroy communism
• The American government wanted a form of containment to stop communism spreading
• The Novikov telegram said that the Soviets thought equally poorly of the west and that the USA wanted to use their military power to dominate and not co-operate with the USSR any more so they wanted to protect themselves
• In March 1946 Winston Churchill was no longer prime minister but he gave a speech saying there was an 'iron curtain' between the west and the east
• in 1944-5 the USSR freed eastern European countries from Nazi control and turned them into satellite states with communist governments
• Truman saw the satellites states as proof Stalin wanted to spread communism and the made tensions between them worse
• After the war communism looked attractive to poor people