Growing Distrust During WW2

• History of suspicion and mistrust


  
  

  
  

  1. Paris Peace Conference (1919) :

  • Reason for Germany not being broken up is due to West fear of a new communist state, USSR, and its consequences.

  
  

  2. Russian Civil War (1918-1921) :

  • US & British intervention on the side of the "Whites" (against the Communist Russians)
  • Reds - Communists
  • Whites - Non-communists

  
  

  3. Appeasement towards Hitler in the 1930s

  • Policy driven by fear of USSR trying to spread communism by force
• USSR's POV

  
  

  1. Perceived Delay in Opening a Second Front

  - Stalin urged Allies to open a second front in France to ease up pressure on Germany

  - Only happened on D-Day (June 1944)

  - Stalin thought that delay was to minimise Allied losses and weaken the USSR (Since they have to continue fighting Germany - War on 2 Fronts C6)
• Increasing Soviet Control


  
  

  • Red Army liberation of Eastern Europe from Germany Instead of withdrawing troops, Stalin left them there.
  • Soviet troops ended up controlling most of Eastern Europe by July 1945
  • Stalin set up a communist government in Poland despite protests from West
  • Britain & US saw this as breaking agreements made during Yalta Conference
• US Atomic Monopoly


  
  

  • USA had been secretly developing the atomic bomb since 1942
  • Chose not to tell the USSR about it until its first successful test in 1945
  • This made Stalin suspicious – his own spies told him about it before Truman did!
  • Made USSR anxious to develop own nuclear programme in order to match up to USA's arms