history cold war

• The beginning of the Cold War
• Grand Alliance


  Created in 1941 to defeat Nazi Germany
• Leaders of countries in the Grand Alliance

  • Britain (democracy led by Churchill)
  • USA (democracy led by Roosevelt)
  • Soviet Union (communist one-party state led by Stalin)
• The Grand Alliance was a 'marriage of convenience', in which three countries shared the aim of defeating their common enemy - Nazi Germany
• The Tehran Conference (November-December 1943)

  1. USA and Britain agreed to open up a second front by invading Nazi-occupied Europe

  2. Soviet Union would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated

  3. Boundaries of Poland would be moved westwards

  4. Agreed that an international body would be set up to settle future disputes between countries
• The Yalta Conference (February 1945)

  1. Germany, when defeated, would be reduced in size, divided and demilitarised. It would have to pay reparations

  2. Europe would be rebuilt along the lines of the Atlantic Charter. Countries would have democratic elections

  3. UN (United Nations) would be set up

  4. Soviet Union would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated

  5. Poland would be in the 'Soviet sphere of influence but run on a broader democratic basis
• The Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945)


  1. A Council of Foreign Ministers was set up to organise the rebuilding of Europe

  2. Nazi Party was banned and war criminals were to be prosecuted

  3. Germany was to be reduced in size and divided into four zones of occupation

  4. Berlin was also to be divided up into zones of occupation

  5. Soviet Union was to receive 25% of the output from the other three occupied zones
• Tension was increasing between the wartime allies over the future of Germany and Eastern Europe. Roosevelt's death had led to Truman becoming president and he was much more distrustful of the Soviet Union
• In response to the spread of Soviet control in Eastern Europe, the USA stepped up its involvement in Europe, and the Soviet Union was determined to defend itself against any threats from the West
• The USA was determined to stop the spread of communism, and the Soviet Union was determined to defend itself against Western attack. Europe was the centre of this ideological "battleground"
• Truman Doctrine


  Announced in 1947, stated that the USA should provide money and troops (if necessary) to help free governments combat communist takeovers
• Truman's concerns


  • Europe was devastated after the war, communism was attractive to people with no money or jobs, many Eastern European countries had already had communist governments forced on them, some governments were too poor to combat communist revolutions, Truman feared the 'Domino Theory' where if some countries became communist, others would follow
• Marshall Plan


  About $13 billion from USA to help rebuild Europe, aimed to stop communism by giving people a stake in the capitalist system, countries must trade with the USA to get the money, 16 Western European countries took the money
• The Soviet Union criticised the Marshall Plan as an attack on them because it threatened communist control in Eastern Europe
• Cominform


  Organised all the communist parties in Europe and arranged their policies so they would do what Moscow told them to, got rid of any opposition to the Soviet Union's control in satellite states, encouraged communist parties in Western countries to block Marshall Plan assistance
• Comecon


  Set up trade links between Comecon countries, prevented Comecon countries joining the Marshall Plan, included the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania and East Germany
• NATO


  Military alliance made up of the United States, Britain, Canada, Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark and Norway, West Germany joined in 1955, based on the principle of collective security where if one country was attacked, other countries had to assist it, directed against a possible military attack from the Soviet Union
• NATO showed that, after the Berlin Blockade and the Soviet Union's development of the atomic bomb, neither the United States nor Western European governments were prepared to accept future Soviet aggression
• The Soviet Union therefore turned to strengthening its control over Eastern Europe, resulting in the formation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955
• There were now two military alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, facing each other across the Iron Curtain
• Stalin was keen to prevent satellite countries getting money from the Marshall Plan as he wanted to maintain control over Eastern Europe and prevent the spread of capitalism
• The Berlin Airlift made sure that West Berlin did not have to pull out of West Germany, which would have been a major setback for the West
• In September 1949, West Germany was officially formed, which was not popular with the Soviet Union as Stalin was concerned it would permanently divide Germany
• 1958 - Khrushchev's secret speech to the 20th party congress denouncing Stalinism