Early tension

• Early tension


  The beginning of the Cold War
• Before the Cold War Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union worked together as members of the Grand Alliance, which was created in 1941 to defeat Nazi Germany. The leaders of these countries met three times: at Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945).
• Britain

  • A democracy led by Churchill, had been at war with Germany since 1939
• USA

  • A democracy led by Roosevelt, had been at war with Germany and Japan since December 1941
• Soviet Union

  • A one-party state led by Stalin, had been at war with Germany since 1941
• 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. The Soviet Union would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated

  3. The boundaries of Poland would be moved westwards; Poland would gain territory from Germany and lose it to the Soviet Union

  4. It was also agreed that an international body would be set up to settle future disputes between countries. This set the scene for the establishment of the United Nations.
• 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. The UN (United Nations) would be set up

  4. The 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. The 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 run by Britain, France, the USA and the Soviet Union

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

  5. The Soviet Union was to receive 25% of the output from the other three occupied zones
• While Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union were able to work together to defeat Germany, who had surrendered in May 1945, tension was increasing between the wartime allies. Differences were beginning to emerge over the future of Germany and Eastern Europe. Moreover, Roosevelt's death had led to Truman becoming president and he was much more distrustful of the Soviet Union.
• After Germany surrendered in May 1945, the Grand Alliance started to come to an end.
• Roosevelt was the key figure in holding the Alliance together. He believed that the United States could work with the Soviet Union after the war came to an end through the United Nations.
• His successor, Truman, was, like Churchill, more suspicious of the Soviet Union and this increased tension between the Allies.
• The USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945


  This gave them a huge military advantage over other countries
• Roosevelt was prepared to work with Stalin

  But he died in April 1945 and was replaced by Truman
• Truman trusted Stalin much less

  As he had broken the promises he made over Poland at Yalta
• Truman felt that, thanks to the atomic bomb

  He could push Stalin around at the Potsdam Conference
• Increased tension between the superpowers and the start of the cold war.
• Britain had finished on the winning side in 1945 but was economically exhausted by the war. It was therefore unable to stand up to the Soviet Union on its own and became closely an ally of the United States. The Cold War therefore became increasingly about the relationship between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
• Without a common enemy to fight, tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union intensified. Neither side trusted the other due to ideological differences and the fact that the USA, unlike the Soviet Union, possessed nuclear weapons.
• Ideology

  A set of political ideas about how society should be run
• Ideology of the USA, Britain and other capitalist countries

  • Communism enslaves people to the state. Capitalism is based on freedom and democracy
  • Everyone should be free to make money for themselves
  • Individuals are better at deciding what to make/sell than the state
  • Trade between countries makes everyone richer
• Ideology of the Soviet Union and other communist countries

  • Capitalism exploits the workers to make the rich even richer. Communism is based on fairness
  • Capitalism only makes some people rich by exploiting everyone else
  • Individuals are not as strong as everyone working together for the same aim
  • The state should take control of the economy and run it to benefit everyone
• The Long Telegram (1946) said the Soviet Union saw capitalism as a threat to communism that had to be destroyed, and the Soviet Union was building its military power. Peace between a communist Soviet Union and a capitalist USA was not possible.
• Novikov's Telegram (1946) said the USA wanted world domination and was building up its military strength, and the Soviet Union was the only country left after the war that could stand up to the USA.
• Ideological differences and the atomic bomb had made relations between the superpowers worse. The USA saw the Soviet Union as a threat to its economic interests in Europe. The Soviet Union feared and resented the USA's nuclear monopoly, which did not end until 1949.
• Between 1947 and 1949, the Soviet Union spread its sphere of influence to neighbouring countries. Countries like Poland and Hungary became 'satellite states' under the control of the Soviet Union.
• Communism and 'free' elections


  1. At the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the Soviet Union agreed to free elections in the countries in its sphere of influence

  2. However, elections were fixed to make sure the Communist Party won and non-communists were removed from government

  3. Once in control, the communists shut down the opposition parties and each country became a single-party state

  4. Fixing elections and then shutting down opposition parties was known as "salami tactics"
• Soviet expansion in Europe, 1945-48

  • Bulgaria: A communist government was elected in 1945, and all elected non-communists were executed
  • Romania: A communist-led coalition took power. However, by 1947 the communists had taken over and Romania became a one-party state
  • Poland: At Yalta Stalin promised to set up a joint communist/non-communist government. He then invited 16 non-communist leaders to Moscow and arrested them. Thousands of non-communists were arrested. The communists then 'won' the 1947 election
  • Hungary: The communists lost the 1945 election but the communist leader Rakosi took control of the secret police, executed and imprisoned his opponents and turned Hungary into a communist state
  • Czechoslovakia: Edward Benes set up a coalition government. However, the communists retained control of the army, the radio and the secret police. In 1948 they seized power completely, turning the country into a communist state
  • East Germany: The original Soviet zone of occupation in Germany, it became a communist state in October 1949
• The USA saw the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe


  As a betrayal of the Yalta agreement, in which Stalin had made promises about holding democratic elections
• Others saw it as evidence of Soviet expansion

  Eastern Europe was a stepping-stone to a Soviet takeover of Western Europe
• The USA was determined to contain communism

  Through military and economic assistance: the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid
• The Soviet Union argued it needed to control Eastern Europe

  As a buffer zone, protecting it from attack by the West
• The US response was

  Unnecessary and unreasonable