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• Cold war


  Conflict between the US and the Soviet Union after World War II, characterized by mutual suspicion, ideological opposition, and proxy wars
• Origins of the cold war


  US, British and USSR relations in 1945: conflicting ideologies; tensions at Yalta; relations between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill; the breakdown of the Grand Alliance at Potsdam; relations between Stalin, Truman and Attlee
• The Atlantic Charter


  14th august 1941
• FDR and Churchill met aboard naval ships in Placentia Bay southeast coast of Newfoundland to discuss issues relating to WW2
• The document that resulted from the meetings stated that the 2 leaders deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world
• Percentages agreement


  Tehran, Iran 1943
• The conference was called after a war meeting in Casablanca to which Stalin had not been invited


  1. The direction of WW2 in Europe was discussed

  2. A second front would be coordinated with the Soviet offensive to split German resources

  3. Possible entry of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan

  4. Possibility of establishing an international organisation postwar for maintaining world peace
• Marriage of convenience


  Temporary alliance between parties with conflicting interests
• Yalta conference - Feb 1945


  1. US and British aims: FDR's vision at Yalta, he was an optimist, he wanted peace, on a multipolar world, 4 global policemen, agreed spheres of influence, a willingness to compromise

  2. Soviet aims
• What was agreed at Yalta: Declaration on liberated Europe, Germany and Austria were to be divided into US, British, French and Soviet zones and for Berlin to be divided similarly, The United Nations organisation would be ratified, The USSR would join the war against Japan once Germany had surrendered, The USSR was to gain land from Poland, Poland was to expand north and west into Germany
• Potsdam


  17th July 1945
• What actually happened at Potsdam


  1. Germany were temporarily divided into 4 occupational zones each controlled by one of the victorious allies

  2. New borders were established for Germany and Poland which suited Stalin

  3. The Oder-Neisse line was the international border between Poland and Germany, Stalin argued that the Polish government demanded the boundary and that they were no longer Germans left east of the line

  4. No long term blueprint for the future of Germany

  5. Germany was to be completely disarmed and demilitarised with 4 military zones and occupation

  6. De-Nazification would be carried out and the war crimes would be punished

  7. Decentralisation of the political system was to be undertaken and local responsibility to be developed

  8. Freedom of speech and free press were to be restored as was religious tolerance

  9. Germany was to become a single economic unit with common principles on industry and finance

  10. The USSR were to receive reparations from its own zone and an additional 25% from western zones
• In reality, at least a million Germans remained east of the Oder-Neisse line
• Why did the Grand Alliance collapse?


  • Ideological divisions, Personality, US commitment to post-war liberal democracy, US atomic monopoly, Soviet security
• Developing tensions


  The Soviet Union occupation/control of eastern and southern Europe; Kennan's Long Telegram; the Iron Curtain speech; Cominform; the Greek Civil War and the Truman Doctrine on containment
• Salami tactics


  Gradually getting rid of all opposition bit by bit
• Communism was attractive to Europe as they were in desperate need for reconstruction and building a new society
• By 1945 the US believed that Stalin had a plan for Europe's domination
• Tensions at Potsdam included different understanding on the declaration on a liberated Europe and the Lublin government in Poland
• The percentages agreement in reality was not followed, as the communists took control in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Poland through arrests, rigged elections and banning of opposition parties
• Tito in Yugoslavia was determined to apply communism in his own way and was expelled from Cominform in 1948
• Kennan's long telegram


  The Father of containment in Feb 1946, therefore the architect of US foreign policy, inspiring the future Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
• Iron Curtain speech


  Churchill openly articulated the ideological and metaphorical division of Europe
• Stalin brandished Churchill a warmonger, especially after the Iron Curtain speech, and looked to establish a buffer zone of security in Eastern Europe
• Molotov


  A tough negotiator and determined defender of Soviet interests, took part in all four conferences of foreign ministers from 1945-47 and was generally considered uncooperative towards the Western powers
• When did the Grand Alliance breakdown


  During the course of the years 1946 and 1947 an almost complete breakdown in the relations between the Eastern powers and the USSR took place
• The wartime spirit of cooperation gave way to a climate of mutual suspicion and recriminations, the coming of the Cold War stifled political life in Europe, denied Europeans the chance to forge their own destinies and led to the freezing up of Europe into two distinct blocs
• In the satellite states Stalin began the process of imposing bureaucratic regimes, which were a carbon copy of what he had already created in the USSR complete with secret police, censorship, show trials, and five year plans that privileged development of heavy industry
• US concerns initially included a belief that Stalin was willfully ignoring the agreements that had been reached at Yalta and Potsdam
• There was in fact very little that Western policymakers could do about the Soviet control of Eastern Europe
• The Greek civil war


  When Greece was liberated from Nazi occupation a civil war had erupted between monarchs and the Greek communists, the British had been providing aid to the monarchists, a 'white terror' had been carried out in which 1,200 were killed and a further 40,000 had been arrested, this led the Greek communist party the KKE to wage a campaign of guerilla warfare
• Truman Doctrine


  The principal purpose was to prevent further expansionism of the USSR's influence, to prevent the further advance of the left in Western/Southern Europe, to apply pressure in order to modify Soviet behaviours, to attempt to woo states away from the Soviet bloc
• The Truman Doctrine was the political statement of US foreign policy, while the Marshall Plan was the economic package to put the Doctrine into action
• The Truman Doctrine in practice


  American policymakers recognised the instability in the Eastern Mediterranean, fearing that if Greece was lost to Communism, Turkey would not last long, Truman made the proclamation in an address to the U.S. Congress on March 12 1947, amid the crisis of the Greek Civil War, an Act of Congress committed $400m of aid to Greece and Turkey in May 1947
• The National Security Act of 1947 created the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council, showing the Cold War was in full force
• Changing containment


  The Truman Doctrine was the first in a series of containment moves by the United States, followed by economic restoration of Western Europe through the Marshall Plan and military containment by the creation of NATO in 1949, in 1950, in the wake of the Soviets having acquired the atomic bomb and the Chinese revolution, Truman signed the top-secret policy plan NSC-68, which shifted foreign policy from passive to active containment
• The USA's involvement in Europe


  Policy towards Britain and Europe, the launch of the Marshall Plan, US attitudes to Germany and Berlin
• Marshall Plan


  A loan package intended to kickstart the economies of Europe, by bringing about economic recovery the USA hoped to lessen the appeal of communism in Western Europe and promote European unity, a condition of receiving the aid was that recipients had to spend a proportion of it on American goods, allow American companies access to its markets, and allow an international body to access economic information
• Churchill called the Marshall Plan 'the most unselfish act in history' but the reality was much more skewed
• X Article


  Formally titled 'The Sources of Soviet Conduct', it appeared in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, it stated that 'United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies'