The Cold War origins 1941-56

• The USA entered World War Two against Germany and Japan in 1941, creating a Grand Alliance of the USA, Britain and the USSR
• Capitalism


  An economic system based on privately owned, as opposed to state-controlled, businesses and the creation of profit
• Communism


  A classless society where all property is owned publicly
• The political and economic systems of the USA and Britain were based on capitalism, while since its foundation after the 1917 Russian Revolution the USSR had based its economy on communism
• The actions of Nazi Germany and its ally, Japan, in World War Two had driven these two political enemies (the USA and USSR) together
• In December 1941, Germany's ally, Japan, launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, which brought the USA into World War Two on the same side as Britain and the USSR
• Differences between capitalism and communism


  • Capitalism: Several political parties representing different sectors of society, governments are chosen by democratic elections, people are free to set up private businesses and make money for themselves, individual rights and freedoms are important, freedom of speech and freedom of the press
  • Communism: One-party state, no democratic elections and no opportunity to change the government by election, all businesses and factories are owned by the state, individual rights and freedoms are less important than obedience to the state, censorship and state controlled media
• The Tehran Conference, 1943


  Meeting of the Big Three leaders (Stalin, USA, Britain) to discuss planned invasion of Nazi-occupied France and Soviet entry into the war against Japan
• The Tehran Conference was the first meeting of the Big Three leaders (Stalin, USA, Britain) during World War II
• Stalin was keen to see the invasion of Nazi-occupied France happen


  As the Soviet Red Army was the only army fighting the Nazis on land at that point
• Yalta Conference


  Meeting in February 1945 between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to decide what to do with Germany once it had been defeated
• Objectives of the Yalta Conference


  • Decide what to do with Germany once it had been defeated
  • Set the scene for the rest of the Cold War in Europe
• Outcomes of the Yalta Conference


  • Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation
  • France would be included as an Allied power
  • Berlin would be divided into four zones
  • All countries freed from Nazi control would be guaranteed the right to hold free, democratic elections
  • Stalin was offered a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe
  • The Allies agreed to pursue and put on trial suspected Nazi war criminals
  • The United Nations was established
• Berlin became a continuing source of tension once the Cold War began in earnest
• Stalin committed to joining the war against Japan, once Germany had been defeated
• The Yalta Conference set the scene for the rest of the Cold War in Europe
• Potsdam Conference


  The next meeting of the Big Three (Churchill, Truman, Stalin) took place in July 1945 just outside Berlin
• Potsdam Conference compared to Yalta Conference


  While the meeting at Yalta had been reasonably friendly, the Potsdam Conference was fraught with disagreements
• Changes since the Yalta Conference

  • A new US President (Truman replacing Roosevelt)
  • The USA had successfully exploded an atomic bomb
  • The Red Army was in control of Poland and the USSR was in the process of setting up a communist government
• Truman's attitude to communism


  Truman made little secret of his dislike for communism and for Stalin personally
• Truman remarked that he was tired of babying the Soviets and that the only language Stalin understood was how many army divisions do you have
• Truman chose to inform Stalin that the US possessed a new weapon of unusual destructive force (the atomic bomb)
• Despite agreeing at Yalta that free elections would be held in Eastern Europe after the defeat of Nazi Germany, there was little evidence at Potsdam that Stalin intended to allow them
• Main points of the three Conferences (Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam)

  • Military decisions took precedence over anything else at Tehran
  • Stalin to have a 'sphere of influence' over Eastern Europe but all countries freed from Nazi occupation would be allowed free elections to choose their own governments at Yalta
  • There was no sign of Stalin allowing free elections in Eastern Europe and a communist government was being set up in Poland at Potsdam
  • The USA and Britain agreed to invade France, joining the Russians fighting on land in Europe. The USSR would fight Japan once Germany had been defeated at Tehran
  • Germany to be divided into four zones of occupation - Berlin to also be divided at Yalta
  • Arguments over where the boundaries between the zones would be drawn at Potsdam
  • The USSR would be allowed to take reparations from defeated Germany at Yalta
  • Arguments about how much the USSR should be allowed to take in reparations. It was agreed that the Soviets could take whatever they wanted from the Soviet controlled zone and 10 per cent from the Western zones. This remained a source of disagreement, with the Western Allies worried that they were repeating the mistakes of the Treaty of Versailles after World War One at Potsdam
• To remember the things that were discussed at each conference, use the mnemonic PEER (People, Elections, Europe, Repayment)
• On 6 August 1945, the USA dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima
• The blast devastated an area of five square miles, destroying more than 60 per cent of the city's buildings and killing around 140,000 people
• Three days later the USA dropped a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing around 74,000 people
• Atomic bomb


  A powerful and destructive bomb that gets its power from the energy released when atoms are split
• The official US justification for the dropping of the two atomic bombs was to force the Japanese government to surrender, which it did on 14 August 1945
• The USA had changed the nature of warfare


  The threat of atomic weapons and nuclear war would be a constant theme for the remainder of the Cold War
• Stalin himself remarked that future wars were inevitable and the Soviet Union now stepped up its own programme of atomic research
• American 'nuclear hegemony' would not last long
• Espionage contributed to the worsening relationship between the superpowers
• The Manhattan Project, the USA's secret project to develop the atomic bomb, had begun in 1939 based on the fear that the Germans were developing something similar
• The Manhattan Project was top-secret even within the US government: Truman didn't know about it when he was Vice President, and only found out about it when he became President after Roosevelt's death
• When he was briefed on the project in April 1945, Truman was told that the US was the only nation which could produce a weapon so destructive it could destroy the whole world, but the USSR was expected to catch up within four years
• The Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, advised that after VE Day the nuclear bomb could act as a deterrent against expanding Soviet influence in Eastern Europe
• Truman reportedly agreed and said 'I'll certainly have a hammer on those [Russians]'
• After the bomb was tested at the desert in Alamagordo, New Mexico on 16 July 1945 this advantage over the rest of the world was proved