developing tensions

• Czechoslovakia

  • March 1948 = communists came
  • huge consequences
  • marshall plan accepted by the us congress
• Yugoslavia

  • 1948 - USSR controlled buffer zone
  • Tito elected as president (communist)
  • cominform in 1947
• Poland

  • Stalin wanted buffer zone, including Germany
  • pro-soviet government established in Lublin
  • "salami tactics" = anti communist parties split into small pieces
• Kennan's Long Telegram 1946

  • George Kennan
  • USSR views the West as menacing
  • peace is unlikely
  • USSR's foreign policy is aggressive
  • threaten force = but war is not needed
• Truman's policy of containment

  • no negotiation with the USSR
  • strengthen anti-communist governments = economic
  • stalin is threatened
• Iron Curtain Speech 1946

  • Churchill's speech in the USA
  • about division in Europe
  • stalin saw this as a threat
  • divisions increased
• Greek Civil War 1946-1949

  • communists v monarchists
  • Britain was poor and asked US for help in Greece
  • US gave aid in 1947
• Cominform 1947

  • Yugoslavia expelled = Tito questioned Stalin
  • formalise Soviet influence
  • united communist states together economically