Cold War - History GCSE

• 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
• Yalta Conference


  Meeting in February 1945 between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to decide what to do with Germany once it had been defeated
• 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
• 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 was included as an Allied power
  • Berlin would be divided into four zones, each controlled by an Allied power
  • All countries freed from Nazi control were to be guaranteed the right to hold free, democratic elections
  • Stalin was offered a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe where communist ideals would dominate
  • The Allies agreed to the setting up of the United Nations
• 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
• Potsdam Conference


  The next meeting of the Big Three (Churchill, Truman, Stalin) took place in July 1945 just outside Berlin
• All the leaders made a commitment to pursue, and put on trial, suspected Nazi war criminals
• On 6 August 1945, the USA dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima
• Potsdam Conference compared to Yalta Conference


  While the meeting at Yalta had been reasonably friendly, the Potsdam Conference was fraught with disagreements
• The Allies agreed to the setting up of the United Nations, an organisation dedicated to international cooperation and the prevention of war
• 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
• Just as the 1960s started swinging and a new US President entered the White House, the Cold War entered its most critical phase, when the world would be pushed to the brink of nuclear war
• 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
• Three days later the USA dropped a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing around 74,000 people
• Stalin had in fact started turning Eastern Europe into a buffer zone close between the Soviet Union and Western Europe
• The Cold War entered its most critical phase in the 1960s, when the world would be pushed to the brink of nuclear war
• Truman's attitude to communism


  Truman made little secret of his dislike for communism and for Stalin personally
• Stalin feared that Eastern Europe could be the doorway for an attack on the Soviet Union by the West
• Atomic bomb


  A powerful and destructive bomb that gets its power from the energy released when atoms are split
• The setting up of communist governments in Eastern Europe was a major concern for the Western Allies after World War II
• Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe

  1. Albania 1945: A communist government took power at the end of World War Two

  2. Bulgaria 1946: In 1946 the Bulgarian monarchy was abolished and later that year a communist government was elected and gradually eradicated its opponents

  3. East Germany 1945: East Germany was part of the Soviet zone of occupation agreed at the Yalta Conference and in 1945 the Soviets set up a communist regime

  4. Romania 1945: In the 1945 elections, a communist-led coalition government was elected. The communists gradually removed their coalition partners and abolished the Romanian monarchy

  5. Poland 1947: Fearing that a non-communist government would be elected in 1947, Stalin invited 16 non-communist politicians to Moscow, where they were arrested. With their political opponents removed, the Polish communists won the election

  6. Hungary 1948: Although non-communists won the 1945 election, a communist politician, Rakosi, took control of the secret police and used it to arrest and execute his political opponents. By 1948 the Communist Party was in complete control of the country

  7. Czechoslovakia 1948: Czechoslovakia was the last country in Eastern Europe to fully fall to communism in 1948. At elections that year only Communists were allowed to stand and a communist government was duly elected
• 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
• The Long Telegram


  A summary by George Kennan, a US Embassy official in Moscow, stating that the USSR was heavily armed, feared the outside world, and was determined to spread communism
• 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
• Truman chose to inform Stalin that the US possessed a new weapon of unusual destructive force (the atomic bomb)
• Berlin Blockade


  Stalin cut all land access to Berlin for the Allies
• Some historians have speculated that the bombs might also have had another purpose - to send a warning to the Soviet Union about the strength of the American arsenal
• The Novikov Telegram

  The Soviet response to The Long Telegram, warning that the USA had emerged from World War II economically strong and bent on world domination
• 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
• The USA had changed the nature of warfare, and for the remainder of the Cold War the threat of atomic weapons and nuclear war would be a constant theme