Cold War

• Grand Alliance


  The 'big three' allies from World War Two - Britain, the USA and USSR
• Grand Alliance


  • United by their desire to defeat Nazi Germany
  • Tensions emerged as the war ended
• Discussions at Tehran and Yalta


  1. Plans to defeat the Nazis

  2. Decisions about the future of Europe
• Britain and the USA were politically very different from the USSR
• Tensions between the three allies were put aside during the war as they fought a common enemy (Germany)
• Sphere of influence


  Eastern European countries would be subject to Soviet policies and ideas
• Decisions made at the Yalta Conference


  1. Free elections would be held in previously occupied countries in Eastern Europe

  2. The 'big three' (plus France) would divide Germany and Berlin between them

  3. The United Nations (UN) would replace the failed League of Nations
• The allies had different interpretations of 'free elections'
• To the USA and Britain, free elections meant political competition for votes. But Stalin believed only communist parties should run in elections as they were the only parties that truly represented the people
• Agreements made at Potsdam


  1. The exact division of Germany and Berlin was determined

  2. The new boundaries of Poland were agreed

  3. Nazi leaders would be tried for war crimes at Nuremberg
• Some things remained undecided at Potsdam, like whether the zones of Germany could rejoin and form a country again
• Tensions were high at Potsdam. Roosevelt had died and Harry Truman had succeeded him as US President, who was more suspicious of the USSR and less willing to compromise
• Britain and the US were alarmed by Stalin's actions in Poland - he was installing a government consisting of only pro-communist members, which they felt went against the Yalta agreement
• Capitalism


  The USA had a democratically elected government, its economy was based on private ownership of property, free competition and forces of supply and demand, and its population was mainly Christian
• Communism


  The USSR was a single-party state, its economy was controlled by the state with no private ownership of property, and the Communist Party promoted atheism and discouraged religious beliefs and practice