origins of the cold war 1941-1991

• The grand alliance

  The big three discussed europe's future at tehran and yalta
• Tehran

  • Talks focused to defeat the nazis also discussing the future of europe and germany after the war
  • USA AND USSR had very different political views and had tensions between them but were put aside to fight a common enemy(germany)
• Yalta

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

  2. United nations would replace the failed league of nations
• Potsdam

  1. The new boundaries of poland were agreed

  2. The big 3 plus france would divide germany and berlin between them

  3. Nazi leaders would be tried for war crimes
• The two superpowers

  The USA kept their Atom bomb a secret

  -USA dropped two atomic bombs in japan hiroshima and nagasaki.

  -Truman did not allow the ussr to help take over occupation of japan.

  -The atomic bomb increased rivalry between the USA and the USSR.
• The two superpowers

  The ussr became very influential in eastern europe

  • The red army occupied eastern europe,these countries would pass the ussr's sphere of influence.
  • Stalin installed pro-soviet 'puppet' governments in poland, hungary, romania, bulgaria and czechoslovakia.
• Truman acted to contain the the communist threat.

  -The truman doctrine

  The USA pledged to support any nation threatened by a communist takeover.

  The support was military or financial

  e.g the usa gave 400 million to aid turkey and greece to stop communism spreading.
• The marshall plan-june 1947

  Promised 17 billion of aid to help european countries rebuild their economies western occupations benefited massively.

  • Stalin however ordered all his satellite states to reject the plan.He believed that the USA was using economic incentives to lure european states away from ussr.
• The berlin crisis

  The Ussr and the west clashed over berlin

  - USA and Britain decided to combine there zones to form bizonia soon after the French agreed to add their zone.

  -The new western zone had a single government then introducing a new currency to help economic recovery.

  
  

  -Stalin did want a unified western zone at his doorstep, west berlins strong capitalist economy embarrassed the USSR.

  -Made communism look weak.

  -Berlin airlift were supplies were being flown in each day
• Unrest began to stir in the eastern bloc

  When khrushchev came to power,he made a speech criticising stalin's policies and brought in measures to 'de-stalinise' the ussr.

  -Khrushchev abolished the cominform, meaning that states in eastern europe would have more political and economic freedom from the ussr.
• Unrest began to stir in the eastern bloc (2)

  Khrushchev did not agree with stalin's approach to communism so gave a bit more freedom to the the satellite states-but his plan backfired.
• Hungarian revolution

  The people of Budapest protested against the government of Rakosi as they became unpopular
• Khrushchev

  Allowed the liberal Imre Nagy to take over, wanting Hungary to be a neutral state
• Imre Nagy's actions

  1. Announced that Hungary would withdraw from the Warsaw Pact

  2. Hold free elections, ending communism
• If Hungary was the first

  Other satellite states may do the same
• USSR's response

  Had to respond with force and make an example with Nagy (Khrushchev wanting to assert his authority)
• Soviet tanks invaded Hungary, 20,000 Hungarians were killed or wounded
• Imre Nagy was arrested and hanged