Strains of grand alliance

• The Yalta Conference 1945

  • Feb ‘45
  • Attendees: Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt

  Key agreements at Yalta

  • Div of Germany and Berlin into 4 zones of occupation • Liberated countries would be allowed to hold free elections
  • E. Europe would be a ‘Soviet sphere of influence’

  Key disagreement at Yalta

  Poland – Stalin wanted to move the USSR’s border westwards into Poland and then Poland’s western border into Germany – Churchill opposed this but could not do anything about it
• The Potsdam Conference 1945

  • Jul – Aug ‘45
  • Attendees: Stalin, Clement Attlee and Truman

  Key agreements at Potsdam

  • Practically none

  Key disagreements at Potsdam

  • Germany – Stalin wanted to cripple Germany – Truman did not want to repeat the mistakes of the Treaty of Versailles
  • Reparations – Stalin wanted compensation for Soviet devastation in the war – Truman opposed this
  • Stalin wanted to exert Soviet control over the Slavic peoples (Eastern Europeans) – Truman opposed this

  The role of Truman

  • Strongly against the expansion of Sov influence in E. Europe – wanted to ‘get tough’
• The emergence of nuclear weapons (1945) (1)

  • USA tested its first Atomic bomb on 16th Jul ‘45
  • On 6th Aug, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killing nearly half of its population
  • 3 days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing 40,000 people instantly
• The emergence of nuclear weapons (1945) (2)

  • One of the reasons why the USA used the bomb was because the USSR had entered the war against Japan in Aug ‘45 – Truman did not want to give the USSR time to invade Japan and exert its influence there
  • Possession of the atomic bomb gave the USA a nuclear monopoly over the USSR
  • It was not until 29th Aug ‘49 that the USSR tested its first atomic bomb
• February 1945

  Yalta Conference – disagreements about reparations, the UN, promise on free elections in Poland
• 8 May 1945

  VE Day – Germany surrenders to the Allies – Soviets have suffered immensely in the war