3) The USA as a superpower

Cards (23)

  • When Roosevelt died in April 1945
    Truman became President
  • Truman
    • An admirable individual but possessed several characteristics that could be considered disadvantageous
  • Roosevelt had excluded Truman from discussions of military and foreign affairs
  • This made it even more difficult for Truman to follow such a long serving, experienced and knowledgeable President
  • This made Truman feel he had to prove himself tough and decisive
  • Truman's personality
    More combative than Roosevelt
  • Truman's most challenging post-war foreign policy issue
    The USSR (Soviet Union)
  • The Soviet-American relationship had always been uneasy
  • The Soviet Union

    • The world's first Communist state established after the Russian Revolution of 1917
  • Soviet-American relations were tense throughout the 1920s
    Because of differing ideologies
  • Communists favoured
    • Government control of the economy
    • Equal distribution of wealth
    • Single-party state
  • Americans favoured
    • Huge variations in wealth
    • Multi-party state with free elections
    • Feared Communist expansionism
  • During the Second World War, the USA and USSR became allies and frequently co-operated
  • There were major tensions during the war
  • Both countries promoted their own political and economic system in the countries they liberated from Nazi rule

    1. Soviets promoted Communism in Eastern Europe, e.g. Poland
    2. Roosevelt and Churchill demanded free elections in Poland, but Stalin made sure Poland had a Communist government
  • Soviet-American mistrust was demonstrated when the Americans and British tried to keep the development of the atomic bomb secret from Stalin
  • In July 1945, Truman, Stalin and Churchill met at Potsdam

    1. Reiterated that defeated Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation (American, Soviet, British and French)
    2. Berlin was inside the Soviet zone but the western half of the city would be under US/British/French control
  • There were two great areas of tension at Potsdam
  • They disagreed over Poland's political system
  • The US atomic bomb was tested during Potsdam
  • The atomic bomb showed the Truman administration that the United States did not need Soviet aid to defeat Japan

    Stalin recognised that the bomb had dramatically changed the world balance of power in America's favour
  • As yet, there were no post-war peace treaties as there had been after the First World War
  • The Council of Foreign Ministers (American, Soviet, British and French) met in September 1945 (London), December 1945 (Moscow), June 1946 (Paris), and March 1947 (Moscow)
    They could not agree on a peace treaty for defeated Germany because of the developing Cold War between the USA and the USSR