After WW2

• Joseph Stalin


  Leader of the Soviet Union
• Winston Churchill


  Leader of the United Kingdom
• Franklin D Roosevelt


  Leader of the USA
• The Soviet Union and the United States joined forces due to their common aim to defeat Nazi Germany in WW2
• Wartime conferences

  • Tehran, November 1943
  • Yalta, February 1945
  • Potsdam, July-August 1945
• Tehran conference, November 1943


  1. Aims: Plan to defeat Germany

  2. Stalin wants USA and UK to open a 'second front' against Germany in Europe

  3. USA wants USSR to fight Japan

  4. Agree: How to win the war by fighting together

  5. Disagree: Ideological differences
• Yalta conference, February 1945


  1. Aims: How to run Europe after the war is won

  2. Stalin wants to control Eastern Europe

  3. UK and USA want peace in Europe

  4. Agree: Eastern Europe, Germany, reparations and the United Nations

  5. Disagree: How Poland would be run after the war
• Potsdam conference, July-August 1945


  1. Aims: Finalise plans to run post-war Europe

  2. Stalin wants power in Eastern Europe

  3. Truman wants peace and to stop the spread of communism

  4. Attlee wants to finish the conferences quickly to focus on issues at home

  5. Agree: Germany and reparations

  6. Disagree: Government of Eastern Europe
• The change of leadership and the dropping of the atomic bomb also increased fear and suspicion. As a result, the Grand Alliance broke down.
• What was the 'arms race'?

  1. 1945 USA develops atomic bomb

  2. 1952 USA tests hydrogen bomb

  3. 1957 USA tests ICBM

  4. 1949 USSR develops atomic bomb

  5. 1953 USSR tests hydrogen bomb

  6. 1957 USSR first successful ICBM launch
• Expansionism


  A policy of wanting to take over more land or spread economic or political influence
• Containment


  The policy of preventing the expansion of another country or influence
• Truman was not willing to let Communism spread but wanted peace in Europe
• The wartime conferences worsened relations between the Grand Alliances
• The Soviet Union rejected the Baruch Plan and the two sides did not share nuclear technology
• War of words


  A period in the Cold War when tension increased as the two sides talked about each other
• Telegrams


  A message sent by telegraph and then delivered in written or printed form
• The Long Telegram

  • Showed that the Soviets would back down when faced with US military power
  • the Soviets are expansionist and want to destroy capitalism
  • Stalin is paranoid and suspicious of the US and western allies
• The Novikov Telegram


  Showed that the US wanted to start a war and take over the world
• The telegrams increased tension because they clearly showed that the US and Soviet Union were not willing or able to work together anymore due to too much suspicion and distrust
• Churchill lost the UK election in 1945 but still influential. In 1946 he was invited to Missouri to make a speech. Churchill expressed his fear of the expansionist activities of the Soviet Union. Truman was at the speech and is believed to have approved of what Churchill said.
• The 'Iron Curtain' speech 5th March 1946, Fulton, Missouri, USA
• Churchill officially announced the Cold War at Missouri divide was declared publicly For first time. In saying publicly that the divide existed, he was also saying that the Grand Alliance was over Therefore, he announced Cold War .