Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Origins of the Cold War - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Around 25 million Soviets died in the war
      - Stalin and the foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov saw the other allies in WW2 as anti-Soviet
      - However he was pragmatic and wanted to keep relations open
      - Stalin wanted a buffer of friendly states around the USSR. He wanted to keep Germany united but economically weak so it could turn communist
    - - Wanted a co-operative world order based on democracy
      - Roosevelt was convinved Stalin shared co-operative values and allow democracy in Eastern Europe
      - He has been criticised for his naivety
    - - Did not trust Stalin and was convinced communism wanted to expand
      - Thought communism threatened Britain's empire
      - Showed his willingness to defend British interests with the percentages agreement of Eastern Europe, signed 1944
  - - - Wanted a post-war world based on self-determination, international institutions and democracy. This would reduce likelihood of another economic crash and safeguard the US' interests
      - Became more confrontational with Stalin, helped by nuclear monopoly
      - Scared of Soviet expansion and salami tactics in Eastern Europe. He thought USSR would be receptive with a show of force
    - - Thought that the time for co-operation had passed and USSR needed to focus on its own security and power
      - Thought the US had an anti-communist agenda. Needed an alliance of like-minded and friendly states as a buffer
    - - Very conscious of the Soviet threat in Europe. Wanted the USA to be the primary defender of Germany's western zones.
      - Aware that Potsdam and Yalta made no long term agreements. This was dangerous with Stalin going against even any short-term agreements
- - - - In Romania opposition was minimal and the Communists were popular compared to the old regime
      - In Bulgaria the Agrarian Party of Nikola Petkov was the main challenger to the Communists. He was arrested on trumped up charges and executed, with his party absorbed into the Communists. All other parties banned by 1947
      - Hungarian socialists allied to challenge the Smallholders party. Opponents were arrested and elections manipulated. However communist leader, Laszlo Rajk, had pro-Yugoslav and anti-Moscow tendancies. He was executed in 1949
  - - - Winston Churchill, though no longer prime minister, attacked the Soviet Union and its policies
      - Convinced Stalin that the USA and UK were allying to destroy the USSR
    - - George Kennan, the charge d'affaires in Moscow, sent a despatch to Washington in Feb 1946 which was fundamental in shaping the USA's foreign policy position
      - Kennan thought Communism was incompatible with the democratic world order Roosevelt envisioned. He thought Stalin was painting the USA and UK to be bigger enemies than Germany. He urged the USA to take measures to curb Soviet power.
      - Convinced Truman to adopt a hard stance against the USSR and to end the US's tradition of isolationism