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Who was to blame for the Cold War? Unit 4 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Japan: Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan once Germany had surrounded
      - United Nations: The Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) all agreed to join the new united nations organisation which aimed to keep peace after the war.
      - War criminals: As allied soldiers advanced through Germany, they were revealing the horrors of the nazi concentration camps. The Big Three agreed to hunt down and punish war criminals who were responsible for the genocide
      - Free and fair elections: They agreed countries were liberated from occupation by the German army, they would be allowed to hold free elections and choose the government they wanted
      - Eastern Europe: The Soviet Union had suffered terribly in the war. An estimated 20 million Soviets had died and Stalin was therefore concerned about the security of the USSR and specifically the risk of another invasion from Europe. The Big Three agreed that eastern Europe should be seen as a Soviet sphere of influence
      - Division of Germany: They agreed that Germany would be divided into four zones: American, British, French and Soviet
    - - Poland
        
        Stalin wanted the border of the USSR to move westwards into Poland. He argued that in return Poland could move its border westward into German territory
        
        Churchill did not approve of this but he also knew that there was not very much he could do about it because Stalin’s red army was in total control of both Poland and eastern Germany
        
        Roosevelt was also unhappy about Stalin’s plan, but Churchill persuaded Roosevelt to accept it as long as the USSR agreed not to get involved in Greece where the British were attempting communists from taking over. Stalin accepted this.
  - - - Stalin's armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe - had left troops after liberating them, refugees were fleeing, had set up a communist government in Poland, ignoring wishes of Poles, insisted it was a defensive measure
      - America had a new president - Roosevelt died, replaced by Truman (more anti-communist), saw Soviet actions as preparations for a Soviet take-over of the rest of Europe
      - The Allies had tested an atomic bomb - Americans tests an atomic bomb in the desert site, at Potsdam Truman informed Stalin about it
      - Halfway through the conference Winston Churchill was defeated in the elections so he was replaced with Clement Attlee
    - - Germany: Stalin wanted to incapacitate Germany completely to protect the USSR against future threats - Russia had been invaded by Germany twice in the 20th Century - Truman did not want to repeat the mistake of the ToV
      - Reparations: 20 million Russians died in the war + Soviet Union had been devastated. Stalin wanted compensation from Germany. Truman was determined not to repeat the mistakes at the end of the First World War and resisted this demand
      - Eastern Europe: At Yalta, Stalin had won agreement from the Allies that he could set up pro-Soviet governments in eastern Europe. However, Truman was unhappy about Russian intentions and soon adopted a ‘get tough’ attitude towards Stalin
    - - The Nazi Party was banned in Germany + war criminals would be tried in court (prosecuted) during the Nuremberg trials.
      - Germany and its capital Berlin, were to be divided into zones of occupation as agreed at Yalta.
- - - - Poland: After WW2, communists joined a coalition government → then became outright leaders in 1947 when they forced the non-communist leader into exile
      - Hungary: Communists became the largest single party in 1947 elections → they imprisoned opposition politicians and attacked church leaders
      - Romania: 1945, communist was elected Prime Minister within a left-wing coalition → 1947 communists abolished the monarchy
      - Albania: Communists gained power immediately after WW2 (there had been little opposition since during war, communist and nationalist resistance movements had opposed the Italian and later German occupational forces → As the war ended, the strong communist movement had the backing of communist Yugoslavia and the USSR
    - - October 1947, Stalin set up the Cominform to coordinate the work of the communist parties of eastern Europe -> brought the leaders of each communist party to Moscow to be briefed by Stalin and his ministers
        
        Allowed Stalin to keep a close eye on them, and if needed replace independent-minded leader to those who were completely loyal to him
        
        The only communist leader who escaped this close control was Tito from Yugoslavia
- - - - Communist forces had been battling against the Greek royal government since the end of WW2
        
        1945 - Churchill sent British troops to Greece to help restore order and supervise free elections
        
        1946 - The USSR protested to the UN that British troops were a threat to peace in Greece - the UN took no action so communist forces tried to take control of Greece by force
        
        A civil war quickly developed and 1947, British announced they could not afford the cost of war and withdrew their troops
        
        Truman then stepped in and paid for the British troops to stay in Greece
        
        1950 - the royalists were in control of Greece, although they were a weak government
  - - - To help Europe recover post WW2 - rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernise industry, make Europe prosperous once more
      - To prevent the spread of communism
      - To help the American economy - removal of tariffs on US goods was a condition of Marshall Aid
    - - A total of $13 billion was evenly distributed in Europe in 16 countries over a period of 4 years
      - Any country accepting aid was assumed to be friendly to the USA - America offered aid to Iron Curtain countries as well as to to the USSR (but expected, rightly, that it would be turned down)
      - Marshall Plan opened up market for US good, helping the US economy avoid post-war slump
      - 80% of aid came in the form of grants not loans + in the form of money, food, fuel and machinery (helped against the post-war problems in Europe)
      - In Dec 1947 put his plan to the Congress, but for a short time, the congress refused to grant this money
        
        Czechoslovakia - 1948 - when attitudes changed
        
        American attitudes changed when communists took over the government of Czechoslovakia
        
        It had been ruled by a coalition government which although it included communists, was independent of Moscow
        
        However in 1948, non-communist were purged - all other parties were banned and Czechoslovakia became a one-party state
        
        Congress immediately approved the $37 billion for the Marshall Plan
    - - claimed the USA was throwing its economic weight around and using it to gain influence in Europe
      - forbade the Eastern Bloc countries under its control to apply for Marshall Aid
      - felt that the USA was trying to dominate as many states as possible, especially those who were at weaker circumstances after WW2 and were more vulnerable by making them dependent on dollars)
    - - Stalin wanted to reduce any possible economic influence the USA could have on eastern Europe's communist countries by creating his own version of the Marshall Plan.
      - method of controlling the satellite states in eastern Europe by tying them into close trading relationships with the USSR and each other.
- - - - June 1948 - Stalin blocked roads, railways and canals connected to the western areas, stopping the Western Powers reaching their zones in Berlin → if the US tried to ram the roadblocks or railway blocks, it could be seen as an act of war
        
        Stalin expected Truman to announce a withdrawal from Berlin, which would give Soviets control of Berlin and a propaganda victory
      - Response - Berlin Airlift
        
        Truman knew that if they gave in to Stalin, the western zones of Germany might fall to the communist USSR
        
        lead to the BERLIN AIRLIFT - for the next 10 months West Berlin received all the supplies it needed this way (from food to clothing to building materials and oil) → Stalin eventually lifted the blockade in May 1949
  - - - Ended the four-power administration of Germany and Berlin and set the permanent division of Germany into two blocs for 40 years
    - - Despite mistrust shown, suggested there would not be a direct war between them → would fight “proxy war”
    - - NATO 1949 was formed by the western powers (works under the principle of collective security
      - Stalin was very critical of NATO but took no action → 1955 when NATO allowed East Germany to join, Khrushchev created defensive alliance Warsaw Pact - main communist states (also included collective security)