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Unit 2:

Wartime alliances breaks down

2-1

1. Feeling of mistrust
 Tensions / feeling of mistrust started during the Potsdam
conferences held after WW2.

 They simply didn’t trust one-anther

 Stalin was upset that the U.S. had kept its development of the
atomic bomb a secret
◦ Poor relations existed also because of the involvement of the West in
the Russian Civil War.
◦ They provided aid to the anti-Bolshevik White armies.
◦ Soviet leaders believed that capitalists countries would eventually try
to destroy communism

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Mistrust (cont.)
 U.S. was furious that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
had been an ally of Hitler for a time

 The leaders of capitalists countries believed that

communism would eventually spread and that it
should be controlled = domino-effect

 Domino Theory was the belief that if one

country fell to communism, other nations would
eventually fall to communism as well

2-3

2. The Yalta Conference

 February 4th – 11th, 1945.

 The “Big Three” met at Yalta (in USSR) to plan post-war

world
 Winston Churchill (Great Britain)
 Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA)
 Joseph Stalin (USSR/Russia)

 The plans included:

1. Want unconditional surrender of Axis Powers (Germany, Italy,
Japan)
2. Divide Germany & capital city Berlin into 4 occupied
zones (controlled US, England, France,& USSR)
3. They agreed to hold a war crimes trial after the war.

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Germany & Berlin Divided

2-5

Yalta (cont.)
4. Soviet Union would get concessions in Manchuria for
entering the war against Japan.

5. League of Nations was ineffective—US, England, Russia,

France, China should form United Nations (international
organization to keep peace after war)

6. Roosevelt & Churchill afraid Stalin would make Eastern

And…this is where the

Europe communist after war

trouble started….

◦ USA wanted Self Determination (right to choose democracy or

communist) for Eastern European Countries: Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, & Bulgaria.
◦ Stalin agreed to self-determination if he could have part of Poland;
Poland—should have free elections

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Conferences (cont.)
• Stalin never fulfilled the promises he made at the Yalta
Conference.
• In fact, according to critics, Roosevelt and Churchill did not do
enough to prevent the eventual Soviet domination of Eastern
Europe.
• This set the stage for the Cold War.

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3. Potsdam conference: Wartime

alliances brakes down
 After the war ended, leaders of USSR, USA and
Britain met at Potsdam between 17 July - 2
August 1945, to resume discussion.
◦ UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Replaced Churchill
on 26 July after he lost the election in 1945)
◦ US President Harry Truman (Roosevelt died)
◦ Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

 Poor relations between the two superpowers at

the Potsdam Conference were a sign that their
wartime alliance had come to an end and that the
Cold War had begun.

 So what happened??
2-8

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Potsdam Conference (cont.)

• Allied leaders gathered to decide how to administer punishment

to the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional
surrender May 8th (V-E Day).

• Goals included establishing post-war order, peace treaties, and

countering the effects of war.

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Conferences (cont.)
• They issued the Potsdam Declaration, which had
numerous provisions, including:
1. The unconditional surrender of Japan (or it would
face prompt and utter destruction).

2. The set up of a council to administer Germany.

3. The set up of machinery to negotiate peace treaties.

4. Transfer of German people out of Czechoslovakia,

Hungary, and Poland and into Germany.
Problem…

5. Stalin’s announcement that there would be no

elections in Eastern Europe.

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4. Why so much difficulties/tension at

Potsdam?
 Stalin
discovered that USA had secretly tested an
atomic bomb! → more suspicion and tension.

 Roosevelt died. Truman was more anti-Communist.

◦ He saw Stalin’s actions as a Soviet take-over of Eastern
Europe.

 USSR and the West had different views regarding

future of Germany and Eastern Europe.
◦ Both were suspicious of the other side's motives

2-11

Potsdam (cont.)
 Soviet troops had liberated Eastern
Europe but refused to withdraw.
◦ 1944-45: Stalin subjugates/annexes Eastern
European countries under the pretence of
seeking security
◦ Set up communist governments in these
countries which they ‘liberated’ from
Germany
◦ +/- 100 million people placed under
communist rule
◦ Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Romania, Albania
◦ “Soviet Block”, Soviet satellite countries
◦ During Potsdam, Stalin’s troops controlled
the Baltic States → widespread fear of
Communist take-over.
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Potsdam (cont.)
 Stalinpromised at the Yalta conference to hold
free elections in Eastern European countries
occupied by Soviet troops during the war, but he
broke his promise.
◦ Truman insisted on free and democratic elections
◦ Truman threatened to cut off American economic aid;
Stalin accepted the loss of American money and strained
relationship with the United States
◦ Free elections did not happen eastern European
countries.
◦ Instead, one party communist governments were
installed.
◦ This created a buffer zone against western border.

2-13

Potsdam (cont.)
• Summary of the different goals regarding Europe &
Germany….

USA
Re-unite Germany
Rebuild European
government & Germany to
create stability
Promote free trade &
freedom / democracy / self-
determination
Capitalism
USSR
Keep Germany weak &
divided
Create a buffer zone
between USSR & Germany
Control Eastern European
countries / markets
Communism (expansion?)
2-14

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5.The Truman doctrine

 Truman felt that USSR was behaving like a
bully in Europe

• Harry Truman on 12 March 1947:

“… the seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by
misery and want.They spread and grow in the evil soil
of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth
when the hope of a people for a better life has died.
We must keep that hope alive… I believe it must be
the policy of the United States to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

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Truman Doctrine (cont.)

 Containment: U.S. foreign policy that plans to stop the spread
of communism by supplying financial & military aid to
countries that rejects communism

 12 March 1947: The Truman Doctrine

◦ USSR began to pressure Greece & Turkey to turn
communist
◦ Truman promised that the USA would support “free peoples
who are resisting communism.”
◦ Congress approves Truman’s request for $400 million aid to
Greece and Turkey
◦ Truman Doctrine worked & neither Greece nor Turkey fell
to communism

2-16

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6. Marshall Plan, 1948

• George Marshall was the US Secretary of State
(1947-1949)
• When touring Europe, he witnessed the widespread
homelessness and famine - European countries were
struggling to recover from the devastation caused by
WW2.

• Following the success of the Truman Doctrine, the

George Marshall
Marshall Plan was introduced.
• Marshall Plan was put into action on 5 June 1947 for the
European Recovery Program (ERP)
• Plan sought to make Europe rich & strong again &
prosperous enough to resist Communism, by providing
financial help.
• Between 1948 and 1952, 16 countries in Western Europe
received a total of US$13.7 billion in aid, loans and goods.
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Marshall Plan (cont.)

 Soviet satellites were forbidden from accepting American financial aid.
◦ Stalin saw the Marshall Aid as an attempt to create an American economic empire
in eastern Europe

 1947: Russian produced it own Marshall plan - the Molotov Plan –

attempt to bind countries of eastern Europe into a single economic
area.
◦ Stalin reformed the Cominterm, now renamed the Cominform (the
Communist Information Bureau) = its functions was to circulate propaganda
and liaise with the communist parties of western Europe.

 In 1948, the USSR used military force to turn Czechoslovakia to

communism; this led to fears that Stalin would use similar tactics in
Western Europe

 By 1952, Western Europe recovered & Communism never took root

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7. Why the Truman Doctrine & Marshall

Plan were so significant?
1. It ensured Greece did not fall to the Communists.
 In 1945 Britain sent troops to Greece to support the non-
Communist side.
 But in 1947 Britain could not afford it anymore.
 USA offered financial aid for British troops & helped the non-
communist side win.

2. Marked the end of USA isolationism & beginning of USA’s

active involvement & ‘world collaboration’ & that ‘there
would be no more appeasement of dictators.’
 USA was determined to prevent the spread of Communism.
 Every Communist action would meet an American reaction.
 USA was resolved to send financial and equipment aid to any
country threatened by a Communist take-over.

2-19

8. NATO & the Warsaw Pact

 Division of Europe into two spheres of influence forced both
sides to set up military alliances.

 On 4 April 1949, the USA set up the North Atlantic Treaty

Organisation (NATO) for collective security against any
Soviet attack.
◦ a military alliance among democratic countries in Europe & North
America (16 countries)

 Similarly, the USSR set up an alliance known as The Warsaw

Treaty Organization (also known as the Warsaw Pact) on 14
May 1955, uniting all Communist countries in Eastern Europe
except Yugoslavia.

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