Causes of the Cold War

In 1945, American and Soviet soldiers met at the River Elbe signified the final defeat of
Germany; had come about due to successful collaboration between the USA and the Allies in the
Grand Alliance
- However, only 4 years later, by the end of 1949, Europe had been divided into two separate
spheres of influence
- September 1949: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) (West Germany) established
- October 1949: the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was established
- The two Germanys became the heart of the physical dividing line between the two
superpower blocs
Eight key steps that show the main event that led to division:
1) Wartime conferences: Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), Potsdam (1945)
2) Kennans Long Telegram, February 1946
3) Churchills Iron Curtain speech at Fulton, Missouri, March 1946
4) Truman Doctrine, March 1947; Cominform, October 1947
5) Marshall Plan, June 1947
6) Red Army Occupation of Eastern Europe, 1945-7
7) Czech Coup, February 1948
8) Berlin Blockade
1949:
- NATO established, April
- West Germany established, September
- East Germany established, October

The Grand Alliance

- June 1941: Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa
- Britain and the USA immediately began supplying Russia
- USA not directly involved in war at this time
- August 1941: Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of Britain) secretly met up with Franklin D.
Roosevelt (President of USA)
- Churchill hoping to persuade FDR to join the war
- Instead agreed on a policy statement - the Atlantic Charter
- 8 principles; defined the Allies goal for the post-war world; presenting the unity of
Britain and the USA
- September 1941: the Soviet Union and other countries fighting Nazism agreed on
the points in the Atlantic Charter not a formal alliance
- However did not mark a change in how the Soviet Union was seen - Churchill
retained his dislike of the Soviet Union
- Churchill remarked to his secretary, If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least
favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.
- Relations between the West and the USSR were still clouded by mutual
suspicion, as they had been in the 1920s and 30s
- 7 December 1941: Japan and Germany declared war on the USA
- Attack on Pearl Harbour
- Brought America into the conflict
- January 1942: the Allies issued a joint Declaration by United Nations
- Military alliance between Britain, the USSR and the USA: the Grand Alliance
- Essentially a marriage of convenience all 3 had a common enemy
- Shaky foundations:
- United the worlds greatest capitalist state, the worlds greatest communist state and
the worlds greatest colonial power
- Churchill retained his dislike of Stalin: If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least
a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons

Figure 1. From the left; Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill sitting at the Tehran Conference

Wartime Disagreements
Suspicions remained throughout the war:
1. The Second Front
- Stalin demanded the Allies to open a new Second Front; relieve pressure of Soviet Union
- USSR faced over 80% of all Nazi military resources
- 1942 and 1943: the UK and USA decide to invade North Africa and Italy first
- Delays made Stalin suspicious; Allies wanted the USSR to be weakened
- June 1944: Second Front opened with the D-Day Landings with in France
- 228 Axis divisions on their eastern front; compared to 61 divisions in Eastern Europe
2. Ideological Suspicions
- Despite agreeing with each other on the Atlantic Charter with the West, Stalin had concerns over
Roosevelts foreign policies
- Roosevelts Open Door policy
- free world trade
- equal access to raw materials
- Stalin feared this would only benefit capitalist countries
- Allies attempted to solve at the three conferences throughout the war: Tehran (1943), and
Yalta and Potsdam (1945)
- Disagreements emerged over Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe; economic
reconstruction and nuclear weapons
- Problems remained unsolved after WWII
- Failure of these conferences ultimately led to the Cold War

The Tehran Conference: November 1943

First conference; Tehran, Iran 1943
- Attended by Joseph Stalin (USSR), Winston Churchill (UK), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (USA)
- Conference was a fair success; both Roosevelt and Stalin seemed to work well together; as
war progressed
- As war progressed, a gap emerged between Stalins post-war aims and those of Western
powers
Debates:
State of the war:
- 1943: Allies were winning, following critical turning-point victories in 1942
- Germans in retreat
- The USA and UK had invaded North Africa and Italy; USSR pushed Germans on the
Eastern front into retreat
- The Pacific War had entered its Japanese island hopping phase
- Stalin still demanded the creation of a Second Front in Europe supposedly launched by
the USA and UK to take on some of the USSRs burden of confronting the Germans
Germany:
- What to do with Germany
- Differences stemmed from the wartime experiences, lessons from the failure of the Treaty
of Versailles and differing ideologies
- Only agreed that the objective was unconditional surrender
- Roosevelt also supported Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of northern France; began
with D-DAy on 6 June 1944) - priority
- 6 June 1944: Date set for Second Front
Poland:
- Stalins concern for security led
him to demand territory from
Poland to secure the Western
border of Russia and have a proSoviet government in Poland
- Argued that Poland had been the
traditional launching bad for
invasions of Russia
- Thus agreed that USSR could keep
territory seized in 1939
- Poland would be compensation
with land from Germany
- Allies created a situation that no
truly independent Poland could
agree to
- Ensured future hostility between
Germany and Poland
Figure 2. Map of Poland of the annexed land by Poland
- A puppet regime in Poland
and by the Soviet Union in 1945
looked like a real possibility;
looked to the USSR for security
- Tensions between the Poles and
Soviets increased - 1943: discovery of a mass grave of 10,000 Polish officers in Katyn Forest;
had been captured by the Soviets in 1939
- Soviets blamed the Germans for the massacres, but many Poles suspected (rightly) that the
Soviets were responsible.
Eastern Europe:
- Soviets demanded the right to keep territory that they seized between 1939-40 The Baltic
States, Finland, Romania
- The USA and UK reluctantly agreed; despite being against the Atlantic Charter
Japan:

- The USA and UK tried to persuade the USSR to open up a Soviet Second Front in Asia
- Stalin refused until the war in Germany was won
The UN
- British and Soviets agreed in principle to the US idea of a new international organisation to
be established post-war
- Would settle international dispute through collective security
- Americans in particular were very keen to establish a replacement of the League of Nations hoped that lessons would have been learned from the mistakes that were made in the
structure and make up of the League of Nations
- Proposed United Nations organisation could more successfully fulfil this brief
Conclusion:
Main positive outcomes:
- Agreement on a new international organisation: the United Nations
- The need for a weak post-war Germany

The Yalta Conference: February 1945

Second conference; Yalta on the Black Sea in the USSR
- Same leaders attended this conference
- Stalins position strengthened; Red Army occupied most of Eastern Europe
- Willing to be more assertive
- Was clear that Stalin was going back on his word was supporting communist
regimes across Eastern Europe
Debates:
The State of the War:
- Germany on the verge of being defeated
- Second Front had begun: Normandy Landings (1944)
- Allies ready to invade Germany itself
- The Japanese preparing for the invasion of their homeland
Germany:
- Decided that Germany would be disarmed, demilitarised, de-Nazified and divided into four
zones
- Temporary division; Germany would run as one country
- An Alllied Control Commission (ACC) would govern Germany
- Stalin demanded reparations
- $20 billion - 50% to the USSR
Poland:
- New frontiers of Poland decided
- Eastern border drawn at the Curzon Line its pre-Russo-Polish War (1921) border
- Poland gained land from the west of Germany along the Oder-Neisse Line
- Stalin satisfied: agreed to promise free elections for Poland
Eastern Europe:
- Stalin agreed that Eastern Europe would be allowed to have free elections
- Seen as a major victory by the USA and UK; most significant of the wartime deals made with
the Soviet Union
Japan:
- Stalin now promised to enter the war against Japan
- Demanded Japanese territory as a reward South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands
United Nations:
- Stalin agreed that the USSR would join the UN
- Would be a 5-permanent member Security Council; each with the power of a veto
- Stalin demanded al 16 Soviet republics have separate seats in the UN General Assembly; in the
end the British and Americans agreed to only 3 seats: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
Conclusion:
Main outcomes:
- Agreement on the United Nations

- Soviet agreement to join the Pacific War

- Declaration for Liberated Europe; pledging governments and free elections in all European
countries

The Polish Question

- The London Poles
- Thousands of Poles escaped from Poland in 1939 when invaded by Germany and the USSR
- 100,000 members of the government, armed forces and refugees fled to France
- Moved to London after France fell in 1940
- Opposed to any deals with the Soviets
- Against the proposal at Yalta to move the borders of their country
- If they were to move any land, they must have cast-iron guarantees that Polands
government would be free after the war
- Played a key role in the 1944 Warsaw Rising
- When the Red Army reached Warsaw, Polish Underground Forces (commanded by the
London Poles) rose up against the Germans
- Instead of assisting, Stalin ordered the Red Army to stop
- Nazis put down the rebellion; killing almost 200,000 resistance fighters
- Soviets then moved in and liberated Warsaw and Poland; put their own government in
place: The Lublin Poles
The Lublin Poles
- Generally a Polish group; trained by Stalin in Moscow to be Communists

- July 1944: a Committee of National Liberation was set up in Soviet-controlled Lublin in

Eastern Poland
- Became known as the Lublin Committee
- Stated that they wanted to work with the Soviet Union
- Agreed to the Curzon Line and other reforms
- The USSR recognised this group as the only lawful authority in Poland; refused to
work with the London Poles

Potsdam Conference: July-August 1945

Final conference: Potsdam, Germany
- Attended by Joesph Stalin (USSR), Harry S. Truman (USA) and Clement Atlee (UK)
- At this point, Germany had fully surrendered (7 May 1945)
- President Roosevelt had died; replaced by Truman - adopted a more hardline get tough
policy towards the Soviets
- Churchill lost the 1945 General Elections to the Labour Party Leader, Clement Atlee
- As the war in Europe ended, the Soviet Red Army occupied territory as far east as deep
inside Germany
- Second day of conference (17 July 1945): USA had successfully tested out its first atomic bomb
Debates
The state of the war:
- Germany had surrendered; Japan on the verge of defeat
- USA planning to use the atomic bomb against Japan
Germany:
- Agreed to deal with Germany in their own ways in their own zones
- German economy agreed to be run as a whole
- Limited to domestic industry and agriculture
- USSR would receive 25% of their reparations bill from the Western zones; Eastern zones would
give food in exchange
Poland:
- Truman not happy- challenged the decision over the new western frontier between Poland and
Germany (the Oder-Neisse line):
- Demanded that the Polish government be re-organised more London Poles in
government and free elections - Stalins offer to include more London Poles within the
predominately Lublin-led government did not appease the USA
Eastern Europe:
- Truman also unhappy:
- Percentages agreement between the UK and USSR
- Reflects the influence and control that Western powers and the USSR would want to have
in various areas after the defeat of Germany
- Churchill concerned that it would appear cynical that the two leaders had scribbled the
fate of millions on a piece of paper wanted to burn the paper, No, you keep it, said
Stalin
- Romania: Russia 90%, others 10%
- Greece: UK + USA 90%, Russia 10%
- Yugoslavia and Hungary: 50%-50%
- Bulgaria: Russia 75%, others 25%
- Didnt want Eastern Europe to become a Soviet sphere of influence, however Soviet military
control of Eastern Europe was a fact
- Didnt have a choice: Stalin wouldnt budge and make changes
- The Red Army was beginning to look like an army of occupation to the Americans
Japan:
- 6th August 1945: the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima
- 9th August 1945: the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki
- Truman did not tell Stalin the full story: boasted about his new power to Stalin
- Did not encourage Stalin to join the war against Japan

United Nations:
- Officially became a reality - created at the Treaty of San Francisco (1945)
- The UK, USSR, USA, France and China would become permanent members

The final breakdown of the Alliance: 1945-9

Despite agreement over the United Nations, the division of Germany, Polands new borders and
many other disagreements remained unsolved
- Stalin had taken over Eastern Europe
- Seemed unlikely that he would allow free elections
- USSR also threatened by the atomic bomb deepened mistrust between the Allies
Between 1946-7, 6 key events contributed to the breakdown of the Grand Alliance:
1. Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe
- The USSR slowly gained political control over Eastern Europe
- Used salami tactics to defeat the opposition: slicing off political parties one by one until
only the Communist core was left
- By 1946, many Moscow-trained communist leaders returned to Eastern Europe - Baggage
Train leaders
- Ensuring that post-war governments would be dominated by Moscow - Stalinist
Communists
- Polish elections January 1947:
- Campaigns of murder, censorship, intimidation; 246 candidates disqualified, 149
arrested, 18 murdered, 50,000 deported to Siberia, 1 million not allowed to vote hardly
free
- Eastern Europe: Poland, Albania, Yugoslavia (Tito), Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia (1948)
2. Soviet pressure on Iran
- USSR also tried to increase its control on Iran; to try to increase its sphere of influence
- Agreed at the Tehran conference that the British and Soviets would withdraw after the war
- UK troops left but Stalin left 30,000 troops in the north; claimed that they were needed to
restore order
- Iran complained to the USA and UK as the troops there were encouraging a
Communist uprising
- 1st January 1946: Stalin again refused to withdraw; believed that he had as much right to
Iranian oil as did his former allies
- Truman thought the USSSR was planning an invasion of Turkey and the Black Sea
Straits
- unless Russia is faced with an iron first and strong language, war is in the
making.
- March: Iran referred the case to the United Nations
- USSR pulled out under the pressure
3. Instability in Greece and Turkey
- Post WWII: anti-imperialist, nationalist and pro-communist rebellions in Greece and
Turkey
- Greek Civil War
- The British struggled to retain these threat
- UK, and to a lesser extent the USA, believed the USSR was setting up these threats
- Churchill particularly annoyed at Stalins disregard for the Percentages Agreement
- Greece and Turkey were supposedly under the Western sphere on influence
- Stalin also asserted that he wanted international control of the Straits of Constantinople
rather than Turkish control
4. Communism in Italy and France
- Post WWII Europe: Communist parties in Italy and France grew stronger; threatened to take
over Western democracies
- Due to the economic hardships they faced
- The UK and USA were suspicious thought that Moscow was encouraging them

- Gave the impression that Communists were trying to take over Western Europe as
well

- Italy and France were weak links in anti-Communist Western Europe

5. Kennans Long Telegram
- February 1946: a key US diplomat George F. Kennan sent a telegram to the US State
Department; describes Soviet foreign policy
- His views would have a lasting influence on the State Department throughout the Cold War;
helped to shape the policy of confinement
- Argued that the USSR was fanatically and implacably hostile to the West; only
listens to the logic of force containment of Communism
6. Churchills Iron Curtain speech
- 5th March 1946: Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a speech at Westminster
College, Missouri with President Truman
- Churchill, angered by the failure of the USSR to implement free elections, used the phrase
iron curtain to warn the rest of the world about the Soviet take-over of Eastern Europe
- Speech was a defining moment in the cold war
- Reaction of Stalin:
- Compared Churchill to Hitler
- Speech: racist, a call to war with the Soviet Union
- Withdrew from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- Stepped up anti-Western propaganda
- Initiated a new 5 year period of self-strengthening
- Iron Curtain speech: significant in hardening opinions and defining the new frontline in what
was being seen as a new war
Grand Alliance had broken down both saw each other as the enemy