Summary A* student notes on Origins of Cold War

Origins Of Cold War
Yalta conference Feb 1945
 Grand Alliance = Marriage of convenience— Deutscher
 Discussion
 Division of Germany
 Agreementgv
 United Nations Feb 1945 — org. For world peace
 Poland expand to North + West
 USSR took land from Poland + Manchuria
 USSR joined war against Japan
 Declaration on Liberated Europe
 Allows free elections in Eastern Europe
 Tensions
 FDR
 “Pax Americana” — American Peace
 UN Feb 1945
 Econ. Reconstruction
 IMF July 1944
 World bank 1944
 Stalin
 Want Buffer zone
 1945 — many Eastern Europe already under USSR
 Good relations with the West
 A-bomb superiority of USA (ended in Aug 1949)
 Alliance of the West
 Weak Germany
 Ensure USSR security
 After WW2
 25-27 m deaths
 2000 towns
 70000 villages
 65 000 km railways
 Churchill
 USSR threatened UK interest in Europe
 Percentage agreement Oct 1944 — predominance of UK & USSR
have in the Eastern Europe
 Determined to control USSR expansionism to protect uk interests



Potsdam Conference July 1945
 Agreement
 Division of Germany
 USSR received reparations from its own Germany zone and 25% from West
Germany
 De-militarisation
 De-nazification

,  Re-establishment of democracy in Germany

 Tensions
 Stalin
 broke the Declaration on Liberated Europe
 Provisional Govt. of National unity in Poland June 1945
 Weaken Germany
 Convinced that Truman = anti-USSR
 A-bomb superiority of USA threatened the security of USSR
 Truman
 Convinced that Stalin did not accept the Diplomatic solution , may
use force to make USSR corporate
 Do not want another TOV


Eastern Europe 1945 -1948
 Poland
 June 1945 — Provisional Govt. of Liberated unity (Lublin Govt.)
 Bulgaria
 April 1947 — Banned all parties
 Romania
 Dec 1947 — King Michael = forced to abolish
 Feb 1948 — Romanian Workers Party
 Czechoslovakia
 March 1948 — Jan Masaryk ( foreign minister — promote democracy)
found death under a closed window
 Yugoslavia
 June 1948 — Tito = expelled from Cominform (Sept 1947)



Long Telegram Feb 1946
 Kenan — US embassy in Moscow
 Lengthy dispatch to US department in Washington
 Main:
 USSR view West = hostile
 USSR policy = Aggressive
 US needs to prepare the use of force to contain communism
 Required Containment
 Peaceful relations = unlikely
 Prosperity in Europe = undermine USSR influence
 Significance:
 Shifted US roles to global power
 Containment
 Econ. Assistance in Europe — June 1947 Marshall Plan
 Confirmed Truman’s view — USSR threatened USA interests
 Abandoned negotiations with USSR
 Sept 1947 — Zhandov Doctrine — emphasise the division of the world into 2
opposing camp
 Shaped USSR foreign policy 4e