Free Sample Essays > World History
Who was to blame for the Cold War?
enquiring more “living space” for Germans the Allies offered help and supplies to the USSR. They now had a powerful ally who could advance on Germany. Both sides of the alliance had problems with each other; Britain and America were worried that Russia may pull out of the war and make an agreement with Germany (like they did in 1917) the Russians were annoyed by the amount of time it took the Allies to bring up a second front (the invasion of France) The USSR were doing most of the fighting in Europe and taking huge casualties. They believed that the other Allies weren’t committed enough to the cause.
When it was obvious that Germany was going to lose the war, Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met to decide what would happen in the future. They met at Yalta in the Soviet Union. They agreed that:
· All the countries under Nazi rule would be liberated and allowed to set up their own democratic governments.
· Germany would be demilitarised and divided between the four main Allies: USSR, USA, Britain and France.
· Berlin would also be split between the allies.
· Eastern Poland would be given to the Soviet Union and Poland would gain land from Eastern Germany.
· The United Nations would be set up to stabilise Europe and provide peace.
· The Soviet Union would attack Japan once Germany had fallen.
After the war had ended the three main leaders of the Allied countries met again at Potsdam in Germany on July 17th to decide on reparations and to sort out borders. Roosevelt had died before the meeting so his vice-president Harry Truman was now president. Truman had a strong dislike of Communists and came to Potsdam suspicious of Stalin and his intentions. Churchill had lost the recent election and was replaced by Labour Prime minister Attlee.
There were many more disagreements at Potsdam than at Yalta; Stalin had sacrificed the lives of 20 million Russian soldiers to win the war against Germany and was determined to see Germany kept weak, he couldn’t face the risk of Germany attacking again. Soviet troops were occupying much of Eastern Europe and Stalin had set up many Communist parties without permission. Stalin wanted a defensive border between the USSR and the rest of Europe.
Truman and Atlee didn’t want the mistakes of the first world war to happen again so they wanted Germany to get back up on its feet again, they decided that much of Germanys industrial machinery and goods would go to the USSR as reparations and the USSR would gain land from Poland. The freedom of Poland was secured; Britain demanded that Poland was free to elect a democratic government. They had entered the war to defend Poland so they insisted it didn’t become under communist control.
Truman announced at [next page]