Cold War Origins Revision Notes

The Origins of the Cold War 1945-1949

Leaders

• Roosevelt 1945 / Truman 1945-53
• Stalin
• Churchill 1945 / Attlee 1945-51

• 1945 - US drops first Atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Does not tell her ally the SU. Stalin assumes it is in part to intimidate the SU but refuses to be intimidated.
• 1945 - Failure of Baruch Plan to limit nuclear weapons
• 1949 - SU develops its own atom bomb.

1. Long Term Causes of Cold War

Russian Revolution 1917

• Some historians trace the beginning of the Cold War to the Russian Revolution of 1917, led to first socialist state being established. 
• West viewed this with fear as it seemed to represent a threat to capitalism, liberalism and democracy.

Russian Civil War 1918-21

• ‘Whites’ wanted to topple newly established socialist state. USA supported the ‘whites’.
• West also upset by Lenin’s decision to pull Russia out of WWI in 1917.
• Bolsheviks won the war, tensions remained with the West.

War Debts

• Soviets refused to pay war debts from WWI, saw the war as imperialist war, imperialism being what they’re ideologically opposed to.

The Comintern 1919

• Comintern, set up by communist groups to spread communism, goal of Marxism-Leninism.
• Stalin scrapped this in 1943, in favour of “communism in one country”.
• USA remained fearful Soviets would try to undermine them and spread revolution still.

The Red Scare 1919

• No significant left-wing party in US before American Communist Society founded, caused a ‘Red Scare’ across the US.
• January 1920, 6,000 suspected communists were arrested and imprisoned, many deported.

Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939

• August 1939, Stalin signed pact with Hitler, guaranteeing that neither would invade each other.
• Other countries followed appeasement too.
• USA saw this pact as the work of two similar dictators.

2.The Collapse of the Grand Alliance

The alliance between Britain, the US and the USSR was a ‘marriage of convenience’. 

Tehran Conference - 1943

Roosevelt, Stalin & Churchill

Agreements:

• Soviets would have influence over Eastern Poland.
• Poland has part of Germany, makes Germany smaller, doesn't want to lose Polish buffer zone.
• Poland have no choice, Churchill had positive relation with Stalin.

Problems which contributed to causing CW:

• Roosevelt neither agreed nor disagreed.
• Stalin bugged the rooms (later this was found out by Churchill and Roosevelt).
• No 2nd Front.

Moscow Conference - 1944

Stalin and Churchill

Agreements:

• The Percentages Agreement
• Greece = 50% each
• Yugoslavia = 50% each 
• Hungary = 50% each
• Romania = 10% West, 90% USSR.
• Bulgaria = 25% West, 75% USSR.
• Stalin was pleased with this deal - kept the buffer zone.

Problems which contributed to causing CW:

• No US involvement in making the deal.
• Apparently Roosevelt ‘nodded’ but no verbal agreement  - Roosevelt was ambiguous.
• Notion of Percentage influence is unclear in actual post-war terms.

Yalta Conference - 1945

Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill

Agreements:

• Lay foundations of peace.
• Each part allocated a zone including a section of Berlin.
• Poland’s Eastern border would run along the Cur-zone line.
• Re-Organise the provisional government by including democrats from Berlin and the London gov into…