JC Griggs

Bakkal per.2

1/18/10

Beginning of Cold War

The Cold War was a conflict between the Soviet Union and its following

Communist satellite nations and the United States and its democratic supporters. There

were a variety of different the war was fought. Propaganda, economic war, diplomatic

badgering and occasional military clashes all were ways the war was decided. The

fighting took place in many different areas such as African nations, nuetral countries, and

even in outer space through the Space Race. Both the United States and the Soviet Union

had different ideaologies on how to run their country economically and politically even

before the start of World War II. The differences these countries had were amplified

even more after the defeat of their common enemy, Adolf Hitler. That alliance was the

only thing that did not let their small problems escalate, but once there was no alliance, it

gave room for them to become bigger problems. The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

showed the tension between these two ocuntries before the war had even ended.

Both countries wanted to spread their influence over other nations. Since each

had different types of government, that caused them to have disputes over which

countries each should reign over and what government each should have. This all started

during the Yalta Conference when the U.S.S.R. agreed to allow free elections in any

country under their influence at the end of the war. The Soviets lied and through their

massive military power influenced the elections so communist leaders would win. This

caused the United States to feel threatened because if the Soviet Union could cause
Eastern European countries to choose a governement, then they could also do the same in

the West. The U.S. relied upon West Europe for trade and did not want them falling to

Communist rule. The U.S.S.R. was weak following the conclusion of World War II and

decided to build itself up with surrounding countries, hence an “Iron Curtain”. The

United States had a mentality of containment during the Cold War. This meant that the

United States would keep communism within their own borders in an effort to with the

hope that internal failure of some sort would end this threat. America became fearful of

the Soviets when they continued to press on and expand. They responded to the Soviet

Unions iron curtain with the Truman Doctrine, which gave immediate aid to Turkey and

Greece. America did not want these two countries falling under Communist rule because

they feared the rest of Europe would soon follow. The United States also issued the

Marshall Plan, known as the European Recovery Program. This document helped restore

some amount of prosperity and in turn influenced what is now known as the European

Union.

The United States and the Soviet Union had conflicting ideologies which caused

problems within the U.S. because they saw this as a threat to their own ideology, as with

the Soviets seeing this as a threat to their own idealologies as well. The United States

had Democracy while the Soviets supported Communism. America believed that the

nations of the world were interdependent and should provide open markets for America

and other Allies goods and services. They believed a free and open market was a

necessary precaution to take in order to prevent another depression. On the other hand,

the Soviet Union had a completely different idea of the post war world. They wanted to

make sure they were secure and were able to protect themselves since they had lost more
troops and suffered more casualties than any other country and felt vulnerable. Stalin in

his mad and worried state feared that Germany would gain power and end up attacking

Russia again. The Soviet Union wanted to extend their control further in order to have a

protective barrier against any future attacks and cut off the U.S. being able to trade in any

markets. During this time the United States offered the Soviet Union and its satellite

nations money if they needed it in order to maybe push some countries to lead towards

democracy. The Soviet Union did not accept any of this money or permit any other

communist countries to receive this money.

The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences both made enormous implications on the world

today in the fact both contributed to beginning of the Cold War. Both conferences

occurred in 1945 and dealt with the manners at hand, the conclusion of the Second World

War. These two conferences created tensions between the two superpowers; U.S.S.R.

and the United States. It started at the Yalta Conference with tensions rising between the

Allies (U.S.A., France, and Britain) and the U.S.S.R. Tensions were visible when Prime

Minister Churchill wrote to President Roosevelt stating “The Soviet union has become a

danger to the free world.”

The Yalta Conference was held during the war, and on the surface it seemed

successful, but underneath it all, tensions were growing. Quite a few things were

resolved and decided upon at this conference. Some important things that were decided

upon was that Russia would be able to join the United Nations. This was big because all

of the powers of the world were now able to discuss among each other decisions that

were required to be made. The three main countries (Britain, U.S.A, and U.S.S.R.)

decided that they will jointly assist the people in all liberated and Axis countries in order
to create democratic institutions that they could influence. This was formed mostly for

the fact that there was moral value in obtaining Soviet Union’s word to help create

democratic countries in Europe. Another item the Big Three agreed that should happen

was the disarmament and division of Germany into four zones; one each for the Big

Three and one for France. Also Germany, as in the previous World War has to pay

reparations for the losses that occurred by the Allied Nations. These are put into place

not just to punish Germany, but to make sure they could not repeat their actions yet again.

The last topic that was discussed and agreed upon at the Yalta Conference was the Soviet

Union secretly promised to enter the war against Japan “two or three months after

Germany has surrendered”, but this had some conditions such as giving the Soviet Union

Japanese islands that it had previously wanted and other guidelines.

Although there were many agreements between the countries at the Yalta

Conference, there were many disagreements between the Big Three. In this conference

the United States and Great Britain attempted to appease the Soviet Union too much

instead of concentrating its attention upon its allies. The leaders of the Big Three all

came into this conference with completely different agendas. Churchill came in

concerned at what was happening in Poland following the arrival of the Red Army, in

which the free Polish leaders were being captured and killed while Russia put their own

people in power. Churchill was seeking to set limits to further disallow Soviet

advancement in Europe. Stalin came to Yalta wanting to use the Red Army to grab

control of as much of Europe as possible, and to keep the territory the Soviets had

captured during the war. Russia was not at war in the Pacific theater with Japan and was

not interested in becoming involved. Roosevelt was ill when he came to the Yalta
Conference but still had a plan. He came in believing that he could use his charm to get

Stalin to be rational and pleasant. He came willing to give the Russians what they wanted

in Europe, as long as they received help with Japan in the Pacific. Roosevelt was less

suspicious of the Soviet Union while Churchill was extremely wary of Stalin and his

plans. Churchill ended up getting it right while Roosevelt’s view of Stalin was

completely wrong Roosevelt misunderstood the cunningness and his ability to lie and

ended up giving Stalin spheres of influence within Europe in exchange for fighting in the

Pacific theater. Roosevelt laid down the game plan for the Big Three and Stalin took

advantage of Roosevelt’s trust in what would become a dark time between the

Superpowers.

The Potsdam Conference was brought about to clarify what was stated in the

previous Yalta Conference between the Big Three. There were a few changes in the

leaders at the conference with Truman now the President of the U.S. and after Churchill’s

defeat in Britain, Prime Minister Attlee became involved in the discussions at the

conference. The Potsdam Agreement ended up transferring German power to the Big

Three and France. The Potsdam Conference just seemed to raise tensions between the

countries and did not seem to get much accomplished. They attempted to create a four-

power Allied Control Council for matters that dealt with Germany. The council never

functioned right because France and the Soviet Union wanted harsher punishment of

Germany and the council could never function properly and ended up breaking up just a

few years after being started. This left Germany’s future unresolved with its territory,

government, unity, and a way for them to pay their war reparations still up in the air.

During the conference Truman made a mention about a “powerful new weapon” to
Stalin. Stalin knew through spies in the United States government about this weapon

long before. Also Japan was given an ultimatum to end the war or face “prompt and utter

destruction”. Not much good came out of the Potsdam Conference, with many attempts

to be unified and create groups that did not last long.

The history of distrust throughout the Soviet Union and United States history is

what ended up causing the Cold War. They had a common enemy and were allies until

Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany were brought down. This distrust caused the little

problems between the countries to become full blown out disagreements that affected the

whole world. This was seen by the tension that was brought to both the Yalta Conference

and Potsdam Conference before the conclusion of World War II.

Bibliography

• “Soviet-Western Cooperation after 1945." History in Dispute, Vol. 16: Twentieth-Century

Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.

<http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/>.

• "The Conference at Yalta." History in Dispute, Vol. 5: World War II, 1943-1945. Dennis

Showalter, ed. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center.

Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/

• The Yalta Conference, February 4, 1945-February 11, 1945." DISCovering World History.

Online Edition. Gale, 2003. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills,

MI: Gale Group. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/>

• Web. 19 Jan. 2010. <http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?