Origins of the Cold War Flashcards
All 33 cards in this deck
What did the Big Three agree about Germany at the Yalta Conference (February 1945)?
That Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation, run by the USA, the USSR, Britain and France.
What did Truman tell Stalin at the Potsdam Conference (July 1945)?
That the USA had a powerful new weapon (it had just tested an atomic bomb), which made the negotiations at Potsdam far more tense.
What was the main ideological difference between the USA and the USSR?
The USA was a capitalist democracy with free elections and private business; the USSR was a one-party communist state with a state-controlled economy.
What was Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech (1946)?
A speech at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946 in which Churchill said an 'iron curtain' had descended across Europe; Stalin regarded it as a deliberate provocation.
True or false? The countries of Eastern Europe freely chose communist governments after 1945.
False. Stalin created satellite states — countries under Moscow's control — through rigged elections and the removal of opposition.
What was the Truman Doctrine (1947)?
Truman's promise that the USA would support free peoples resisting communism (containment), starting with $400 million of aid to Greece and Turkey.
What was the Marshall Plan (1947)?
American aid (around $13 billion) to rebuild Europe's economies; Stalin called it 'dollar imperialism' and forbade eastern European states from accepting it.
What was Cominform (1947)?
The Communist Information Bureau, set up by Stalin to co-ordinate Europe's communist parties under Moscow's control, in response to the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan.
What was Comecon (1949)?
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, set up by Stalin to co-ordinate trade and economic development in the Eastern bloc as an alternative to Marshall Aid.
How was Berlin divided after the Second World War?
Into four zones — American, British, French and Soviet — even though the whole city lay deep inside the Soviet zone of Germany.
What was the Berlin Crisis of 1948–49 (blockade and airlift)?
Stalin cut off road, rail and canal links to West Berlin in June 1948; the Western Allies flew in supplies for 11 months until Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949.
Which two German states were created in 1949?
The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, May 1949) from the three western zones, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, October 1949) from the Soviet zone.
True or false? Churchill represented Britain for the whole of the Potsdam Conference (July 1945).
False. Churchill was replaced partway through by Clement Attlee, who became Prime Minister after Britain's 1945 general election.
What was the Long Telegram (February 1946)?
A secret report sent to Washington by George Kennan, a US diplomat in Moscow. It warned that Stalin saw capitalism as an enemy, and that the USSR would build up its armed forces while working to split and undermine the Western powers.
What did the Big Three agree at Yalta (February 1945) about the countries of Eastern Europe liberated from Nazi rule?
That they would be allowed to hold free elections. Stalin's Red Army stayed in occupation, which he claimed was needed for Soviet security.
What was the main disagreement about Germany at the Potsdam Conference (July 1945)?
Reparations: Stalin wanted heavy reparations and Germany kept weak, while the USA wanted to avoid repeating the mistakes made after the First World War. It was agreed each power would take reparations from its own zone.
What effect did the successful testing of the first atom bomb have on relations between Truman and Stalin?
It made Truman less inclined to compromise with Stalin, and made Stalin more suspicious of America's post-war ambitions; the USSR had developed its own nuclear weapon by 1949.
True or false? Tension between the USA and the USSR only began once the USA used the atom bomb.
False. Their opposing ideologies of communism and democracy already caused tension; the bomb created a new and more dangerous level of it.
What is meant by 'containment'?
The US policy of stopping communism from spreading any further, rather than removing it where it already existed; set out in the Truman Doctrine of 1947.
What happened between Stalin and Yugoslavia in 1948?
Tito refused to take orders from Moscow, so Yugoslavia was expelled from Cominform; it remained communist but independent of Soviet control and accepted Western aid.
What action by the Western Allies led Stalin to begin the Berlin Blockade in June 1948?
Britain, France and the USA merged their zones and introduced a single new currency into West Germany and West Berlin; Stalin feared a recovered Germany would threaten the USSR.
What contrasting views did the West and communist supporters take of the spread of communism in Eastern Europe?
The West believed communism was being forced on countries through murderous acts; communist supporters argued it created equality for ordinary people and that the USSR had helped countries such as Poland.
True or false? At the Potsdam Conference (July 1945) Truman had replaced Roosevelt as the US representative.
True. Roosevelt died in April 1945 and his successor Truman took a far tougher line with Stalin.
What was Stalin's main aim at the Yalta Conference (February 1945)?
To gain control or influence over the countries of Eastern Europe, as a buffer zone to protect the USSR from any future attack from the West.
What did Roosevelt want from the Yalta Conference (February 1945)?
A new United Nations organisation to keep the peace, so US troops could leave Europe, and a Soviet promise to join the war against Japan.
What did Churchill want from the Yalta Conference (February 1945)?
To stop the USSR dominating Europe, especially Poland, and to keep Britain a great power; he also opposed treating Germany so harshly that it could not recover.
What did the Big Three accept at Yalta (February 1945) about which power would hold sway in Eastern Europe?
In effect, that Eastern Europe would be a Soviet 'sphere of influence', where the USSR's interests came first.
Why did Poland cause tension at the Potsdam Conference (July 1945)?
Stalin had set up a communist-dominated government in Poland, which Britain and the USA said broke his Yalta promise of free elections.
Where and when did the USA drop atom bombs in 1945?
On the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August 1945.
Give one way the atom bomb reduced the USA's need to co-operate with the USSR in 1945.
Japan could be defeated without Soviet military help, so Truman refused to let the USSR share in the occupation of Japan.
What happened in Czechoslovakia in February 1948?
The communists took full control in a coup, ending its democracy. It was the last Eastern European state to fall to communism, and it alarmed the West.
Why did the USA offer Marshall Aid to Europe?
It feared poverty after the war would make communism attractive, so it rebuilt European economies to contain communism and create markets for US goods.
Give one consequence of the Berlin Blockade and Airlift (1948–49) for the superpowers.
It was a propaganda win for the USA, which showed it would stand up to Soviet pressure, while Stalin had failed to drive the West out of Berlin.