Cold War Beginnings 1945 1948 Postwar Anxieties Would

Cold War Beginnings 1945 -1948

Postwar Anxieties �Would peace reverse the economic recovery? �No more government contracts meant no more government spending �GNP slumps in ‘ 46 and ‘ 47; prices rise without control �High demand creates inflation and huge black market

Germany, oh, Germany � Nuremberg Trials – Germany, 1945 -1946 • 22 tried; 12 hung, 7 jailed, Goering suicides • Other trials continue for years

Germany, oh, Germany � Dispute: Hurt or help? • Reparations requested by U. S. S. R. (wanted payback, but not a strong German future threat) • Healthy Germany needed to rebuild Europe � Territory divided up between France, Britain, U. S. and U. S. S. R. • East and West Germany; satellite states bound to U. S. S. R. • Russia regained and extended territory – Poland • “Iron Curtain” – Winston Churchill • West Germany an independent country

Germany, oh, Germany � Berlin? • Split into 4 zones • U. S. and Britain introduced common currency in Western zones – Stalin replies by halting all traffic to West Berlin June 24, 1948 � Operation Vittles – Berlin Airlift • RAF and U. S. Air Force ship in 2 millions tons of supplies over the next year; blockade ends May 1949 • Flights occur daily; citizens build runways out of gravel and broken buildings; intense coordination of flights

The Role of Yalta February 1945 � February 1945: Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt � Plans to end Axis power • Poland, Bulgaria, Romania to have self-determination and free elections (didn’t get it) � Stalin to attack Japan in return for concessions in China • Intervention not needed – Stalin still got control of Manchuria � Purpose of meeting was informational, not determination of final outcome of conflict

Yalta

The Potsdam Conference � July 1945 � Big Three: United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union • Same players as the Yalta Conference in February �Stalin had promised free elections, did not ever happen � Soviets, British, Americans, and French would take reparations from their own occupation zones � U. S. wanted to use Europe as a market for new productivity

Timeline � February 1945: Yalta � April 1945: FDR Dies, Truman becomes Pres � May 8, 1945: V-E Day � June 26, 1945: United Nations Established � July 1945: Potsdam � August 6 -9 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki � September 2, 1945: V-J Day (end of the war for U. S. )

Cold War Tensions � George F. Kennan • American diplomat in Moscow � U. S. Policy of Containment • Prevent any expansion of communist rule • Truman’s foreign policy � Western (democratic) Europe and Eastern (communist) Europe � June 26, 1945 – United Nations charter signed • Arena for competition between the United States and the Soviet Union

Cold War Tensions �After Yalta • Germany divided into 4 allied zones • Stalin promises free elections in satellites (especially Poland) – doesn’t happen • Germany to pay reparations �After Potsdam • Allied divisions become East (USSR) and West (US, UK, France) Germany • Stalin wants extra German reparations, UK and US say, “No. ”

Reflection �What accounts for the breakdown in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II? Is there anything that the United States could have done to avoid it?