What is a Cold War?

Punishment for Germany: The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, 1945 Yalta Conference: February 1945 Towards the end of World War Two, in February 1945, the three most powerful leaders in the world met at Yalta. The three leaders agreed to Germany’s unconditional surrender, a joint occupation of Germany and a crimes trial for leading Nazis. Potsdam Conference: May 1945 Hitler’s suicide in his bunker in Berlin allowed other Nazi leaders to sign an unconditional surrender. Following this, newly elected U.S. President Harry Truman, Stalin and Churchill decided to divide Germany into four zones – one for each of the main Allied nations. Franklin D. Roosevelt Joseph Stalin Winston Churchill

The New York Times referred to the Yalta Conference as a meeting of the “Big 3” who ‘doomed’ Nazism. What effect might this have had on an American audience in 1945?

Yalta >>>> Potsdam Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Germany to be split into four zones. Germany will pay reparations. A government of 'national unity' to be set up in Poland, comprising both communists and non-communists. Free elections in the countries of eastern Europe. This part of the agreement was called the Declaration of Liberated Europe. Russia would help against Japan when Germany was defeated.

Punishment for Germany: The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, 1945 Yalta Conference: February 1945 Towards the end of World War Two, in February 1945, the three most powerful leaders in the world met at Yalta. The three leaders agreed to Germany’s unconditional surrender, a joint occupation of Germany and a crimes trial for leading Nazis. Potsdam Conference: May 1945 Hitler’s suicide in his bunker in Berlin allowed other Nazi leaders to sign an unconditional surrender. Following this, newly elected U.S. President Harry Truman, Stalin and Churchill decided to divide Germany into four zones – one for each of the main Allied nations. Clement Attlee Harry S. Truman Joseph Stalin

Yalta >>>> Potsdam Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Attlee, Truman and Stalin Germany to be split into four zones. Arguments about the details of the boundaries between the zones. Germany will pay reparations. Disagreements about the amount of reparations Russia wanted to take. It was agreed that Russia could take whatever it wanted from the Soviet zone, and 10 per cent of the industrial equipment of the western zones, but Britain and the US thought this was too much. A government of 'national unity' to be set up in Poland, comprising both communists and non-communists. Truman was angry because Stalin had arrested the non-communist leaders of Poland. Free elections in the countries of eastern Europe. This part of the agreement was called the Declaration of Liberated Europe. America and Britain were alarmed because communists were coming to power in the countries of Eastern Europe. Russia would help against Japan when Germany was defeated. Truman dropped the atomic bomb so that Japan would surrender before Russian troops could go into Japan. America had the bomb in July 1945, but Truman did not tell Stalin about it. When he saw how he had been tricked, Stalin was furious.

Post World War Two: The Official Division of Germany As a result of World War Two, approximately 60 million people lost their lives. The war’s losers were the Fascist states: Germany, Japan and Italy. These countries suffered around 3-6 million deaths. Their ‘conquerors’, the Allies, suffered at least 35 million deaths. As a result of the German surrender, each of the four key Allied nations occupied an area in Germany (opposite image). The German capital, Berlin, was divided between the two most powerful nations of the Allies: the United States and Soviet Russia. As seen in the image opposite, the East of Berlin was known as the Soviet Bloc, and the Western division was controlled by the U.S. Historian, Robert J. McMahon, argues that “the roots of the Cold War lay in the conflicting recipes for international order that Washington and Moscow sought to impose on a pliable and war-shattered world”. (McMahon, Robert J., The Cold War, Oxford University Press, 2003, p.12.)