4.1 The aftermath of World War II

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Paragraph 4.1 

The aftermath of World War II 

Goals 

• You can explain how the Cold War started 
• You can explain that during de Cold War the world was divided between East and West
• You can explain how post war Germany was divided among the Allies 
• You can explain that Stalin turned Eastern countries into Soviet satellite states

Yalta Conference

February 1945

• The Allies meet in Yalta to discuss what needs to happen after WWII
• The Big Three are: Churchill (UK), Roosevelt (US) and Stalin (SU)
  

Yalta Conference

- The USA, the Soviet Union and the UK agreed that they would divide and control Germany and Berlin in four occupations zones 

- Democraties would be established in all the liberated European countries by holding free elections 

Name one big difference between the decisions the Treaty of Versailles and those made at the Yalta conference

Distrust 

• Before WWII: SU and the other allies didn't trust each other
• During WWII: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' 
• After WWII: distrust resurfaced

What is NOT a reason why the Soviets distrust the West ?

1. Intervention of the Allies directly after Russian Revolution
2. No willingness to join in alliance by France and United Kingdom
3. It took a rather long time to establish a serious second front in the West during WWII
4. The Soviets did not want another dictator installed in Germany

Free elections? 

In the end Stalin did hold elections in the Soviet occupied countries, but they were not free

Satellite states

• The countries the Soviets 'liberated' became satellite states 
• The main goal for the SU? To create a buffer against new European attacks

Satelitte state

a state that is officially independent, but is under heavy political, economic and militairy control of another country.

The Iron Curtain 

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. (...) The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy.

• The Iron Curtain Winston Churchill mentions here was also an almost literal curtain where the border between the East and the West was constantly watched from watchtowers and barbed wire seperated two parts of Europe.
  
• ‎Usually is is meant ‎figuratively: political, military and ideological barrier created by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West

Truman doctrine

Policy of the USA  to prevent more countries from falling into communist hands. 

President Truman therefore states: 

1. I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
2. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
3. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.

The Marshall Plan

• In order to prevent the spread of communism George Marshall, Secretary of State, came up with: The Marshall plan
• American aid program to help rebuild European economies after WWII (and thus preventing the spread of communism) 

The Truman Doctrine was meant to avoid more
countries having a communist government.

1. True
2. False

According to Marshall, poverty could lead to communism.

1. True
2. False

Marshall refused to offer Marshall aid to Eastern bloc countries.

1. True
2. False

Why did the Marshall aid did not reach Eastern Europe?