The Beginnings of the Cold War : Why did the allies begun to fall apart in 1945?

September 9th, 2002

Assignment Nº : The Beginnings of the Cold War

Why did the allies begun to fall apart in 1945?

Clashes of personalities
Actions of the USA (evidence that US actions upset Stalin and US views on this)
Actions of the USSR (evidence that US actions upset Truman and the UK and Stalin’s view on this)

There were many reasons why the allies begun to fall apart in 1945. One of them was because Stalin’s armies were occupying most of eastern Europe. Stalin, instead of withdrawing his troops, he left them there. So, Stalin’s troops effectively controlled the Baltic States, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and refugees were fleeing out of these countries fearing a Communist take-over. Stalin had set up a Communist government in Poland, ignoring the wishes of the majority of Poles. Britain and the USA protested but Stalin defended his action.

Also, another reason was that the USA had a new president, as on 12 April President Roosevelt died. He was replaced by his Vice-President, Harry Truman. Truman was much more an anti-Communist that Roosevelt and was very suspicious of Stalin. But Roosevelt was not the only politician to be replaced by another one. There was an election in Britain, were Churchill was defeated, so halfway through the conference he was replaced by a new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee. In the absence of Churchill rivalry and suspicion between Stalin and Truman dominated the conference.

A number of issues arose on which ...

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A number of issues arose on which neither Stalin nor Truman seemed able to appreciate the other’s point of view. The disagreed over what to do about Germany. Stalin wanted to cripple Germany completely to protect the USSR against future threats; Truman did not want to repeat the mistake of the Treaty of Versailles. They also disagreed on reparations, as Stalin wanted compensation from Germany. Truman, however, was once again determined not to repeat the mistakes at the end of the First World War and resisted this demand. They disagreed over Soviet policy in eastern Europe. At Yalta Stalin had won agreement from the allies that he could set up pro-Soviet governments in eastern Europe. Truman became very unhappy about the Russian intentions and adopted a “get tough” attitude towards Stalin.

Comparing the Yalta conference with the Postdam conference, the first one had been much more successful than the last one. At Yalta there were more agreements, while in Postdam there were constant disagreements and difference of opinions. These disagreements were, almost always, between Stalin and Truman. The new Prime Minister of Britain seemed to be left a side. One year after the last conference, by 1946, the wartime friendship between the allies had broken down and the Cold War started.

(394 words) Lucía Voegeli