What was the Arms race?
In February 1945 there was the Yalta conference which established the division of Berlin and Germany, Russia joined the fight against Japan and few other decisions were made. Then also on 1945 July 17th there was the Potsdam conference in which the leaders agreed that the Germans party should be disarmed and pay reparations to the damage caused in the war. From then on it was all basically downhill.
After the German defeat at the battle of the Bulge end of 1944 it became clear to those working on the atomic bombs, that if they were used they would not be against Germany but Japan instead.
On June 12th 1945 the committee finalised its recommendations; firstly that the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible. Secondly it should be used on a dual target - that is a military installation or war plant surrounded by or facing homes and other nearby buildings sensitive to damage. Also thirdly it should be used without prior warning.
Then in August 1945, atomic bombs are dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the start of a major conflict between all countries involved especially the USSR and United states.
In the west, it seemed as if Russia was intent on dominating the whole of Europe, an impression strengthened by a speech Stalin made in 1946 when he said that communism and capitalism could never live peacefully together. Churchill's response, a famous speech in which he claimed that 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent' and called for a western alliance against communism merely helped to make relations worse.
NATO - and the Warsaw pact are created
In 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) set up a common defence alliance to counterweigh Soviet forces in Eastern Europe. In this organisation the countries involved were; the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, then in 1951 Greece and Turkey both joined and West Germany in 1955. However In 1955 the USSR set up the Warsaw pact which consisted of the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
In February 1945 there was the Yalta conference which established the division of Berlin and Germany, Russia joined the fight against Japan and few other decisions were made. Then also on 1945 July 17th there was the Potsdam conference in which the leaders agreed that the Germans party should be disarmed and pay reparations to the damage caused in the war. From then on it was all basically downhill.
After the German defeat at the battle of the Bulge end of 1944 it became clear to those working on the atomic bombs, that if they were used they would not be against Germany but Japan instead.
On June 12th 1945 the committee finalised its recommendations; firstly that the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible. Secondly it should be used on a dual target - that is a military installation or war plant surrounded by or facing homes and other nearby buildings sensitive to damage. Also thirdly it should be used without prior warning.
Then in August 1945, atomic bombs are dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the start of a major conflict between all countries involved especially the USSR and United states.
In the west, it seemed as if Russia was intent on dominating the whole of Europe, an impression strengthened by a speech Stalin made in 1946 when he said that communism and capitalism could never live peacefully together. Churchill's response, a famous speech in which he claimed that 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent' and called for a western alliance against communism merely helped to make relations worse.
NATO - and the Warsaw pact are created
In 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) set up a common defence alliance to counterweigh Soviet forces in Eastern Europe. In this organisation the countries involved were; the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, then in 1951 Greece and Turkey both joined and West Germany in 1955. However In 1955 the USSR set up the Warsaw pact which consisted of the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
