On May 8th the war finally ended in Europe and Berlin was completely destroyed by the allied forces. From July 17th 1945 to August 2nd 1945, the Potsdam conference was held and the participants were England, USA and the Soviet Union. The leaders were all the same as in the Yalta Conference, just that Winston Churchill was soon succeeded by Clement Atlee on 27th July 1945 and USA had President Truman as their new leader, since president Roosevelt had died in April. The purpose of the conference was to discuss about the destroyed Germany and also some other countries like Poland. Unlike Yalta, the conference didn’t seem to go on that successfully, and each country had different aims from each other, especially the Soviets and the allies. Stalin’s main concern at Potsdam was to obtain economic help for the Soviet Union; about a quarter of Soviet property had been destroyed during WWII, including 31,000 of the countries factories. Agriculture had also been badly hit and food was being strictly rationed. Soviet advisors told Stalin that malnourishment of the workforce was causing low-productivity, decreasing the countries economy. So Stalin believed that the best way to recover the Soviet economy was to gain huge amounts of reparation payments from Germany. The allies believed that Stalin’s demand was too much and also thought that they no longer need Soviet cooperation. Stalin felt betrayed and he believed that the main consequence for this problem was the death of President Roosevelt. During the conference Truman introduced a super bomb that could end the war against Japan. Stalin stayed calm and examined for a while.
The nations agreed on policies such as the establishment of a council compose of the Foreign ministers of the UK, USA, USSR, China and France. Also they agreed on the political principles such as ‘There shall be uniformity of treatment of the German population throughout Germany’, ‘Subjects to the necessity for maintaining military security, freedom of speech, and religion shall be permitted’. There were also economic principles, agreements on Austria, Poland etc… that were agreed during the conference.
As the Soviets marched to the Far East, the US thought that they wouldn’t need any Soviet help and they were also desperate to end the war against Japan so on August 6th they dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima killing over 700,000 people. By the time the atomic bomb was dropped the Soviets were in Manchuria (they declared war on Japan on the 8th.). In August 9th, the US dropped their second atomic bomb in Nagasaki which also killed a lot of people. The bomb dropped in Nagasaki was one of the mysteries which historians couldn’t find the actual purpose. Some believe that the second bomb was dropped because the Japanese didn’t surrender after the first bomb was dropped in Hiroshima; also some argue that the second bomb was used to intimidate Stalin. Other Historians say that the weapon was used to stop the Soviet forces in Manchuria heading south towards the Korean Peninsula. Truman’s successor Eisenhower said ‘It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing’. He believed that Truman’s intention of using the second bomb was to frighten the Soviets. On September 2nd the Japanese surrender was officially signed on board the US battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
After WWII the relation between the US and Soviets were like cats and dogs; many people believed that there could be another war, this time between the two superpowers and USA wanted to avoid another war. In June 14th 1946 the US presented the Baruch plan written by Bernard Baruch which consisted of: 1) Extend between all nations, the basic scientific information for peaceful ends 2) Carry out control of atomic energy to the extent necessary to ensure its use only for peaceful purposes, 3) Eliminate all weapons (including atomic bomb) that are adaptable to mass destruction, 4) Establish effective safeguards. The Soviets refused to sign the plan and this led the US to test more and more nuclear research.
On 12th March 1947, Truman announced details to congress of what eventually became known as the Truman Doctrine. In his speech he promised US support for “free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities.” The speech also included a request that congress agree to give military and economic aid to Greece since they were under communist threat. Truman also asked for about $400,000,000 for his aid program and revealed that he planned to send US military and economic experts to countries that were under pressure by the communists. Basically the US didn’t want the weak nations to get under control by the Soviets.
Three months later in June, George Marshall, (Truman’s Secretary of State) announced details which later became known as the Marshall plan (European Recovery Program). He offered US financial aid for the European Economic recovery. This idea was welcomed by British foreign secretary but the Soviet Union immediately rejected the plan.
On September 18th, in the United Nations Conference, Soviet Spokesman Andrei Vyshinsky said that the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall plan are only beneficial to the US and that they won’t give advantages to the European nations. He reveals that the Marshall plan will mean placing European countries under the political and economic control of the US.
In 1948 the Berlin Blockade began, and the reason was that the US and the Soviet Union had different aims on what they wanted to do to Germany. Stalin wanted to destroy Germany and the US wanted to rebuild Germany’s industry. Relating to geography, Berlin was more in the eastern side of Germany meaning on the Soviet zone, however like the country was divided into four zones; the city was also divided into four occupied zones. In March 1948 the allies (USA, England, and France) decided to unite their occupied zones into one and create a single currency in West Germany/Berlin. The Soviet government believed that the new Deutsche Mark would be a threat to the East German economy. In June 1948 the Soviets began to blockade roads, rails, etc…which connected between West Germany and West Berlin. The reason for this was to force the western powers including the US to get out of the city. Later the allied forces had to send food and supplies to Berlin by plane.
In 1949 West Germany was created, and Bonn became the capital city. Also in April 1949, ten west European countries and the US and Canada signed the Washington treaty creating NATO, an alliance which brings together free and autonomous countries in order to create a collective security system.
The cause of the ‘Cold War’ was mainly by the two super powers, and basically it was more like a power competition between the two nations. WWII can be seen as a major reason for the two nations to fight each other. As the Germans surrendered in 1945, USA and Russia were all hungry for territories, which soon caused a diplomatic problem. Some Historians revealed that the blame for the Cold War was on the Americans. Gar Alperovitz for example blamed Truman for using the atomic weapon, which changed the relation worse with the Soviets. ‘Truman decided to drop the bomb as a means to intimidate the Soviet Union’. If the Soviets and the US prevented greediness than probably their relation would remain as it was during WWII. President Roosevelt’s death can be seen as another problem that caused the cold war. While he was alive he made a lot of agreements with Stalin but after his death, the relation between the two countries got shaken and some of the agreements were not met, causing conflicts. Also if President Truman would not have used the atomic bomb than the Cold War might not have existed and the relations with the super powers would have been better.