The origins of the Cold War
Yalta – February 1945
This took place before the end of the war, but the Allies knew they were going to win.
Churchill
- He recognised the danger and wrote to the US urging that action be taken to stop the USSR’s “onward sweep.”
- He did not trust Stalin, although he tried to have good relations with him.
- He did not dare criticise Russia too much as the public in Britain had been impressed by Russia’s courage and sacrifice against the Nazis.
Roosevelt
- He regarded Churchill as someone who just wanted to hang on to the British Empire. The USA had no intention of helping Britain in the task. Instead, the aim was to keep the Allies together.
- He was keen that all people should be able to choose their own government through free elections, and he wanted a new peacekeeping organisation to be set up after the war.
- He did his best to get on with Stalin and treat the USSR fairly, giving them the benefit of the doubt, to Churchill’s annoyance.
Stalin
Stalin saw things differently to the other two leaders. When he talked about “free elections,” he meant something quite different from Roosevelt. He would never have agreed to the election of non-communists in countries occupied by the Red Army, only elections to elect different members of the Communist Party. He had no intention of leaving the USSR open to attack. He wanted to create a buffer zone of friendly communist states between Russian and Germany.
Decisions made
- To divide Germany into four zones of military occupation.
- To give all the Allies access to the capital, Berlin, which was in the Soviet zone. Therefore, it too was divided into four sectors of military occupation.
- To make Germany pay reparations.
- To bring Nazi war criminals to trial.
- To allow elections so that the peoples of Eastern Europe could choose their new governments democratically.
- To sign a charter to set up a United Nations.