One start to the break down of the Alliance was in how the Alliance worked itself. Before all three leaders came to discuss the aftermath of the war, Britain and America had agreed to create a organisation which would prevent any future conflicts; the United Nations Organisation. However, as this organisation was set up before the three leaders joined together, the USSR was not included, and therefore Stalin believed that this was done on purpose, that America still did not trust the USSR.
Furthermore, at the Tehran Conference of 1943, confusion was also shown. At this meeting, Churchill showed how Stalin would obtain the Eastern Border of Poland as a, “Buffer State”. Stalin believed he would have power over Eastern Europe and be allowed to do as he pleased with it. Roosevelt did not explain this to Stalin and therefore Stalin believed he and Churchill were on the same page.
Following on from the Tehran Conference, Italy had offered surrender in the war. This was accepted by Britain and America, without any consultation with the USSR. The two sides to this is that, there was no need for Stalin to be consulted, no Russian troops had fought the Italian front, therefore it was nothing to do with Stalin. Even so, it was still a big decision, one done without Stalin’s opinion, therefore this fuelled Stalin’s thoughts that his allies were working against him.
Another breakdown in the alliance is due to the second front. Stalin was worried about the Soviet Union. Since 1941, the Soviet Union had taken most the blows from Germany and had suffered great losses. Stalin wanted to open up a second front in the West of Europe so the USSR could be relieved of some of its fighting by drawing the German troops from the East to the West. However, Britain and France refused to do this at the time Stalin wanted, they wanted to do it when they believed the time was right.
In their answer to not give in to Stalin, Stalin believed that Britain and France were continuing to scheme against him, that they wanted Germany to destroy Stalin’s empire.
The Nazi Soviet packed aided the suspicions towards Stalin from America and Britain. In 1939, Stalin and Hitler signed the Nazi Soviet Aggression Pact. They agreed not to fight each other. This pact was supposed to last for ten years but only lasted for two. Both countries then decided that they would split Poland between them in secret. This pact outraged Britain and France. This was an act of backstabbing, the fact that a so called ally had gone and signed and pact with the enemy. Stalin signed this pact for many reasons, including that he didn’t think that Britain and France were strong enough to oppose Hitler. Also one of Stalin’s goals was to take over the Baltic States in Poland, in which he hoped to achieve by signing the pact. Furthermore, by signing the pact, it would delay Germany’s attack on the USSR, thus giving Stalin time to prepare. Naturally, now there was a great deal of mistrust towards Stalin for this act of betrayal.
A short term reason for the breakdown of the alliance was a new hard-line attitude which was adopted by America at Potsdam in 1945. Nazi Germany was now defeated, other issues were now a priority. However tensions at this conference were not helped by America. President Roosevelt had died in April of 1945. When he was alive, Roosevelt had always had, “played it safe”, with Stalin, things, “got done.” As Roosevelt was dead, someone had to take his place at Potsdam. That person being Harry Truman, a less diplomatic leader, he hated Communism and showed it. Previously, Roosevelt believed he could control Stalin, named, “Uncle Joe”, to show a level of of trust and respect. When Truman came along, everything was ruined. He believed he could get everything he wanted from the Russians, and if he didn’t, the USSR and Stalin could, “Go To Hell”. This of course made cracks in the Alliance, now one country was voicing its dislike of one of its Ally’s, therefore Stalin was going to be further weary of America.
In connection to the Potsdam Conference and Truman, another decision was taken, which evidently lead to the breakdown; the revealing of the atomic bomb. As this was now revealed, it could have been said to be a warning to Russia, America had successfully tested the Atomic bomb, therefore Russia would be wise to be weary. They could no longer feel safe while America had this weapon.
Furthermore, another reason contributing to the breakdown of the alliance is the Polish Question. At Yalta, the decision of what to do with Poland was of great importance, because Poland was the largest country in Eastern Europe. Each leader had a different idea of what to do with Poland. Roosevelt wanted democratic elections in Eastern Europe. Roosevelt wanted to keep on friendly terms with Stalin, but this could not be done if he wanted one idea of Capitalism in Eastern Europe. Also, Churchill, representing England wanted what they had fought for over Poland, an independent democratic state. As you can see, this greatly contrasted with Stalin’s view of Communism, as Stalin wanted to make Poland a pro-Soviet country. With regards of what to do with Poland, there were two conflicting groups who had different ideas of what to do with it, the London Poles and the Lublin Poles. The London Poles, who were Catholic landowners and were members of the government in exile, opposed Stalin, they were against Communism. Quite the opposite was the Lublin Poles, set up with the help of the USSR in July 1944 and therefore supported Communism. A further reason on why Britain mistrusted the USSR is because of events in 1944. At this time, the Warsaw Rising had taken place. The Polish troops who had connections with the London Poles had rose up against the Germany forces which were occupying their city. It seemed successful, as the German army seemed to retreating to the East. The Soviet troops were supposed to help the Polish, but they had stopped advancing as soon as they got the River Vistula outisde of Warsaw. As a result, with no help, the Polish were defeated by the Germans. The Russian excuse was that there were increased forces advancing on the Soviet troops which didn’t allow them to further. The West didn’t believe this and the Soviet Union was seen as merciless.
In conclusion, a mixture of the Allies actions all led to the breakdown of the Alliance. There was a great sense of misjudgement and misassumptions from all sides which planted seeds of betrayal in each of the Allies minds; Britain and France mistrusted Stalin, while Stalin mistrusted Britain and France. The Alliance was never going to be a strong successful bond in the first place, as none of the Allies involved thought the opposition were truly trustworthy. The breakdown of the alliance was inevitable. The allies had opposing ideologies which conflicted with eachother, therefore it was nearly impossible for them to get along and compromise.. The allies each felt feelings of suspicion, fear and mistrust because of their opposing ideologies. The countries involved in the alliance had all in previous years done actions which created unkind feelings towards each others countries, such as the USSR’s heartless actions in watching the Poles be crushed by Germany, and also the fact that USSR was not allowed into the League Of Nations, which was constructed by the USA. Therefore I am concluding with a post-revisionist point of view, that there was no sole country responsible for the breakdown of the alliance, but all the countries, the incapability of compromise and opposing ideologies all added to the unavoidable collapse of the alliance.
