Political Factors
Oh does cold war ever influence politics. Last year 5 candidates running for some sort of position used cold war as the primary topic of their campaign. A person might think cold war would be a bad topic to lead a campaign with, but in fact with the social and environmental impact is has, this topic was able to gain a great number of followers. These 5 candidates went 4 for 5 on winning their positions.
Conclusion
cold war seem to be a much more important idea that most give credit for. Next time you see or think of cold war, think about what you just read and realize what is really going on. It is likely you under valued cold war before, but will now start to give the credited needed and deserved.
In February 1945, Roosevelt had met with Churchill and Stalin at the Soviet city of Yalta on the Black Sea. At this Yalta Conference, the three leaders made a number of important decisions about the future. They agreed to move ahead in creating a new international peacemaking body, the UN, based on the principles of atlantic charter. Stalin promised to enter the war against Japan after the surrender of Germany. He also promised free and unfettered elections in Poland and in other Soviet occupied Eastern European countries. They agreed on a charter. The charter created the general assembly, which was made up of all member nations and was expected to function as a town meeting of the world. The charter also set up administrative, judicial, and economic governing bodies.
The Yalta Conference also displayed the deterioration in relations between the big powers. Roosevelt of America had died, to be replaced by strongly anti-communist Truman. Stalin felt that America were traitors for not telling the USSR about the invention of the Atomic Bomb, and in combination with Truman's strong dislike, this set the conference off to a shaky start. The British representative was Clement Atlee (I believe), and was weak in resolve and character, in comparison to Churchill who had been at the Potsdam Conference. This lack of strength allowed the Yalta conference to be dominated by Truman and Stalin, and arguments were common
Where the 'Big Three' at Potsdam had suceeded, the new representatives failed to maintain healthy working relationships and as a result the Yalta Conference was not as successful as the Potsdam Conference and it gave an insight into the friction that was to come between the Soviet Union and the US.
: Any international event, especially major ones, should be viewed from a historical perspective. No event should be regarded outside the context in which it formed and happened, and the expected or actual consequences. The Yalta Conference stands out in this respect. That is why reports on it included distorted information back in 1945, let alone during the cold war. And these distortions have not disappeared but continued to multiply.
To illuminate the assessments of the Yalta Conference by those who like to "rewrite" history, I will refer mostly to American sources and direct participants, namely President Roosevelt and his secretary of state, Edward Stettinius Jr.
Mr. Stettinius, an industrialist and influential man in the US business and political communities, held the post until President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 and was succeeded by Harry Truman. He left highly interesting memoirs with crucial information about the conference, which he witnessed and attended.
The secretary believes that Yalta was the summit of US cooperation with the Soviet Union and partly with Britain, when an atmosphere of trust was created between the three powers after Tehran and the opening of the Second Front. The days of Nazi Germany were numbered and the Soviet Union pledged to join the war against militarist Japan. The Americans and their allies faced the task of winning over the post-war world and precluding a repetition of such calamities as WW II.
In my opinion, again confirmed by Mr. Stettinius's recollections, the bulk of decisions made in Yalta were based on US, not Soviet, proposals. The final communique, the secretary said, was a purely American idea to which the Soviet delegation did not make any amendments, while the British delegation only worked on its style. Those who claim that Stalin outplayed Roosevelt or used his failing health to his advantage should know that their claims are completely ungrounded.
V.L.: Why did President Roosevelt need the meeting in Crimea so much and respected Stalin's concern over the future world?
V.F.: Roosevelt more than once returned to the idea voiced during a meeting with Molotov in Washington in June 1942 that he saw the post-war world as a demilitarized one. This provoked the description of the world as the domain of three to four policemen. According to Roosevelt, only the Soviet Union, the US, Britain, and possibly China should have had limited armed forces, while all other countries, including the aggressor nations Germany, Japan and Italy, their satellites, and anti-Axis states (France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and all others) were to be fully disarmed and demilitarized. As Roosevelt said, a healthy world economy is incompatible with an arms race.
The remaining armed forces of three or four powers were to be used only with common consent of everyone and never against anyof the three to four powers. They should be used only to prevent a potential war or nip aggression in the bud, the US president stressed.
President Roosevelt relied on the experience of WWI and WWII, when the arms race led to and was the forerunner of aggression, which it begets in seven to eight out of ten cases
