Another factor that added more salt to the wound between the allies and Russian was the fact that Churchill and Roosevelt held a conference at Casablanca in January 1943, and they didn’t summon Stalin at this meeting as they where only discussing issues concerning the Western front. At this point in time Stalin thought that the Allies were using Russia for their own purposes and that the important issues were being discussed behind his back. But after Casablanca, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at the Russian seaside resort of Yalta in February 1945 to discuss what would happen to Germany now that it was being destroyed after the war. They came to a decision that Germany should be divided into four zones and that some of the money collected, as reparations would go to Russia. It was also decided that a part of Poland would be given to Russia, so that she could improve her defences, and in return a part of Russia would be given back to Poland. The main thing that was raised at Yalta was about what would happen to those countries that had been overrun by the Nazis. It was obvious to the allies that as Russia advanced west, her idea of democratic and independent governments was different to that of the Allies.
By this time the Allies and the Russian began to resent one another. By May 1945 after Germany’s surrender, Russia had occupied most of the Eastern Europe. People of Rumania, Bulgaria etc. saw the Russians as their liberators. In April 1945, Roosevelt passed away and Harry Truman took over him. He was less sympathetic to the Russians and Stalin than Roosevelt was. When Truman realised what Stalin was up to he sent a strongly worded letter to him and made it clear that the relationship between the two countries had turned from bad to worst. Because of the distance between the allies and the Russian Truman wanted to finalise what would happen to Germany now that the war was over, so another conference was held at the Berlin suburb of Potsdam in May 1945. This conference involved the Presidents of America, Britain, and Russia. But unlike Yalta, Clement Atlee replaced Winston Churchill, as he had been defeated in the general election. Truman was going to replace Roosevelt’s place and Stalin was still going to attend on behalf of Russia. At the conference the three presidents went through most the details discussed at Yalta, but some of the issues were not dealt with like the new border between Poland and Germany. At the meeting Truman couldn’t resist telling Stalin that America had developed a new weapon with great destructive capability. So in December 1941 when the Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Stalin knew exactly what Truman meant. This proved that Americans were ahead of everyone when it came to the nuclear monopoly. By the end of the war it was clear that there was going to be no compromise between the Allies and the Russians, because things had reached such a low point.
But it wasn’t just Stalin and Truman, who began to disagree, but after Yalta Roosevelt and Churchill weren’t on the best of terms and this had come between Atlee and Truman, it was as though even though the two opposed Russia, at the time that Churchill was in power he went behind Roosevelt’s back and tried siding with Russia, because he wanted power. So by the end of the Potsdam conference it wasn’t just the two super powers that opposed one another but it was also alley against alley. It was as though each of them were going against each other just to look good in front of everyone else, and to do so they were willing to go against the people that had helped them get were they were. So in reality by the end of Potsdam everyone was for himself or herself, and there was tension between all the countries involved.
So in conclusion I wouldn’t completely agree with the statement above because if they were able to form an alliance before the conference and were able to defeat Germany as I team, I think that if they had time to sort out their differences then they would have been able to form a strong post-war alliance. But I also believe that if they didn’t trust each other from the beginning then they would have to work at it, because without trust they wouldn’t be able to help one anther, and even when they were allies before the Potsdam conference they still didn’t trust each other 100% that is why Britain was willing to go behind each others back and was willing to form an alliance with Russia if they had the chance. So I agree to a certain extent that after the conference hopes of a post-war alliance had disappeared, but I think if they started from scratch and gave each other a chance then they would have been able to form a good alliance, that could have taken control over countries in the East like the Russians did.
