The Origins of the Cold War

The two new superpowers were the USA and the USSR. The USSR was the biggest country and had the biggest army. It was though affected by the war, they had lost 20 million men and the German army had destroyed many buildings and factories. The USA however was very much different they had lost a lot of men but no fighting had taken place in America, their economy was also doing very well. These two countries were far ahead of their rivals and so they were called superpowers.

In 1945 it was though clear that Germany was going to lose the war. The allied leaders meet in Yalta in the Ukraine to plan what was to happen to Europe after the defeat of Germany. The three leaders Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin managed to agree to certain key points:

The USSR would join the war against Japan after the defeat of Germany.

They agreed that Germany would be divided into four zones, British, American, French and Sovie

. . .

They agreed that all liberated countries would be given free elections to choose the government that they wanted.

While the allies advanced they uncovered the full horrors of the death camps, all three agreed to hunt down those responsible for genocide. Stalin wanted to move Russian borders into western Poland and Poland in turn could move its borders into eastern Germany. This is not the liberated Europe we fought to build. At the start of the Conference Truman informed Stalin about this. A Communist take over took place in Poland without democratic elections. In Poland and Czechoslovakia they shared power with the Communists until they were thrown out.

In May 1945 Churchill used the famous phrase “Iron Curtain” to describe what was happening in Germany. Both Churchill and Roosevelt were against this but they knew they could do little to prevent this from happening as the red army had most of eastern Russia in its control. Stalin argued that he had won and agreement from the allies that he could set up a pro-Soviet government.

The only disagreement was with Poland. Churchill pressed for a French zone to be added to the other three to give another anti-Soviet voice to the armies of occupation. This also meant that they could be run for the good of USSR. Nor is it one which allows permanent peace.

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Approximate Word count = 1170
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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