International Relations 1945 ~ 1991

1. International Relations 1945 ~ 1991 The origins of the Cold War ~ The Yalta Conference February

2. By February 1945 it was clear that Germany would be defeated ~ it was only a matter of time. • The leaders of the 3 main Allied Powers (Roosevelt for USA; Stalin for USSR; Churchill for UK) met in Yalta in Feb 1945 to discuss what would be done with Germany when the War ended. • Each leader also had an additional agenda: Churchill wanted assurances that free elections would be held in the Eastern European countries which had been liberated by the Red Army; Stalin wanted to create a series of buffer states in Eastern Europe; Roosevelt wanted Soviet involvement in the war against Japan.

3. Why did Churchill want this? • Churchill was deeply suspicious of both Stalin and his motives. He was anti-Communist, although he had been glad for the support of the USSR against Hitler. He was anti-Stalin because he believed that he was as much of a threat to world peace as Hitler was. • Churchill believed that the next war would be against the Soviet Union and that it would come soon after the defeat of the Germans. • He wanted a guarantee that the Eastern European countries, such as Poland, which had been liberated from German control by the Red Army would be allowed to hold free elections which he believed would produce non-Communist governments.

4. Why did Stalin want this? • Stalin believed that it was necessary to create a buffer zone of states controlled by the Soviet Union but not part of it which would give Russia added protection from any further invasion from the West. • He believed that he could do business with the West but could not trust them, given their intervention in the Russian Civil War and the fact that Russia had been invaded twice from the West (Napoleon in the 19th Century and Hitler in the 20th Century). He believed that the next war would be against the West.

5. Why did Roosevelt want this? • The war against Japan in the Pacific was proving to be very costly to the Americans. Although the British Empire was heavily involved in the war against the Japanese in Burma, on the Indian frontier and in the Far East, the Americans had done the majority of the fighting. • The Japanese were proving to be a tenacious and fanatical enemy who often fought to the last man. • Roosevelt had been told by his planners that the invasion of the Japanese Islands could generate up to half a million American casualties. • He believed that if the Soviet Union became involved in the war against Japan they could take some of the pressure off the Americans.

6. At Yalta the following points were agreed for action once the war against Germany finally ended • Germany was to be divided into 4 Zones, which would be occupied and administered by Britain, France, USA & USSR • Although Berlin would be inside the Soviet Zone it would also be divided into 4 Zones • Nazi war criminals would be hunted down and put on trial • Free elections would be held in the liberated Eastern European countries • A United Nations would be set up to replace the failed League of Nations and would maintain world peace after the War had finally ended. • Germany would pay reparations for the War, with the amount to be agreed later • The USSR would declare war on Japan in return for Soviet gains in the Far East.

7. What wasn’t agreed at Yalta • The nature of the government and the borders of Poland, once it had been fully liberated from the Germans. • This was of particular significance to Britain as she had gone to war with Germany over the issue of her invasion of Poland. • Churchill feared that the Soviet Union planned to keep Poland under their control.