How did WW2 affect the relationship between the USA and the USSR?
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read
There were many famous important turning points and conferences held ( Yalta, Tehran and Potsdam)
- How did WW2 affect the relationship between the USA and the USSR? (Important conferences Tehran/Yalta/Potsdam, turning points, key people)
- The Potsdam Conferences was held July 1945:
- Soviet troops liberated countries in eastern Europe but did not remove military presence. By July, the Russians had occupied Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland,Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania
- Stalin had set up a communist government in poland, ignoring, the wishes of the majority of the poles and the agreements made at Yalta.
- Terms of treaty; to divide Germany and Berlin into 4 zones, to demilitarise Germany, to re establish democracy in Germany, to make Germany pay reparations for equipment and materials, to ban the nazi party, to participate in the United Nations, poland frontier was moved west towards Oder and Neisse
The Yalta Conference:
- By early 1945, Germany was close to defeat
- The three allied leaders met in Yalta in 1945 to consider Germany and Europe’s consequences for losing
- The three allies were still afraid of Hitler
- Stalin and Roosevelt shared a close relationship
Tehran Conference:
- Roosevelt was keen to improve relations between the three allies
- Meetings were held in Tehran, Iran in November 1943
- Roosevelt did not attend, as he was unwell
- The terms were ; Britain and USA agreed to open up a second front by invading france in May 1944
- The Soviet Union was to wage war against Japan once Germany was defeated
- United Nations organisation was to be set up after the war
These conferences increased the disagreements and tension between the USA and USSR, causing great amounts of hostility between them. Although the conferences were set up for compromisation, many agreements were disagreed upon. All this tension ended with Truman dropping an atomic bomb- which later ended up with Stalin turning Poland communist.
