Transcript Steps to the Political, Economic and Military Division of Europe

Steps to the Political, Economic
and Military Division of Europe
Part I of II
Introduction
By 1949, Europe divided into two sphere’s of
influence, West Germany and East Germany
established
 Steps that led to this division

◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Wartime Conferences: Tehran,Yalta, Potsdam
Kennan’s Long Telegram
Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech
Truman Doctrine and Cominform
Marshall Plan
Red Army Occupation of Eastern Europe
Czech Coup
Berlin Blockade
East Germany and West Germany Established
NATO Established
Breakdown of the Grand Alliance

Beginning of alliance
was when Soviets
received aid from
Churchill and
Roosevelt in 1941
◦ Churchill still disliked
Stalin, mutual suspicion

Stalin had demanded a
second front in Europe
◦ Allies had only agreed in
principle, Stalin thinks
delays are intentional
Wartime Conferences

Issues to be
addressed
◦ State of the war
◦ Status of Germany,
Poland, Eastern Europe
and Japan
◦ United Nations
Tehran Conference

Nov. 1943
◦ Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill – Big
Three

State of the War
◦ By 1943, Allies had begun to win the
war
◦ Soviets pushing Germans in East,
Allies in North Africa
◦ Not yet a second front

Germany
◦ Differences from wartime
experiences, unconditional
surrender confirmed

Poland
◦ Stalin seeking security, wanted
territory from Poland, pro-Soviet
government there
◦ Tensions increased in 1943 with
discovery of mass graves in Katyn
forest
Tehran Conference

Eastern Europe
◦ Soviets demanded territory they had
seized, meant the Baltic States, parts
of Finland and Romania
◦ Agreed, but against the Atlantic
Charter

Japan
◦ Pressed Soviets to enter the war,
could not be convinced

United Nations
◦ Supported by all participants

Conclusion
◦ Agreement on UN
◦ Need for a post-war weak Germany

Roosevelt played mediator
between the other two
◦ May have believed British
imperialism was the real problem
◦ Not concerned about Stalin
Yalta Conference
Feb. 1945, Stalin’s position
strengthened as Red Army
occupied most of Eastern Europe
 State of the War

◦ Germany almost defeated, second
front opened, Ready to invade
Germany
◦ USA in control of the air and sea in
the Pacific, preparing for invasion

Germany
◦ Would be disarmed, demilitarized,
de-Nazified and divided
◦ Four zones, temporary, run as one
country by the Allied Control
Commission
◦ Would pay $20 billion, 50 percent to
USSR
Yalta Conference

Poland
◦ Presented the greatest
problem still
◦ Borders established at
Russo-Polish War of
1921 lines
 Oder-Neisse Line in the
west
◦ Stalin got what he
wanted
 Gave in to ‘free elections’
in democratic government
 British supported ‘London
Poles’, pre-war
government, Russians
wanted Communist group
Yalta Conference

Eastern Europe
◦ Again ‘free elections’, seen as
significant for British and Americans

Japan
◦ Stalin promised to enter the war
with Japan as soon as Europe was
finished


Demanded territory in return,
accepted
United Nations
◦ Stalin agreed to join
◦ Five permanent members of the
Security Council, each with veto
power

Conclusions
◦ Structure of the UN
◦ Soviets help with Japan
◦ ‘Declaration for Liberated Europe’
Between the Conferences

Radical changes occur
before Potsdam
◦ Roosevelt died in April
1945, Truman in with ‘get
tough’ policy towards
Stalin
◦ Germany finally
surrendered
unconditionally May 7
◦ Churchill lost the 1945 UK
general election
 Succeeded by Labour Party
leader Clement Atlee
◦ Soviet Red Army occupied
Germany
◦ Day after the conference
began, US tested the bomb
Potsdam Conference


July 1945, Stalin, Truman, Atlee
State of the War
◦ Americans poised to invade
Japan, introduced bomb

Germany
◦ Would be administrating in
their own ways throughout
each occupation zone
◦ Economy was to be run as a
whole
 Eastern zone to give food to others

Poland
◦ Truman not happy over prior
agreements
◦ Stalin could not appease
Truman, left alone
Potsdam Conference

Eastern Europe
◦ U.S. also unhappy with Eastern
Europe Percentage Agreements



Too much for Soviets, but they were
already in the land
Difficult to force them to change, an
occupation force
Japan
◦ Atomic bomb tests successful,
August 6 first one
◦ Did not ask for Soviet aid

United Nations
◦ Established with Treaty of San
Francisco in same year
◦ Stalin used veto power well

Conclusion
◦ Agreement for immediate, practical
control of Germany
◦ Establishment of UN
Churchill’s Copy of Percentages
Agreement
1946-47
Other Key Developments
Salami Tactics

Slicing off Eastern
Europe piece by piece
◦ Supervised organization
of anti-fascist
governments
◦ Parties were pruned,
leaving only Communists
trained by Moscow

Leaders were often
those who spent the
war hiding in Moscow
Case Study: Poland





Free elections promised at
Yalta to be held in weeks
January 19, 1947
Campaign of murder,
censorship and intimidation
50,000 deported to Siberia
Polish Peasant Party had 246
candidates disqualified
◦ 149 arrested, 18 murdered


One million voters taken off
the register
Soviets called all of this a
victory over Western
expansionism
◦ Pattern in Eastern Europe
Soviet Pressure on Iran
At Tehran, had been agreed
British and Soviets would
withdraw their troops
from Iran after the war
 Stalin left his there, quelling
‘internal rebellion’
 Soviet troops encouraged
a Communism uprising

◦ Iranian government
complained to British and
Americans

First UN crisis
◦ Moscow finally removed
troops
Instability Elsewhere

Pro-Communist
rebellions in Greece
and Turkey
◦ Believed to be
supported by Soviets

Communist parties
also grew in Italy and
France due to
economic deprivation
at the end of the war
◦ Certainly weak links in
anti-Communist
Western Europe
Kennan’s Long Telegram, Feb. 1946

Key U.S. diplomat in Moscow,
George F. Kennan sent a
telegram to the State Dept.
◦ Views would have a lasting
impact




USSR view of the world was
one of insecurity
Soviets wanted to advance
Stalinism
Soviets were cruel and
repression and justified it
through perceived evil outside
of the Stalinist system
Fanatically hostile to the West,
but not suicidal
◦ Logic of force
Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech




March 1946, former PM now
in Missouri at Westminster
College
http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=jvax5VUvjWQ
Despite hopes for free
elections, Eastern Europe was
Communist, presence of Red
Army
Soviet Reaction
◦ Stalin saw the speech as racist,
called it a call to war, compared
Churchill to Hitler
 Withdrew from IMF
 Stepped up propaganda
 Five-Year Plan