The Cold WarThe Yalta Conference vs. The Potsdam Conference

The February 1945 Yalta Conference was the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world.

The leaders agreed to set up in the conquered nation four zones of occupation to be run by their three countries and

France. With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong negotiating position when determining the future of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries. Poland was the main debating point. Stalin explained that throughout history Poland had either attacked Russia or had been used as a corridor through which other hostile countries invaded her. Only a strong, pro-Communist government in Poland would be able to guarantee the security of the Soviet Union.

After the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine the postwar borders in Europe. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, and the Allied leaders agreed to meet over the summer at Potsdam to continue the discussions that had begun at Yalta. 

The negotiators confirmed the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation. According to the Protocol of the Conference, there was to be “a complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany”; all aspects of German industry that could be utilized for military purposes were to be dismantled; all German military and paramilitary forces were to be eliminated; and the production of all military hardware in Germany was forbidden.

The Potsdam Conference was the last of the wartime summits among the Big Three allied leaders. It met from July 17 through August 2, 1945, in Potsdam, a historic suburb of Berlin. Representing the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain respectively were Harry Truman, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill (who was replaced midway by Clement Atlee as a result

of elections that brought Labor to power). Germany had surrendered in May; the war with Japan continued. The purpose of the Potsdam meeting was the implementation of the agreements reached at Yalta. The atmosphere at Potsdam was often acrimonious (bitter or spiteful), presaging (predicting) the imminent Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. In the months leading up to Potsdam, Stalin took an increasingly hard line on issues regarding Soviet control in Eastern Europe, provoking the new American president and the British prime minister to harden their own stance toward the Soviet leader.

Reparations were another unresolved problem. The Soviet Union demanded a sum viewed by the Western powers as economically impossible. The USSR was claiming a large sum due to the amount of fighting that had happened in the Soviet Union. Abandoning the effort to agree on a specific sum, the conferees agreed to take reparations from each power's zone of occupation. Stalin sought, with only limited success, additional German resources from the British and American zones. Agreements reached at Potsdam provided for:

-Transference of authority in Germany to the military commanders in their respective zones of occupation and to a four-power Allied Control Council for matters affecting Germany as a whole.-Creation of a Council of Foreign Ministers to prepare peace treaties for Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, and Romania and ultimately Germany.-Denazification and prosecution of the nazi war criminals, demilitarization, democratization, and decentralization of Germany.-Reversal of any territory gained by Germany since 1937 The Potsdam Conference ended on a somber note. By the time it was

over, Truman had become even more convinced that he had to adopt a tough policy toward the Soviets. Stalin had come to believe more strongly that the United States and Great Britain were conspiring against the Soviet Union. 

Cold War Alliances

Two alliances emerged during the Cold War further escalating tensions between the democratic countries of the west and communist countries of the East. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established on April 4th, 1949. The treaty united the democratic countries of Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway,

Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the United States. This alliance provided mutual protection in case these countries were attacked.

In response to the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union formed an alliance of communist countries called the Warsaw Pact. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union were all included in the alliance. The Warsaw Pact allowed for the Red Army (Soviet Union’s Army) to be based in member countries and provided for a unified military command and a system of mutual assistance. The forming of alliances is sounding all too familiar. Is another war brewing?

The Iron Curtain

The term Iron Curtain was made famous in a speech by the British leader Winston Churchill. It refers to the invisible barrier between the communist countries of Eastern Europe

and the democratic countries of Western Europe. Citizens in communist countries were not allowed to travel the democratic nations in the West. The Soviets wanted to prevent their skilled workforce from leaving Eastern Europe. Soon, parts of the Iron Curtain were patrolled by armed guards and barbed wire to prevent people from leaving. The Iron Curtain remained until the fall of Communism in 1989.

The Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was built by the communist government of East Berlin 1961. The wall separated East Berlin and West Berlin. It was built in order to prevent people from fleeing East Berlin. In many ways it was the perfect symbol of the "Iron Curtain" that separated the democratic western countries and the communist countries of Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War.

How it All Started

After World War II the country of Germany ended up dividing into two separate countries. East Germany became a communist country under the control of the Soviet Union. At the same time West Germany was a democratic country and allied with Britain, France, and the United States. The initial plan was that the country would eventually be reunited, but this didn't happen for a long time.

The City of Berlin Berlin was the capital of Germany. Even though it was located in the eastern half of the country, the city was controlled by all four major powers; the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and France. The Soviet Union controlled East Berlin and the other allies controlled West Berlin

Defections

As people in East Germany began to realize that they did not want to live under the rule of the Soviet Union and communism, they started to leave the eastern part of the country and move to the

west. These people were called defectors.

Over time more and more people left. The Soviet and East German leaders began to worry that they were losing too many people. Over the course of the years 1949 to 1959, over 2 million people left the country. In 1960 alone, around 230,000 people defected. Although the East

Germans tried to keep people from leaving, it was fairly easy for people to leave in the city of Berlin because the

inside of the city was controlled by all four major powers.

Building the Wall

Finally, the Soviets and the East German leaders had had enough. On August 12th and 13th of 1961 they built a wall around Berlin to prevent people from leaving. At first the wall was just a barbed wire fence. Later it would be rebuilt with concrete blocks 12 feet high and four feet wide.

The Wall is Torn Down

In 1987 President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Berlin where he asked the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to "Tear down this Wall!"

Around that time the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse. They were losing their hold on East Germany. A few years later on November 9, 1989 the announcement was made. The borders were open and people could freely move between Eastern and Western Germany. Much of the wall was torn down by people chipping away as they celebrated the end to a divided Germany. On October 3, 1990 Germany was officially reunified into a single country.

Interesting Facts About the Berlin Wall

The Eastern Germany government called the wall the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart. The Western Germans often referred to it as the Wall of Shame.

Around 20% of the East German population left the country in the years leading up to the building of the wall.

The country of East Germany was officially called the German Democratic Republic or GDR.

There were also many guard towers along the wall. Guards were ordered to shoot anyone attempting to escape.

It is estimated that around 5000 people escaped over or through the wall during the 28 years it stood. Around 200 were killed trying to escape.

The Superpowers When we talk about the rise of the Superpowers during the Cold War,

we’re not referring to the sudden development of x-ray vision or the ability to fly. Instead we’re referring to the rise of two powerful nations: the Soviet Union and the United States. So, what made these nations so powerful? In short, advancements in technology (the Space Race) and weapons (nuclear arms race) allowed these two countries to have the

highest level of artillery and technology to threaten one another. In fact the two countries became extremely competitive in everything from sports (the Olympics) to who could put the first satellite in orbit or put the first man on the moon. However, the competition that caused the most tension around the world was the nuclear arms race.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, nuclear weapons played an important part in the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union built up their missiles and bombers. By the 1960’s they were using their rockets to send people into space. The Russians put the first man in space, but the Americans landed the first men on the moon.

The Cold War also spread to areas outside of Europe. In fact, the most dangerous Cold War dispute took place in Cuba, a small Caribbean island close to the United States, only 90 miles south of Florida. There,

The United States Soviet Union

Free elections No elections or fixed

Democratic Autocratic / Dictatorship

Capitalist Communist

‘Survival of the fittest’

Everybody helps everybody

Richest world power Poor economic base

Personal freedom

Society controlled by the NKVD (secret

police)

Freedom of the media Total censorship

in 1959, a new government came to power under the communist leader, Fidel Castro. In October, 1962, President Kennedy learned that the Soviets had placed long-range missiles in Cuba. Immediately, the president ordered the navy to blockade, or close off, Cuba until the Soviets removed the missiles. Kennedy also warned that the United States would launch a nuclear attack on the Soviets if they fired any of their Cuban missiles on the United States.

As the two superpowers neared the edge of nuclear war, people all

over the world waited anxiously. After five difficult days, Soviet ships turned away from the blockade. Soviet leaders also agreed to withdraw their missiles from Cuba. The United States agreed not to invade Cuba. Nuclear War had been avoided, but fear for the future remained.

German ReunificationBackground information: The areas of the former German Democratic

Republic (GDR, in English commonly called "East Germany") and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, in English commonly called "West Germany"), both formed in 1949, after World War II. The East had been a member of the Soviet bloc, the West was allied with the United States, Great Britain, and France and joined NATO (an alliance between the western countries) in 1950, where the East would join the Warsaw Pact (an agreement with the Soviet Union and communist countries) in 1955.

Reunification information: During 1989, East Germans began protesting for democratic change. The West was strongly in favor of reunification but as long as the Soviet Union was able to pursue its ideological war with the West, the authorities in the East—a puppet government of the Soviet’s—were not about to give up what they described as their socialist paradise. On the one hand, East Germany was the most successful economy in the Soviet bloc but its people yearned for the freedom enjoyed by their countrymen in the West, and hated the authoritarian regime under which they lived. East Germany’s communist government at first refused to make changes. The government then began to respond to some demands.

Finally on November 9, 1989 East German border guards opened the gates of the Berlin Wall (this had been built around the city of Berlin to keep the East Germans from leaving East Berlin and Eastern Germany). East and West Germans rushed to greet each other. Demands for reform led to free elections, which removed the communist government from power in 1989. A

year later, on October 3, 1990 the two halves of Germany were reunified. The cost of reunification has been a heavy burden to the German economy and has contributed to Germany’s slowed economic growth in recent years. The costs of reunification are estimated to amount to over €1.5 trillion; this is more than the national debt of the German state. The primary cause of this was the severe weakness of the East German economy, especially compared with the West German economy, the loss of competitiveness of East German industries, made them collapse within a very short time.

After reunifying, Germany struggled economically. As a consequence of the reunification, most of the former GDR has been deindustrialized,

causing an unemployment rate of about 20 percent. Since then, hundreds of thousands of former East Germans have continued to migrate to western Germany to find jobs, resulting in the loss of significant portions of population, especially in highly trained professions. East German factories were outdated and inefficient, and many went out of business. Some citizens failed to adapt to

the market economy, which required initiative and hard work. East Germans also had difficulty with the loss of free child and health care, more expensive living cots, and no guarantee of jobs. West Germans thought the Eastern Germans should be more grateful for the West taking them in.

Terms Germany had to abide by in order to become unified were as follows: Germany’s armed forces were limited (not as severely as the treaty of Versailles), they could not make or possess nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, no foreign armed forces or weapons in West Germany, they must accept the border between Germany and Poland. This would allow the four powers to renounce rights and would officially leave by 1994.

Nationalism and the desire for reform rocked the Soviet Union, in 1990, the soviet republic of Lithuania demanded independence. The soviet army invaded Lithuania. Soviet citizens took to the streets to protest the invasion. In 1991 the Soviet Union broke apart into 15 new nations including: Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in Eastern Europe. The largest post-soviet nation was Russia.

Communist rule had not prepared people for democracy. Many people in formerly communist lands did not trust their leaders. Government corruption had been widespread under communist rule and remained a problem. Thousands of eastern Europeans moved to Western Europe to work. Many western Europeans resented the newcomers for fear the immigrants would take their jobs.