US Foreign Policy during the Cold War

Lecturer: dr. Fodor Júlia 2014. Week 1

Wartime Conferences – Prelude to the Cold War

Atlantic Charter (Aug. 1940)

Roosevelt and Churchill met in secret on a ship in the Atlantic.

Signed the Atlantic Charter stating the goals of the war:

o no territorial expansion

o no territorial changes without permission of inhabitants

o self-determination

o freer trade cooperation

o disarm aggressor nations

The Atlantic Charter was eventually signed by 15 countries including the Soviet Union and became the basis

of the United Nations.

4th

Moscow Conference (Oct. 1944): Churchill and Stalin agreed on:

▪ Soviet Union's entry in the war against Japan

▪ Post-war division of Eastern Europe and the Balkans: the

Percentages Agreement

▪ The future of Poland.

Tehran Conference - (Nov. 1943)

Roosevelt and Churchill assure Stalin a second front would be opened soon

Yalta Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin (1944)

The Soviets would attack Japan within 3 months of the collapse of Germany Try German and Japanese leaders as war criminals. Agreed to set up the United Nations. Stalin agrees to free elections in Eastern Europe after the war.

San Francisco Conference

50 nations

United Nations Charter established:

The Security Council with veto power for the Big 5 powers (US,

Great Britain, France, China, and Soviet Union) +

The General Assembly. Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr., US Secretary of State, Chairman of the delegation from the US, signing the UN Charter

on 26 June 1945. At left is President Harry S. Truman.

Potsdam Conference (August, 1945)

Stalin agrees to enter the war against Japan after the war in Europe is over.

Post war plans are discussed: Germany divided into 4 zones.

Stalin makes it clear that the Soviets will never leave Eastern Europe and that there will never be

democratic elections in Eastern Europe.

Truman tells Stalin we have developed a bomb of "enormous destructive power." Stalin hardly

responds.

Churchill, Truman, Stalin Clement Attlee, Truman, Stalin

PM Churchill lost the British elections WHILE in Potsdam! Clement Attlee, the new Prime Minister took over Churchill’s

place…