Causes of the cold war and how it affected germany assignment

By July he effectively controlled the Baltic States. As Stalin had achieved a communist government in Poland, ignoring the wills of the Polish many fled from the Baltic States fearing a communist take-over. To make things worse, America had a new president, Harry Truman. Truman was far more anti communist than Roosevelt he was extremely suspicious of Stalin too. He then saw Stalin’s actions in Eastern Europe as preparation for take over of the rest of Europe. In April 1 945 the Americans tested a nuclear bomb at a desert site in the united States.

Truman informed Stalin about this, Russia then acquired a great fear of the American nuclear bomb. In July, ended the Potsdam conference this did not go as well as Yalta had, there were several disagreements. Firstly, as Attlee halfway through the conference replaced Churchill, it was subjugated by the distrust between Stalin and Truman; as a result neither side seemed to be able to agree on the other sides opinion. For example, they could not agree on what to do about Germany; Stalin wanted to protect USSR from capitalism and any possible threat, he wanted to cripple Germany as much as Seibel.

But Truman, remembering the mistake of the treaty Of Versailles refused to repeat this. Stalin also wanted compensation from Germany, twenty million Russians had died during the war and the USSR had been shattered he felt the Germans should pay reparations in order to mend the situation. Nevertheless, Truman still did not want to repeat the mistake of the treaty of Versailles and could not agree to this point. They equally disagreed over the soviet policy in Eastern Europe Truman became upset about Stalin setting up pro-soviet governments over there, he did not approve of he Slav people uniting.

In the end, Potsdam ended without complete agreement on the issues above. Stalin then achieved the domination of Eastern Europe that he wanted and by 1 946 Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania all had communist governments and owed loyalty to Stalin. There was now a border between the west and the soviet controlled countries, which Churchill described as the iron curtain. Stalin gradually tensioned the grip on eastern European countries. In 1947, October he set up a communist bureau in order to organize the different communists parties’ org in the eastern countries Of Europe. / Germany and Berlin were divided into four sectors after Yalta and Potsdam conference after the war . Stalin was determined to have revenge on Germany for the damage of Russia while the three western powers reflected on the organization and economic recoveries of these zones. Thanks to the Marshall aid, the three western areas were fused forming a prosperous single economic division in 1948. Meanwhile, the west prepared a constitution for a self-governing west Germany as the Russians would not allow a complete reunification because even only the est. of Germany reunited and strong worried them.

In June 1948 the west put an end to price controls and rations and introduced a new currency. They now faced a new problem, the huge difference of wealth between east and west Berlin. The solution the Russians found to this was the closing of all railways, canals and roads between the two areas, they now had to fly supplies in so that the people of west Berlin would not starve. The Russians did not risk shooting the supply planes down so all through winter the west Berliners were fed ad warmed. The Russians eventually acknowledged their feat and lifted the blockade.

Under Khrushchev in 1958 the situation in Berlin deteriorated, Russia did not recognize the rights of the western powers in West Berlin anymore. The communists were embarrassed by the number of refugees escaping from East Berlin into west Berlin. Kennedy refused for the west to withdraw from west Berlin and the Berlin wall was erected in august 1 961, this wall blocked all escape roads 28 miles along the whole city until 1989 when it was destroyed. 3/ the Cuban missile crisis Cuba= had been US ally. US owned most business and big naval base over there.