Part 3 of 3 Origins of Cold War

Part THREE of THREE of Origins of Cold War

Post War Settlements: Polish Incident, Germany and Truman

While USA and USSR worked together in World War II to defeat Germany, it was only because the two nations shared a similar goal of ousting Hitler from power. However when the war ended, it was clear the two nations no longer shared any ideological similarities. The two nations were now seen as the leaders or superpowers of the world and they both had their own ideas of how the post war world would look like.

An illustration of what the post war world would look like, USSR influenced or USA(and to some part Britain) influnce

Germany
USSR had lost millions of lives in the war and her industry was heavily damaged. Stalin wanted to secure the USSRs future. Stalin wanted to use the German economy to help the Russian economy to recover and also wanted Germany's economy to be weakened so as to never be able to start a war.

The USA wanted Germany to recover and did not want to have to pay for take care of rebuilding the German economy after USSR made use of it. Also, USA did not want to repeat previous mistakes when the harsh repairations after World War I caused the rise of Nazi aggresiveness in Germany.

Both nations had their points, and both misunderstood the others intentions. However, at the Yalta Conference they managed to reach an agreement where Germany would be divided into 4 parts, the USA, Britan, French and USSR zones.

Poland

The Polish incident was a "spark" for a cold war. There were two groups that wanted to rule Poland: the London poles which were anti Soviet and the Lublin poles which were assembled by the USSR and were pro Soviet.

The USA wanted self determination to uphold and wanted the Polish to hold elections for it to chose its own leaders.

USSR on the other hand wanted Poland to be pro USSR, for poland to act as a buffer. This was because "all attacks on USSR were launched from Poland" said Stalin.

The Red Army was already taking over Poland when the Yalta Conference was going on and it allowed the USSR to install a pro communist government. The Yalta Conference saw the USA and Britain gain a "huge concession" from USSR as Stalin agreed to hold elections for Poland. However, instead the first election was held two years later and it was also rigged to give communist a strong grip on Poland. This upset the USA and caused increasing tension between the two nations.

The Yalta Story:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937139-2,00.html

Leaders and Potsdam

In April 1945, Roosevelt passed away and Truman took over. Truman was a more aggressive leader and was not as friendly as Roosevelt. His tough approach towards Russia may have been a cause of deeper misunderstandings.

While Stalin paid only lip service to the Yalta agreement, he did not set up free election and the Lublin Poles that were invited to Poland were not expanded to include any London Poles. Truman was aggressive and was very unhappy with this. At the Potsdam conference, rivalry between Truman and Stalin overshadowed everything and little was agreed upon.

In conclusion, by the end of 1945, there were many deep misunderstandings leading to the cold war erupting. While both leaders had their points, they were both oblivious to the other parties point of view, leading to the Cold War. It cannot be said that any one nation was to be blamed at this point as both countries played a part in deepening misunderstandings and starting the COLD WAR.

kangraye