Chronology of The Cold War

Chronology of The Cold War.

1. February 4th – 11th 1945 Yalta Conference.

Chronology of The Cold WarThe Cold War occurred due to the clashing ideologies between Russia, Britain and USA. The violence was indirect, capitalism and communism.Cold War occurred due to differing ideologies between USSR and USA. USA believed in capitalism whereas USSR in communism. There had to be discussions of how they were going to rule the world after disastrous WWII and they discussed this in Yalta which is in Crimea (USSR region). February 4th – 11th 1945 Yalta Conference YALTA CONFERENCE FEBRUARY 1945. On 4th February 1945: all the leaders went. You had that commie Stalin representing USSR, Winston Churchill for UK and USA Roosevelt who literally only had like a couple breathes left in him. Roosevelt died the same month as Hitler in April 1945. At the conference they spoke about hunting down and denazifying Germany for good. They also spoke about how Germany was going to be divided into four different sections. The West of Germany would split into three, a trizonia of France, Britain and USA. The east to be controlled by USSR. They also recognised that the League of Nations had to be replaced: so they made the United Nations. Last but not least: they stated that Germany would pay war reparations. Reparations were the payments which required Germany to pay to repair all the damage of the war. Stalin wanted Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe. Twenty million Russians died during the Second World War, so Stalin said he wanted a buffer zone of friendly states around Russia to make sure that Russia could never be invaded again. Stalin was planning the takeover of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill played along with it.THE BIG THREE WENT: ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND STALIN. ROOSEVELT DIED EARLY APRIL, SAME MONTH AS HITLER HOWEVER HITLER DIED LATER ON THE 30TH APRIL 1945.

2. V E Day - May 8th 1945.

Victory in Europe as Germany surrenders to the Russian army. On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.They sign an unconditional surrender after Hitler committed suicide in April. (What a shame) LOLbut yeah that's all I guess.On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Reims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II. The New York Times published an Associated Press story under the headline “The War in Europe is Ended!”

3. The Potsdam Conference - 1945.

The Potsdam Conference formally divided Germany and Austria into four zones. It was also agreed that the German capital Berlin would be divided into four zones. The Russian Polish border was determined and Korea was to be divided into Soviet and American zones.The Potsdam Conference, 1945. The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. There was distrust between Truman and Stalin as Truman already proceeded to testing the atom bombs which he planned on using on Japan. Stalin already knew about this testing regardless of Truman not informing him due to having spies in Britain. This created tension. America leading this weaponry triumph allowed them to be a step closer to primacy.

4. August 6th 1945 'Hiroshima.

August 6th 1945HiroshimaThe United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.Leads America even closer to Primacy as people started to grow an even more in depth fear of America. Killing more than 100,000 people.President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.Einstein was the genius behind the creation of the bomb. This was due to his prior fear that Germany would invent the atomic bomb first, however this was not the case.

5. August 8th 1945 Nagasaki.

On this day in 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender. 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.

6. August 14th 1945 V J Day.

The Japanese surrendered bringing World War Two to an end. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender. They dropped another atomic bomb in Nagasaki and this finally resulted in Japan surrendering.

7. September 2nd 1945 Vietnam Independence.

Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnam an independent republic. Hours after Japan’s surrender in World War II, Vietnamese communist Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France. The proclamation paraphrased the U.S. Declaration of Independence in declaring, “All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!” and was cheered by an enormous crowd gathered in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. It would be 30 years, however, before Ho’s dream of a united, communist Vietnam became reality.

8. March 5th 1946 Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech

Churchill delivers his ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech which contain the famous phrase “..an iron curtain has descended on Europe”Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech. President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech. Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood “at the pinnacle of world power.” It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain—the great powers of the “English-speaking world”—in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to the “iron curtain” that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of “communist fifth columns” that were operating throughout western and southern Europe. Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was “nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness.”

9. March 12th 1947 Truman Doctrine #startofcoldwar

President Truman promised to help any country facing a Communist takeover.The Truman Doctrine was the American policy in 1947 of providing economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey because they were threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine was informally extended to become the basis of the Cold War policy of containment.NEED TO USE THE WORD CONTAINMENT.The Truman Doctrine - Truman makes a speech where he expresses his beliefs and ideas, that's what a doctrine is, it's a set of beliefs. He said "I believe It must be the policy of the USA to support people who resist being enslaved by armed minorities or outside pressure, I believe we must help free people to work out their own destiny in their own way".THE CAUSES: 1. The USA and Truman believe that the Soviet Union was trying to spread communism throughout the world. Immensely due to whats already occurred in Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Latvia etc. The Americans had a fear that communism was expanding.REMEMBER: In 1945 America developed the Atomic Bomb which gave them military advantage over Russia, they wanted to make the most of that. They wanted to put pressure on Russia to stop their expansion. They used the FEAR the Russians had of the Atomic bomb. This already gave America a step towards Primacy. 3. THE KEY CAUSE: GREECE & TURKEY In the Second World War Greece was occupied by the Germans, once they surrendered there was a civil war between the Greek monarchy and on the other hand the communists who wanted communism in Greece. Britain had 40,000 troops here. Britain spending all this money on Greece when we had to rebuild Britain was not a good idea so we had to pull out. So Britain told America and America financed Greece to prevent the spread of communism. They granted 400 million dollars to help.Truman is planning on CONTAINING communism. Not crush it, not wipe it out but stop it from growing any bigger!5 RESULTS: EASY TO REMEMBER. GREEK GOVERNMENT DEFEATED COMMUNISM (not surprising since they were granted 400 million dollars.) RIVALRY BETWEEN AMERICA AND RUSSIA GREW RAPIDLY AND MASSIVELY THE WORLD WAS DIVIDED INTO TWO ARMED CAMPS. PRETTY MUCH THE START OF THE COLD WAR 1947 USA BECAME COMMITTED TO CONTAINMENT. AS PART OF THE TRUMAN DOCTINE - AMERICANS INTRODUCED MARSHALL PLAN AND THEN SOVIETS INTRODUCED COMINFORM.

10. June 5th 1947 Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion (approximately $120 billion in current dollar value as of June 2016) in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.This was a programme of economic aid offered by the United States to any European country. The plan was rejected outright by Stalin and any Eastern Bloc country considering accepting aid was reprimanded severely. Consequently the aid was only given to Western European Countries.The main point of comparison between these two is that they were both meant to prevent communism from spreading. The Marshall Plan meant to do so by improving the economies of countries in Europe while the Truman Doctrine contemplated both military and economic aid.

11. September 1947 Cominform

The USSR set up Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) which was the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers’ Parties responsible for the creation of the Eastern bloc. Cominform was response to Truman Doctrine. Comecon was financial support for economic aid for WWII in is Eastern sections of Europe but in reality this was a cover up. It gave Stalin more control and told people what to do, it gave USSR resources of the satelite states which meant that Russia could also gain from the states who had lots of oil and essential materials that could easily benefit Stalin's Russia.