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In order the evaluate the origin of the Cold War, one must evaluate the following:
1)
The role of conflicting ideologies
2)
Events during WWI and WWII
3)
Yalta & Potsdam Conferences (1945)
3)
Events between 1945-1949
However, a specific question about the significance of the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
(1945) would require students to provide substantial detail and analysis about these two
conferences.
YALTA CONFERENCE
1. The United Nations (Collective Security)
Despite the problems encountered by the League of Nations in arbitrating conflict
and ensuring international peace and security prior to World War II, the major Allied
powers agreed during the war to establish a new global organization to help manage
international affairs.
Facts:
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The Big Three agreed that a conference would be held at San Francisco on April
25, 1945 to establish the formal organization of the United Nations.
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The Big Three agreed on the American formula for selecting the countries to be
invited to attend the San Francisco Conference: “all the allied Nations that had
declared war on the Axis by March 1, 1945.”
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The Security Council would consist of 11 members. Each member of the
Security Council would have one vote. The Permanent members of the Security
Council would consist of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France,
and China.

The affirmative votes of all the Permanent Members of the Security Council
would be necessary for all decisions on all matters. Therefore the United
States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China gained veto power.
Analysis:
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Some historians have argued that the Yalta Conference was responsible for
creating a United Nations that would be ineffective during the Cold War. These
historians argue that the Soviets should not have gained veto power. In the
early days of the United Nations, the Soviet Union minister for foreign affairs,
Molotov, said no so many times that he was known as “Mr. Veto”. In fact, the
Soviet Union was responsible for nearly half of all vetoes ever cast—79
vetoes were used in the first 10 years. Molotov regularly rejected bids for
new membership because of the U.S.’s refusal to admit the Soviet republics.
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Other historians disagree and point out that The United Nations was
sometimes utilized as an effective tool by the United States during the Cold
War.
Example: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson gave a
presentation at an emergency session of the Security Council on October 25, 1962. He forcefully
asked the Soviet representative, Valerian Zorin, if his country was installing missiles in Cuba,
punctuated with the famous demand “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” Following
Zorin’s refusal to answer the abrupt question, Stevenson retorted, “I am prepared to wait for my
answer until Hell freezes over.” In a diplomatic coup, Stevenson then showed photographs that
proved the existence of missiles in Cuba, just after the Soviet ambassador had implied they did not
exist…This effective speech turned world opinion in favor of the U.S.
Stalin consented to follow the American formula for selecting the countries to be invited to attend
the San Francisco Conference: all the allied Nations that had declared war on the Axis by March 1,
1945…. This extended date allowed a number of Latin-American Nations and Turkey to participate in
the U.N. The leadership of these countries tended to have closer relationships with the U.S.
during the Cold War.
2. Declaration on Liberated Europe.
Facts:
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The Declaration is full of statements that the three great powers will jointly
assist the people in the liberated and Axis satellite countries to create
democratic institutions of their own choice.
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The Big Tree agreed jointly to assist in holding the earliest possible free
elections for that purpose.
3. Germany and Poland
Facts:
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Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation (US, USSR, France, Britain)
and that German territorial gains would be confiscated.
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Roosevelt agreed that “an Allied reparation commission” should take the suggestion
of the Soviet Government as an initial basis for discussion. The Soviets suggested
that the total sum of reparations that the Germans should pay should be 20 billion
dollars and that 50 percent (10 billion) should go to the USSR.
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The Big three agreed that German capital, goods and labor could be used as a
source of reparations.
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Stalin agreed to allow for free and fair elections to take place in Poland after the
Soviet-administered provisional government could reorganize the country.
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Stalin secretly agreed to support the American War effort in the Pacific after the
defeat of Germany
Analysis:
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Some historians have argued that Roosevelt did not understand the threat
posed by the USSR and adopted a policy of “appeasement” towards Stalin.
These historians believe that Stalin was emboldened to dominate Eastern Europe
after the Yalta Conference.
“It should not have been difficult to foresee how the pledges of ‘free elections’ would work out,
with Soviet-trained communists in charge of the police, the Red Army in occupation of the
country and no safeguards for honest voting…The effect of this abandonment of Poland was
certain to be profound throughout Eastern Europe. Poland had the strongest legal and moral
claim to American and British support. Polish resistance to Hitler’s aggression had been the
original cause of WWII.”
“There was no reason to bribe Stalin to continue a war in Europe or to start a war in Asia so
clearly prompted by his own sense of interest…Suppose the United States and Great Britain had
committed themselves to a firm, uncompromising declaration that they would not tolerate WWII
as a means of territorial gains by the USSR. Behind such a declaration would have stood the
mightiest concentration of sea and air power the world had ever seen, a highly mechanized army
and an American war economy capable of almost unlimited further achievement. On the other
side would have been a Soviet Union devastated by invasion and bled white in manpower,
dependent in the final drive to victory on American trucks, field telephones, canned food and
other lend-lease supplies…For at the time of Yalta the power relation was less favorable to the
Soviet Union…In 1945, Stalin would not have dared to face the US forces in the battle field
and would have given up on the idea of occupying Eastern Europe….”
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Other historians have argued that Roosevelt did NOT adopt a policy of
appeasement towards Stalin.
“Threatening the USSR at Yalta with war might have been dangerous not only to world peace
but also to the winning of the war. The speed with which Germany would crumble with
Eisenhower’s offensive in the spring was not anticipated. Furthermore, faulty intelligence
conveyed the impression that Japan still possessed large forces in Manchuria (China) and made
Russian cooperation strategically very important. Roosevelt was eager to bring the Russians into
the Pacific war. The operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa were yet to get under way. An invasion
of Japan was being planned for November, 1945. And the potential, almost certain, loss of
American lives weighed heavily on President Roosevelt’s mind. Military sources anticipated the
probability of one million casualties in the invasion of Japan; and the Japanese war was
generally expected to end probably no earlier than 1947. Above all, neither President Roosevelt
nor anybody else at Yalta knew that the atomic bomb was going to be successful. It was not until
several months after Roosevelt’s death that our atomic experiments culminated successfully in the
test in the desert of New Mexico. President Roosevelt may be criticized for not being psychic
enough to foretell that the Japanese war was going to end in six months, but he cannot fairly be
criticized for surrender or appeasement, for inept bargaining, or for any lack of good sense or
good faith.”
“Yalta, with the Declaration on Liberated Europe is a direct answer to unfounded charges that
the President agreed at Yalta directly or indirectly to some kind of sphere of influence or some
form of arrangement which would give the Soviet Union control in Eastern Europe…. No
agreement could have been drawn in a language less susceptible of any implication of spheres
of influence. FDR laid the foundations for a long period of peace and good will at Yalta. The
failure in this area is not due to anything which happened at Yalta. The principles and formula
there agreed upon were indisputable. What has happened is due to the Soviet refusal to carry
out the agreement made at Yalta; in fact it has been a square rejection of Yalta.”
Potsdam Conference, 1945
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After the surrender of Germany, the principal Allies in World War II (the United
States, the USSR, and Great Britain) wanted to clarify and implement agreements
previously reached at the Yalta Conference.
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The USSR’s greatest asset in the Potsdam Conference was the presence of the Red
Army in Central and Eastern Europe. In eastern and central Europe the U.S. had no
armies
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But Western armies had taken considerably more of Germany than the USSR.
Facts:
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The territorial agreements with regard to Poland were confirmed at Potsdam
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A four-power Allied Control Council for matters regarding the whole of Germany
was created (Britain, US, USSR, France) The councils’ goal was to integrate the
administration of the four zones of occupation. The desire for a harsh punishment
of Germany by the USSR undermined the Allied Control Council’s ability to maintain
a unified administration of Germany. The council never functioned effectively and
broke up in 1948.
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The future of Germany was left unresolved: its territory, unity, government and
German war reparations were left unresolved.
Analysis
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The Potsdam Conference lacked the warm atmosphere of the Yalta Conference, as Truman took
a much firmer stance against communism than Roosevelt had. Truman personally did not like Stalin.
He was also president of a country armed with a new and fearsome weapon - the atomic bomb.
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Stalin was told at Potsdam about a new weapon America now possessed. However, very little
information was given to him. When the atomic bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it became
clear to Stalin that the USSR was years behind America in terms of modern weaponry. Though the
Red Army was huge in terms of manpower and its tanks were some of the most modern in the world,
this new weapon made all this conventional power of less value.
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By the end of 1945, the seeds of the Cold War had been well and truly sown. Both sides were no
longer linked by a common enemy. One side had massive conventional forces in control of
Eastern Europe, while the other had an unknown number of atomic bombs which could be used
against Moscow - as Stalin knew.
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Truman continued Roosevelt’s requests for Soviet support in Japan, perhaps to draw Soviet troops out
of Europe while American troops left for the Pacific. However, the Soviets made many new demands
for territories of the former Axis powers.
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This conference left a tense atmosphere in Europe and showed the beginnings of the Cold War.