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The Cold War
The Yalta Conference vs. The Potsdam Conference
The February 1945 Yalta Conference was the
second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the
conference, the three leaders agreed to demand
Germany’s unconditional surrender and began
plans for a post-war world.
The leaders agreed to set up in the
conquered nation four zones of occupation to be
run by their three countries and France. With Soviet
troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a
strong negotiating position when determining the future of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt and
Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they
could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries. Poland was
the main debating point. Stalin explained that throughout history Poland had either
attacked Russia or had been used as a corridor through which other hostile countries
invaded her. Only a strong, pro-Communist government in Poland would be able to
guarantee the security of the Soviet Union.
After the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine
the postwar borders in Europe. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, and the Allied leaders
agreed to meet over the summer at Potsdam to continue the discussions that had begun at
Yalta.
The negotiators confirmed the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under
four zones of Allied occupation. According to the Protocol of the Conference, there was to
be “a complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany”; all aspects of German
industry that could be utilized for military purposes were to be dismantled; all German
military and paramilitary forces were to be eliminated; and the production of all military
hardware in Germany was forbidden.
The Potsdam Conference was the last of the
wartime summits among the Big Three allied leaders. It
met from July 17 through August 2, 1945, in Potsdam, a
historic suburb of Berlin. Representing the United
States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain respectively
were Harry Truman, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill
(who was replaced midway by Clement Atlee as a result
of elections that brought Labor to power).
Germany had surrendered in May; the war with Japan
continued. The purpose of the Potsdam meeting was
the implementation of the agreements reached at
Yalta. The atmosphere at Potsdam was often acrimonious (bitter or spiteful), presaging
(predicting) the imminent Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. In the months
leading up to Potsdam, Stalin took an increasingly hard line on issues regarding Soviet
control in Eastern Europe, provoking the new American president and the British prime
minister to harden their own stance toward the Soviet leader.
Reparations were another unresolved problem. The Soviet Union demanded a sum
viewed by the Western powers as economically impossible. The USSR was claiming a large
sum due to the amount of fighting that had happened in the Soviet Union. Abandoning the
effort to agree on a specific sum, the conferees agreed to take reparations from each
power's zone of occupation. Stalin sought, with only limited success, additional German
resources from the British and American zones. Agreements reached at Potsdam provided
for:
-Transference of authority in Germany to the military commanders in their respective
zones of occupation and to a four-power Allied Control Council for matters affecting
Germany as a whole.
-Creation of a Council of Foreign Ministers to prepare peace treaties for Italy,
Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, and Romania and ultimately Germany.
-Denazification and prosecution of the nazi war criminals, demilitarization,
democratization, and decentralization of Germany.
-Reversal of any territory gained by Germany since 1937
The Potsdam Conference ended on a somber note. By the time it was over, Truman
had become even more convinced that he had to adopt a tough policy toward the Soviets.
Stalin had come to believe more strongly that the United States and Great Britain were
conspiring against the Soviet Union.
Cold War Alliances
Two alliances emerged during the Cold War
further escalating tensions between the
democratic countries of the west and
communist countries of the East. The North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was
established on April 4th, 1949. The treaty
united the democratic countries of Belgium,
Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the United States. This alliance provided mutual protection in
case these countries were attacked.
In response to the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union formed an alliance of communist
countries called the Warsaw Pact. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic
Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union were all included in
the alliance. The Warsaw Pact allowed for the Red Army (Soviet Union’s Army) to be based in
member countries and provided for a unified military command and a system of mutual
assistance. The forming of alliances is sounding all too familiar. Is another war brewing?
The Iron Curtain
The term Iron Curtain was made famous in a speech by the British leader Winston
Churchill. It refers to the invisible barrier between the communist countries of Eastern Europe
and the democratic countries of Western Europe. Citizens in communist countries were not
allowed to travel the democratic nations in the West. The Soviets wanted to prevent their
skilled workforce from leaving Eastern Europe. Soon, parts of the Iron Curtain were patrolled
by armed guards and barbed wire to prevent people from leaving. The Iron Curtain remained
until the fall of Communism in 1989.
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built by the communist government of East Berlin 1961. The wall separated
East Berlin and West Berlin. It was built in order to prevent people from fleeing East Berlin. In
many ways it was the perfect symbol of the "Iron Curtain" that separated the democratic
western countries and the communist countries of Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War.
How it All Started
After World War II the country of Germany ended up dividing into two separate countries. East
Germany became a communist country under the control of the Soviet Union. At the same time
West Germany was a democratic country and allied with Britain, France, and the United States.
The initial plan was that the country would eventually be reunited, but this didn't happen for a
long time.
The City of Berlin
Berlin was the capital of Germany. Even though it was located in
the eastern half of the country, the city was controlled by all four
major powers; the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and
France. The Soviet Union controlled East Berlin and the other allies
controlled West Berlin
Defections
As people in East Germany began to realize that they did not want
to live under the rule of the Soviet Union and communism, they
started to leave the eastern part of the country and move to the
west. These people were called
defectors.
Over time more and more people left.
The Soviet and East German leaders
began to worry that they were losing
too many people. Over the course of
the years 1949 to 1959, over 2 million
people left the country. In 1960 alone,
around 230,000 people
defected. Although the East Germans
tried to keep people from leaving, it
was fairly easy for people to leave in
the city of Berlin because the inside of
the city was controlled by all four major powers.
Building the Wall
Finally, the Soviets and the East German leaders had had enough. On August 12th and 13th of
1961 they built a wall around Berlin to prevent people from leaving. At first the wall was just a
barbed wire fence. Later it would be rebuilt with concrete blocks 12 feet high and four feet
wide.
The Wall is Torn Down
In 1987 President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Berlin where he asked the leader of the
Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to "Tear down this Wall!"
Around that time the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse. They were losing their hold on
East Germany. A few years later on November 9, 1989 the announcement was made. The
borders were open and people could freely move between Eastern and Western Germany.
Much of the wall was torn down by people chipping away as they celebrated the end to a
divided Germany. On October 3, 1990 Germany was officially reunified into a single country.
Interesting Facts About the Berlin Wall
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The Eastern Germany government called the wall the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart.
The Western Germans often referred to it as the Wall of Shame.
Around 20% of the East German population left the country in the years leading up to
the building of the wall.
The country of East Germany was officially called the German Democratic Republic or
GDR.
There were also many guard towers along the wall. Guards were ordered to shoot
anyone attempting to escape.
It is estimated that around 5000 people escaped over or through the wall during the 28
years it stood. Around 200 were killed trying to escape.
The Superpowers
 When we talk about the rise of the Superpowers during the Cold War, we’re not
referring to the sudden development of x-ray vision or
the ability to fly. Instead we’re referring to the rise of
two powerful nations: the Soviet Union and the United
States. So, what made these nations so powerful? In
short, advancements in technology (the Space Race)
and weapons (nuclear arms race) allowed these two
countries to have the highest level of artillery and
technology to threaten one another. In fact the two
countries became extremely
competitive in everything
The United States
Soviet Union
from sports (the Olympics)
Free elections
No elections or fixed
to who could put the first
satellite in orbit or put the
Democratic
Autocratic / Dictatorship
first man on the moon.
However, the competition
Capitalist
Communist
that caused the most tension
around the world was the
Everybody helps
‘Survival of the fittest’
nuclear arms race.
everybody

In the 1950’s and 1960’s,
Richest world power
Poor economic base
nuclear weapons played an
Society controlled by the
important part in the Cold
Personal freedom
NKVD (secret police)
War. The United States and
the Soviet Union built up
their missiles and bombers.
Freedom of the media
Total censorship
By the 1960’s they were
using their rockets to send
people into space. The Russians put the first man in space, but the Americans landed
the first men on the moon.

The Cold War also spread to areas outside of Europe. In fact, the most dangerous
Cold War dispute took place in Cuba, a small Caribbean island close to the United
States, only 90 miles south of Florida. There, in 1959, a new government came to
power under the communist leader, Fidel Castro. In October, 1962, President
Kennedy learned that the Soviets had placed long-range missiles in Cuba.
Immediately, the president ordered the navy to blockade, or close off, Cuba until the
Soviets removed the missiles. Kennedy also warned that the United States would
launch a nuclear attack on the Soviets if they fired any of their Cuban missiles on the
United States.

As the two superpowers neared the edge of nuclear war, people all over the world
waited anxiously. After five difficult days, Soviet ships turned away from the
blockade. Soviet leaders also agreed to withdraw their missiles from Cuba. The
United States agreed not to invade Cuba. Nuclear War had been avoided, but fear for
the future remained.
German Reunification
Background information: The areas of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR,
in English commonly called "East Germany") and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, in
English commonly called "West Germany"), both formed in 1949, after World War II. The
East had been a member of the Soviet bloc, the West was allied with the United States,
Great Britain, and France and joined NATO (an alliance between the western countries) in
1950, where the East would join the Warsaw Pact (an agreement with the Soviet Union and
communist countries) in 1955.
Reunification information: During 1989, East Germans began protesting for
democratic change. The West was strongly in favor of reunification but as long as the Soviet
Union was able to pursue its ideological war with the West, the authorities in the East—a
puppet government of the Soviet’s—were not about to give up what they described as their
socialist paradise. On the one hand, East
Germany was the most successful economy in
the Soviet bloc but its people yearned for the
freedom enjoyed by their countrymen in the
West, and hated the authoritarian regime under
which they lived. East Germany’s communist
government at first refused to make changes.
The government then began to respond to
some demands.
Finally on November 9, 1989 East
German border guards opened the gates of the Berlin Wall (this had been built around the
city of Berlin to keep the East Germans from leaving East Berlin and Eastern Germany). East
and West Germans rushed to greet each other. Demands for reform led to free elections,
which removed the communist government from power in 1989. A year later, on October 3,
1990 the two halves of Germany were reunified. The cost of reunification has been a heavy
burden to the German economy and has contributed to Germany’s slowed economic growth
in recent years. The costs of reunification are estimated to amount to over €1.5 trillion; this is
more than the national debt of the German state. The primary cause of this was the severe
weakness of the East German economy, especially compared with the West German
economy, the loss of competitiveness of East German industries, made them collapse within
a very short time.
After reunifying, Germany struggled economically. As a consequence of the
reunification, most of the former GDR has been deindustrialized, causing an unemployment
rate of about 20 percent. Since then, hundreds of
thousands of former East Germans have
continued to migrate to western Germany to find
jobs, resulting in the loss of significant portions of
population, especially in highly trained
professions. East German factories were
outdated and inefficient, and many went out of
business. Some citizens failed to adapt to the
market economy, which required initiative and
hard work. East Germans also had difficulty with
the loss of free child and health care, more expensive living cots, and no guarantee of jobs.
West Germans thought the Eastern Germans should be more grateful for the West taking
them in.
Terms Germany had to abide by in order to become unified were as follows:
Germany’s armed forces were limited (not as severely as the treaty of Versailles), they could
not make or possess nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, no foreign armed forces or
weapons in West Germany, they must accept the border between Germany and Poland. This
would allow the four powers to renounce rights and would officially leave by 1994.
Nationalism and the desire for reform rocked the Soviet Union, in 1990, the soviet
republic of Lithuania demanded independence. The soviet army invaded Lithuania. Soviet
citizens took to the streets to protest the invasion. In 1991 the Soviet Union broke apart into
15 new nations including: Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in Eastern
Europe. The largest post-soviet nation was Russia.
Communist rule had not prepared people for democracy. Many people in formerly
communist lands did not trust their leaders. Government corruption had been widespread
under communist rule and remained a problem. Thousands of eastern Europeans moved to
Western Europe to work. Many western Europeans resented the newcomers for fear the
immigrants would take their jobs.