US+vs+Soviets+2nd+Period

=US vs Soviets 2nd Period=

Introduction
The Yalta and Potsdam conferences were held to discuss Europe’s postwar reconstruction. There were four main people involved with these conferences: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Truman. After President Roosevelt passed away, Truman took office. He did not agree with the Roosevelt's previous ideas and decided to run the United States differently. When Germany fell, the boundaries in Europe were changed considerably. The creation of the United Nations formed to help join countries together again but this wasn't completely successful. Different ideas continued to float around about how countries should be run and this eventually led to the Cold War.

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
These were two different conferences held, Yalta in February, 1945, and Potsdam in July, 1945. The Yalta conference was held during WWII and seemed to go smoothly.

At Yalta, the Allied countries agreed to: At the Yalta conference, the ideas were in Stalin's favor. This was because Roosevelt wanted the Russian help, and he needed Stalin to go to war against Japan. Stalin promised two things: 1. Russia would enter the war in the Pacific, but only for sections in North Korea and Manchuria. 2. Russia would join the United Nations. Although this conference seemed to go smoothly, there was tension and conflict over Poland and reparations. The people thought Roosevelt gave the Soviets too much. [|Source]
 * Divide Germany into four sections. USSR, Britain, France, and USA would occupy postwar.
 * Have a trial for the Nazi-War criminals.
 * Help freed Europeans set up democratic republic by keeping order and law, having emergency relief, have governments, and have elections.
 * Set up reparations, or a system that had Germany pay the other countries for the war debt it caused.



Potsdam Conference was held after Germany surrendered so the countries could finalize their agreements. However, it was not successful for three reasons:
 * The relationships were filled with tension. Stalin asked the Polish leaders to meet him, then he arrested them.
 * Roosevelt died, with Truman taking over, who didn't agree with the Russians.
 * USA had an advantage in the military with our atomic bomb. Truman no longer needed Stalin's help with Japan. Truman wanted to know when Russia would join the war, something Roosevelt did not want.

They did agree on four things: >
 * ** They would set up four different sections in Germany, getting rid of the German government, laws, and Nazi- Party. The education in Germany would not have Nazi or militaristic ideas so they could gain democratic ideas. **
 * ** They would have a trial for the Nazi war criminals. **
 * **Recognize Polish Provisional Government of National Unity and hold elections. **
 * Russia could take reparations from the Soviet Union and America and Britain could take them if they wanted.

They disagreed on how to divide Germany, amount of reparations Germany would pay, and the Russian influence it would have over eastern Europe.[| Source]

** Stalin: **
Stalin was a ruthless and brutal murderer of several million people. His personality traits were often compared to Hitler. He created these mass murders with labor camps, starvation, secret police, forced confessions, etc. Stalin was not born in Russia, the place Stalin dictated, but in Georgia. He worked his way into Lenin's inner circle and took over after the founder died. Stalin was a paranoiac and later had a hard time trusting anyone. He believed everyone was plotting against him. He took Ukraine by force and turned it into a concentration camp, as well as taking its wheat. Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, which is ironic because of his paranoia. He murdered his closest allies because of his twisted thoughts of betrayal. Stalin dominated fifteen Soviet Republics and half of Eastern Europe. Although small in size, Stalin was a powerful man. [|Source] Stalin would use Churchill as a way to communicate to Roosevelt. Stalin and Roosevelt were not on speaking terms; Roosevelt wanted to avoid war, while Stalin created conflict. When Truman took over after Roosevelt, the good terms with America and Russia ended. [|Source]

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Roosevelt:
In the summer of 1921 Roosevelt was struck with poliomyelitis. This is a disease that affects the central nervous system and causes temporary or permanent paralysis. Roosevelt worked really hard and started swimming a lot and was able to gain back the use of his legs. Although he was now in a wheel chair he showed his great courage and determination. Roosevelt was elected as president in November 1932. This meant that he took office as president during the Great Depression. He helped Americans feel like they could come out of the great depression. He tried to bring faith and confidence in the government to American citizens again. He gave his famous quote in his Inaugural Address when he said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This gave more confidence and faith to all Americans and helped them realize that they will be able to come out of the Great Depression together as a country. Roosevelt and Stalin didn’t get along at all. Churchill had to converse between them because he was o speaking terms with both of them. Roosevelt also didn’t quite get along with his vice-president Harry S. Truman and so after Roosevelt died Truman took over creating great contrast. [|Source]



Churchill:
=== Churchill was a man of bravery and Integrity. He was very decisive and usually made the right decision. From the beginning he said that Britain, America, and Russia should make a Grand Alliance. However, this didn’t happen until towards the end of the war. Churchill wasn’t really a charismatic leader like Hitler was but he had great communication skills that he used to inspire people. [|Source] === Churchill had a very good, personal relationship with President Roosevelt. Thanks to this relationship, Roosevelt sent weapons to the struggling Britain. When Hitler attacked Russia, Churchill welcomed them as an ally. He acted as a link between Roosevelt and Stalin to keep the allies together. In the last year of the war Churchill and Roosevelt started to drift apart. Churchill was disappointed that Roosevelt would not support him in containing Russian expansion after the war. [|Source]



Truman:
Harry Truman was known as trustworthy, dedicated, judicious, precise, and efficient. Truman became president after only 82 days of being the vice president to President Roosevelt. When Truman came into power, it was a very critical time for America because we were in WWII. He immediately contemplated the morality and consequences of dropping an atomic bomb on Japan and eventually the bomb was dropped. Truman tended to go by standard procedures and always tried to set a standard. [|Source]



New European Boundaries and the Division of Germany and Berlin
After Germany’s fall, Europe’s boundaries were changed significantly. Millions of people became refugees because of the boundaries being redrawn. Germany was split into four zones. The Allies combined their 3 zones to form West Germany. Even though Berlin is located in East Germany, the allies still hold control over it to show Russia that they are willing to stand up to communism and aren’t intimidated by them. It also let them keep an eye on the Soviets in East Germany. The Soviet took the German Democratic Republic or East Germany. The Soviets also expanded their borders into Finland and Poland, and took over Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Austria was also split into four zones which were occupied by the United States, France, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Eastern Europe became Communist and Western Europe was democratic which caused later problems in Europe. [|Source]



Creation of the United Nations
The United Nations was formed when representatives from twenty-six nations all pledged their governments to continue fighting together against Axis Powers. Before it was called United Nations it was The International Telecommunication Union. This was founded in 1865 so that countries can cooperate on specific matters. They also created the Universal Postal Union in 1874. Both of these unions are now specialized agencies within the United Nations. The predecessor of the United Nations was the League of Nations. This organization was formed during the First World War. It was created “to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security.” The League of Nations stopped after it failed to prevent the Second World War. In 1945, fifty country representatives came together for a conference to form the current United Nations. They met in August and October of 1944 and came up with a Charter that was signed on June 26, 1945 by the fifty representatives and then later Poland signed it too becoming one of the original fifty-one member states. The United Nations was officially created on October 24, 1945 after the Charter was ratified. Now October 24 is known as United Nations Day. [|Source]



Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was used as a name for the boundary that separated the NATO countries from countries involved in the Warsaw Pact. The Iron Curtain was not only an ideological division, but a physical division as well. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries that were associated with the past Soviet Union; some of these countries were Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania. The phrase “Iron Curtain” was made popular by a speech given by Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill gave the Iron Curtain Speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946. The reason Winston Churchill gave the speech was because he was afraid of another war. The Iron Curtain was put in place to split East Germany from Communist countries in the west and he wanted to show that there were no formal alliances between them and other countries. It was first used to refer to a metal barrier that cut the continent in two, but it was also an ideological barrier that separated the differences between the Eastern and Western countries. One of the most notable divisions of the Iron Curtain was the Berlin Wall, which served as a symbol of the whole “curtain.”



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Conclusion
It is clear to see that there are many reasons that Allies became enemies after World War II. World leaders didn’t get along very well which created controversy. Countries started to divide and fight each other. They tried to come together and make agreements, but there were lots of different ideas floating around that created disagreements. Because world leaders all had different views of how a country should be run, it lead to war. Leaders didn’t get along well and tensions started to run high between countries. Promises were made and broken and countries started to divide. This finally led to the Cold War.