GCSE History AQA B Paper 1 Revision Notes and Tasks

Why did the USA and the USSR become rivals in the period 1945 to 1949?

The USA is a capitalist democracy. This means that individuals vote for the government of their choice and have the right to own their wealth and property. The people work for the good of themselves, to improve their own lives with only a minimal safety net.

The USSR was a communist dictatorship. This meant that the individual was not important except in how he could work for the good of the state. People did not vote for their government and did not have the right to own wealth or property. Everything belonged to the State.

These two ways of running a government were too different for them to work together once the threat of Nazi Germany and Japan had been removed at the end of WW2.

As the war in Europe was coming to its end the Big Three, USA (Roosevelt), USSR (Stalin) and Britain (Churchill) met to decide the future of Germany and Eastern Europe.

At Yalta in April 1945 it was agreed to split Germany into 4 occupied zones (inc. French). To hold free elections in the formerly occupied areas of Eastern Europe and to replace the failed LoN with a new United Nations Organisation.

At a second conference at Potsdam in August things had changed. Roosevelt had died and been replaced with Harry Truman, Churchill had lost the election to the Labour Party and been replaced with Clement Atlee. The USSR had been allowed to be the first to Berlin and had occupied all the lands in between on the way. The Potsdam conference agreed to split Germany and Berlin (which was in the USSR’s sector). Poland’s borders were agreed and War Crimes Trials would take place in Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders.

Truman and Stalin fell out over several issues. Stalin was unwilling to lose the gains in Eastern Europe and was determined to force communism on them. The USA had deliberately kept the atom bomb a secret from the USSR which made them suspicious.

These 2 countries were now the major world super powers. Every body else was too weak. In a famous speech Churchill declared that an ‘Iron Curtain’ had fallen on Europe dividing Eastern and Western Europe. (CZECHOSLOVAKIA, SATELLITE STATE, PUPPET GOVERNMENT) Only Yugoslavia remained as an independent but communist state under president Tito.

The USA was determined to stop the spread of communism. In 1947 Truman made a speech in which he promised US help to any nation threatened by communism from inside or outside. This is called the Truman Doctrine. The USA also promised money aid to European countries to help rebuild their economies (poor people were attracted to communism because it promised equal shares). This was called the Marshall Plan. Britain and West Germany greatly benefited from Marshall aid. In retaliation Stalin offered a similar plan called Comecon (much less money!)

The Berlin Blockade and airlift 1948-9. The division of Berlin was bound to cause problems.

Britain, France and the USA agreed to a single government and a new currency to help economic recovery. The USSR disagreed; Stalin wanted Germany weak and unable to threaten the USSR. He decided to blockade Berlin (remember Berlin was in the USSR’s sector of divided Germany).

All land routes from West Berlin to the west were cut.

Between June 1948 and May 1949 all supplies were flown in by air at a huge cost. 8000 tons a day Stalin ended the blockade. Two new states were formed –West Germany (FDR) and East Germany (GDR) with the frontier drawn in Berlin. Stalin had tested the west’s commitment to Berlin and the relationship had cooled even more. The East-West split was confirmed.