“To what extent did fear of communism spark the Cold War?”
To a large extent the fear of communism led to the spark of the cold war as it was perceived in the west that the soviets aimed to communise eastern Europe after world war 2. The cold war began in 1947 as tensions brewed between the USSR and the USA during and after the second world war. USSR were communist and the USA were capitalist because of these two ideological differences it divided Europe into east (USSR) and west (USA) with growing tensions between the two countries. The two conflicting ideologies were once allies to defeat Hitler but began to become suspicious of each other due to their different intentions for Europe. The suspicions between the two ideologies were always …show more content…
However, USA president Roosevelt died on the 12th of April 1945 resulting in vice-president Harry Truman taking over. Truman was very opposed to communism more so than Roosevelt causing his suspicion against Stalin to grow which caused a lot of conflict and disagreements at the Potsdam conference. The Potsdam conference occurred on the 17th July 1945. This conference did not go as smoothly as Yalta as tensions between Truman and Stalin grew rapidly with many disagreements such as decisions of what of what to do with Germany as Stalin wanted to cripple Germany and demanded high reparation due to 20 million Russian lives lost during World War 2 whereas Truman did not want to make the same mistake of the treaty of Versailles. Regarding this the western zone compromised and gave equipment and materials to the eastern zone (history, 2018). The conference ended on a suspicious note where Truman believed he needed to command a stricter policy toward the Soviets. This left Stalin certain the USA and the UK were plotting against him whereas Churchill did not attend the closing of the Potsdam conference as he lost the election and was later replaced by Clement Attlee as the new PR minister (History, 2018). The Potsdam conference was the final meeting between the allied leaders. Nine months after the Potsdam conference Stalin gained control over eastern Europe and in 1946 Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania all had communist governments under soviet command by Stalin. There was then a boundary that divided east and west Europe which Churchill then called it the ‘iron curtain’ in his speech, and the name
To a large extent the fear of communism led to the spark of the cold war as it was perceived in the west that the soviets aimed to communise eastern Europe after world war 2. The cold war began in 1947 as tensions brewed between the USSR and the USA during and after the second world war. USSR were communist and the USA were capitalist because of these two ideological differences it divided Europe into east (USSR) and west (USA) with growing tensions between the two countries. The two conflicting ideologies were once allies to defeat Hitler but began to become suspicious of each other due to their different intentions for Europe. The suspicions between the two ideologies were always …show more content…
However, USA president Roosevelt died on the 12th of April 1945 resulting in vice-president Harry Truman taking over. Truman was very opposed to communism more so than Roosevelt causing his suspicion against Stalin to grow which caused a lot of conflict and disagreements at the Potsdam conference. The Potsdam conference occurred on the 17th July 1945. This conference did not go as smoothly as Yalta as tensions between Truman and Stalin grew rapidly with many disagreements such as decisions of what of what to do with Germany as Stalin wanted to cripple Germany and demanded high reparation due to 20 million Russian lives lost during World War 2 whereas Truman did not want to make the same mistake of the treaty of Versailles. Regarding this the western zone compromised and gave equipment and materials to the eastern zone (history, 2018). The conference ended on a suspicious note where Truman believed he needed to command a stricter policy toward the Soviets. This left Stalin certain the USA and the UK were plotting against him whereas Churchill did not attend the closing of the Potsdam conference as he lost the election and was later replaced by Clement Attlee as the new PR minister (History, 2018). The Potsdam conference was the final meeting between the allied leaders. Nine months after the Potsdam conference Stalin gained control over eastern Europe and in 1946 Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania all had communist governments under soviet command by Stalin. There was then a boundary that divided east and west Europe which Churchill then called it the ‘iron curtain’ in his speech, and the name