American History Chapter 15Section 1
Yalta Conference
• In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta. While at the Yalta Conference, they discussed Poland.
Poland • As the Soviets liberated
Poland from the Germans, they encouraged Polish Communists to set up a new government.
• Churchill and Roosevelt wanted the Poles to be free to choose their own government.
• Stalin however wanted a communist friendly Polish government which it had set up during the war.
Polish Compromise
• Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin compromised.
• The Communist government stayed, but Stalin agreed to include members of Poland's prewar government and hold free elections as soon as possible.
Dividing Germany
• The big three also agreed to divide Germany and the capital, Berlin into four zones.
• Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France each controlled a zone.
War Reparations
• The Soviet Union and Stalin also demanded that Germany pay heavy reparations for the war damage it caused.
• Roosevelt suggested that Germany pay their war reparations with trade goods, industrial machinery, railroad cars, and other equipment.
Romania and Poland
• Just two weeks after Yalta, the Soviet Union forced Romania to form a Communist government.
• They also refused to allow elections in Poland.
Cold War
• Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were strained from 1946 to 1990, an era known as the Cold War.
Different Goals & Ideas
• The Soviet Union was worried about its security and wanted to keep Germany weak (Germany had twice invaded their land over the past 30 years).
• The Soviets also wanted to spread communism to other nations.
• The United States focused on economic problems.
• Americans believed economic growth and democracy were important in order to keep world peace.
The conflict arose because the countries had different goals.
Harry Truman and his views
• Vice President Harry S. Truman became the president after Roosevelt died in 1945.
• Truman was anticommunist and did not trust Stalin.
• He also did not want to appease Stalin. He demanded that Stalin hold free elections as promised.
Potsdam Conference
• Truman finally met Stalin in July 1945 at the Potsdam Conference (Potsdam, Germany), where they worked out a deal on Germany.
• Truman believed that Germany’s industrial economy had to be revived.
• He thought this was necessary for all of Europe’s recovery.
Potsdam
• Truman also thought that if its economy stayed weak, Germany might turn to communism.
• Stalin wanted reparations from Germany. • He felt that the Germans should pay for the
damage they caused to the Soviet Union.
Potsdam
• Truman suggested that the Soviet Union take reparations from the zone under its own control while the Allies would allow industry to revive in the other zones.
Compromise at Potsdam
• Truman also offered additional industrial equipment from the other zones in exchange for food from the Soviet zone, and offered to recognize the new German-Polish border.
• Stalin really did not like that proposal. • However, Truman hinted that he had an
atomic bomb. – Stalin accepted!
Eastern Europe = Communism • The Soviets refused to uphold
the Declaration of Liberated Europe.
• They set up pro-Soviet Communist governments in Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia).
• These countries were called satellite nations.
• They had their own governments, but remained Communist and friendly to the Soviet Union.
Iron Curtain
• Churchill later called the Communist takeover of Eastern Europe an, “Iron Curtain” that separated Eastern Europe from the West.