The Soviet occupation of central EuropeĪt the Yalta conference in February 1945 the Allied leaders had agreed to help the nations liberated from Nazi occupation to set up free and democratic governments. Moreover, as the war neared its end, they viewed with increasing alarm the swift Soviet advance across central Europe and into Germany. The Western allies, on the other hand, had been constantly exasperated by Stalin’s stubbornness and paranoia. These made clear that the West, in possessing these dreadful weapons, now enjoyed a clear military superiority over the Soviet Union. The dropping of atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans in August 1945, intensified Stalin’s suspicions. Stalin suspected that his Western allies had deliberately sat on their hands while the Soviet army spent its strength against the mighty German army then they could more easily pick up the pieces after the war was over. Jospeh Stalin, the Soviet leader, deeply resented the Western Allies (mainly the USA and Britain) for having delayed (as he saw it) the opening of the Second Front for at least a year (it had eventually materialized in the D-Day invasions of Normandy in July 1944).ĭuring this wait the Soviet Union had borne almost the full weight of the European war. That the United States was the world’s leading power was underscored by its possession of the first weapon of mass destruction, the atom bomb, which it had used the bring about the end of the war against Japan.ĭuring World War II, the alliance which had defeated Nazi Germany and Japan, led by the United States and the Soviet Union, had never been free from deep tensions. But whereas the Soviet Union had experienced a hugely destructive invasion of its territory and the disruption of much of its infrastructure, along with the deaths of millions of its people, the United States emerged from the war with its economy and society intact and its morale high. The United States of America and the Soviet Union had emerged form the war as the two leading military powers (or “superpowers”, as they became known as). Both Germany and Japan were under Allied occupation, China was in chaos, Britain, France and the Soviet Union were exhausted. Europe in particular had millions of homeless refugees to feed and house. Large parts of the cities of Europe and Japan had been flattened, their transports systems terribly disrupted, and many of their seaports unusable. The end of World War II found much of the world in ruins. The transition from World War II to Cold War The Soviet Union stood aloof from the Bretton Woods system, despite the best efforts of the US government. They also planned for a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which would prevent a return to the tit-for-tat tariff wars which had created so much harm during the Great Depression. These measures would provide an environment for a stable world economic system, and permit the recovery of world trade after the War’s end. The dollar was to serve as the world’s reserve currency, with the pound, franc and other currencies pegged to it. At the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, representatives of the two nations’ governments created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In the economic sphere, American and British planners were also determined to avoid the economic failures which, more than anything else, were judged to have brought about World War II. The aim of this body was to settle future disputes between nations peacefully. The “Big Four” Allied Powers of World War II (the USA, the USSR, Britain and France) therefore committed themselves to a more effective successor to the League and accordingly drafted the Charter of the United Nations in April 1945. Truman (German federal archives, Bild 183-R67561) A conference session including Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William D.
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