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.