Christopher Le May 25. ‘’The Potsdam Conference marked the end of the wartime alliance and laid the foundations for post-war hostility.’’ With reference to the period up to 1946, to what extent do you agree with this statement? The Potsdam conference was the reunion of the Allies after the end of war to decide of the post-war environment they wanted to establish. Some historians might argue that this was the starting point of the Cold war due to the major disagreements that occurred. Although there were some agreements generally the leader’s ideals conflicted with each other’s. For this reason they continually tried to put forward their demands without willing to compromise, thus furthering the tensions. On the other hand, one could argue that the conference was really just a fulfilling of the decisions made at Tehran and Yalta. The Allies had previously agreed to divide Germany and they did. We shall first look at why Potsdam could have been the sole reason of the start of the hostility and then evaluate how far other factors played a role in the debut of the Cold War. Potsdam was the end of the wartime alliance and the start of the increased suspicion that led to the beginnings of the Cold War. The Alliance had only beenholding due to two major factors; the common enemy that the Nazi regime was, the relationship between the ‘’Big Three’’. Whilst the Nazi regime existed the three Allies coordinated together against the bigger evil. They shared intelligence and managed joint attacks which meant that they could not concentrate on their opposing ideologies and just focused on the threat, Hitler. There was also genuine compromise between the leaders and all strived to work together in order for a better post-war situation. This was all to end at Potsdam. With no common enemy and the replacement of Churchill and Roosevelt by Atlee and Truman made the diplomatic relations a little more tense. The ideological differences became even more apparent and the peaceful cohabitation of Capitalism and Communism was not assured. Both parties where vary of each other. Truman, especially, was the new source of problems. As a quite inexperienced politician in the area of American foreign policy he did not know how to deal with Stalin and the expansion of communism and just pursued an aggressive foreign policy toward Stalin. This upset the soviet leader and once the news arrived that America had just tested its first Atomic bomb, Stalin was shocked. This gave America a huge military advantage over everyone else and also meant that Truman now suddenly didn’t need the Soviets help in Japan. As a result he tried to stop Stalin from entering the war. Stalin had also contributed to the tension by maintaining his troops in the liberated Eastern European countries. He even invited the non-Communist Polish leaders to meet him and then arrested them. This in particular affected Britain as they had gone to war in order to liberate the oppressed Germany only to have to let the U.S.S.R take over. As a result they argued on what to do with the eastern European countries and Germany as on one side Atlee and Truman demanded free elections in the liberated countries and Stalin wanted to maintain them in his sphere of influence. America was scared of this spread of communism and tried every tactic to stop its expansion. This Stalin translated as American imperialism. Reparations were also a big source of disagreement as America was determined to not repeat the same error, the treaty of Versailles and its immense reparation payments that led to the rise of German radicalism’s. This was opposed to Stalin’s demand for severe repayments as the U.S.S.R had suffered greatly during the Second World War and its economy was shattered. As we can see, all these factors contributed to the increase in suspicion between the two sides. It was truly the Potsdam conference which separated the aims of the ex-Allies and laid the foundations of post-war hostility. On the other hand we could also argue that Potsdam was not the start of the degradation in the Allies foreign relations. There had already been agreements between the Allies over the division of Germany in the previous conferences of Yalta and Tehran. Stalin had already clearly stated that he wanted new borders for the U.S.S.R and that he wanted to establish a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. As a result there was a general agreement on the main themes of the conference even though there some disagreement over the exact events. To some extent one could argue that the conference was not the main cause of the disintegration in the Allies diplomatic relations and that it was actually the events that happened after the conference that led to the increased hostility. Both sides undertook aggressive foreign policy strategies such as the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine was undertaken by Truman who was concerned with the spread of communism. Between the years 1947-51 12 billion dollars was given in aid and was vital for the reconstruction of post-war Europe. However Stalin refused the Aid and banned Eastern European countries under Soviet control to apply for it. This caused massive tension as Stalin translated it as a form of American bribery in order to spread its imperialism. But this Foreign policy was only the result of Kennan’s Long Telegram which stated that Russia wanted to expand and states that the American government might be in danger. This shaped an aggressive foreign policy for years to come. In addition Stalin did not help to calm the Americans through the Berlin Blockade. Stalin blockaded all entry of supplies to East Berlin by road. As a result the Allies had to fly all the supplies in by plane. This was seen a ‘proof’ by Truman that the U.S.S.R wished to expand and NATO was set up in defence. This increased suspicion and when West Germany joined NATO the U.S.S.R created the Warsaw pact which further created two distinct sides. To conclude although there were other factors after the conference that furthered the increase in hostility the main reason for the beginning of the cold war was the Potsdam conference as it was there that the ideological differences became the most apparent thus leading to the disintegration of the alliance.
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