Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Background== {{Main|Origins of the Cold War}} {{For timeline|Timeline of events in the Cold War}} ===Russian Revolution=== {{Main|Russian Revolution|Pro-independence movements in the Russian Civil War|Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|Red Terror|Russian famine of 1921–1922}} [[File:Wladiwostok Parade 1918.jpg|thumb|[[Allies of World War I|Allied]] troops in [[Vladivostok]], August 1918, during the [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War]]]] While most historians trace the origins of the Cold War to the period immediately following World War II, some argue that it began with the 1917 [[October Revolution]] in the [[Russian Republic]] when the [[Bolsheviks]] overthrew the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. In [[Diplomatic history of World War I|World War I]], the British, French and [[Russian Empire]]s had composed the major [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]] from the start, and the US joined them as a self-styled Associated Power in April 1917. After the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, the bloody [[Red Terror]] was initiated to shut down all opposition, both perceived and real.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/red-terror-set-macabre-course-soviet-union | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222175025/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/red-terror-set-macabre-course-soviet-union | url-status=dead | archive-date=22 February 2021 | title=How Lenin's Red Terror set a macabre course for the Soviet Union | website=[[National Geographic Society]] | date=2 September 2020 }}</ref> In December, the Bolsheviks signed an [[armistice]] with the [[Central Powers]], though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the [[separate peace]] [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. As a result, German armies advanced rapidly across the borderlands. The Allies responded with an economic blockade against the new Russian regime.{{sfn|Tucker|2016|p=608}} In the eyes of some Allies, Russia now was helping Germany to win the war by freeing up a million German soldiers for the Western Front{{sfn|Combs|2015|pp=97–101}} and by relinquishing much of Russia's food supply, industrial base, fuel supplies, and communications with Western Europe.{{sfn|Chretien|2017|p=129}}{{sfn|Senior|2016|p=176}} According to historian [[Spencer C. Tucker|Spencer Tucker]], the Allies felt, "The treaty was the ultimate betrayal of the Allied cause and sowed the seeds for the Cold War. With Brest-Litovsk the spectre of German domination in Eastern Europe threatened to become reality, and the Allies now began to think seriously about military intervention," and proceeded to step up their "[[economic warfare]]" against the Bolsheviks.{{sfn|Tucker|2016|p=608}} [[Left communism|Some Bolsheviks]] saw Russia as only the first step, planning to incite revolutions against capitalism in every western country, but the need for peace with Germany led Soviet leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] away from this position.{{efn-ua|{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Left-Communist |title= Left Communist {{!}} Russian political faction |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=30 September 2018}}}} In 1918, Britain provided money and troops to support the [[White movement]], a loose confederation of anti-Bolshevik forces. This policy was spearheaded by Minister of War [[Winston Churchill]], a committed [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]].{{sfn|Kinvig|2007|p=91–95}} A long and bloody [[Russian Civil War|Civil War]] ensued between the [[Red Army|Reds]] and the [[White Army|Whites]], starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds' victory. It included [[Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War|foreign intervention]], the [[Execution of the Romanov family|execution of the former Emperor and his family]], and the [[Russian famine of 1921|famine of 1921]], which killed about five million people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mawdsley |first=Evan |url=https://archive.org/details/russiancivilwar00evan |title=The Russian Civil War |date=1 March 2007 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-933648-15-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/russiancivilwar00evan/page/287 287] |author-link=Evan Mawdsley |url-access=registration}}</ref> Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former Empire, although their success was limited. [[Estonian War of Independence|Estonia]], [[Finnish Civil War|Finland]], [[Latvian War of Independence|Latvia]], and [[Lithuanian–Soviet War|Lithuania]] all repelled Soviet invasions, while [[Ukrainian–Soviet War|Ukraine]], Belarus (as a result of the [[Polish–Soviet War]]), [[Red Army invasion of Armenia|Armenia]], [[Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan]] and [[Red Army invasion of Georgia|Georgia]] were occupied by the Red Army. [[File:American Relief Administration in Russia in 1922.jpg|thumb|right|American Relief Administration operations in Russia, 1922]] Large scale food relief was distributed to Europe after the war through the [[American Relief Administration]] run by [[Herbert Hoover]]. In 1921, to ease the devastating famine in the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] that was triggered by the Soviet government's [[war communism]] policies,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/War-Communism|title=War Communism|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |date=8 June 2023 }}</ref> the ARA's director in Europe, [[Walter Lyman Brown]], began negotiating with the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)|Russian People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs]], [[Maxim Litvinov]], in [[Riga]], [[Latvia]] (at that time not yet annexed by the USSR). An agreement was reached on 21 August 1921, and an additional implementation agreement was signed by Brown and People's Commissar for Foreign Trade [[Leonid Krasin]] on 30 December 1921. The U.S. Congress appropriated $20,000,000 for relief under the [[Russian Famine Relief Act]] of late 1921. Hoover strongly detested Bolshevism and felt the American aid would demonstrate the superiority of Western capitalism and thus help contain the spread of communism.<ref>Benjamin M. Weissman, "Herbert Hoover and the famine in Soviet Russia, 1921–23" in Mark Hatfield, ed. ''Herbert Hoover Reassessed'' (1981) pp 390–396.</ref><ref>Bertrand M. Patenaude, "A Race against Anarchy: Even after the Great War ended, famine and chaos threatened Europe. Herbert Hoover rescued the continent, reviving trade, rebuilding infrastructure, and restoring economic order, holding a budding Bolshevism in check." ''Hoover Digest'' 2 (2020): 183–200 [https://www.hoover.org/research/race-against-anarchy online]</ref> At its peak, the ARA employed 300 Americans, more than 120,000 Russians and fed 10.5 million people daily. Its Russian operations were headed by Col. [[William N. Haskell]]. The Medical Division of the ARA functioned from November 1921 to June 1923 and helped overcome the [[typhus]] epidemic then ravaging Russia. The ARA's famine relief operations ran in parallel with much smaller [[Mennonite]], Jewish and [[Quaker]] famine relief operations in Russia.<ref>See Lance Yoder's "Historical Sketch" in the online [http://www.mcusa-archives.org/MCC/ix-13201(russia%20photos).html Mennonite Central Committee Photograph Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204033520/http://www.mcusa-archives.org/MCC/ix-13201(russia%20photos).html |date=February 4, 2012 }}</ref><ref>See David McFadden et al., ''Constructive Spirit: Quakers in Revolutionary Russia'' (2004).</ref> [[File:19191107-lenin second anniversary october revolution moscow.jpg|thumb|[[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]] and [[Lev Kamenev|Kamenev]] celebrating the second anniversary of the [[October Revolution]]]] The ARA's operations in Russia were shut down on 15 June 1923, after it was discovered that Russia under Lenin renewed the export of grain.<ref>Charles M. Edmondson, "An Inquiry into the Termination of Soviet Famine Relief Programmes and the Renewal of Grain Export, 1922–23", ''Soviet Studies,'' Vol. 33, No. 3 (1981), pp. 370–385</ref> Western powers proceeded to diplomatically isolate the Soviet government. Lenin stated that [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] was surrounded by a "hostile capitalist encirclement" and he viewed diplomacy as a weapon to keep Soviet enemies divided.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert English|title=Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qA_uT6GrcxEC&pg=PA26|date=2000|page=26|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50474-4|access-date=30 November 2019|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729150207/https://books.google.com/books?id=qA_uT6GrcxEC&pg=PA26|url-status=live}}</ref> He set up an organization to promote sister revolutions worldwide, the [[Communist International|Comintern]]. It failed everywhere; it failed badly when it tried to start revolutions in [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|Germany]], its province of [[Bavarian Soviet Republic|Bavaria]], and [[Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–1920)|Hungary]].<ref>Kevin McDermott and Jeremy Agnew, ''The Comintern: A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin'' (1996)</ref> The failures led to an inward turn by Moscow. Leaders of American foreign policy remained convinced that the Soviet Union, which was founded by Soviet Russia in 1922, was a hostile threat to American values. Republican Secretary of State [[Charles Evans Hughes]] rejected recognition, telling labor union leaders that, "those in control of Moscow have not given up their original purpose of destroying existing governments wherever they can do so throughout the world."<ref>Douglas Little, "Anti-Bolshevism and American Foreign Policy, 1919–1939" ''American Quarterly'' (1983) 35#4 pp 376–390 at p 378.</ref> Under President [[Calvin Coolidge]], Secretary of State [[Frank B. Kellogg]] warned that the Kremlin's international agency, the [[Communist International]] (Comintern) was aggressively planning subversion against other nations, including the United States, to "overthrow the existing order."<ref>Little, p 178</ref> Herbert Hoover in 1919 warned [[Woodrow Wilson]] that, "We cannot even remotely recognize this murderous tyranny without stimulating action is to radicalism in every country in Europe and without transgressing on every National ideal of our own."<ref>Little, p 378–79.</ref> Inside the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]], the Division of Eastern European Affairs by 1924 was dominated by [[Robert F. Kelley]], a dedicated opponent of communism who trained a generation of specialists including [[George Kennan]] and [[Charles Bohlen]].<ref>Little, p 379.</ref> Britain and other Western powers—unlike the United States—did business and sometimes recognized the new Soviet Union. Outside Washington, there was some American support for renewed relationships, especially in terms of technology.<ref>Kendall E. Bailes, "The American Connection: Ideology and the Transfer of American Technology to the Soviet Union, 1917–1941." ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 23#3 (1981): 421–448.</ref> [[Henry Ford]], committed to the belief that international trade was the best way to avoid warfare, used his [[Ford Motor Company]] to build a truck industry and introduce tractors into Russia. Architect [[Albert Kahn (architect)|Albert Kahn]] became a consultant for all industrial construction in the Soviet Union in 1930.<ref>Dana G. Dalrymple, "The American tractor comes to Soviet agriculture: The transfer of a technology." ''Technology and Culture'' 5.2 (1964): 191–214.</ref> By 1933, the American business community, as well as newspaper editors, were calling for diplomatic recognition. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] used presidential authority to normalize relations in November 1933.{{sfn|Smith|2007|pp=341–343}} However, there was no progress on the Tsarist debts Washington wanted Moscow to repay. Expectations of expanded trade proved unrealistic. Historians Justus D. Doenecke and Mark A. Stoler note that, "Both nations were soon disillusioned by the accord."{{sfn|Doenecke|Stoler|2005|pp=18, 121}} Roosevelt named [[William Christian Bullitt Jr.|William Bullitt]] as ambassador from 1933 to 1936. Bullitt arrived in Moscow with high hopes for Soviet–American relations, but his view of the Soviet leadership soured on closer inspection. By the end of his tenure, Bullitt was openly hostile to the Soviet government, and he remained an outspoken anti-communist for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Brownell|Billings|1987}} ===World War II=== In the late 1930s, [[Joseph Stalin]] had worked with Foreign Minister [[Maxim Litvinov]] to promote [[popular front]]s with capitalist parties and governments to oppose [[fascism]], although their primary enemy was the so-called "[[social fascism]]" of rival socialist parties, which in part paved the way for the rise of the [[Nazis]] in Germany.<ref name="Haro 2011">{{cite journal |last=Haro |first=Lea |year=2011 |title=Entering a Theoretical Void: The Theory of Social Fascism and Stalinism in the German Communist Party |journal=[[Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory]] |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=563–582 |doi=10.1080/03017605.2011.621248 |s2cid=146848013}}</ref><ref name="Hoppe 2011">{{cite book|last=Hoppe|first=Bert|year=2011|title=In Stalins Gefolgschaft: Moskau und die KPD 1928–1933|publisher=Oldenbourg Verlag|language=de|isbn=9783486711738}}</ref> In 1939, after attempts to form a military alliance with Britain and France against Germany failed, the Soviet Union made a dramatic shift towards Nazi Germany.<ref>{{cite web |title=Why didn't the USSR join Allies in 1939? |last=Yegorov |first=Oleg |url=https://www.rbth.com/history/331039-ussr-britain-france-talks-wwii |date=26 September 2019 |access-date=5 February 2022 |website=Russia Beyond |archive-date=6 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206011636/https://www.rbth.com/history/331039-ussr-britain-france-talks-wwii |url-status=live }}</ref> Almost a year after Britain and France had concluded the [[Munich Agreement]] with Germany, the Soviet Union made agreements with Germany as well, both militarily and economically during [[German–Soviet Axis talks|extensive talks]]. Unlike the case of Britain and France, the Soviet Union's agreement with Germany, the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] (signed on 23 August 1939), included a secret protocol that paved the way for the Soviet invasion of Eastern European states and [[Military occupations by the Soviet Union|occupation of their territories]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/23/moscow-campaign-to-justify-molotov-ribbentrop-pact-sparks-outcry|title=Molotov-Ribbentrop: why is Moscow trying to justify Nazi pact?|work=[[The Guardian]]|author=Andrew Roth|date=23 August 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Leffler|2008|pp=18–19}} The pact made possible the Soviet occupation of [[Occupation of the Baltic states|Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia]], [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina|Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region]], and [[Soviet invasion of Poland|eastern Poland]].{{sfn|Kalnins|2015|pp=126–127}} In late November 1939, unable to coerce the [[Finland|Republic of Finland]] by diplomatic means into moving its border {{Convert|25|km}} back from [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]], Stalin ordered the [[Winter War|invasion of Finland]]. On 14 December 1939, the Soviet Union was expelled from the [[League of Nations]] for invading Finland.<ref>[https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ussr-expelled-from-the-league-of-nations?form=MY01SV&OCID=MY01SV USSR expelled from the League of Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914013927/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ussr-expelled-from-the-league-of-nations?form=MY01SV&OCID=MY01SV |date=14 September 2021 }}. www.history.com. 5 November 2009</ref>{{sfn|Tucker|2016|pp=612–613}}{{sfn|De Gruyter|2010|pp=171–172}} In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania]].{{sfn|Otfinoski|2014|p=14}} [[File:RIAN archive 44732 Soviet soldiers attack house.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.35|The [[Battle of Stalingrad]], considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II]] Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and [[Operation Barbarossa|invaded the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941 starting what is known in Russia and some other post-Soviet states as the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Great Patriotic War]]. The [[Red Army]] stopped the seemingly invincible German Army at the [[Battle of Moscow]]. The [[Battle of Stalingrad]], which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, dealt a severe blow to Germany from which they never fully recovered and became a turning point in the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before [[End of World War II in Europe|Germany surrendered in 1945]]. The German Army suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.<ref>{{Cite book |first=William J. |last=Duiker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqvgYtJHGSMC |title=Contemporary World History |date=31 August 2009 |publisher=Wadsworth Pub Co |isbn=978-0-495-57271-8 |page=128 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622200541/https://books.google.com/books?id=uqvgYtJHGSMC |url-status=live }}</ref> Though operational cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union was notably less than that between other allied powers, the United States nevertheless provided the Soviet Union with huge quantities of weapons, ships, aircraft, rolling stock, [[strategic material]]s, and food through the [[Lend-Lease]] program.{{sfn|Herring|1973}}{{sfn|Gaddis|1990|pp=151–153}} In total, the U.S. deliveries through Lend-Lease amounted to $11 [[1,000,000,000 (number)|billion]] in materials: over 400,000 [[jeep]]s and trucks; 12,000 [[armored vehicle]]s (including 7,000 tanks, about 1,386<ref>Zaloga (Armored Thunderbolt) p. 28, 30, 31</ref> of which were [[M3 Lee]]s and 4,102 [[Lend-Lease Sherman tanks|M4 Shermans]]);<ref>''Lend-Lease Shipments: World War II'', Section IIIB, Published by Office, Chief of Finance, War Department, 31 December 1946, p. 8.</ref> 11,400 aircraft (4,719 of which were [[Bell P-39 Airacobra]]s)<ref>{{harvnb|Hardesty|1991|p=253}}</ref> and 1.75 million tons of food.<ref>[http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/PDF/Chapter05.pdf ''World War II The War Against Germany And Italy''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506174749/http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/PDF/Chapter05.pdf |date=6 May 2017 }}, US Army Center Of Military History, page 158.</ref> [[File:Map US Lend Lease shipments to USSR-WW2.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.6|270px|U.S. [[Lend Lease]] shipments to the USSR]] Roughly 17.5 million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies, and food were shipped from the Western Hemisphere to the USSR, 94% coming from the US. For comparison, a total of 22 million tons landed in Europe to supply American forces from January 1942 to May 1945. It has been estimated that American deliveries to the USSR through the Persian Corridor alone were sufficient, by US Army standards, to maintain sixty combat divisions in the line.<ref>{{cite web|title=The five Lend-Lease routes to Russia |url=http://www.o5m6.de/Routes.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031212063805/http://www.o5m6.de/routes.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 12, 2003 |website=Engines of the Red Army |access-date=July 12, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Motter |first1=T.H. Vail |title=The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia |date=1952 |publisher=Center of Military History |pages=4–6 |url=https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/persian/index.htm |access-date=July 12, 2014}}</ref> [[File:Teheran conference-1943.jpg|thumb|From left to right, the Soviet General Secretary [[Joseph Stalin]], US President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] [[Tehran Conference|confer]] in Tehran, 1943]] The USSR, in fulfillment of its agreement with the Allies at the [[Yalta Conference]], broke the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 which Japan had been honoring despite their alliance with Germany,<ref name="denunciation">[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/s3.asp Denunciation of the neutrality pact] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520092519/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/s3.asp |date=20 May 2011 }} 5 April 1945. ([[Avalon Project]] at [[Yale University]])</ref> and [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria|invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories]] on 9 August 1945.<ref name="declarationofwar">[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/s4.asp Soviet Declaration of War on Japan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520092513/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/s4.asp |date=20 May 2011 }}, 8 August 1945. ([[Avalon Project]] at [[Yale University]])</ref> [[Soviet–Japanese War|This conflict]] ended with a decisive Soviet victory, together with the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] by the U.S. contributing to the unconditional [[surrender of Japan]] and the end of World War II. ===Wartime conferences regarding post-war Europe=== {{Further|Tehran Conference|Yalta Conference|List of Allied World War II conferences}} The Allies disagreed about how the European map should look, and how borders would be drawn, following the war.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=13–23}} Each side held dissimilar ideas regarding the establishment and maintenance of post-war security.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=13–23}} Some scholars contend that all the Western Allies desired a security system in which democratic governments were established as widely as possible, permitting countries to peacefully resolve differences through [[international organization]]s.{{sfn|Gaddis|1990|p=156}} Others note that the Atlantic powers were divided in their vision of the new post-war world. Roosevelt's goals—military victory in both Europe and Asia, the achievement of global American economic supremacy over the [[British Empire]], and the creation of a world peace organization—were more global than Churchill's, which were mainly centered on securing control over the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], ensuring the survival of the British Empire, and the independence of Central and Eastern European countries as a [[Buffer state|buffer]] between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.{{sfn|Plokhy|2010}} [[File:Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W).jpg|thumb|left|The "[[Allies of World War II|Big Three]]" at the [[Yalta Conference]]: [[Winston Churchill]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], and [[Joseph Stalin]], 1945]] The Soviet Union sought to dominate the internal affairs of countries in its border regions.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=13–23}}{{sfn|Gaddis|1990|p=176}} During the war, Stalin had created special training centers for communists from different countries so that they could set up secret police forces loyal to Moscow as soon as the Red Army took control. Soviet agents took control of the media, especially radio; they quickly harassed and then banned all independent civic institutions, from youth groups to schools, churches and rival political parties.{{efn-ua|[[Max Frankel]], "Stalin's Shadow", [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/books/review/iron-curtain-by-anne-applebaum.html ''New York Times'' 21 Nov 2012] reviewing Anne Applebaum, ''Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956'' (2012), See Introduction, text after note 26, and ch. 3, 7–9}} Stalin also sought continued peace with Britain and the United States, hoping to focus on internal reconstruction and economic growth.{{sfn|Heller|2006|p=27|ps=: "From the Soviet perspective, a postwar period of peace and reconstruction was indispensable. Therefore, the continuation of cooperation and peaceful relations with its wartime allies, the United States and Great Britain, was greatly to be desired."}} In the American view, Stalin seemed a potential ally in accomplishing their goals, whereas in the British approach Stalin appeared as the greatest threat to the fulfillment of their agenda. With the Soviets already occupying most of Central and Eastern Europe, Stalin was at an advantage, and the two Western leaders vied for his favors. The differences between Roosevelt and Churchill led to several separate deals with the Soviets. In October 1944, Churchill traveled to Moscow and proposed the "[[percentages agreement]]" to divide Europe into respective [[Sphere of influence|spheres of influence]], including giving Stalin predominance [[Romania in World War II|over Romania]], Hungary, and Bulgaria, and Churchill carte blanche [[White Terror (Greece)|over Greece.]] This proposal was accepted by Stalin. At the [[Yalta Conference]] of February 1945, Roosevelt signed a separate deal with Stalin regarding Asia and refused to support Churchill on the issues of Poland and reparations.{{sfn|Plokhy|2010}} Roosevelt ultimately approved the percentage agreement,{{sfn|Carlton|2000}}{{sfn|Todd|2016|pp=105–111}} but there was still apparently no firm consensus on the framework for a post-war settlement in Europe.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=21}} [[File:Map-Germany-1945.svg|thumb|Post-war [[Allied-occupied Germany|Allied occupation zones in Germany]]]] At the [[Second Quebec Conference]], a high-level military conference held in Quebec City, 12–16 September 1944, Churchill and Roosevelt reached agreement on a number of matters, including a plan for Germany based on [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]]'s original proposal. The memorandum drafted by Churchill provided for "eliminating the warmaking industries in the Ruhr and the Saar ... looking forward to [[Morgenthau Plan|converting Germany into a country primarily agricultural]] and pastoral in its character." However, it no longer included a plan to partition the country into several independent states.{{efn-ua|[[United States Government Printing Office]], Report on the Morgenthau Diaries prepared by the Subcommittee of the [[United States]] Committee of the Judiciary appointed to investigate the Administration of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] and other Internal Security Laws, (Washington, 1967) volume 1, pp. 620–621}} On 10 May 1945, President Truman signed the US occupation directive JCS 1067, which was in effect for over two years and was enthusiastically supported by Stalin. It directed the US forces of occupation to "...take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany".{{sfn|Jonas|1985|p=270}} In April 1945, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by Vice President [[Harry S. Truman]], who distrusted Stalin and turned for advice to an [[The Wise Men (book)#The "Wise Men"|elite group]] of foreign policy intellectuals. Both Churchill and Truman opposed, among other things, the Soviets' decision to prop up the [[Polish Committee of National Liberation|Lublin government]], the Soviet-controlled rival to the [[Polish government-in-exile]] of the original [[Second Polish Republic]] in London, whose relations with the Soviets had been severed.{{sfn|Zubok|Pleshakov|1996|p=94}} Following the [[End of World War II in Europe|Allies' May 1945 victory]], the Soviets effectively occupied Central and Eastern Europe,{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=21}} while strong US and Western allied forces remained in Western Europe. In [[Allied-occupied Germany|Germany]] and [[Allied-occupied Austria|Austria]], France, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States established zones of occupation and a loose framework for parceled four-power control.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=22}} The [[United Nations Conference on International Organization|1945 Allied conference in San Francisco]] established the multi-national [[United Nations]] (UN) for the maintenance of [[world peace]], but the enforcement capacity of its [[United Nations Security Council|Security Council]] was effectively paralyzed by the ability of individual members to exercise [[United Nations Security Council veto power|veto power]].{{sfn|Glennon|2003}} Accordingly, the UN was essentially converted into an inactive forum for exchanging polemical rhetoric, and the Soviets regarded it almost exclusively as a [[Propaganda in the Soviet Union|propaganda]] tribune.{{sfn|Garthoff|1994|p=401}} ===Potsdam Conference and surrender of Japan=== {{Main|Potsdam Conference|Surrender of Japan}} [[File:The new "Big Three" meet for the first time at the Potsdam Conference in Potsdam, Germany. L to R, new British Prime... - NARA - 198950.jpg|thumb|[[Clement Attlee]], [[Harry S. Truman]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] at the [[Potsdam Conference]], 1945]] At the [[Potsdam Conference]], which started in late July 1945 after Germany's surrender, serious differences emerged over the future development of Germany and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} The Soviets pressed their demand made at Yalta, for $20 billion of reparations to be taken from Germany occupation zones. The Americans and British refused to fix a dollar amount for reparations, but they permitted the Soviets to remove some industry from their zones.{{sfn|Moss|1993|p=256}} Moreover, the participants' mounting antipathy and bellicose language served to confirm their suspicions about each other's hostile intentions and to entrench their positions.{{sfn|Wood|2005|p=62}} At this conference Truman informed Stalin that the United States possessed a powerful new weapon.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=24–26}} ===Postwar prelude and emergence of the two blocs (1945–1947)=== {{Main|Eastern Bloc}} {{Further|Post–World War II economic expansion}} [[File:EasternBloc BorderChange38-48.svg|thumb|Post-war territorial changes in Europe and the formation of the Eastern Bloc, the so-called "[[Iron Curtain]]"]] The US had invited Britain into its atomic bomb project but kept it secret from the Soviet Union. Stalin was aware that the Americans were working on the atomic bomb via his [[atomic spies]] in the West, and he reacted to the news calmly.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=24–26}} One week after the end of the Potsdam Conference, the US [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]. Shortly after the attacks, Stalin protested to US officials when Truman offered the Soviets little real influence in [[occupation of Japan|occupied Japan]].{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=28}} Stalin was reportedly also "outraged" by the dropping of the bombs, calling them a "superbarbarity" and claiming that "the balance has been destroyed...That cannot be." The Truman administration intended to use its ongoing nuclear weapons program to pressure the Soviet Union in international relations.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=24–26}} Following the war, the United States and the United Kingdom used military forces in Greece and Korea to remove combat governing regimes and forces seen as communist. Under the leadership of [[Lyuh Woon-hyung]], working secretly during the Japanese occupation, a network of [[People's Committee (postwar Korea)|people's committees]] throughout [[Korea under Japanese rule|Japanese Korea]] were formed to coordinate the transition to Korean independence. Following the [[Surrender of Japan|Japanese surrender]], on 28 August 1945, these committees formed the [[Provisional government|provisional national government]] of Korea, naming it the [[People's Republic of Korea]] (PRK) a couple of weeks later.<ref>Hart-Landsberg, Martin, Korea: Division, Reunification, & U.S. Foreign Policy, Monthly Review Press (1998), p. 65</ref><ref>Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945–1947, Princeton University Press (1981), p. 88</ref> It was proclaimed on 6 September 1945, as Korea was being [[Division of Korea|divided]] into two occupation zones, with the Soviet Union occupying the north and the United States occupying the south. In the south, the US military government outlawed the PRK on 12 December 1945. In the north, the Soviet authorities took over the PRK by installing pro-Soviet Korean communists such as [[Kim Il Sung]] into positions of power and incorporated it into the political structure of the emerging [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (North Korea).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cumings |first=Bruce |title=The Origins of the Korean War, Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945–1947 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1981 |pages=196–197, 392–393, 408 |author-link=Bruce Cumings}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Charles |title=The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 |date=2004 |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=54 |edition=1st}}</ref> During the opening stages of World War II, the Soviet Union laid the foundation for the [[Eastern Bloc|Eastern or Soviet Bloc]] by [[Military occupations by the Soviet Union|invading and then annexing]] several countries into the USSR as [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet Socialist Republics]], following the agreement with Germany in the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. These included eastern [[Poland]] ([[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|incorporated]] into the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian SSR]] and the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]]),{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=43}} [[Latvia]] (which became the [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvian SSR]]),{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=21}}{{sfn|Senn|2007}} [[Estonia]] (which became the [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonian SSR]]),{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=21}}{{sfn|Senn|2007}} [[Lithuania]] (which became the [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuanian SSR]]),{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=21}}{{sfn|Senn|2007}} part of eastern [[Finland]] (which became the [[Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic|Karelo-Finnish SSR]], later incorporated in the Russian SFSR) and eastern [[Romania]] (which became the [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldavian SSR]]).{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=55}} Central and Eastern European territories that the Soviet army occupied were added to the Eastern Bloc, pursuant to the percentages agreement between Churchill and Stalin, which, however, contain provisions regarding neither Poland nor Czechoslovakia or Germany. The Soviet Union converted the territories it occupied into [[satellite state]]s,{{sfn|Schmitz|1999}} such as: * [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]] (15 September 1946) * [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romanian People's Republic]] (13 April 1948) * [[Hungarian People's Republic]] (20 August 1949){{sfn|van Dijk|2008|p=200}} Moreover, two further socialist republics with a higher degree of independence from the Soviet Union were also established: * [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|People's Republic of Albania]] (11 January 1946){{sfn|Cook|2001|p=17}} * [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] The Soviet-style regimes that arose in the Bloc not only reproduced Soviet [[Planned economy|command economy]], but also adopted the brutal methods employed by Joseph Stalin and the Soviet secret police in order to suppress both real and perceived opposition.{{sfn|Roht-Arriaza|1995|p=83}} In Asia, the Red Army had overrun [[Manchuria]] in the last month of the war, and it went on to occupy the large swathe of Korean territory located north of the 38th parallel.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=40}} As part of consolidating Stalin's control over the Eastern Bloc, the [[NKVD|People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs]] (NKVD), led by [[Lavrentiy Beria]], supervised the establishment of Soviet-style secret police systems in the Bloc that were supposed to crush anti-communist resistance.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=34}} When the slightest stirrings of independence emerged in the Bloc, Stalin's strategy matched that of dealing with domestic pre-war rivals: they were removed from power, put on trial, imprisoned, and in some instances, executed.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=100}} Economically, the USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted [[World War II reparations|war reparations]] from [[East Germany]], [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]], [[People's Republic of Romania|Romania]], and [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the [[Marshall Plan]]."<ref>Mark Kramer, "The Soviet Bloc and the Cold War in Europe", in {{Cite book |editor-first=Klaus | editor-last=Larresm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EyNcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT174 |title=A Companion to Europe Since 1945 |publisher=Wiley |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-118-89024-0 |page=79}}</ref> British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was concerned that, given the enormous size of Soviet forces deployed in Europe at the end of the war, and the perception that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unreliable, there existed a Soviet threat to Western Europe.{{sfn|Fenton|1998}} After World War II, US officials guided Western European leaders in establishing their own secret security force to prevent subversion in the Western bloc, which evolved into [[Operation Gladio]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ganser |first1=Daniele |title=NATO's secret armies : operation Gladio and terrorism in Western Europe |date=2005 |publisher=Frank Cass |location=London |isbn=9780714656076}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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