Origins of the Cold War

By Ljingqi

  • Tehran Conference

    Lasted to 1 December 1943. The USSR would absorb pt of Eastern Poland while the latter would gain part of Eastern Germany.

  • Perecentages Agreement

    Britain to have 90% influence in Greece, the USSR to have 90% influence in Romania and 75% in Bulgaria. Roosevelt was not present but was briefed on it and did not openly oppose it.

  • Morgenthau Plan

    Note: Date uncertain Advocate the deindustralization and pastoralization of Germany

  • Dollar Diplomacy: USSR asking for loan from the US

    Note: Date uncertain The USSR asked for a $6 billion loan from the US. The US immediately imposed conditions in particular the opening of Eastern European markets to US manufactured goods.
  • Period: to

    The Origins of the Cold War

  • The Yalta Agreement

    Lasted from 4th February to 11 February.
    • US, Britain reject revision of Polish border
    • Inclusion of London Poles inside Lublin Committee & free polish elections to be held.
    • Stalin signed the Declaration of Liberated Europe which pledged free elections and democratic institutions.

  • USSR Lend-Lease terminated by US

    The Soviets' need for capital was made more desperate.

  • Further request of $1 billion loan by the USSR

    'Lost' by the US State Department that furher increased the Soviet conviction that the US was unwilling to collaborate in postwar reconstruction.

  • USSR failure to join IMF and World Bank

  • Sovietisation in Romania and Bulgaria

    In January 1946, in view of the Sovietisation in Romania and Bulgaria, Truman had already concluded that they should not compormise anymore and he was tired of 'babying the soviets'

  • Kennan's Long Telegramme

    The Long Telegramme had an impact on the US policy makers. It was the decisive factor in the Truman administration's change of course to a policy of firmness towards the USSR.

  • Soviet Actions in Iran

    The USSR shared a thousand-mile border with Iran, so security was not an issue as the USSR was never invaded from the South. Instead, the USSR was doing what its predecessor, imperial Russia did - expanding southwards in search for a warm water port. The US and Britain were determined to exclude the USSE from Iran so when the Soviets did not observe the deadline of March 1946 to withdraw from Iran, the US took matters to the United Nations which the Soviets evacuated by May 1946.

  • America stopped dispatching reparations to USSR

    General Clay, the Commander-i-Chief of the Amrican zoe stopped the dispatch of any reparations from the US to he Soviet zone.

  • America change of plans with regards to Germany

    American change in plans for Germany from destruction to reconstruction was made public in a speech by James Byrnes

  • Truman Doctrine

    It was significant as a declaration of the US' intention to contain soviet influence. It also laid the foundation for the Marshall Plan.

  • Marshall Plan

    It cemented the economic schism. The Soviets ensured that the Eastern European countries did not participate in it and instead produced their own version - Molotov Plan. This effectively divided Europe into two economic blocs.

  • Berlin Blockade

    The blockade came close to a first armed clash between the two sides and represented a point where the Cold War might have turned hot. It also increased the feeling of military insecurity in nothen, southern and western Europe. There was pressure for a common military force to defend the region, and can be argued to hsve contributed to the formation of the NATO. It also ended any hope of agreement between the East and West over Germany. Germany was split into the two states of East and West.

  • NATO

    NATO began the military split while the formation of the Warsaw Pact in response to the West German entry into the NATO in 1955 formalised this schism.