Communism And The Berlin Wall

Western Germany was to be remilitarized. The United States and other members of NATO decided to make Western Germany a member of NATO. The Soviets saw this to be a direct threat and responded with the Warsaw Pact. America saw the Warsaw Pact as a way of the Soviets spreading communism. The United States felt by including Western Germany in the Pact it would put them in danger of a new war and create a threat. Document 3 shows how NATO responded to the creation of the Warsaw Pact. This document outlines the conditions under which Western Germany agrees to ally with the members of NATO. By the United States uniting with Western Germany the Soviets felt they needed to make alliances. Document 4 is important in relation to the Warsaw Pact because it details the event. The United States admittance of Western Germany was a strategy in dealing with the USSR. The Soviets would use Western Germany in terms of promoting themselves with use of propaganda. Also indebting them and reminding of the Soviets role in liberating them. The United States no longer wanted this influence to take place. The purpose of this document was to inform people about why the Warsaw Pact was such a controversial

February 1945: Yalta Conference: The Yalta conference was meeting held by the leaders of the 3 most powerful allied countries: the US, USSR, and Great Britain. They were there to discuss reparations in Germany. They all agreed that Germany should have a military power. Stalin, however, wanted $20 billion from Germany to pay for reparations, but FDR and Churchill disagreed. At the end of the conference, they all agree to divide Germany into four zones. The US, USSR, Great Britain, and France will each get a zone. This also led to the division of Berlin. The Yalta conference left Berlin and Germany divided until the end of the Cold War.

Usually walls are put into places to avoid people to cross borders and keep peace but they destroy peace. Recently one could have heard in the News that Trump wants the Mexicans to pay for a wall between Mexico and the United States. This Wall should make it impossible for people to cross the border unofficially. As one could know from history classes, we had a wall in Germany for many years which was built by the winner countries of the second world war for a similar reason. Before the Wall, many people from East Germany tried to escape to West Germany where they had obviously better living conditions. It divided Germany in East and West Germany. Additionally, there was a part of Berlin, what was in the East German part, isolated from a huge wall that belonged to West Germany. This wall made it hard for the citizens of East Germany to visit West Germany. The Government of East Germany had other principles than the government of West Germany and it was not in the interest of the East German government to show their citizens how good their life could be in West Germany. After the falling of the Wall, it was possible for everyone to travel in Germany whenever they want without standing in line at the borders. But there was a big gap in wealth between East and West Germany. Even today the loans in West Germany are lower and the federal states have less money than the ones in West Germany. But in Berlin, one can visit ruins of the Berlin Wall which are colored and painted. As one could know from visiting Berlin, there is only a small part of the Wall left but at other parts, one could find the position of the wall with marked flagging on the ground. Additionally, one could buy a piece of the wall as a souvenir. Standing in front of the ruins of the Berlin wall inspires this realization: Peace is about breaking barriers not building them.

When World War ll ended and the Allied powers came out victorious against Germany, the Allies had to decide what to do with the country. The allies withheld their decisions at the Yalta and Postdam conferences, and determined that they would split Germany up into four zones between the United States, Soviet Union, France, and Britain. Because of Germany splitting up into four different zones, the Yalta and Postdam conferences also contributed to the division of

Soviet foreign policy. In February of 1945, at the Yalta Conference held in Russia, the Soviets proposed German reparations of $20,000,000,000 be paid, half of which would go to the Soviets. This was a number that was scoffed at by the Grand Alliance. It was evident that Soviet policy intended to spread communism throughout war-ridden Europe, especially through their reparation demands. Tensions rose at the Potsdam Conference regarding Soviet behavior in Germany at the war’s end, a working paper of United States delegation stated “Payment of reparations should leave sufficient resources to enable the German people to subsist without external assistance… all these removals were in complete violation of all efforts to maintain ‘non-war potential’ industries in Germany… What we saw amounts to organized vandalism directed not alone against Germany, but against US forces of occupation” Stalin’s policy on Germany was simply to make sure they never posed a threat to Soviet existence again by burying them while they were down post-war. A classic battle for the future of German ideology existed, communism vs. democracy, Stalin vs. Truman.

The allies did liberated large parts of Western Europe and recreated democratic nations. This divide Europe into two blocks and each occupied by armies America and the Allies and in the east Russia. The United States wanted a democratic Europe and Russia wanting a communist Europe. The difference was added fear of the Soviet invasion in the West and Russians fear of the atomic bomb. There was also fear of economic collapse in the west versus fear of economic domination by the west. This lead to the clash of ideologies; capitalism versus communist. The Soviet feared a rearmed Germany hostile to Russia. Churchill described the dividing the lines between East and West Germany as an Iron Curtain.

The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. The goals of the conference also included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war. In the five months since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would greatly affect the relationships between the leaders. The Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe and Stalin claimed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence. Roosevelt had dismissed warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in Europe, however, his successor Harry S. Truman became increasingly suspicious of Soviet intentions under Stalin. The Potsdam Conference marks the first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in person.

During these three conferences, there were many different outcomes that were caused by the agreements of the Big Three leaders, but there were certain outcomes that easily stand out. The first of the main outcomes would consist of the free elections and free governments that were supposed to be established, although this often is not what would actually happen. The biggest case of this was agreed upon in 1945 at the Yalta Conference where Churchill pushed for free elections and free governments in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically Poland, while Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of influence in these Eastern and Central European regions (The Yalta Conference, 1945). Poland was the first item on Stalin’s political agenda, where Stalin believed that poland was a question of honor because poland had served as a historical blockade for forces attempting to invade Russia. Stalin demanded that he would keep the territory of Eastern Poland that they had already annexed in 1939. Meanwhile, Poland would be compensated for this by extending their borders western at the expense of Germany. Agreeing with his prior statement, Stalin promised free elections in Poland despite the Soviet government recently installed by

At Casablanca,Yalta and Potsdam, one fact that linked the Allies and the USSR together was a common enemy, Nazi Germany. As a matter of fact, Stalin was not welcomed to Casablanca which expanded his conviction that the Allies were arranging things in the face of his good faith. The Casablanca meeting just concerned the West European front, so there was no compelling reason to welcome Stalin. Anyhow, Stalin misinterpreted this in an unexpected way. The three war leaders Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta in February 1945. They concurred that the general population liberated from Nazi’s ideology in Europe ought to be permitted to set up their own law based and independent governments, and Germany ought to be isolated into four zones

The Crisis was an immediate result of the differences between the Allies and the Soviet Union’s policies and ideas of what to do with Germany and how to handle the newly divided sections of Berlin. These problems were never successfully addressed at the July 1945, Potsdam Conference. “Not only was there a lack of consistency in the political leadership and policymaking among the British and the Americans, occupation policy on the ground also confronted unforeseen challenges” (“The Berlin Airlift”). The westerns were forced into fighting against the Soviets and the

In November 1989, the lives of almost half a billion people throughout Eastern and parts of Western Europe drastically and completely changed. This month marked the beginning of the two-year demolition of the “Iron Curtain” that descended across the continent and the thawing of the Cold War that waged between the world’s two rival superpowers. The fall of the Berlin Wall not only marked the reunification of Germany after 28 years but, also, the reunification of all of Europe after almost three entire, long decades. Out of the nine original countries that comprised the Eastern bloc and were effectively separated from the Western world by the “Iron Curtain,” all but one later sought membership in the European Union. Since

McCauly argues that this was the most significant cause of conflict between the allies, as he recognises that ‘the intractable problem of Poland weighed heavily on Roosevelt’s mind’ . This is as Roosevelt was aware of what Poland meant to the Soviets in terms of security, and wanted to pro-long good relations as the USA was wanting support in the Pacific. However, the USA was unwilling to accept Soviet demands which were made under the Nazi-Soviet pact. Though the USA were willing to make compromise’s to keep the Soviets pleased Britain were less willing for Poland to turn to Soviet control. This is as Britain joined the war to protect Poland, therefore wanted the country to re-attain its freedom. However, as argued by Phillips ‘Poland had been the route of the three invasions of Russia... The Soviet Union was not prepared to see an unfriendly government’ . Starlin refused to aid the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 which highlights how crucial Starlin saw Poland to the security of the Soviets, and made it clear that he was willing to take any measures to ensure the attainment of the country. Due to the complexity of the situation he allies were only able to reach an agreement through ambiguous compromises. This is as they were unable to reach a direct conclusion, due to the complex nature. However, this argument is significantly weakened by contrary evidence that suggests that Europe was not highly significant in the rise of tension. This is as the Percentages agreement brought Britain and the USSR together to decide a future for Europe. It can be seen in this agreement that arguable Churchill recognised that Russian control over Europe was preventable. Williamson argues that the West’s choice to open up the Second Front in France rather than the Balkans, meant that the USSR would liberate Eastern Europe, which would offer the opportunity to turn the region into being under

Respectively, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt demanded Germany’s unconditional surrender and began proposing plans for what was to planned post war. The agreement proposed that Germany be divided into four zones, occupied by the Allied powers and France. In addition, Joseph Stalin told Roosevelt that the Soviets would assist in the war against Japan within a few months after the collapse of Germany, desiring no reparations from Japan, that he would support the Government of Chiang Kai-shek against the Japanese, and that he wished to obtain the valuables the Japanese had taken from the Russians. The agreements made at the Yalta Conference were approved and to be executed as planned. The Yalta Conference proved to be controversial after Joseph Stalin violated the agreements set forth and installed dominating Soviet Union governments in Eastern Europe. In 1948, knowing the Americans and British would be outraged by his disobedience, Joseph Stalin mounted what became to be known as the Berlin

In 1945 the war had been fought on one side by the nations of Great Britain, USA and USSR, the members of the Grand Alliance achieved victory in WW2. It was more important than ever the victorious powers remained united as they faced the enormous task of reconstructing war torn Europe. However, as they sought to do this, their unity was already weakened by the existence of mistrust and suspicions between them. Despite the outward appearance of unity, these nations were fundamentally divided by their ideological rivalry which had already existed between them since 1917: the disagreements and strains they experienced; and

The Soviet Union was invited to the conference but did not attend. Many of the countries which the Allies were at war – Germany, Japan, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and Finland – were not invited and were not represented but it was the absence of the USSR which was mainly felt as the USSR represented the largest land territory of the world and were expected to play an important role in after-war arrangements. This negative attitude of the USSR was perhaps a sign of the “cold-war” mistrust and isolation and that the secretive USSR was not ready to open its air space to international cooperation. The official reason given for the non-participation though was that among the nations taking part in the conference, there were some countries like Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal which for a number of years have carried on a hostile policy towards the Soviet Union.