YALTA – FEB. 1945
Stalin wants: - a buffer to protect the Soviet Union from West by
establishing pro-Soviet governments in Eastern Europe
• FDR wants: -“self-determination” – allow liberated countries
to hold free elections -Soviet military help against Japan -Creation of the United Nations
AND MORE…
• All 3 want:
-Germany’s unconditional surrender
-Germany would be divided into 4 zones – occupied and governed by military forces from the U.S. , Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union
OUTCOME…
• Stalin agrees to free-elections in Poland, but the issue of elections in Eastern Europe cause a split between Soviets & U.S.
• Stalin’s price for military help in Japan – the Sakhalin & Kuril Islands, plus 2 ports
and railroad rights in Manchuria* Creation of United Nations 1st meeting in
San Francisco April 1945
THE POTSDAM CONFERENCEJuly 1945
• Truman demands free elections
• Stalin declares that free elections in any Eastern Europe country were anti-Soviet and would not be allowed
NUREMBERG TRIALS1945-1949
• 22 Nazi political, military, & economic war criminals are put on trial for “crimes against humanity”
• Only 3 are acquitted• 11 of the guilty will be sentenced for execution by
hanging• The rest will receive 10yrs.- life• The bodies of the executed will be cremated in the ovens at Dachau
THE IRON CURTAIN
• West views Soviet policy as part of a global Communist conspiracy
• Soviets views Western (esp. U.S.) policy as global capitalist expansionism
• March 1946 – Winston Churchill declared “an iron curtain” had “descended across the continent” – The “Cold War” had begun
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