How was the end of WWII and reaction to the past?
The war that raged in the Pacific and in Europe was only one of
many conflicts being waged in the early 1940's. Another conflict was
taking place between the allies themselves. Not a war but a
competition. America and England recognized that the Communist Soviet
Union was going to be a major force in world politics and were very
concerned about what type of power Josef Stalin might wield. At the
same time Stalin was concerned about the power of the United States.
The jockeying for position in the new world order was the war within
the war.
|
War Goals
|
Prevent Soviet
Dominance
Get
Unconditional Surrender
Build
democracies in Germany and Japan
Avoid Future
World War
|
|
Wartime
conferences
|
1. Atlantic
Conference - 1940 - becomes basis of UN.
2. Tehran
Conference - 11/43 - agreement to open up 2nd
front.
3. Yalta
Conference - 10/44 - Stalin agrees to have free and open
elections in E, Europe
4. Potsdam
Conference - 7/45 - Stalin makes it clear that he will never
leave Eastern Europe or have democratic elections.
|
|
What
was the US plan for Europe and Japan after the war was
over?
|
1. We rebuilt
them so that in the future they would be allies and the
threat of war could be ended forever.
2. Marshall
Plan - aid offered to all democratic nations in
Europe.
3. MacArthur
Plan - rebuilt Japan, installed new democracy.
4. Creation of
the United Nations.
|
The Wartime Conferences
Atlantic
Charter
- 8/40
- Before the war
Roosevelt and Churchill met in secret on a ship in the
Atlantic.
- Signed the Atlantic
Charter stating the goals of the war:
no territorial expansion
- no territorial changes without permission of inhabitants
self determination
freer trade.
- cooperation to improve other nations.
- disarming of aggressor nations.
- The Atlantic Charter was eventually signed by 15 countries
including the Soviet Union and became the basis of the United
Nations.
Cairo
Conference
- 11/43
- Roosevelt,
Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek agreed that Korea would become
independent.
- Taiwan would be
returned to China from Japan.
Tehran
Conference
- 11/43
- Roosevelt and
Churchill assure Stalin a second front would be opened
soon.
Yalta
Conference
- 10/44
- Try German and
Japanese leaders as war criminals.
- Agreed to set up
the United Nations.
- Stalin agrees to
"free and unfettered" elections in Eastern
Europe.
Potsdam
Conference
- 7/45
- Stalin agrees to
enter the war against Japan after the war in Europe is
over.
- Stalin, Churchill
and Truman meet to discuss post war plans.
- Stalin makes it
clear that he will never leave Eastern Europe and that there will
never be democratic elections in Eastern Europe.
- Truman tells Stalin
we have developed a bomb of "enormous destructive power." Stalin
hardly responds.
- Germany divided into 4 zones.
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