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Differences in Yalta
In February 1945, Roosevelt met with Stalin and Churchill at Yalta to work out the future of Germany and Poland. They agreed on the division of Germany into American, British, French, and Soviet occupation zones. (Later, the American, British, and French zones were combined to create West Germany. The Soviet zone became East Germany.) Roosevelt and Churchill rejected Stalin's demand that Germany pay the Soviet Union $20 billion in war damages. -
Truman takes Command
just two weeks before the UN's first meeting, the President died while vacationing at Warm Springs, Georgia. Although he was in poor health and noticeably tired, his unexpected death shocked the nation. No one was more surprised than Vice President Harry S Truman, who suddenly found himself President. -
Potsdam Conference
Truman's first meeting with Stalin occurred in July 1945 in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam. During the conference, Churchill was replaced by Clement Attlee, who had just won the British election. Thus, new representatives from Britain and the United States now faced off against Stalin. They continued to debate the issues that had divided them at Yalta, including the future of Germany and of Poland. Stalin renewed his demand for war payments from Germany, and Truman insisted on the promised Polish -
Finland and Yugoslavia
- In spite of the Soviet successes occurring all around them, two countries did manage to maintain a degree of independence from the Soviet Union. Finland signed a treaty of cooperation with the Soviets in 1948. The treaty required Finland to remain neut
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Berlin Airlift
One of the nations that benefited from the Marshall Plan was West Germany. By 1948, American, British, and French leaders had become convinced that Stalin was not going to allow the reunification of Germany. Therefore the Western Allies prepared to merge their three occupation zones to create a new nation, the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany. -
NATO
the international community looked to the United Nations to protect nations from invasion or destabilization by foreign governments, and to maintain world peace. However, the Soviet Union's frequent use of its veto power in the Security Council prevented the UN from effectively dealing with a number of postwar problems. Thus it became clear that Western Europe would have to look beyond the UN for protection from Soviet aggression. -
The Soviet Atomic Threat
Truman told reporters in September 1949. “We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the USSR,”
