To What Extent Was the United States of America Responsible for the Collapse of the Grand Alliance?

Topics: Cold War, World War II, Soviet Union Pages: 5 (1717 words) Published: March 3, 2013
To what extent was the United States of America responsible for the collapse of the Grand Alliance?

A capitalist state, a Communist state and a colonial power all joined power during World War II and formed the Grand Alliance. The United Stated which was led by Franklin Roosevelt, the Soviet Union which was led by Joseph Stalin and Great Britain which was led by Winston Churchill united powers as they all shared one main objective. The three leaders were famously known as the big three, they all agreed on the common understanding that defeating Hitler was vital for national security and World peace. The Grand Alliance was the result of Adolf Hitler’s reign over Germany. His growing power, rising popularity and controlling authoritative threated many countries particularly Great Britain, the United States and the USSR and as a result the three main powers joined forces in order to avert Hitler from occupying ,controlling many more countries and expand the Nazi ‘sphere of influence’. Relations amongst the superpowers were fairly good as the three leaders were preoccupied with the aim of defeating Hitler; however mistrust, suspicion and dishonesty ascended hastily. The war resulted in the death of 26,000,000 Soviet Union which made Stalin determined to prevent such loss and damage in the upcoming future. Stalin was determined to build a buffer zone against further German attacks as he had very little trust in the West. Moreover, in 1938 Britain and France had rejected an offer of an alliance with the Soviet Union. Although this was before the Grand Alliance was recognised, the rejection did not improve the coldness of their relations. The Yalta Conference, which took place in February 1945, witnessed the beginning of clash of ideologies. Yalta was the first cause of disagreement between the two great powers represented by the United States and the Soviet Union. They agreed to divide Germany into four zones where each one would be occupied by one of the four allies. They also agreed to further divide Berlin into four zones. They all approved of joining the United Nations Organization and this would aim to keep peace after the War. Punishing War criminals who were responsible for the genocide were also one of their priorities. Several more agreements were concluded; however the only real disagreement was about Poland. Stalin wanted the border of the USSR to move Westwards into Poland; however neither Churchill nor Roosevelt were particularly keen about Stalin’s request but they negotiated that as long as the USSR agreed not to interfere in Greece where the British were attempting to prevent Communism taking over then his demand would be accepted. This shows that although there was a clash of ideologies, the Big Three were still able to negotiate and come to a settlement with one another. On the 17th of July 1945, the Allied leaders met at Potsdam, this conference witnessed the trailer of what later became a cold war. Expectedly, the conference did not go as smoothly as Yalta. Relations got frostier. To further increase the tension which already existed between the superpowers, on the 12th of April, President Roosevelt dies and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Truman made it clear that he was much more ant-communist than Roosevelt and was very suspicious of Stalin. He believed that the soviet’s intention was to invade for whole of Europe. After a general election in Britain, Churchill was succeeded my Clement Attlee. Churchill’s absence did not soothe the bitter relationship between Stalin and Truman. The conference at Potsdam was dominated by suspicious and mistrust between Truman and Stalin. The disagreed over reparations, 26 million Russians died during the war and as a result Stalin demanded compensation from Germany. Truman wanted the USSR to allow free elections in the countries of Eastern Europe which had been occupied after the end of the war; however the UUSR objected to his demand. Furthermore, Stalin...
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