They refused to allow reparations from their zones as they viewed the economic recovery of Germany as important to the stability of Central Europe. The US and Great Britain merged their zones and championed the idea of unification of all of Germany. In Germany however, the Eastern zone under Soviet occupation gradually evolved into a new Communist state: the German Democratic Republic. zones of occupation was meant to be only temporary. Division of GermanyĪt the end of the war, the division of Germany into Soviet, French, British, and U.S. Communist dictators, most of them loyal to Moscow, came to power in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Elections were held by the Soviets-as promised by Stalin at Yalta-but the results were manipulated in favor of Communist candidates. Satellite Statesĭistrust turned into hostility in 1946, as Soviet forces remained in occupation of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. By the time Truman told Stalin, the USSR was way on their way to make their own bomb. Stalin learned of the Manhattan Project through espionage and responded by starting the Soviet atomic program in 1943. Optimists hoped that these nations would be able to reach an agreement on international issues.įDR and Churchill decided that instead of informing their major ally of the developing atomic bomb, they kept it a closely guarded secret. The five major allies of wartime, the U.S., Great Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union were granted permanent seats and veto power in the UN Security Council. The General Assembly of the United Nations was created to provide representation to all member nations, while the 15-member Security Council was given the primary responsibility within the UN for maintaining international security and authorizing peacekeeping missions. The founding of the United Nations (UN) in 1945 provided a hopeful sign for the future. Superpower competition was usually through diplomacy and not through conflict, but in several instances, the Cold War took the world dangerously close to nuclear war. The conflict centered around the intense rivalry between two superpowers: the Communist empire of the Soviet Union and the leading Western democracy, the United States. The Cold War dominated international relations from the late 1940s to the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991.
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