Origins: ideology and the breakdown of the wartime alliance
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Question
What was the Grand Alliance?
Answer
The WWII partnership of the USA, USSR and Britain against Nazi Germany — a marriage of convenience, not a true friendship.
Question
Define a command economy.
Answer
An economy where the government, not the market, plans and controls what is produced and at what price. The USSR used one.
Question
Define a market economy.
Answer
An economy where prices and production are set by supply and demand, with private businesses owning factories and farms. The USA used one.
Question
Capitalism/democracy vs communism/one-party state — the core contrast?
Answer
USA: free elections, private ownership, market prices. USSR: one-party rule, state ownership, planned economy. Opposite in almost every way.
Question
Why did the delayed Second Front cause mistrust?
Answer
The West did not invade Western Europe until June 1944 (D-Day). Stalin suspected his allies let the USSR bleed while they waited.
Question
Why did the US atomic monopoly (1945) worry Stalin?
Answer
The USA alone had the bomb and used it on Japan without warning the USSR. Stalin saw it as a threat aimed at the Soviet Union too.
Question
What was Stalin's 'buffer zone'?
Answer
A belt of friendly, controlled states in Eastern Europe to shield the USSR from another invasion from the West.
Question
What was agreed at the Yalta Conference (Feb 1945)?
Answer
Leaders Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill agreed: a new UN, Germany split into four zones, free elections in liberated Europe, and USSR to fight Japan.
Question
Who attended the Potsdam Conference and what did they dispute?
Answer
Truman, Stalin and Attlee. They clashed over reparations, Poland's communist government and borders, and grew more distrustful after the atomic bomb.
Question
What was Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech (1946)?
Answer
At Fulton, Missouri, Churchill warned an 'iron curtain' had fallen across Europe, with Eastern nations under Soviet control.
Question
What was Kennan's 'Long Telegram' (1946)?
Answer
US diplomat George Kennan warned Moscow that the USSR was hostile and untrustworthy, and that the USA must firmly resist Soviet expansion.
Question
In one line, why did the Grand Alliance break down?
Answer
Opposite ideologies plus wartime mistrust (Second Front, the bomb, the buffer zone) split the allies once their shared enemy was gone.
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Full study notes for Origins: ideology and the breakdown of the wartime alliance
Topic 17.1 hub
Rivalry, mistrust and accord
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