Big Three Allies Essay

In WWII the Big Three Allies were the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain. The leaders of this alliance, known as the Grand Alliance, were Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill. These leaders believed in the denazification of Europe after the war, so that all traces of Nazism would be destroyed and children would be taught new values. The allies met in Tehran, Iran in November 1943 to discuss future of the war, specifically their final attack on Germany. At this meeting they also decided to divide Germany and that Soviets would liberate Eastern Europe. (712) Stalin was suspicious of western powers so he desired Eastern Europe as a buffer to protect the Soviet Union and also for its resources and military advantages.

In February 1945, the

allies met again in Yalta, Russia and agreed that Europe would be allowed to freely elect their governments after the war. There they also agreed to form the United Nations. Roosevelt wanted to form the United Nations so that the nations would not be hostile to each other after the war. Territories were also divided up between the nations at this meeting. The land divisions went as follows: Russia gained east Poland, and Germany was divided up between the United States, Brittan, France and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union occupied East Germany and the other three countries divided the west. After the war, the USSR also occupied Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and Poland. Lastly, during this conference the leaders set German reparations at 20 billion dollars (713).
In July of 1945 the allies met once again, this time in Potsdam, Germany.

United States’ president Roosevelt had died April 1945, so his successor Harry Truman attended this meeting. Truman demanded immediate free elections for countries in Eastern Europe, but Stalin refused. He justified his view by saying that free-elections would be anti-Soviet and therefore threaten his government. (713) Distrust between the east and west came about because Westerners viewed Soviet policy as a conspiracy for world-wide communism. While Soviets viewed Western policy as a plot for global capitalism.(713) The Allies’ only truly common goal was the end of Nazism and once this had been achieved many disagreements arose, thus the beginning of the Cold

War.(712)
In 1946 the British prime-minister, Winston Churchill, made a famous speech at Westminster College in Fulton, MO about Soviet rule in Eastern Europe. He stated that an “iron curtain” had divided east and west Europe into two hostile groups. Stalin called the speech a call to war with the Soviet Union. Luckily he was wrong, the United States and its people were exhausted and had no plans for war. (724)
Between 1945 and 1947 the Soviet Union had firmly established Communist governments in East Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Hungary.

Czechoslovakia was not Communist until 1948, because it was a county deeply rooted in democratic government. These countries under Soviet control were often referred to as Soviet Satellites. (723) Yugoslavia was the only exception to the Soviet Dominance in Eastern Europe. General Josip Broz, also known as Tito, led Yugoslavia’s resistance against Nazi’s. After the war he “set out to establish an independent Communist State”. Stalin intended to take control of Yugoslavia, like he did with the rest of Western Europe but Tito refused. Yugoslavia joined neither NATO nor Warsaw pacts. After Stalin’s death Tito joined the Soviet bloc.

(723)
The United States aided Western Europe in its recovery after WWII but, Eastern Europe was left in the hands of the Soviet Union. President Truman feared Soviet expansion into the east Mediterranean and so he responded the Truman Doctrine. It was established in March of 1947 to aid Greece and Turkey against the USSR and Congress invested about $400,000 in aid.
Later that same year the Marshall Plan, also called the European Recovery Program, was established by Secretary of State George C. Marshall to rebuild Europe’s post-war economy. It originally included nations that were under Soviet Control, but they did not receive benefits because Stalin rejected the plan. He called it “Yankee Imperialism”, believing that it was a shady way of buying European countries’ support. As a result, no Eastern European nations were able to take advantage of it. The plan ended up investing $13 billion dollars in the rebuilding of Western Europe.(724)