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Summary AQA A LEVEL HISTORY 2R Essay
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AQA A LEVEL HISTORY 2R Essay L5 20+
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To what extent was the United States responsible for the collapse of the grand alliance afterWW2?
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The Grand alliance was a term given to the cooperative mutual assistance relationship
between the US, Britain and the USSR. Both the USA and the USSR were responsible for the
collapse of the grand alliance; however, it could be argued that the USA was mainly
responsible for the collapse due to ideological difference as well as Trumans iron fist policies
causing mistrust and tension to arise.
Ideological difference meant that the collapse of the grand alliance was inevitable as two
superpowers attempted co cooperatively operate in such close proximity. For example,
Kennan long telegram (Feb 1946) had concluded that communism was ‘impervious to the
logical of reason’ and no peaceful co-existence could exist in the long run. Whilst the
zhdanov doctrine (Sep 1947) and Clifford – Eilsey report (Sep 1946) Both concluded that
the world was separated into two camps split by ideology and that that this system could
never co-operate. This best can be summarised in the issue with Germany. With no clear
agreement being made in Potsdam in the solution of Germany had been confusing and
caused tension. With both superpowers having different goals in relation to Germany with
Stalin wanting heavy reparation on Germany in causing the gradual collapse of Germany
whilst USA had wanted Germany as powerhouse that us can exploit to boost their economy.
These underlying goals had caused mass tension to arise with neither superpower in
agreeing in either aims and instead of ignoring and focusing on their sectors. Therefore, it
could be argued the us was mainly responsible due to ideological difference meant co-
operation over issues would be difficult.
In addition, Truman’s adoption of the “iron-fist” policies cannot be overlooked as a factor
that supports that the US was responsible for the collapse of the Grand Alliance. Truman
began his new foreign policy of containment by adopting the Truman Doctrine on March
12th, 1947. It was heavily encouraged by George Kennan’s Long Telegram in Feb 1946, and
meant that the US gave $400 million in financial aid to Greece and Turkey to fight the
communist uprisings that had begun in 1945. Moreover, the US furthered its financial aid by
adopting the Marshall Plan in April 1948 which gave $13.5billion to 16 countries over 5
years. Truman’s policies of containment evidently created suspicion and mistrust from the
Soviet Union who viewed the US’ new foreign policy as aggressive as well as using their own
economic influence for their own imperialist aims. Consequently, this further limited
cooperation and intensified already existing hostilities between the East and West. As a
response to the Truman Doctrine, the Soviet Union set up the Cominform- (Communist
Information Bureau) in September 1947. The main aims of the organisation were to unite
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