Summary
Summary Grand Alliance ESSAY
Summary of 5 pages for the course Cold War at AQA (Level 4 Essay 18/25)
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To what extent was the United States responsible for the collapse of the grand alliance afterWW2?
Intro:
Define – Summarise what the question is (act as if the title isn’t there)
Outline
State
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
, the Communist states in Europe, ensure that the Satellite states of the Soviet Union were
members, ensure all member states implement Soviet Style Communism and finally, only
allow trade with Cominform members. However to deem the USA as mainly responsible for
the collapse of the grand alliance is an overunderstatement as it was the Greek civil war and
Stalins ‘revolutions without permission’ causing Truman to retaliate with the Truman
doctrine fearing turkey and Greek and soviet surrounding boarder may become communist.
thus causing the grand alliance to collapse. Whilst the the USA reforms had been a factor in
the collapse of the grand alliance they cannot be deemed wholly responsible for collapse off
the grand alliance due to Stalins revolution without permission but also the importance of
the Greek civi war
It is wrong suggest, as many historians do Stalin was primarily concerned with Soviet
security issue at the end of Second of World War. This is because the loss incurred in WW2
of 27 million soldiers, 40k villages had caused Stalin to be paranoid in wanting to protect the
border. To do so he wanted to build a buffer state which cause mistrust to be built with
Stalin breaking the agreement in relation to the Declaration of Independent Europe thus
rejecting the ideology of the us and rigging election with the implementation of ‘fellow
travellers which can be seen with Groza winning 88% in Dec 1946. These instance of rigging
elections and breaking agreement had caused tension in involved with fears arising that
USSR influence may expand to the west and thus implemented Truman containment policy.
However, it could be argued these instances of ‘revolution without permission’ could be as a
result of US Atomic monopoly causing fears to arise with Stalin in a future invasion and by
having a buffer state would reduce the damage like what happened in WW2. Therefore, it
cannot be denied that the USSR had a role in breaking down of relations however their
actions in Eastern Europe was as a result of a fear of a future invasion for the USA due to the
atomic diplomacy.
In the final analysis, whilst both superpowers' actions played an apart in the collapse of the
grand alliance, the us actions over post World War had been a major reason with ideological
difference clashing with both superpowers overarching aims in a post-world war as seen
with the issue revolved with Germany. However, Truman’s iron fist policies in order to
contain communism with the Marshall plan causing tension to boil in Stalin having to reject
and having to form cominform and Comecon. However, it is important to remember the
actions of the USSR in their aggressive expansionism ignoring what was agreed in Potsdam
and but this may have been due to security reasons in fearing a future invasion with the us
having the atomic monopoly and by having a buffer state protect the ussr much more.
Therefore, the us was mostly responsible for the collapse of the grand alliance.
In conclusion, whilst x argument is this and this is the evidence I have to support it, this is
overshadowed by the argument I agree with (argument Y) due to this evidence. Overall,
(agree or disagree with the topic sentence).
Questions that are more of a statement:
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