Key Points

 The German Instrument of Surrender ended World War II in Europe on the night of May 8, 1945.
 The terms of Germany’s unconditional surrender had been discussed since January 1944 and
further clarified at the Yalta conference. They established, among other things, that the Allied
Representatives “will take such steps, including the complete disarmament, demilitarisation and
dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security.”
 The surrender of Japan was announced by Imperial Japan on August 15 and formally signed on
September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close.
 Their terms of surrender included disarmament and occupation by Allied forces.
 The terms of Italy’s defeat were determined during the Paris Peace Conference in 1947, and
included limits on their military and a ban on all fascist organizations.

Key Terms

 Potsdam Declaration: A statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces
during World War II.
 unconditional surrender: A surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering
party.
 Paris Peace Treaties: A series of document wherein victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated
the details of peace treaties with minor Axis powers, namely Italy (though it was considered a
major Axis Power), Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland, following the end of World War II
in 1945.
 German Instrument of Surrender: The legal document that established the unconditional
surrender of Germany in World War II.

Surrender of Germany

The German Instrument of Surrender ended World War II in Europe. The definitive text was signed in
Karlshorst, Berlin on the night of May 8, 1945 by representatives of the three armed services of
the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and the Allied Expeditionary Force together with the
Supreme High Command of the Red Army, with further French and U.S. representatives signing as
witnesses. An earlier version of the text was signed in a ceremony in Reims in the early hours of May 7,

1945, but the Soviets rejected that version as it underplayed their role in the defeat of Germany in Berlin.
In the West, May 8 is known as Victory in Europe Day, whereas in post-Soviet states the Victory Day is
celebrated on May 9 since the definitive signing occurred after midnight Moscow time.

Preparations of the text of the instrument of surrender began by representatives of the then three Allied
Powers, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, at the European Advisory Commission
(EAC) throughout 1944. By January 3, 1944, the Working Security Committee in the EAC proposed,
“that the capitulation of Germany should be recorded in a single document of unconditional surrender.”

The agreed text was in three parts. The first consisted of a brief preamble “The German Government and
German High Command, recognizing and acknowledging the complete defeat of the German armed
forces on land, at sea and in the air, hereby announce Germany’s unconditional surrender.”
The instrument of surrender itself followed in fourteen articles. The second part, articles 1-5, related to
the military surrender by the German High Command of all forces on land, at sea, and in the air, to the
surrender of their weapons, to their evacuation from any territory outside German boundaries by
December 31, 1937, and to their liability to captivity as prisoners of war. The third part, articles 6 to 12,
related to the surrender by the German Government to Allied Representatives of almost all its powers and
authority, the release and repatriation of prisoners and forced laborers, the cessation of radio broadcasts,
the provision of intelligence and information, the non-destruction of weapons and infrastructure, the
yielding of Nazi leaders for war-crime trials, and the power of Allied Representatives to issue
proclamations, orders, ordinances, and instructions covering “additional political, administrative,
economic, financial, military and other requirements arising from the complete defeat of Germany.” The
key article in the third part was article 12, providing that the German Government and German High
command would comply fully with any proclamations, orders, ordinances, and instructions of the
accredited Allied Representatives; this was understood by the Allies as allowing unlimited scope to
impose arrangements for the restitution and reparation of war damages. Articles 13 and 14 specified the
date of surrender and the languages of the definitive texts.

The Yalta Conference in February 1945 led to a further development of the terms of surrender, as it
was agreed that administration of post-war Germany would be split into four occupation zones for
Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union respectively. In addition, but separately, it was
agreed at Yalta that an additional clause 12a would be added to the July 1944 surrender text: that the
Allied Representatives “will take such steps, including the complete disarmament, demilitarisation and
dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security.”

In the event of the German signings of Instruments of Surrender at Reims and Berlin, the EAC text was
not used; a simplified, military-only version, based largely on the wording of the partial surrender
instrument of German forces in Italy signed at Caserta, was applied instead. The reasons for the change
are disputed, but it may reflect awareness of reservations as to the capability of the German signatories to
agree the provisions of the full text.

With the Potsdam Agreement, signed on August 12, 1945, the Allied leaders planned the new post-war
German government, resettled war territory boundaries, de facto annexed a quarter of prewar Germany
situated east of the Oder-Neisse line, and mandated and organized the expulsion of the millions of
Germans who remained in the annexed territories and elsewhere in the east. They also ordered German
demilitarization, denazification, industrial disarmament, and settlements of war reparations.

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan was announced by Imperial Japan on August 15 and formally signed on
September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the
Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting major operations, and an Allied invasion of Japan
was imminent. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the
unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the
alternative being “prompt and utter destruction.”

On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. local time, the U.S. detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of
Hiroshima. Sixteen hours later, American President Harry S. Truman called again for Japan’s surrender,
warning them to “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”
Late in the evening of August 8, 1945, in accordance with the Yalta agreements but in violation of the
Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and soon after midnight on
August 9, 1945, invaded the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Later in the day, the U.S.
dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Following these events,
Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War to accept the
terms the Allies had set down in the Potsdam Declaration for ending the war. After several more days of
behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup d’état, Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded radio address
across the Empire on August 15. In the radio address, called the Jewel Voice Broadcast, he announced the
surrender of Japan to the Allies.

The term for Japan’s surrender were decided at the Potsdam Conference. On July 26 1945, the United
States, Britain, and China released the Potsdam Declaration announcing the terms for Japan’s surrender,
with the warning, “We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.”
For Japan, the terms of the declaration specified:

 the elimination “for all time [of] the authority and influence of those who have deceived and
misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest”
 the occupation of “points in Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies”
 that the “Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū,
Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.” As had been announced in the Cairo
Declaration in 1943, Japan was to be reduced to her pre-1894 territory and stripped of her prewar
empire including Korea and Taiwan, as well as all her recent conquests.
 that “[t]he Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return
to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.”
 that “[w]e do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but
stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties
upon our prisoners.”
 “The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of
democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought,
as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established.”
 “We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all
Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such
action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.”

On August 28, the occupation of Japan by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers began. The
surrender ceremony was held on September 2 aboard the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri, at
which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, thereby
ending the hostilities.

Terms of Peace with Italy

The Treaty of Peace with Italy (one of the Paris Peace Treaties) was signed on February 10, 1947 between
Italy and the victorious powers of World War II, formally ending hostilities. It came into general effect on
September 15, 1947.

Articles 47 and 48 called for the demolition of all permanent fortifications along the Franco-Italian and
Yugoslav-Italian frontier. Italy was banned from possessing, building, or experimenting with atomic
weapons, guided missiles, guns with a range of over 30 km, non-contact naval mines and torpedoes as
well as manned torpedoes (article 51).
The military of Italy was limited in size. Italy was allowed a maximum of 200 heavy and medium tanks
(article 54). Former officers and non-commissioned officers of the Blackshirts and the National
Republican Army were barred from becoming officers or non-commissioned officers in the Italian
military (except those exonerated by the Italian courts, article 55).

The Italian navy was reduced. Some warships were awarded to the governments of the Soviet Union, the
United States, the United Kingdom and France (articles 56 and 57). Italy was ordered to scuttle all its
submarines (article 58) and banned from acquiring new battleships, submarines, and aircraft carriers
(article 59). The navy was limited to a maximum force of 25,000 personnel (article 60). The Italian army
was limited to a size of 185,000 personnel plus 65,000 Carabinieri for a maximum total of 250,000
personnel (article 61). The Italian air force was limited to 200 fighters and reconnaissance aircraft plus
150 transport, air-rescue, training, and liaison aircraft, and was banned from owning and operating
bomber aircraft (article 64). The number of air force personnel was limited to 25,000 (article 65).

Article 17 of the treaty banned Fascist organizations (“whether political, military, or semi-military”) in
Italy.

Casualties of World War II

Some 75 million people died in World War II, including about 20 million military personnel and 40
million civilians, many of whom died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings,
disease, and starvation.

The Atlantic Charter:

 The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement issued on August 14, 1941, that defined the
Allied goals for the post-war world, including self-determination for nations and economic and
social cooperation among nations.
 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt drafted the
Atlantic Charter at the Atlantic Conference in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland in 1941.
 Adherents of the Atlantic Charter signed the Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942;
it became the basis for the modern United Nations.
 In a September 1941 speech, Churchill stated that the Charter was only meant to apply to states
under German occupation and not to people who formed part of the British Empire, a statement
which became controversial and resulted in strong pushback from figures such as Gandhi.

Key Terms

 United Nations: An intergovernmental organization to promote international cooperation. A

 The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of an era defined by the decline of the old great
powers and the rise of two superpowers: the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States of
America (U.S.), who soon entered the Cold War.
 The Allies established occupation administrations in Germany, divided into western and eastern
occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR accordingly.
 A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the
removal of ex-Nazis from power, along with a “industrial disarmament” of the German economy,
initially leading to economic stagnation.
 After a few years, the U.S. and the other Allied power rescinded on this attitude toward Germany
and instead focused on economic support.
 Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the
liberalization of European economic policy both directly and indirectly caused by the Marshall
Plan (1948–1951).

Key Terms

 German economic miracle: Also known as The Miracle on the Rhine, the rapid reconstruction
and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II.
 Marshall Plan: An American initiative to aid Western Europe in which the United States gave
more than $12 billion in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the
end of World War II.

Overview

The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of an era defined by the decline of the old great powers
and the rise of two superpowers: the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States of America (U.S.),
creating a bipolar world. Allied during World War II, the U.S. and USSR became competitors on the
world stage and engaged in the Cold War, so-called because it never boiled over into open war between
the two powers but was focused on espionage, political subversion, and proxy wars. Western Europe and
Japan were rebuilt through the American Marshall Plan whereas Eastern Europe fell in the Soviet sphere
of influence and rejected the plan. Europe was divided into a U.S.-led Western Bloc and a Soviet-led
Eastern Bloc.

As a consequence of the war, the Allies created the United Nations, a new global organization for
international cooperation and diplomacy. Members of the United Nations agreed to outlaw wars of
aggression to avoid a third world war. The devastated great powers of Western Europe formed the
European Coal and Steel Community, which later evolved into the European Common Market and
ultimately into the current European Union. This effort primarily began as an attempt to avoid another
war between Germany and France by economic cooperation and integration and as a common market for
important natural resources.

Occupation and Territory Reallocation

The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany. The former became a neutral
state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation
zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR accordingly. A denazification program in Germany
led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this
policy moved towards amnesty and reintegration of ex-Nazis into West German society.

Germany lost a quarter of its prewar (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark, and
most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland; East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR
and 9 million Germans expelled from these provinces; and 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in
Czechoslovakia to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The
Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line, from which 2 million Poles were
expelled; northeast Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the three Baltic states were also incorporated
into the USSR.

Economic Aftermath

By the end of the war, the European economy had collapsed and 70% of the industrial infrastructure was
destroyed. The property damage in the Soviet Union consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710
cities and towns, 70,000 villages, and 31,850 industrial establishments. The strength of the economic
recovery following the war varied throughout the world, though in general it was quite robust. In Europe,
West Germany declined economically during the first years of the Allied occupation but later experienced
a remarkable recovery, and had by the end of the 1950s doubled production from its prewar levels. Italy
came out of the war in poor economic condition, but by the 1950s, the Italian economy was marked by
stability and high growth. France rebounded quickly and enjoyed rapid economic growth and
modernization under the Monnet Plan. The UK, by contrast, was in a state of economic ruin after the war
and continued to experience relative economic decline for decades to follow.

The U.S. emerged much richer than any other nation and dominated the world economy; it had a baby
boom and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other
powers. The UK and US pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany in the years
1945–1948. International trade interdependencies thus led to European economic stagnation and delayed
the continent’s recovery for several years.

U.S. policy in post-war Germany from April 1945 until July 1947 was to give the Germans no help in
rebuilding their nation, save for the minimum required to mitigate starvation. The Allies’ immediate post-
war “industrial disarmament” plan for Germany was to destroy Germany’s capability to wage war by
complete or partial deindustrialization. The first industrial plan for Germany, signed in 1946, required the
destruction of 1,500 manufacturing plants to lower heavy industry output to roughly 50% of its 1938
level. Dismantling of West German industry ended in 1951. By 1950, equipment had been removed from
706 manufacturing plants and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6.7 million tons.

After lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Generals Lucius D. Clay and George Marshall, the
Truman administration accepted that economic recovery in Europe could not go forward without the
reconstruction of the German industrial base on which it had previously been dependent. In July 1947,
President Truman rescinded on “national security grounds” the directive that ordered the U.S. occupation
forces to “take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany.” A new directive
recognized that “[a]n orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and
productive Germany.”

Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany and was sped up by the
liberalization of European economic policy that the Marshall Plan (1948–1951) both directly and
indirectly caused. The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle.
Overview

The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in
1945. The USSR consolidated its control over the states of the Eastern Bloc, while the United States
began a strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power, extending military and financial aid to
the countries of Western Europe. An important moment in the development of America’s initial Cold War
strategy was the delivery of the “Long Telegram” sent from Moscow by American diplomat George
Kennan in 1946.

Kennan’s “Long Telegram” and the subsequent 1947 article “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” argued that
the Soviet regime was inherently expansionist and that its influence had to be “contained” in areas of vital
strategic importance to the United States. These texts provided justification for the Truman
administration’s new anti-Soviet policy. Kennan played a major role in the development of definitive
Cold War programs and institutions, notably the Marshall Plan.

The “Long Telegram”

In Moscow, Kennan felt his opinions were being ignored by Harry S. Truman and policymakers in
Washington. Kennan tried repeatedly to persuade policymakers to abandon plans for cooperation with the
Soviet government in favor of a sphere of influence policy in Europe to reduce the Soviets’ power there.
Kennan believed that a federation needed to be established in western Europe to counter Soviet influence
in the region and compete against the Soviet stronghold in eastern Europe.

Kennan served as deputy head of the mission in Moscow until April 1946. Near the end of that term, the
Treasury Department requested that the State Department explain recent Soviet behavior, such as its
disinclination to endorse the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Kennan responded on
February 22, 1946, by sending a 5,500-word telegram (sometimes cited as more than 8,000 words) from
Moscow to Secretary of State James Byrnes outlining a new strategy for diplomatic relations with the
Soviet Union.

Kennan described dealing with Soviet Communism as “undoubtedly the greatest task our diplomacy has
ever faced and probably the greatest it will ever have to face.” In the first two sections, he posited
concepts that became the foundation of American Cold War policy: The USSR perceived itself at
perpetual war with capitalism. The USSR viewed left-wing, but non-communist, groups in other countries
as an even worse enemy than the capitalist ones.

The USSR would use controllable Marxists in the capitalist world as allies.

Soviet aggression was fundamentally not aligned with the views of the Russian people or with economic
reality, but rooted in historic Russian nationalism and neurosis.

The Soviet government’s structure inhibited objective or accurate pictures of internal and external reality.

According to Kennan, the Soviet Union did not see the possibility for long-term peaceful coexistence
with the capitalist world; its ever-present aim was to advance the socialist cause. Capitalism was a
menace to the ideals of socialism, and capitalists could not be trusted or allowed to influence the Soviet
people. Outright conflict was never ca desirable avenue for the propagation of the Soviet cause, but their
eyes and ears were always open for the opportunity to take advantage of “diseased tissue” anywhere in
the world.

In Section Five, Kennan exposited Soviet weaknesses and proposed U.S. strategy, stating that despite the
great challenge, “my conviction that problem is within our power to solve—and that without recourse to
any general military conflict.” He argued that the Soviet Union would be sensitive to force, that the
Soviets were weak compared to the united Western world, that the Soviets were vulnerable to internal
instability, and that Soviet propaganda was primarily negative and destructive.

The solution was to strengthen Western institutions in order to render them invulnerable to the Soviet
challenge while awaiting the mellowing of the Soviet regime.

The Iron Curtain formed the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of
World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet
Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled
areas. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries connected to or influenced by the Soviet
Union. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military
alliances:

Member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet
Union as the leading state

Member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with the United States as the
preeminent power

Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the
middle of the continent. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its “Checkpoint
Charlie,” which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole.

Background

The antagonism between the Soviet Union and the West that came to be described as the “iron curtain”
had various origins.

The Allied Powers and the Central Powers backed the White movement against the Bolsheviks during the
1918–1920 Russian Civil War, a fact not forgotten by the Soviets.

A series of events during and after World War II exacerbated tensions, including the Soviet-German pact
during the first two years of the war leading to subsequent invasions, the perceived delay of an
amphibious invasion of German-occupied Europe, the western Allies’ support of the Atlantic Charter,
disagreement in wartime conferences over the fate of Eastern Europe, the Soviets’ creation of an Eastern
Bloc of Soviet satellite states, western Allies scrapping the Morgenthau Plan to support the rebuilding of
German industry, and the Marshall Plan.
In the course of World War II, Stalin determined to acquire a buffer area against Germany, with pro-
Soviet states on its border in an Eastern bloc. Stalin’s aims led to strained relations at the Yalta
Conference (February 1945) and the subsequent Potsdam Conference (August 1945). People in the West
expressed opposition to Soviet domination over the buffer states, leading to growing fear that the Soviets
were building an empire that might threaten them and their interests.

Nonetheless, at the Potsdam Conference, the Allies assigned parts of Poland, Finland, Romania,
Germany, and the Balkans to Soviet control or influence. In return, Stalin promised the Western Allies he
would allow those territories the right to national self-determination. Despite Soviet cooperation during
the war, these concessions left many in the West uneasy. In particular, Churchill feared that the United
States might return to its prewar isolationism, leaving the exhausted European states unable to resist
Soviet demands.

Iron Curtain Speech

Winston Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” address of March 5, 1946, at Westminster College, used the term
“iron curtain” in the context of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe:

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an “Iron Curtain” has descended across the continent.
Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin,
Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations
around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only
to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.

Churchill mentioned in his speech that regions under the Soviet Union’s control were expanding their
leverage and power without any restriction. He asserted that to put a brake on this phenomenon, the
commanding force of and strong unity between the UK and the U.S. was necessary.

Much of the Western public still regarded the Soviet Union as a close ally in the context of the recent
defeat of Nazi Germany and of Japan. Although not well received at the time, the phrase iron curtain
gained popularity as a shorthand reference to the division of Europe as the Cold War strengthened. The
Iron Curtain served to keep people in and information out, and people throughout the West eventually
came to accept the metaphor.