Abstract:

An important issue in US and Soviet postwar policies toward Germany was about German reparation. Over this issue, the US-Soviet relations went through a historical process from consultation and cooperation to disagreements and confrontation. At the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, the two governments reached an agreement on German reparation based on the principles of seeking their common ground while shelving their differences. When the World War II ended, the Soviets began to act unilaterally in eastern Germany, and the US-Soviet disputes over other issues also became intensified. Nevertheless, the two governments continued to pursue big-power cooperation and were able to adopt a common plan for German reparation in March 1946. Eventually, the plan was not implemented because the two sides could not overcome disagreements on basic orientations and policy goals in enforcing German reparation. In April 1947, at the conference of foreign ministers in Moscow, the US and the Soviet governments parted their ways over the reparation issue. In the end of the year, the conference of foreign ministers in London decisively ended an allied common approach to the reparation issue. The Soviet occupation policy in Germany focused on obtaining war reparations. The origin of Germany’s division was the US-Soviet split over the reparation issue. The US-Soviet disagreement over an occupation policy in Germany also began with the reparation issue.

Key words: war reparation, occupation of Germany, US- Soviet relations, cause of the Cold War