ORIGINS OF THE COLD WARCH 26 SEC 1

U.S. VS. SOVIETSPrivate control

Democratic Elections

Competing political parties

State controlled all economic activity

Totalitarian gov’t

No opposing parties

UNITED NATIONS

April 25, 1945 representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to establish UN.

Charter signed on June 26, 1945.

POTSDAM

• Big Three: U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union met at Potsdam near Berlin in July ’45.

• At previous conference (Yalta), Stalin agreed to allow voting by secret ballot with multi-party system in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe.

• Stalin did not keep his promise.

I didn’t get the mustache memo! BTW, did they

get these chairs at IKEA, I love that place!

Oh, so you hold secrets about

bomb! I thought we were Allies Harry!!!

WHY WAS THE FIGHT TO CONTAIN

COMMUNISM SO IMPORTANT?

NEW WORLD ORDER

• Create a world of nations with self-determination.

• Grow economically.

• Ensure stability in Europe.

• Reunite Germany, to be more productive.

SOVIET POST-WAR

• Estimated 20 million deaths, half of whom were civilians.

• Communist governments established in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland.

• Became known as satellite nations.

CONTAINMENT

• Feb. ’46, George F. Kennan, American diplomat in Moscow proposed containment policy.

• Prevent any extension of communist rule.

“IRON CURTAIN”• Taken from a speech given by Winston Churchill in the

U.S..

• Represented the division of Europe between the East and West.

COLD WAR:

• Conflict between the U.S. and Soviet Union in which neither nation directly confronted the other on the battlefield.

• Dominated global affairs from ’45 until breakup of Soviet Union in ’91.

TRUMAN DOCTRINE

• “…it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

GREECE AND TURKEY

• Between 1947 and 1950, U.S. sent $400 million in economic and military aid to prevent communist takeover.

MARSHALL PLAN

• In June ’47, Secretary of State George Marshall proposed U.S. provide aid to all European nations that needed it.

• 16 countries would receive $13 billion in aid over next four years.

DIVISION OF GERMANY

• After WWII, Germany divided into four zones occupied by U.S., Great Britain, and France in the West and Soviet Union in the East.

• ’48, U.S., Britain and France combined their three zones into one nation.

STALIN CLOSES OFF BERLIN• In June ’48, Stalin closed all highway and rail routes into

West Berlin, no food or fuel could reach that part of the city.

• 2.1 million residents had no food.

~Berlin Airlift

BLOCKADE LIFTED• For 327 days, planes took off and landed every few

minutes.

• 277,000 flights, 2.3 million tons of supplies.

• What other effect did the airlift have internationally?

• May 1949, Soviet Union lifted blockade.

WESTERN GERMANY FORMED

May ’49, western part of Germany officially became a new nation: Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, including West Berlin)

Soviet Union created German Democratic Republic (East Germany, including East Berlin).

NATO FORMED

Ten Western European nations, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal joined U.S. and Canada on April 4, 1949.

Defensive military alliance called North Atlantic Treaty Organization.