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Origins of the Cold War
Former Allies Clash in Cold War
 The United States and the Soviet Union had very different ambitions for the future after World
War II
o Soviet Communism
 State controlled property
 Totalitarian Government
 No opposing political parties
o American Capitalism
 Citizens control economy and private property
 Voting by the people electing a president and congress
 Competing political parties
 The United States was furious that Stalin had been an ally with Hitler for a time
 Stalin had resented the United States for not invading Europe to draw part of the German army
away from Russia
 Cold War- A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in which neither nation
directly confronted the other on the battlefield but fought by policy and influence
The United Nations
 In spite of these problems, hopes for world peace were high at the end of the war
 The most visible sign was the United Nations
 United Nations- 50 nations that allied together to establish a peacekeeping body
 After two months of debate, on June 26, 1945, the delegates signed the charter
 Ironically, the UN became an arena in which the Soviet Union and the U.S. would try to promote
their influence
The Potsdam Conference
 The Big Three met in Potsdam for a final wartime conference (Much like the Yalta Conference)
 United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union
 At Yalta, Stalin had promised Roosevelt that he would allow free elections in Eastern Europe
(Poland)
 Free Elections-A vote by secret ballot in a multiparty system
 Stalin went back on his word and prevented free elections in Poland and banned democratic
parties
 They also agreed that each country would take reparations from their occupation zones in
Germany even though the United States wanted to trade with Eastern Europe
Soviets Control Eastern Europe
 The Soviets had suffered heavy devastation on their own soil
 Soviet deaths during the war totaled 20 million, most of which were civilians
 The Soviets felt justified in taking over Eastern Europe and by dominating this region, they felt
they could stop future invasions from the west
 Satellite Nations-Countries dominated by the Soviet Union where they established communist
governments (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland)
Policy of Containment
 Faced with a Soviet threat, American officials decided it was time to stop “babying the Soviets”
 George F. Kennan- American diplomat in Moscow, Russia that proposed the policy of
Containment
 Containment- Taking measures to prevent any extension of communist rule to other countries
 Europe was now divided into two political regions, a mostly democratic Western Europe and a
communist Eastern Europe
 Winston Churchill traveled to the United States to give a speech that described the situation in
Europe
 Iron Curtain- The symbolic division of Europe by an “iron curtain” that separated communism
and democracy
The Truman Doctrine (1947)
 The United States first tried to stop Soviet influence in Greece and Turkey by sending them aid
and supplies from Great Britain
 Britain was badly hurt by the war and their economy was down, so the United States had to start
sending aid
 Truman Doctrine-A policy by the United States to support free peoples who are resisting
communism by giving them aid and supplies
The Marshall Plan (1947)
 Not only countries threatened by communism needed aid, European countries ravaged by war
also were in ruins
 Secretary of State George Marshall proposed that the United States provide aid to all nations who
needed it
 Marshall Plan- United States aid to countries in Europe not directed to stop communism, but to
fight hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos
Superpowers Struggle over Germany
 The United States believed that Germany should be unified, combining Great Britain and
France’s occupation zones into one
 The western part of Berlin was surrounded by Soviet controlled Germany
 Seeing opportunity to control Berlin, Stalin cut off United States access to Western Berlin in a
blockade
 Berlin Airlift (1949)- American and British flew in food and supplies into West Berlin to
alleviate trapped Germans
 East Germany and West Germany became two new nations in 1949
The NATO Alliance
 The Berlin blockade increased Western European fear of Soviet aggression
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization- Ten Western European nations that formed a defensive
military alliance and pledged military support to one another in case any member was attacked by
the soviets
 NATO kept a standing military force of more than 500,000 troops as well as thousands of planes,
tanks, and other equipment