Download Lesson 14: The Cold War

Lesson 14: The Cold War
Lesson Independent Reading
Core Six: Reading for meaning, Compare and Contrast, Inductive Learning
Directions: Read the following excerpts from Sparknotes “SAT Prep: The Cold War”. You will
need to know main ideas and basic “potential” questions. Take notes in the margins and
underline important information.
The Cold War Begins
After the close of World War II, a new and very different conflict rose to the forefront of American
national attention: the Cold War. The Cold War pitted the communist Soviet Union against the capitalist
U.S. and its Western Allies. While there was little actual violence, both sides considered the conflict to be
severe and threatening. President Harry S. Truman, who had succeeded Franklin Roosevelt as president
after the latter’s death in April 1945, found himself in an increasingly difficult and complex battle against
communism. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who succeeded Truman as president in 1952, inherited the conflict.
Origins of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain
After Germany’s defeat in World War II, the leaders of the Allied countries met at a series of conferences
to reshape the postwar world. Crucial among these was the Potsdam Conference in 1945, at which the
Allies divided Germany into four zones, controlled by France, Britain, the U.S., and the USSR. Berlin,
deep in the Soviet zone, was also divided among the four countries. During Potsdam, Truman
informedJoseph Stalin that U.S. scientists had successfully detonated an atomic bomb, sparking a highly
competitive nuclear arms race between the two countries.
In the late 1940s, the U.S. and USSR emerged as supreme among the nations of the world. The former
wartime allies soon became bitter enemies. Both superpowers rushed to establish spheres of influence in
Europe. Stalin wished to establish a buffer region of pro-Soviet states in Eastern Europe in order to
prevent the recurrence of invasions such as those undertaken by Germany during the war. The Red Army
established puppet governments in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania, adding to the ranks of
independently established pro-Soviet governments in Albania and Yugoslavia. In 1945, Stalin disregarded
the Yalta Declaration of Liberated Europe and disallowed free elections in Poland, which had served as a
gateway to the Soviet Union for German invaders. In early March 1946, the former British prime
minister Winston Churchill gave a speech at Westminster College in Missouri, coining the phrase
the“iron curtain” to describe the USSR’s division of Eastern Europe from the West.
The phrase “iron curtain” was coined by Winston Churchill to describe the division of Europe imposed
by the USSR.
The United States and the Cold War
A combination of political, economic, and moral considerations led the U.S. government to oppose Soviet
dominance of Eastern Europe. President Truman took a strong stance against the Soviet territorial
advances, advocating a policy ofcontainment. Under this policy, the U.S. would not attempt to change
the post–World War II situation in Europe, but it would work to prevent further Soviet expansion through
peaceful or military means.
Source: SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote SAT Prep: The Cold War Begins. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 28 April. 2016.
Lesson 14: The Cold War
Atomic Arms Race
Nuclear weapons played a central role in the possibility of military engagement between the U.S. and the
USSR. In 1946, Truman proposed a plan to the United Nations to require the USSR to cease construction
on any atomic weaponry, saying that only then would the U.S. destroy its growing arsenal. The Soviets
rejected this plan and both sides rushed to develop weapons of mass destruction. In 1946, the federal
government established the Atomic Energy Commission to oversee the development of nuclear energy
and arms. The battle for nuclear dominance was characteristic of the Cold War, in which few battles were
ever waged face to face.
In September 1949, the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb. This development, combined with the
establishment of a communist regime in China, inspired a new and fiercer anticommunism in the U.S.
government, expressed in its decision to more than triple the defense budget and to mount a furious
campaign to develop a hydrogen bomb. The drive for the hydrogen bomb succeeded in the November
1952 detonation of an H-bomb in the Marshall Islands. But the American advantage was short-lived. In
July 1953, the Russians detonated their own H-bomb.
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
Early in 1947, allies in a fragile Western Europe asked the U.S. to help fund the effort to prevent the rise
of communist governments in Greece and Turkey. The economies and governments of Western Europe
were nearing collapse. In March 1947, Truman asked a joint session of Congress to authorize military
assistance to Turkey and Greece, depicting the issue as one of liberty versus oppression, and proclaimed
that the U.S. would support people anywhere in the world facing “attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressures.” This proclamation, known as theTruman Doctrine, committed the
U.S. to the role of global policeman.
The economic counterpart to the Truman Doctrine was the Marshall Plan, under which the U.S. pledged
a great deal of financial assistance to Europe, specifically to stimulate European postwar recovery and to
provide relief for the hungry, homeless, and desperate. Truman and his secretary of state George C.
Marshall hoped the plan would eliminate economic and political instability, and strengthen European
states against possible communist influence. As expected, the USSR rejected aid because of the Marshall
Plan’s accompanying conditions of U.S. influence and control. By 1952, Congress had provided some
$17 billion in aid, and the Western European economy had largely recovered.
The Berlin Blockade
France, Britain, and the United States gradually united their three zones of occupation within Germany
and in 1948 announced their intention to create a West German Republic. In opposition to the proposed
republic—which would have included West Berlin, situated deep in the Soviet zone—Stalin established
the Berlin Blockade in June 1948, cutting off all rail and highway access to Berlin from the west.
Choosing not to abandon Berlin or use military force, Truman ordered an airlift, called “Operation
Vittles,” to supply West Berlin. The airlift continued until May 1949, when the USSR lifted the blockade.
Western forces immediately pulled out of Germany and approved the creation of the Federal Republic of
Germany, or West Germany. The USSR responded by creating the German Democratic Republic, or East
Germany.
Source: SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote SAT Prep: The Cold War Begins. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 28 April. 2016.