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The Beginning of the Cold
War
Cold War
• The period of political conflict, military
tension, and economic competition
between the United States and the USSR.
• Never became a “hot” (or declared) war
between the two countries (directly).
• 1945-1990
Objective
How did the American-Soviet Rivalry begin?
The European Theatre
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June 22 1941 Operation Barbarossa
Dec. 8 1941 US enters WWII
July 17 1942 Battle of Stalingrad begins
Nov. 8 1942 Operation Torch
Feb. 2 1943 Battle of Stalingrad ends
July 1943 Allies invade Italy
June 6 1944 D-Day in Normandy
April 21 1945 Soviets capture Berlin
April 27 1945 Americans and Soviets meet at
the River Elbe
The Iron Curtain Speech
• 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. – Winston Churchill, March 5 1946
I. Soviet Aggression
• Communism
– As an international movement
– As a theory of history
I. Soviet Aggression
• Russian Paranoia
– World War I
• 1,811,000 military dead (compared with 116,000
US deaths)
– World War II
• 10,700,000 military dead (compared with 416,000
US deaths)
– Stalin
• He crazy!
I. Soviet Aggression
• Yalta (Feb., 1945)
– The USSR promised to hold “free and
unfettered” elections in Poland and other
Eastern European countries.
– These promises were never kept.
– Why?
I. Soviet Aggression
• Eastern Europe as a buffer zone:
– In order to protect itself from incursion, the USSR
absorbed the following countries:
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Albania
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
German Democratic Republic (Eastern Germany)
Poland
Romania
Hungary
Each of these states were satellite nations, or
puppet states.
II. American Expansionism
• Capitalism
– Predicated on the notion of continuous growth
– To grow, capitalist societies need new
markets
II. American Expansionism
• The “American Century”
– The US government demanded new markets
for US business
– Bretton Woods Conference (July, 1944)
• International Monetary Fund
• World Bank
• Exchange rates tied to the US dollar
II. American Expansionism
International Monetary Fund
Intended to do the following:
1. Promote global economic stability.
2. Encourage international trade.
II. American Expansionism
• World Bank
1. Strengthening governments
2. Infrastructure creation
3. Development of corporations
4. Combating corruption
II. American Expansionism
• Both of these institutions rewarded
capitalist policies and punished
communist/socialist policies.
– France
II. American Expansionism
• The United Nations
– Established in 1945 at the San Francisco
Conference
– Meant to promote collective security
– Very popular ideas among Americans,
brainchild of FDR
II. American Expansionism
• The United Nations
– But, the UN was often perceived as a
capitalist/western tool
• Security Council: US, UK, France, Nationalist
China, USSR
• Often rubber stamped US led actions (see Korean
War in the 1950s)
III. Case Study: Germany
• West Germany (officially free by 1955)
– Free and Open elections
– Wirtschaftswunder (Economic Miracle)
– Aided substantially by US financial and military aid,
eventually recognized in 1955 as equal
• East Germany
– Industrial technology stolen by Soviets for rebuilding
of USSR
– Police State (Stasi)
– Kept in state of economic servitude by reparations
– Puppet of Moscow