Download Origins of the Cold War Powerpoint Notes

20th Century
Ms. Shen
Name: ________________________________
Origins of the Cold War Powerpoint
I.
What was the Cold War?
II.
Why did the Cold War start?
a. Ever since the Russian Revolution, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was
fragile:
i. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the U.S. refused to extend formal diplomatic relations to the new communist nation
until 1933.
ii. The U.S. was angered when the Soviets signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939. However, they found
themselves on the same side when Hitler broke the pact.
iii. Additionally, Stalin was angered when the U.S. first entered the war and went to North Africa to help the British, instead of
helping out the Soviets on the western front.
b. At the war’s end, there were disputes about the futures of Germany and Poland.
c.
i. Germany was partitioned into four zones (one American, one French, one British, and one Soviet).
ii. Poland’s new government would loosely be controlled by the Soviets until free elections.
Composition of the _____________________ rendered the Soviets outnumbered. How so?
d. Lastly, Stalin was angry that Truman did not tell him about…
e.
Plus, the two sides had totally different visions for the post-war world.
III.
After the war was over, the U.S. and the Soviet Union clashed over the issue of Poland.
a. Truman insisted that the new Polish gov’t have representatives sympathetic to Western interests.
b. Stalin insisted that because Poland was so close to the Soviet Union, the Soviets must be allowed to have a
strong influence there.
i. Why did Stalin care?
IV.
Meanwhile, the American people renewed their hatred of communists. Americans transferred their wartime
hatred of Nazi Germany to communist Soviet Union.
V.
The Cold War was never actually “officially” declared.
a. However, two speeches mark the onset of the struggle:
b. In 1946, Stalin made a speech (“Two Worlds”) in which he declared…
c.
In that same year, Winston Churchill, made his famous “_________________________”
speech.
i. What is the “iron curtain?”
ii. What threat did the Soviets pose?
iii. What was this speech so significant?
VI.
Containment
a.
To address the concerns that the Americans had about the Soviets, they adopted a policy called
‘containment.’
i. Crafted after _____________________________ (a top-ranking diplomat stationed in Moscow)
1. Said it was necessary to contain the Soviet threat against any part of the world
2. Image of Soviets (policy) as a “persistent toy automobile wound up and headed in a given
direction, stopping only when it meets with some unanswerable force.”
ii. Based on this article, the use adopted a policy of CONTAINMENT (used this article and argument
as justification of the U.S. policy in the Cold War)
b. Containment is defined as:
VII.
How did the U.S. implement their policy of containment?
a.
The Truman Doctrine (1947)
i. Pledged support of U.S. to countries that were in danger of takeover by communist countries. Gave
$____________________ in economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey.
b. The Marshall Plan (1948)
i. Called for nations of Europe to draw up a program for economic recovery from the war. The U.S.
would then support the plan with financial aid. (Designed both improve the European economy as
well as reward the U.S. with strong trading partners.)
ii. Ultimately gave $_________________ over 4 years to ________ western European nations.
c.
Division of Germany
i. Problems after Potsdam Conference. Truman refused to allow the Soviets to use Germany’s
industrial plants in Western Germany (industry located in the west, the non-Soviet sector.)
ii. Concerned with the deteriorating economic situation in the western zones, the U.S. pumped aid
through the Marshall Plan in to Western Germany which got economic recovery underway.
iii. The Russians were ticked off by Marshall Plan, felt it was just a way for the U.S. to buy friends in
Western Europe.
d. Berlin Airlift
i. Tension rose when in June 1948, in an attempt to rebuild Germany’s economy and stop rampant
inflation, the 3 western sectors of Germany changed their currency to the Deutsch Mark. The
Soviets had not agreed to the currency reform and in response, they blockaded all ground and water
routes to West Berlin in June of 1948.
ii. Truman’s dilemma:
iii. So he started what was known as the
_____________________, in which he moved supplies
into West Berlin by plane. This went on for over a year.
iv. The airlift was a success for the U.S. in that it…
v. By the time the Soviet blockade was ended in May 1949, the Marshall Plan had succeeded in
strengthening capitalist nations in Western Europe.
e.
The Soviets resisted the reunification efforts of the West out of a fear of a reunited Germany which could
potentially invade the Soviet Union again. In Oct. 1949, the Soviets formed a separate government in E.
Germany called __________________________________ while the W. was united as the Federal Republic
of Germany in May 1949.
f.
Constant stream of E. Germans fleeing to W. Germany strained E-W relations in the 1950s. The Soviets
sealed the borders btw E. and W. Germany in 1952 but people cont. to flee from E. to W. Berlin. August
1961 the construction of the __________________________ began. The wall ultimately surrounded all of
W. Berlin cutting it off from the rest of E. Germany. The wall remained in tact until Nov. 9, 1989.
g. Formation of NATO
i. The tension that resulted from the Berlin airlift convinced Western powers that they needed to form
a peacetime alliance against the Soviet threat.
ii. Thus, NATO (_______________________________________________) was established.
Participating nations pledged that an attack on one was an attack on all.
VIII.
Disturbing Events
a. In 1949, a Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party resulted in a victory for
the Communists under Mao Zedong. The “loss of China” was very disappointing, and would lead to future
efforts to prevent more Asian nations from falling to communism.
b. On September 23rd, 1949, the U.S. learned that…
From then on, “fear of the bomb” would dictate life in America as well as diplomatic relations.
i. Adoption of _____________
1. In response to these events, the National Security Council spelled out American policy in a
document entitled NSC-68.
2. This document stated that the U.S. should triple to quadruple its defense budget (from $13
billion to $50 billion annually) in order to meet the security needs of the time.
“Forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history. Freedom is pitted against slavery, lightness against dark.”
--Eisenhower’s inaugural address