Download The Iron Curtain Falls on Europe

THE IRON CURTAIN
FALLS ON EUROPE
Ch 15 sec 1
I. The Roots of the Cold War
• Even before WW2, the United
States viewed the Soviet
Union as a threat, and
communism was something to
be feared.
• During the war, the two sides
had to work together to defeat
the Axis, but there was still
tension between the countries.
I. The Roots of the Cold War
• Arguments over war strategy and
bitterness over how long it took
to open a second front made the
Soviets and the Americans hate
each other after the war.
• The U.S. had the advantage of
the atomic bomb, until Soviet
spies stole some plans and the
Soviets created their own.
II. The Iron Curtain Descends
• After the war, Stalin kept control of
the eastern European countries
that the Soviets had occupied, as
payment for the suffering and to
protect itself from Western
aggression.
• Stalin controlled elections in the
Eastern European countries, and
the governments all became
Communist, and were supported
by the Soviet Union.
II. The Iron Curtain Descends
• The Soviets also forced Germans
living in Eastern Europe to move
west, in a brutal march that killed
many of them.
• The tension between the two
countries increased, and when
Winston Churchill declared that an
“Iron Curtain” had fallen across
Europe in a speech in Missouri,
the Soviet Union used that as a
reason to build up its military.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=S2PUIQpAEAQ
III. The United States Responds
• The United States took the
position of containment with the
Soviet Union. They can exist
where they currently were, but the
U.S. would not let them spread.
• It was more than just military
prevention. The U.S. would
provide economic aid to
strengthen governments that were
resisting communism.
III. The United States Responds
• This became known as the
Truman Doctrine, to stop
communism using economic
and financial aid and if
necessary military assistance.
• The Marshall Plan was
designed to rebuild Europe
after the war by providing
millions of dollars and tons of
goods, strengthening the
democratic governments in the
West.
III. The United States Responds
• The Soviet Union prevented
eastern European countries
from participating, because they
were afraid the U.S. would turn
the people against them.
• Soon after the war the money
and goods started coming, and
life began to improve for
Western Europeans, which
strengthened the relationship
between them and the U.S.
IV. The Crisis in Berlin
• The Cold War gets its start in the
city of Berlin. The city, like
Germany, was divided into 4
parts, but it was deep in Sovietcontrolled East Germany.
• The Soviets wanted to have
complete control of the city, so
they cut off West Berlin from
getting supplies from the U.S.
They closed the roads and
railroads, and wanted to starve
the inhabitants into surrender.
IV. The Crisis in Berlin
• The plan to help the people of
Berlin was to airlift the supplies
they needed to survive. There
was a risk that the Soviets
would shoot the planes down,
but in the end the Allies went
forward.
• The planes delivered their
cargo everyday for almost a
year, lifting 2.3 million tons of
food and supplies. The Soviets
finally lifted the blockade, but
the Cold War was in full force.
IV. The Crisis in Berlin
• The threat from the Soviet Union
caused the Western Allies concern,
so they began to plan against Soviet
aggression.
• They established NATO, the North
Atlantic
Treaty Organization, that promised
to protect each other if the Soviet
Union attacked.
In your notebooks
• Half-page summary of the lecture.