Download Origins/Early years of the Cold War - US History

Origins/Early years of the Cold War
Lesson 1
of Unit 7
Name: ____________________Key_____________________ Date: ________________ Hour:
______
SCORE:
/20
Objective: Examine events that led to the Cold War.
Background: In many ways the Cold War began even before the guns fell silent in Germany and in the Pacific in 1945.
Suspicion and mistrust had defined U.S./Soviet relations for decades and resurfaced as soon as the alliance against Adolf
Hitler was no longer necessary. Competing ideologies and visions of the postwar world prevented U.S. president Harry S.
Truman and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin from working together.
Launch Activity/Bell Ringer/Foundation Material: Would you be willing to sign an oath swearing you are not a
communist? Why? Why not? Answers will vary
Unit 7 – U.S. History
Individual: Read the portion of your text about the origins of the Cold War. Create a three-column chart summarizing the
results of the postwar conferences. List the conference name in the left column, the issues facing the world leaders in the
middle column, and the results (or decisions reached) in the right hand column.
Conference Name
Issue
Plan postwar world
What to do with Poland – Soviets
Yalta
- a Soviet resort on the Black Sea
encouraged Polish Communists to up a new
government
- Roosevelt and Churchill argued that Poles
should be free to choose their own government
How would liberated Europe be
governed?
7.1
What would be done with Germany?
How would they pay their war debt?
- Stalin demanded Germany pay heave
reparations
- Roosevelt agreed but insisted that reparations
be based on Germany’s ability to pay
Potsdam
Results
- Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to recognize
the Polish government set up by the Soviets.
- Stalin agreed that the government would
include members of the prewar Polish
government and that free elections would be
held as soon as possible.
- Also agreed to the Declaration of Liberated
Europe. The declaration asserted “the right of
all people to choose the form of government
under which they will live”
- Germany would be divided into four zones.
Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet
Union, and France would each control one zone.
The four would also divide Berlin into four zones
even though it was in the Soviet zone.
- Germany would pay reparations with trade
goods and products instead of cash. The Allies
would be allowed to remove industrial
machinery, railroad cars, and other equipment
from Germany as reparations.
Work out a deal on Germany – Truman
- to work out a compromise, Truman offered
took a stand against heavy reparations. He felt
that industry was crucial to Germany’s survival.
- Stalin felt that he needed Germany’s
reparations and actually wanted Germany to pay
much more
Stalin a small amount of German industrial
equipment from the other zones, but required
the Soviets to pay for part of it with food
shipments from their zone. He also offered to
accept the new German-Polish border the
Soviets has established.
- Stalin agreed though suspicious of Truman
Group Activity: In a small group read the following Primary Source excerpts and answer the questions that follow.
Interpreting Primary Sources:
Origins of the Cold War: The Containment Policy
Reading 1:
Soviet power...bears within itself the seeds of its own decay, and the sprouting of these seeds is well advanced...[If] anything were ever
to disrupt the unity and efficacy of the Party as a political instrument, Soviet Russia might be changed overnight from one of the
strongest to one of the weakest and most pitiable of national societies....This would...warrant the United States entering with
reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every
point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.
George Kennan
Reading 2:
At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a
free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free
elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of
life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and
radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressures.
Truman Doctrine, 1947
Reading 3:
The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products-principally from America--are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face
economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character....
Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the
revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can
exist.
The Marshall Plan, 1947
Reading 4:
Article 5 The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack
against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them...[will take] such action as it deems
necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
The North Atlantic Treaty, 1949
Reading 5:
Why, by inter-weaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and property in the toils of European ambition,
rivalship, interest, humour, or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
George Washington, 1796
Reading 6:
The security of the United States would again be seriously endangered if the entire European continent were once more to come under
the domination of a power or an association of powers antagonistic to the United States....Today, the weakened condition in which the
nations of Europe find themselves as a result of the destruction and privation of war has afforded a golden opportunity for a new
aggressor....It is believed essential to the security of the United States, therefore, that it consolidate the friendship and support which it
now enjoys from free and friendly nations.
State Department
Reading 7:
The pact destroys the chances of European recovery. A permanently militarized Europe is doomed to living on an American dole. The
pact is not an instrument of defense but a military alliance designed for aggression. It bypasses the United Nations and violates its
Charter in a most flagrant manner. It divides the world permanently into two armed camps. And it provocatively establishes military
bases on the borders of the Soviet Union.
Henry Wallace
Questions
1. Describe the containment policy. What was its goal?
Answers will vary: May discuss keeping communism from spreading.
2. Why did the United States decide to broaden its overseas commitments? Did the Soviet threat justify this expansion of America's
commitments?
Answers will vary: May discuss isolationism which would prevent the U.S. from entering into alliances with other nations.
May discuss the threatened security of the United States if Europe were to fall
3. Was the containment policy essentially offensive or defensive?
Answers will vary
Reading Activity: Joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was an important and controversial issue after World War II.
There was a lot of discussion over the degree of involvement that the United States should take in foreign affairs. Opinions ranged from
isolationism to an active role in the post-war world. Use the information provided in your text as well as the provided reading on NATO
and the Warsaw Pact to prepare a persuasive argument for or against entering the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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Answers will vary
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Reteaching Activity: Complete the following matching section.
1.
m
United States delivery of food and supplies into West Berlin
a.
Truman Doctrine
2.
G
Conference intended to plan the post war world
b.
Security
3.
K
Communist countries in Europe that were controlled by the soviets
c.
Reparations
4.
E
d.
NATO
5.
L
Proposed recovery program which would give European nations American aid
to rebuild their economies
Separated the Communist nations of Eastern Europe from the West
e.
Marshall Plan
6.
I
Era of confrontation and competition between the United States and the
f.
Containment
Soviet Union
7.
N
Conference intended to reach an agreement on Germany
g.
Yalta Conference
8.
F
United States practice of keeping the Soviets from expanding their power
h.
9.
A
U.S. promise to fight the spread of communism worldwide
i.
Declaration of
Liberated Europe
Cold War
10.
O
Message containing the proposal for the American policy of containment
j.
Economy
11.
D
Mutual defense alliance between North America and Western Europe
k.
Satellite Nations
12.
H
l.
Iron Curtain
13.
B
The right of people to choose the form of government under which they will
live
As WWII ended, the soviets were concerned with
m.
Berlin Airlift
14.
J
As WWII ended, the United States was concerned with
n.
Potsdam Conference
15.
C
Payments that Germany must make due to war damage caused
o.
Long Telegram