1. The Cold War
Part 1
Three Worlds

2. The UN, an Attempt at Unity Fails
In 1945 the United Nations was formed to…
To keep peace and develop friendly relations among nations;
To fight poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy,
and to encourage respect for each country’s rights and freedoms
But with the common enemy gone old rivalries and distrust divided Europe between:
Capitalist Democracies in the West led by the US
and
The Soviet Union in the East which it controlled.

3. Both wanted to rebuild the governments and economies of Europe…in their own ways
The “West” wants:
A Europe with free markets (capitalism), and elections (democracy).
A reunited Germany to provide stability
The Soviets want:
A Communist Europe for the benefit of the workers
A divided Germany to provide Security

4. Stalin Builds a Buffer Zone
Fearful of attack by the Western Capitalists Stalin turned Eastern Europe into a buffer zone. Countries that Stalin promised would have free elections at the Yalta conference were made into communist states Controlled through their communist parties by “Moscow” When pressed at Potsdam to allow free elections he refuses By 1946 he declares that capitalism and communism cannot exist in the same world East-West travel is restricted, indeed as Churchill said An “Iron Curtin” divided Europe

5. The Truman Doctrine
In Western Europe the US which had been the least damaged by the war The US decided to help Europe with 12.5 Billion Dollars worth of aide, “The Marshall Plan” President Truman and many others decided on a policy of “containment” to stop the spread of communism The Truman Doctrine made rejecting the soviets a condition of getting aide This not only discouraged communism but encouraged communist Yugoslavia break away from Soviet control. And further alienated the Soviet Union

6. Three Worlds By 1948 industrialized nations are divided into:
The “West” or “First World” of Capitalist Democracies
US, Western Europe, Japan, Canada, the UK and its former colonies
The “Second World” of Soviet puppet communist states, often brutally repressed by the Soviet Union and their own leaders
The Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria
The non-aligned “Third World” of developing countries and colonies