1. Chapter 18: Cold War Conflicts Section 1: Origins of the Cold War

2. Standards
11.7 Students analyze America's participation in World War II.
.8 Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western Europe under the Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy.
11.9 Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
.2 Understand the role of military alliances, including NATO and SEATO, in deterring communist aggression and maintaining security during the Cold War.
.3 Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following:
The Truman Doctrine
The Berlin Blockade

3. Objectives
Following lecture and reading of this section, students will be able to:
Explain the breakdown of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II.
Summarize the steps the United States took to contain Soviet influence as tensions increased.
Describe how the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan further defined and deepened the Cold War in Europe.
Explain how conflicts over Germany increased fears of Soviet aggression

4. Cold War Conflicts, 1945–1960
The Cold War and the danger of nuclear war defined international affairs, especially after the Korean War.
1945–1991 Cold War—conflict between U.S. & U.S.S.R.
Neither nation directly confronts the other on battlefield
Fear of communism in the U.S. led to accusations against innocent citizens (McCarthyism)

5. Origins of the Cold War
The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as two “superpowers”
Industrial giants
Each held vastly different political and economic systems.
USSR is Communist; state controls all property, and a dictatorship exists.
The U.S. is capitalist, and has free elections

6. Former Allies Clash U.S.-Soviet Relations U.S. suspicious of Stalin
USSR had been Hitler’s ally (non-agression pact)
Stalin resents the U.S.
U.S. delayed attacking Germany (WWII)
Instead the U.S. and Britain attacked through North Africa
U.S. hid atomic bomb
Which caused Stalin to wonder if they were ever really allies

7. The United Nations 1945, United Nations established
A new peacekeeping body
Replacing the ideal of the League of Nations
UN became the arena where U.S. & U.S.S.R. would compete
The UN was designed to be a place where ideas and conflicts could be resolved with out military intervention.

8. Truman Becomes President
Harry S. Truman succeeded FDR as president
FDR died of a stroke
As vice-president, Truman was not included in policy decisions
Had little knowledge once he entered presidency
Truman was not told about atomic bomb

9. The Potsdam Conference
July 1945 conference with U.S., Great Britain, Soviet Union
Truman, Churchill (replaced by Atlee), and Stalin
Stalin does not allow free, multiparty elections in Poland
Goes back on his agreement at Yalta
No self determination
Bans democratic parties
Further mistrust between USSR and Western democracies

11. Tension Mounts Bargaining at Potsdam
Truman convinced that U.S. and Soviet aims deeply at odds
Soviets want reparations from Germany; Truman objects
Soviets agree to take reparations mainly from own occupation zones
U.S. emerges from war as great economic power
U.S. wants Eastern Europe open to access raw materials and trade markets

12. Soviets Tighten Their Grip on Eastern Europe
Soviet Union also has great economic and military strength after WWII
Unlike U.S., Soviet Union suffered heavy devastation on own soil
USSR installed communist rule in satellite nations, countries it dominates
Satellite nations gave Stalin and the USSR a buffer zone of protection from western invasion
1946, Stalin announced war between communism and capitalism was inevitable

13. Containing Communism United States establishes a policy of Containment
U.S. policy of containment:
Measures taken to prevent spread of communism
Spaghetti analogy
The Iron Curtain
Churchill’s description of division of Europe
The iron curtain was the impenetrable Eastern European Communist nations

14. Containing Communism The Truman Doctrine The Marshall Plan
Support against armed minorities or outsiders
Purpose: prevent the spread of communisms
U.S. replaced British aid to Greece & Turkey
Reduced communist threat
The Marshall Plan
1947, Secretary of State George Marshall proposes aid to any nations in need
Marshall Plan revives 16 nations
Not against any one political system
Only against poverty and hunger

15. Superpowers Struggle over Germany
The Berlin Airlift
The U.S., France, and UK decide to combine their 3 zones in Germany and Berlin (West)
1948, Stalin closed highway & rail routes into West Berlin to protest the move
Stalin did not want a strong Germany (feared attack)
Berlin airlift—Britain & U.S. flew food & supplies into West Berlin (327 days)
1949, Stalin lifts blockade
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

20. The NATO Alliance
Fear of Soviets led to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
European nations, U.S., Canada pledge mutual military support
First peacetime treaty or alliance signed by the United States
Now we are involved in world affairs!

21. NATO vs. Warsaw Pact

24. After World War II the United States and Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers, each strong enough to greatly influence world events.
Former Allies Clash
When rebuilding the post war world, tensions rose between U.S. and USSR.

25. The two nations had differing views on politics and economics.
Stalin distrusts the western powers because of military delay during WWII.

26. The Potsdam Conference
Truman, Stalin, and Britain (Churchill, then Atlee after Churchill’s party lost a national election)
Truman pushed Stalin to allow free elections, but Stalin, as he did at Yalta refused.
Truman though believed Stalin violated those nations’ rights of self-determination by not allowing free elections.

27. Truman’s idea was that if nations chose their leaders, wars could be avoided.
Stalin on the other hand was fearful the western democracies were trying to keep him isolated.
An agreement reached that reparations could be taken from the zone of Germany it occupied.

28. Post War Tensions Mount
The U.S. had big bucks on the line as they were one of the only countries not destroyed by the war.
The U.S. had factories and workers able to produce mass quantities of goods; thus, needed access to the raw materials and markets in certain European countries.

29. Stalin, being paranoid, felt the U. S
Stalin, being paranoid, felt the U.S. might attack him so he needed a buffer zone of Communist states around the USSR that he could control.
So Stalin installed Communist governments that came to be known as satellite nations.
This prompted the U.S. to impose a policy of containment.

30. Throughout the Cold War the policy of containment was a U. S
Throughout the Cold War the policy of containment was a U.S. effort to contain Communism to the USSR.
The Cold War (not really a war) was fought over this idea of containing Communism.

31. The division of Europe between the Democracies in the west and the Communists in the east prompted Churchill to say, “An iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
Cold War Policies
The Cold War was the state of hostility between the U.S. and the USSR that dominated world affairs and U.S. foreign policy until the breakup of the USSR in 1991.

32. The Truman Doctrine was one such policy
The Truman Doctrine was one such policy. In the Truman Doctrine, President Truman Declared the U.S. should support free peoples throughout the world who were resisting takeovers by armed minorities or outside pressures.

33. The Truman Doctrine was instituted because Britain could no longer afford to support Greece and Turkey, so Truman asked for aid to be given to them in order to help them avoid being taken over by Communist USSR.
Some people were critical, arguing for isolation.

34. The Marshall Plan was then established in 1947 as a way to provide aid to European countries that needed it, and was not against any country or doctrine, just against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.
Because of the success of the Marshall Plan, Communism lost much of its appeal by 1952.

35. German Unification At Potsdam, Germany was divided into four sections.
Following the war the U.S. felt that Europe would be more stable if it were unified.
The Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak and separated.
In 1948, the western democracies combined their zones into one nation and called it West Germany.

36. Berlin was also combined and called West Berlin, but it still was located in the Soviet zone of the country.
The Soviets then held West Berlin hostage, by cutting off all supply lines to the city.
Stalin hoped that as the West Berliners suffered the western nations would either give up their ideas of German reunification, or surrender control of Berlin.

37. The U.S. was forced to begin the Berlin airlift, in which they flew supplies into West Berlin to keep the city surviving until Stalin realized he was beaten and gave up and lifted the blockade.
The Soviets established East Germany after the blockade.
Now though, western nations feared Soviet aggressiveness and so formed an alliance in which an attack on any would be considered as an attack on all.

38. The treaty was called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and it was the first time in history the U.S. entered a military alliance during peacetime, and U.S. isolationism was over.