The Origins of the Cold War
Chapter 17.1
• Feb 1945 - FDR, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Yalta
– Key Agreements
• Divide Germany into occupation zones
• Germany to pay USSR reparations
• Promised E. Europe would have free elections
Yalta Pact
Churchill’s Back…the Prophet
• Churchill sees Stalin as threat
• FDR sees Stalin as a friend and ally
Changing of the Guard
• FDR dies April 1945
• Harry Truman takes over
– Agrees with Churchill
The United Nations • 1945 – San Francisco
Conference forms United Nations – Created
• Security Council (11 members) – 5 permanent members:
China, France, Soviet Union, Britain, US
– Each could veto ANY security action
• General Assembly – All nations could cast
votes on various issues
• UN based in NY
Post WWII Europe
Post-WWII…US style
Soviet Union Post-WWII
• 50 times the fatalities of the US
– 25% of Soviets are killed or wounded
• Cities and Economy destroyed
Soviet Goals
• Terrified of Germany
• Need Security
– Satellite states – states to
create a buffer btw USSR and US controlled W. Europe
• USSR wants communist HEGEMONY – leadership or
dominance, esp. by one country over another
US Goals • Tired of European Wars
– Want democracy • Capitalistic democracies
don’t fight
• Liberty to oppressed
• Self-interest
• Rebuild European countries – Reunite Germany
• Gain access to raw materials and new markets
• US sees Soviet land grabs as offensive, not defensive
• USSR sees US as trying to isolate them from the world
Stalin Breaks the Yalta Pact
• Yalta said monitored elections in E. Europe – Stalin took control
as Germany retreated • Installed
Communist gov’ts
– Truman and Churchill angered
Potsdam Conference
• July 1945 – Truman, Stalin, and Churchill met in Potsdam
– Truman pressed Stalin to allow free elections
– Stalin refused
The Iron Curtain Falls
George Kennan and the “X Letter”
• US authority on Russia
• Sent letter signed “X” to US intelligence, said
– US could NOT co-exist with USSR
– Only option: CONTAINMENT – keeping communism w/in existing borders and protecting weaker countries
Greece and Turkey in Trouble
• Situations that allow containment:
– Stalin wants Greece and Turkey to free Black Sea Fleet
• Demanded military bases in the Turkish Straits
Truman’s Solution
• Truman Doctrine 1947
– Goal: US will support free people resisting subjugation (and Communism)
• Gives $400,000,000 to Greece and Turkey
• Paves the way for US military options
The Marshall Plan 1948
• Communism becoming popular in W. Europe
• George Marshall (Secretary of State) developed plan to give $13,000,000,000 to W. Europe
– Food, loans, fuel, machinery
– Offered to satellite states in E. Europe
• Yugoslavia (Communist) took US aid
• Others could not
Germany Post-WWII
• US Goal - build up W. Germany
• USSR Goal - keep E. Germany weak – 1948 – Allies allow
Germany to reunite
– USSR holds Berlin hostage • Cut off highway,
water, and rail traffic into Berlin’s W. zones
The Berlin Airlift
• Stalin gambled Allies would give up W. Berlin or give up reunifying W. Germany
• Allied response
– Food and supplies dropped into W. Berlin for 11 months
The Berlin Airlift con’t
Comecon – the Soviet Response
• Marshall Plan seen as plan to split satellite states from USSR
• Stalin introduced Comecon, a Soviet version of Marshall Plan
– Economic organization under leadership of USSR
NATO - 1949
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
– military alliance to counter USSR
• COLLECTIVE SECURITY – principle of mutual military assistance
– One country attacked, all the others would aid
Warsaw Pact
• USSR answer to NATO
– Mutual military alliance between all E. Bloc countries
– 1961 – USSR built wall dividing E. and W. Berlin (Berlin Wall)
• Symbolized divisions of Cold War
Brinkmanship
• 1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower elected
– John Foster Dulles; Secretary of State
• If USSR threatened US interests, US would retaliate
• Brinkmanship – willingness to go to the brink of war BUT not to war
Mutually Assured Destruction
• Both sides build up nuclear programs
– Submarines, planes, missiles…
• MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION – US and USSR deterred
nuclear war building enough weapons to destroy one another
Sputnik I (1957)
• 1957 – Soviet Union launches steel ball containing transmitter into space – Russians are first
into space
• Then send a dog - Laika
• Russians have technological advantage
Open Skies and the U2 Incident
• Geneva Summit 1955 – Eisenhower proposed “Open Skies” treaty – Allowed for
monitoring each other
– Soviets turned it down
• U-2 Spy Plane (1960) – Francis Gary Powers
shot down over Russia
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