Transcript Cold War 145-52 PPP

The Cold War Era
1945-1952
The Tehran Conference 1943
• In attendance were the Big Three: Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.
On the agenda that day:
- State of the war (Stalin was pressuring the Allied powers to launch an
attack on Germany on the Western front)
- Germany (Operation Overlord and the future of Germany)
- Poland (USSR wanted to secure territory on the Eastern side of the Polish
border – tensions started to increase)
- Eastern Europe – (USSR wanted territories that they acquired between
1939-1940in E. Europe)
- Japan – The Allied powers wanted Stalin to open a second front to
combat Japan)
- Then UN – instead of the League of Nations the Americans proposed a
new international organization that would settle disputes through
collective security.
1945 Conferences
Yalta (February)
Potsdam (July)
•War was almost won by the Allied powers
•All agreed that Germany would be
demilitarized, and divided into 4 spheres of
influence: USA, USSR, France and Britain.
•The Russians got the territory from Poland
that they wanted (Curzon Line)
•Agreement on the creation of the UN
•The Big Three signed the “Declaration of
Liberated Europe
• Change in the players (Truman
replaces Roosevelt, and Atlee
replaces Churchill)
• Germany surrendered
unconditionally
• Establishment of the UN
• Differences between Truman
and Stalin become apparent
when dealing with Polish
elections and the state of E.
European countries
President Harry S.
Truman
• Rise of the
Changes in the
Middle Class
life of the Avg.
• T.V.
American
• Homes-own
• Highways and
Automobiles
• Women and Work
• Baby Boom
COMMUNISM
VS.
CAPITALISM
• Post War
Germany
• USSR vs.
America
• Containment
• The “Domino
Theory”
Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech –
March 1946
•
See page 21 in The Cold War book
British Cartoon from 1946
What does Source A suggest about
relations between Britain and the
Soviet Union after the Second World
War?
How does the cartoonist portray
communism?
A New Form of
Foreign Policy
• Truman
Doctrine
• Marshall Plan
• NATO
Truman Doctrine
On March 12 1947 Truman gave a speech to the U.S. Congress where he
stated that the US had an “obligation to support free people who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressure.”
In the light of recent unstable events in Turkey and Greece where there
was a real threat of communist forces taking over democracy, Truman
pledged to help contain the situation. The Soviet Union saw this action as
a desire for the US to expand their sphere of influence over other
territories and was received as an expansionist threat.
This marked the departure from the United State’s policy of isolationism
and and the beginning of the American policy of containment of
Communism.
Marshall Plan
• The Marshall Plan was an extension to the Truman Doctrine – backing
up the Western European nations with economic aid.
• Crafted by the US Secretary of State George Marshall, the plan aimed
to revive European working economies so that the political and social
stability could flourish.
• The CATCH: The US held the right to investigate the financial record
of applicant countries
SOVIET REACTION ??!? DO YOU THINK THEY JOINED?
NATO vs WARSAW
NATO was a military alliance
formed in 1949 and consisted
of Belgium, Britain, Canada,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal and the
United States.
Article 5 stated that a military
attack against any of the
signatories would be considered
an attack against them all.
Germany was admitted in
1955.
The formation of the Warsaw
Pact was in some ways a
response to the creation of
NATO in 1955.
Joining the USSR in the
alliance were Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, the GDR (East
Germany), Hungary, Poland
and Romania.
It remained in existence until
the end of the Cold War.
The Czechoslovakian Coup 1948
• The Red Army occupied Eastern Europe
and turned the counties into “satellite
states” – keeping their own national identity
but following Moscow's orders
• Czechoslovakia was showing signs of
Westernization. Stalin acted quickly and
forced a Communist –led gov. The US saw
this as a coup and passed the Marshall Plan
immediately - too late Czechoslovakia fell
to the Communists.
The Cold War
• Definition…
• Escalation of weapons
–1949 Soviets have the A-Bomb
–1952 U.S. have the H-Bomb
–1953 Soviets have the H-Bomb
The Red Scare in
America
• The Smith Act
1940
• Committee of UnAmerican
Activities
• Senator Joseph
McCarthy
–McCarthyism
spreads in the US
The Berlin Blockade 1948
• In post-war Germany, the 4 major powers decided to
divide up Berlin into 4 spheres of influence: USA, Britain,
France and USSR.
• The Western part of Berlin was getting ready to adopt a
new currency backed up by the US economy (old German
currency had no value anymore). Stalin felt threatened by
this action and since Berlin was on Soviet land, he decided
to cut off all supplies to the Western part of Berlin in Jun
of 1948.
• For 320 the Western powers supplied W. Berlin with coal
and food via air.
Berlin Crisis