Transcript Origins of the Cold War: Revision - All Saints` Catholic High School

Origins of the Cold War: Revision
Do Now:
Explain why the Cold War,
was known as the Cold
War.
There are some keywords
below to help you:
Propaganda, fear, nuclear
weapons, ideologies,
hegemony, threats.
L.O: Can I revise everything I’ve learned about the
Cold War?
Ideological Differences in 1945
When WW2 had ended in 1945, the USA & the USSR
were on the same team, they had both been part of
defeating Hitler. They were both incredibly powerful,
The
President
Roosevelt
diedbiggest
in 1945.superpowers
He was replaced
andUS
arguably,
were
the two
in
by
wastime.
strongly anti-Communist and, as the
theTruman
world who
at this
war came to an end, the relationship between America and
The
USA
Russia
fellwere
apart.staunch Capitalists and the USSR were
staunch Communists.
Task:
Explain the ideological differences between these two
countries & their political/economic/cultural beliefs
The Yalta Conference, Feb 1945
Was held just before the end of the war to decide what to do with
Germany after its defeat:
The outcomes were:
• Germany to be divided into four zones occupied by Britian, France the
USA & the USSR.
• Although the capital, Berlin, fell into the USSR zone, it would be divided
between the four countries too.
• Nazi war criminals to be hunted down and tried for their crimes.
• Free elections to be held in the states of Eastern Europe once they had
been freed from German control.
• Stalin agreed to help the USA against Japan if he could have some land
in the Far East (Asia).
• A UN should be set up.
• Germany should pay reparations for the war.
The ‘Big Three’ of the Yalta Conference
Winston Churchill
Prime Minister of
Britain
Aims:
Free elections and
democratic gov’ts
in E.Europe
Josef Stalin
Leader of the USSR
Aims:
Soviet influence in E.Europe
Franklin Roosevelt
President of the USA
for a few months of
1945 before Truman
took over.
Aims:
Soviet support in war
against Japan
The Potsdam Conference, July 1945
This conference happened after Germany had lost the war. Although there
was only 4 months between Yalta and Potsdam, lots had changed:
• Roosevelt had died in April 1945, and was replaced by Truman who was
far more suspicious of Stalin and unwilling to negotiate with him.
• Churchill was defeated in an election and replaced by Clement Attlee.
• Soviet troops had taken over much of Eastern Europe and stayed there,
without any free elections. (against Yalta conference).
• On 16th July the USA had successfully tested the first atom bomb. It was
clear they weren’t going to share the secret. Stalin became more
suspicious.
• The division of Germany, into four and treatment of war criminals was
confirmed at Potsdam.
• The alliance between the USSR & the West was over.
The ‘Big Three’ at the Potsdam Conference
Josef Stalin
Leader of the USSR
Clement Attlee
Prime Minister of Britain
Harry Truman
President of the
USA
The dropping of the atom bomb and its
effects
• The USA had developed the first ever nuclear bombs.
• President Truman decided to use these against Japan in the hope
that it would end the War in the Pacific.
• They were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki on 6th & 9th August, causing long lasting damage and
destruction.
• Stalin has not been told that the USA were planning on using these
bombs and felt betrayed, and obviously, paranoid.
• The Soviets did join the war against Japan on 8th August and made
some gains in the Far East, but were not allowed to take credit for
the defeat of the Japanese.
The Iron Curtain
The term ‘the Iron Curtain’
was a coin phrased by
Churchill. It described the
metaphorical curtain that
split the Capitalist West
from the Communist East,
• The USSR and Communism had grown further
when WW2 finished.
• Stalin was obsessed with building a ‘buffer zone’
to ‘protect the USSR from further invasion’.
• Rather than letting free elections happen in the
Eastern countries that had been under Nazi
control, Stalin made sure that Communist
governments that supported the USSR were set
up.
• Churchill feared this Soviet expansion from as
early as 1945.
The Truman Doctrine & the Marshall Plan,
1947
The Truman Doctrine
• In 1947, a civil war in Greece, highlighted how poor it was, and Truman
decided to get involved.
• Britain had been trying to help Greece after they had freed it from Nazi
control in 1944, but Britain just wasn’t wealthy enough.
• Communists were forming a resistance in Greece, and trying to turn it
Communist too.
• Britain went to the USA for help.
• Truman went to congress, and they granted Greece and Turkey $400million
to protect them from Communist influence.
• With the help of American arms and money the communist threat was
defeated by 1949, and Turkey was able to resist Communist pressure too.
• This showed the world that the USA weren’t going to revert back to
Isolationism, and Truman vowed to try and stop the spread of Communism,
this was know as the ‘policy of containment.’
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan was the other half of the Truman doctrine.
The economies all over Europe were in ruins, and many European
countries were being tempted by Communism.
George Marshall, was sent by Truman to go to Europe and see first-hand
what the situation was.
He reported back to congress in the USA that he needed $17billion
dollars in European aid. Congress was about to refuse when Jan Masaryk,
a minister supporting the west and Capitalism was murdered.
This was just after many non-communists were killed in the
Czechoslovakia, and the USA were persuaded that they needed to act.
Marshall aid was given to 16 countries to improve agriculture and build
up industry.
Stalin prevented any Communist countries in the East from receiving
Marshall Aid.
Stalin claimed that the USA were bribing countries , so they would
depend on the USA and join them against the USSR.
Comniform and Comecon
• Stalin’s reaction to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan was
to set up Comniform (the Communist Information Bureau) in Sept
1947.
• All the Communist parties in Europe were involved in this. It had
been created to defend Communism against the USA.
• It helped Stalin to have more control over other Communist
countries.
• These countries were known as the satellite states. Stalin
established his own plans for their recovery, and they were meant
to trade with each other, rather than the West.
• Yugoslavia showed too much independence, and Stalin threw them
out of the Comniform.
• The USSR offered aid to the satellite states in 1949. This was known
as Comecon.
The Berlin Blockade: First Major Crisis of
the Cold War
• When the war ended, Stalin had kept many German resources,
wanting to keep it weak.
• Truman thought it would be better to keep Germany strong, to help
defend Europe against the USSR, and gave Germany Marshall Aid.
• Britain, France & the USA merged their zones of Germany, and the
USSR kept one.
• It was clear to see that the West of Germany was prospering, while
the East remained poor and run down.
• Stalin decided this was unfair, and against the Yalta and Potsdam
conferences. Berlin was in the soviet zone of Germany, and so Stalin
stopped British, French and American access into West Berlin, and
claimed that all of Berlin was his.
• By 23 June 1948 all routes into West Berlin had been closed. His plan
was to force the west to give him Berlin, by starving the West
Berliners.