Transcript 19.1 PP Notes

The Cold War Begins
Ch.19, Section 1
Setting the Scene…
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Setting the Scene
Allied Cooperation was Temporary
Stalin is hostile to capitalism and the U.S. in particular
The Soviet Union just lost 20 million citizens and had it’s
western half decimated.
• Stalin, Churchill,
and FDR had
worked well
together most of
the times.
• We now see that
the cooperation
between the
Soviets and the
U.S. and Great
Britain was
temporary.
• Soviets harbor
hostility towards
capitalism and the
U.S. in particular.
1945
Death of FDR
• Stalin wants...
– 20 Billion in war
reparations
from Germany.
– a barrier to
protect “Mother
Russia” from
Europe.
– To make sure
Germany is
never a threat
again.
Soviet Goals
The U.S. wants…
• Freedom for
the countries
we just fought
to liberate.
• A strong, free,
and open
Europe.
– (democracies
are good for
business!)
“Uncle Joe” vs “Give ‘em hell Harry”
• Truman was very unprepared to be President.
• Truman was kept out of all foreign policy under
FDR.
• Stalin was a much stronger negotiator than
Truman anticipated.
• Even so….
Potsdam - 1945
Potsdam Cont…
• Stalin will allow
elections in Poland
(lie)
• The United Nations is
created as a
peacekeeping body.
– The U.S. will join the
U.N., unlike the
League of Nations
Soviets tighten their grip
• One by one, all countries that were liberated by the
U.S.S.R. fall under Stalin’s tyranny.
• Elections in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, East Germany are rigged or stolen,
and these countries become satellite states of the
Soviet Union.
• “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The
people who count the votes decide everything” - Stalin
• “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended
across the Continent.”
– Sir Winston Churchill
Iron Curtain
George Kennan
“The United States
policy towards the
Soviet Union must be
that of a long-term,
patient but firm and
vigilant containment
of Russian expansive
tendencies.”
The U.S. Containment Policy
• Many argued that containment was too weak, and we should
push Stalin back into his borders.
• Keenan saw what the future held for the Soviet Union, stating
that it:" bears within it the seeds of its own decay”.
Containment, Cont.
• Keenan’s argument carries the day, and containment
becomes the U.S.’s official policy towards communism
for the coming decades.
• This allows us to keep communism from taking over
democracies.
However…
• We have no way of fighting communism in
countries were it already has roots.
The Truman Doctrine
"I believe that it must be
the policy of the
United States to
support free peoples
who are resisting
attempted subjugation
by armed minorities or
by outside pressures.”
– Harry S. Truman
The Truman Doctrine
• Turkey and Greece
have considerable
communist influence
within their countries.
• The U.S. gave over
$400 million dollars in
aid to make sure
these countries
wouldn’t become
communist.