Transcript 7-5.1_7-5.2 Notes

The Cold War
Standards 7-5.1 & 7-5.2
1. A Growing Threat
A.
The political and economic ideologies of
the United States and the Soviet Union
were polar opposites.
 U.S.: capitalism and representative democracy
 Soviet Union: socialism and communist state
B.
2. This led to the beginning and escalation
of the Cold War.
2. Beginning of the Cold War
A.
B.
The Cold War began immediately at the end of
WWII.
Among the Big 3 leaders, tensions had
developed when they discussed the post-war
world.
1. Churchill and FDR wanted the German lands to be
given self-rule with representative governments
and capitalist economies.
2. Stalin wanted the lands to become communist with
socialist economies.
2. Beginning of the Cold War
cont.
► C.
Stalin promised to give these countries a
chance to choose their own form of
government.
► D. Instead, he broke the promise and forced
those countries to become communist.
► E. The result was a SPLIT between the
major leaders.
3. East and West Germany
A. Germany was divided into 4 sections.
1. The Soviet Union occupied the East.
2. The United States, France, and Great Britain
occupied the West.
3. East and West Germany cont.
► B.
Each side wanted its own political and
economic ideology to be chosen for
Germany.
► C. The United Nations agreed to officially
divide Germany into 2 separate countries:
East Germany and West Germany.
► D. The city of Berlin was also divided into 4
sections with a wall between the East and
West sides.
4. The Truman Doctrine
► A.
The United States wanted to contain the
spread of communism.
► B. President Truman created a foreign
policy that would provide money to
countries that were resisting communist
takeover= The Truman Doctrine
► C. The United States gave $400 million
dollars to help stop the spread of
communism.
5. The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan put $13 billion into Western
Europe after the war.
B. It was instrumental in helping to rebuild Western
Europe AND in helping to prevent the spread of
communism in the West.
C. The United States also gave money to help
rebuild Japan, but this was not a part of the
Truman Doctrine OR the Marshall Plan.
A.
6. The United Nations
A.
B.
The League of Nations had epically failed
to prevent wars.
In 1945, it was replaced with the United
Nations
1. The United Nations had the ability to use
military force and it was directly involved in
many of the conflicts of the Cold War.
7. The Berlin Airlift
► The
first major showdown of the Cold WAR
happened in Berlin.
 Soviets blocked all entrances to West Berlin to
try and drive western influence out of the city.
 The U.S., France, and Great Britain responded
by airlifting supplies into West Berlin.
 The Soviet Union was forced to lift the
blockade.
The first episode in the Cold War was the Berlin
Airlift that began on June 26, 1948 in response
the the blockade by the Soviets of all entrances
to the city of Berlin.
USAF C-47s carried 80 tons of food into Berlin,
on the first day - far less than the estimated
4,500 tons of food, coal, and other material
needed daily to maintain a minimum level of
existence. More help was on the way!
Before long hundreds of flights a day brought in
tons of supplies for eleven months. At the end,
Berliners were in better shape than they had been
since before the war. The Soviets backed down.
This map shows the places where the planes made
their drops – 272,000 flights brought in 2 million tons
of supplies to the people of West Berlin. But there
was another story, behind the scenes.
Lt. Gail Halvorsen was so impressed with the
friendliness of the children around the airport where
he dropped the supplies every day that he decided
to drop a surprise for them. The next day his plane
dropped hundreds of packets of candy on
handkerchief parachutes to the waving children.
Operation Little Vittles
► The
response from children was amazing
► Many hundreds would show up each day to see if
“Uncle Wiggly Wings” had more candy
► They wrote letters to thank him
► Newspapers carried the story back to American
cities and before long The Chocolate Pilot had tons
of candy to deliver. He needed help. Many
people volunteered to make the parachutes until
more than 250,000 parachutes had been dropped
Because of his humanitarian efforts, Lt. Halvorsen
was presented with the Cheney Award. His
greatest satisfaction came, however, from the
letters sent by the children, and…
Later, when he actually met the children.
Helpless to prevent it, the soldiers in the West
watch the wall rise to divide Berlin
The Brandenburg Gate, symbol of Berlin, stands
like other living prisoners behind the Berlin Wall.
Checkpoint Charlie was one of three gates through
which one could enter East Berlin for a brief visit.
It was a favorite point for escape attempts.
During the 28 years that it separated East from
West, over 5000 people escaped over, under, or
through the wall. More than 200 people died while
trying to escape; most shot by border guards.
8. NATO
► 12
Western countries formed a military
alliance to protect itself against the spread
of communism= North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
► The Soviet Union made a military alliance
with Eastern European countries= Warsaw
Pact.