Cold War Origins - 5/4/09

Cold War Beginnings

Post World War II

The “Big Three”

What were the main issues discussed at the Yalta

Conference?• Poland• The Declaration of Liberated Europe• Dividing Germany

How did Yalta affect U.S.-Soviet relations?

• Rising tensions• Increasing hostility

The Potsdam Conference

• German reparations• Truman and Stalin reach an agreement• Potsdam Declaration

The Long Telegram

• George Kennan• What were the main points of the

telegram?• What policy did the telegram propose? • Why?

Containment

• Definition: keeping communism within its present territory through the use of diplomatic, economic, and military actions

The Iron Curtain

• Winston Churchill• Satellite nations

Iran (1946)

• U.S. troops in South Iran• Soviet troops in North Iran• Soviets would not withdraw troops• Instead, they demanded access to oil.• Helped establish Communist govt in north

Iran• What message did this send to the U.S.?

Truman’s Response

• Secretary of State sent Stalin a strong message that demanded Soviets withdraw troops.

• Sent the battleship USS Missouri near Iran

• Soviets withdrew with promise of joint Soviet-Iranian oil company

Turkey (1946)

• Soviets wanted the straits of Dardanelles

• Stalin demanded joint control of the Dardanelles with Turkey

• Truman’s Response: sent aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt and Missouri to protect Turkey and Eastern Mediterranean

Greece (1946-1947)

• Greek Communists launched war against government.

• British helped the Greeks fight them.• British could not afford to help any

longer by 1947.• Truman’s Response: Go to Congress to

ask for money to fight Communist aggression ($400 million)…

The Truman Doctrine

• To aid “free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”

• Stabilize the Greek government and help Turkey resist Soviet Union

• Pledged the U.S. to fight the spread of communism.

The Marshall Plan

• Problems in Europe• Secretary of State George C. Marshall• European Recovery Program• Aid European nations to rebuild

economies• Truman: Marshall Plan and Truman

Doctrine were essential for containment

• Offered to Soviet Union, they refused• Why did the Soviet Union refuse the

Marshall Plan?• What did they set up instead?• Warsaw Pact

The Berlin Airlift

• Allies merged their German zones in 1948 and allowed Germans to have own government. (Federal Republic of Germany)

• German Democratic Republic was East Germany

• June 1948: Soviet Union cut off all road and rail traffic to West Berlin to try and force U.S. to change decision

Truman’s Response

• Sent bombers with atomic weapons to bases in Britain

• Ordered air force to fly supplies into Berlin, continued until spring 1949

• Symbolic American gesture of determination to contain communism

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization• Allies created a mutual defense alliance• Members agreed to come to the aid of

any member who was attacked.• U.S. committed itself to maintaining

peace in Europe• In 1955, NATO allowed West Germany

to rearm and join

Soviet Response

• Warsaw Pact (1955): military alliance of Eastern European countries