COLD WAR CONFLICTS. (c) 2007 brainybetty.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2 What is the Cold War? A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in

COLD WAR CONFLICTS

(c) 2007 brainybetty.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2

What is the Cold War?

• A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in which neither nation directly confronted the other on the battlefield.

• Dominated global affairs and foreign policy from the end of WWII in 1945 until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.


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Post World War II

• The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as two “superpowers”

• The U.S. and S.U. had vastly different economic and political systems.

• The two countries had vastly different visions of the world’s future.


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Postwar Germany

• The U.S., British, French and Soviet Union decided to split Germany up into four zones temporarily following World War II.

• Churchill and Roosevelt assumed that in time, the four zones would come together in a reunited Germany.


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Berlin


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Soviet Union United States

• Joseph Stalin• Communism• State controls all

property and economic activity

• Totalitarian Government- no opposing parties allowed.

•Harry S. Truman

•Capitalism

•Private citizens control property and economic activity.

•People vote to elect a President and Congress. Political competition.


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What the Soviet Union Wants

• Encourage Communism in other countries.

• Rebuild its’ economy using Eastern Europe’s equipment and raw materials

• Control Eastern Europe• Keep Germany weak

and divided so it will never threaten the S.U. again

What the United States Wants

•Self-Determination for all nations

•Gain access to raw materials and markets for its products

•Rebuild European governments to ensure stability and give us a market to sell goods

•Reunite Germany


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Tension Mounts• Stalin refuses to allow free elections in Poland• Stalin establishes “satellite nations” in

Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Poland.– Dominated by the Soviet Union

• 1946-Stalin makes a speech where he says that capitalism and communism cannot coexist…a war will have to settle the dispute.


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U.S. Policy: Containment• Containment is taking measures to

prevent any extension of communist rule to other countries.

• Europe is now divided into two political regions– Western Europe: Democratic– Eastern Europe: Communist

• Winston Churchill coins the phrase “iron curtain” for the division of Europe.

• iron curtain speech

http://www.authentichistory.com/1950s/speeches/19460305_Winston_Churchill_Iron_Curtain_Speech.html


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The Truman Doctrine

• The policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting takeover.– Between 1947-1950 Congress used this

doctrine to send $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece to help prevent Communist takeover.


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The Marshall Plan

• Europe is in a state of chaos after WWII.

• Sec. of State George Marshall proposes that the United States provide to all of the European nations that needed it.

• The Marshall Plan revived European hopes.

• The U.S. spends $13 billion in aid.

• Very successful.


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Countries helped by the Marshall Plan


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Struggle over Germany

• In 1948, Britain, France and the U.S. decide Germany is ready to be reunited.

• All three combine their territories to form one nation.

• The Western part of Berlin was now surrounded by Soviet territory.


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The Berlin Airlift• June 1948, Stalin closed all highway and rail routes into Berlin,

hoping to take the city for himself.

• No food or fuel could reach ¾ of the city.

• Berliners only had enough food to last them 5 weeks.

• The U.S. and Great Britain spoiled Stalin’s plan by flying in 2.3 million tons of supplies including food, fuel, medicine and Christmas presents to Berliners.

• For 327 days, 277,000 flights made deliveries to Berlin.

• May 1949 Stalin realized he was beaten and lifted the blockade.


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The NATO Alliance

• The aggression of the Soviet Union worried the rest of the world.

• On April 4, 1949, the U.S. along with 11 other nations form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

• The members pledged military support to one another in case any one was attacked.

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COLD WAR CONFLICTS. (c) 2007 brainybetty.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2 What is the Cold War? A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in