Steps in the Cold War

continued notes

IRON CURTAIN SPEECH

• speech from Prime Minister Winston Churchill

• an “Iron Curtain” of Soviet controlled countries in Eastern Europe ran along the western borders of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Albania

TRUMAN DOCTRINE

• in 1947 President Truman asked for $400 million

• providing military and economic assistance to countries that resist communist takeovers

MARSHALL PLAN

• in 1947 U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall created a plan to rebuild Europe

• Congress approved $17 billion

• European nations could receive money to rebuild as long as the money was spent on U.S. products

• only West European countries took the loan

MOLOTOV PLAN

• the Soviet Union rejected participation in the Marshall Plan and decided to create an economic union of East European countries

• Created by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheshav Molotov

• East Europe would rebuild according to a plan set forth by the communist countries

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949

• military alliance• Canada, U.S. West Europe,

Greece and Turkey• still in existence today

WARSAW PACT

• Warsaw Pact was created in 1955

• military alliance• Soviet Union and seven East

European Satellite States• Poland, East Germany,

Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania and Bulgaria

BERLIN BLOCKADE

• following WWII, Germany was divided into four occupation zones controlled by the Americans, Soviets, British and French

• Berlin, the German capital, was also divided in four zones held by the same powers

• in 1948, the Soviet Union decided to cut off road and rail access to Berlin which was inside East Germany

BERLIN AIRLIFT

• the Berlin Blockade left two million West Berliners without food, electricity and fuel

• for 10 months the U.S. sent two million tons of supplies to West Berlin on cargo planes

• the Soviet Union lifted the blockade in May, 1949

BERLIN WALL• after years of using

propaganda to discourage people from defecting to West Berlin…

• a wall was constructed in 1961 that sealed shut the entire border between East and West Berlin

• it was manned by East German soldiers in watchtowers with shoot to kill orders for anyone attempted to scale the wall

BERLIN WALL CONTINUED

• the Berlin Wall was tore down in November, 1989

HORRIBLE FLASHBACKS

U.S.S.R. TESTS THE BOMB

• the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949

• both “Superpowers” now competed in an arms race

THE INVASION OF HUNGARY• rioting broke out in Hungary in

1956• they wanted more freedoms

from their communist government

• the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, moved the Soviet army with tanks into the streets of Budapest

• the uprising was brutally crushed and Hungary was returned to a Soviet-style nation

THE INVASION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA

• in 1968, Czechoslovakia attempted to loosen itself from Soviet control and restore freedoms lost since the end of WWII

• it the revolt was led by Alexander Dubcek

• the Soviet Union sent in Warsaw Pact troops and crushed the revolt