The End of World War II and the Beginning of the

Cold War1945-1968

The Yalta Conference1945

As it became clear the Allies would win WWII, Churchill, Stalin and a close-to-death FDR met to decide how Europe would be administered once the Nazis would defeated.

At the Yalta Conference they did not want to repeat the mistakes of Versailles.

The Decisions at Yalta

The army liberating a country from the Nazis would administer it until it became stable and it could choose its own government. (Stalin did not abide by this and installed Communist one-party rule across Eastern Europe by 1948)

Borders would remain roughly what they were after the WWI Treaty of Versailles.

Germany (and Austria) would be administered indefinitely in four quadrants administered by Britain, the US, France, and the USSR.

The Iron Curtain

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.

Physically, the “Iron Curtain” was a borderline between communist states under Soviet power and the Western European capitalist and democratic states.

Symbolically, the iron curtain was a way of referring to the clear division between two opposite ideas. Clearly, the two sides shared completely different views.

The Americans believed that Stalin wanted to spread communism throughout Europe, to achieve his goal on his expansion to power throughout Europe. Conversely, Stalin said that it was purely to secure the future of the Soviet Union due to the Soviet Union's losses in WWII.http://jspivey.wikispaces.com/Europe+1945-48,+Berlin+Blockade+and+Airlift+pg.+8-11

Click below to see and hear Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jvax5VUvjWQ#!

The Truman Doctrine/Containment

US President Harry Truman (who replaced the deceased FDR in 1946) announced his policy of Containment.

The US was powerless to undo Communism where it already existed without starting World War III, but it vowed to do anything in its power to stop Communism from spreading to any other country.

This policy dominated US foreign policy until the early 1990s and led to the Korean War (1950s) and Vietnam War (1960s-70s).

Early tests of this policy were the successes of funding and arming the anticommunists in Greece during the Greek Civil War in the late 1940s, and giving massive military and economic aid to Turkey to keep it from falling under Soviet influence and an ally of the West.

Truman Doctrine video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wmQD_W8Pcxg

Months after the Truman Doctrine was signed, the Marshall Aid came to place. The American government provided billions of dollars to 16 European countries including Germany and Austria. The money was used to repair the economies of the war-devastated countries.

The U.S. believed that if they were to give aid to these countries, they would lead better lives. If they had better lives, they would think less about changing their lives by giving in to communism. Nor would another Hitler arise if the people of Europe were not poor and desperate. As a response to this, the U.S. developed the Marshall Plan (also called the European Recovery Program).

The Marshall Plan provided many of the lacking necessities in Europe such as food, fuel, loans, machines and raw materials. The plan spurred economic growth both in Europe and the U.S. , Communism did not spread in Europe, and West Germany became a friend and ally.

The Communist Soviet Union—America’s ally during the war and the country that suffered most in the war—was left out, ensuring its economic recovery would be more difficult.

The Marshall Plan

Germany

Remember, the plan for postwar Germany was for the four victorious powers (US, Great Britain, France, Soviet Union) to each administer a quadrant of Germany until a non-Nazi government acceptable to Germans could be created—a tough task with three democratic/capitalist powers and one Communist partner.

Obviously, it was not a great solution, but it was the best they could come up with at Yalta, and it prevented the Western Allies and Soviets from challenging each other for possession of postwar Germany.

The capital city of Berlin (located in the Soviet quadrant) was also considered a single city administered in four quadrants.

The Problem With Germany

Problems among the powers arose almost immediately, and by 1948 the three non-Communist powers had combined their efforts and worked together all but excluding the Soviets and its eastern sector.

In 1949, it officially became two countries with the Western three quadrants becoming West Germany, and the Soviet sector becoming East Germany.

However, due to the Berlin arrangement, West Germany and its American, British, and French troops were still sitting right in the capital of the new Communist East Germany.

Stalin wanted the Western armies out, especially since the Soviets were being excluded from any influence outside their assigned sector.

The Berlin Crisis

Blaming (probably in all fairness correctly) the West for dividing Germany, Stalin ordered the Soviet Army to block Western access to the non-Communist sector of Berlin. Nothing was allowed into West Berlin by road or by rail. This blockade is known as the 1948 Berlin Crisis.

The West now faced a choice of leaving East Germany in defeat, starting a war with the Soviets (possibly a nuclear war), letting West Berliners starve, or finding a different solution.

The Berlin Airlift

During the Winter of 1948-1949 the US, British and French (but mostly the US) bypassed the blockade through a constant stream of planes dropping food, medicine, candy, toys, and anti-Communist propaganda into the blockaded areas of Berlin.

The Soviets could have easily shot down the planes, but would not dare to do so, as it would have triggered a war against Western Europe and the United States with its nuclear superiority. The Berlin Airlift was a major victory as it made the West look like the “good guys” and the Communist East the “bad guys”.

Stalin called off the blockade, and the presence of an island of West Berlin sitting right in the middle of the capital of Communist East Germany would remain a problem until 1989.

NATO

In response to the Berlin Crisis, the US created a massive military alliance of non-Communist countries called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

This told the Soviets that an attack on any of the countries listed to the right would mean they would be fighting the world.

In response, the Soviet-controlled countries formed an official alliance to counter NATO called the Warsaw Pact.

Original Members: United States Canada Iceland Denmark Norway Portugal Italy Britain France Belgium the Netherlands Luxembourg

By 1970: West Germany Greece Turkey Spain

The Berlin Wall1961

As the Capitalist West offered a much higher standard of living than the Communist West, up to a thousand East Germans a day were crossing into West Berlin and making their way from there to live in West Germany.

This was a major embarrassment for Communists, and it threatened to destroy the East German economy.

The Berlin Wall 1961

With Soviet approval, East Germany built a wall around West Berlin, keeping East Berlin and East Germany’s people from entering West Berlin.

That’s right—so many people wanted to flee Communism that their government had to build a wall to keep their own people in!

Railroad tracks, streets, sewers and even apartment buildings were divided, with East Berliners and West Berliners kept apart for 28 years.

Berlin Wall Documentary:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S169PQMwNmE&feature=related

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