The Cold War

1945-1991

Negotiations--1945• Many say that the Cold War started

with the end of WWII• The Yalta Conference,

– February 4-11, 1945– Old palace of Czar Nicholas II in

Crimea– The Big Three--Stalin, FDR &

Chuchill

Yalta Conference• Issues:

• Roosevelt’s health

• Germany--division

• Soviet Request for $10 billion

• Poland--to Soviet Union pending elections

• Urged Soviet Union to declare war on Japan

Yalta Conference • FDR promised to withdraw US

troops in 2 years

• UN created -- why US join this time? Permanent seats… veto power…

• Korea divided along 38th parallel

• Soviet army was poised for final attack on Berlin

Truman becomes President

• April 12, 1945--FDR dies and Harry S. Truman becomes President

• “US-Soviet relations will no longer be on the basis of a one-way street”

• “Carry out your agreements and you won’t get talked to like that”

May 13th, 1945--VE Day

• Victory in Europe

The Potsdam Conference• July 17-August 2, 1945 in Berlin

suburb

• Truman, Churchill & Stalin

Potsdam Conference

• Stalin renewed demand for war payments

• Truman insisted on Polish elections

• Truman found out that A-bomb was tested in New Mexico

Potsdam Conference

• Issues Continue:

• Nuremberg trials

• Churchill lost election to Attlee

• Already problems with West vs. East German economies

WWII Ends

• August 6, Hiroshima--Little boy uranium bomb kills 80000

• August 8 Stalin declares war on Japan

• August 9 Nagasaki--Fatman plutonium bomb kills 70000

• August 15--VJ day

Cold War Demonstrations

• Truman announces no further recognition of communist government --January 5, 1946

“I’m Sick of babysitting the Soviets”

1946 Cold War Demonstrations

• Stalin hostile speech--communism and capitalism were incompatible

• February 10-- Churchill calls for Anglo-American opposition

• March 5-- Churchill speech --• “AN IRON CURTAIN”

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

While U.S. is testing Nuclear Arms--Marshall Islands…

• Albania and Bulgaria– Soviets rolled in 1944--secured

government by 1948 by suppressing all anti-communists

• Czechoslovakia– police and government officials replaced

by communists--1948 Satellite

Hungary and Romania• HUNGARY

– influenced elections with police control 1947

• Romania

–Communist Prime Minister

–1947 king was forced to resign

East Germany

• Stalin did not want Germany to gain power-established a totalitarian government

• 1949-German “Democratic Republic”

Finland and Yugoslavia

• Finland treaty of cooperation with Soviet Union

• Yugoslavia--own communism under Tito

Containment--1947-1949

• US and Soviet ideals not compatible so communism must be contained

• Truman Doctrine--

• February 1947--Britain unable to help Greece and Turkey --asked US to step in. $400,000,000

Marshall Plan

• George C. Marshall becomes secretary of State on Jan 21, 1947

• Decided to help European nations rebuild

• Plan revealed on June 5, 1947– “Our policy is directed not against any country

or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos”

Marshall Plan

• Soviet Union invited to participate but refused and forced satellites to refuse as well

• 17 nations joined– ratified in 1948 by congress

– 13 billion given over 4 years

THE COLD WAR BUILDS…

…and now the Soviets have nuclear power!!!