The Origins of the Cold War

Chapter 17.1

• Feb 1945 - FDR, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Yalta

– Key Agreements

• Divide Germany into occupation zones

• Germany to pay USSR reparations

• Promised E. Europe would have free elections

Yalta Pact

Churchill’s Back…the Prophet

• Churchill sees Stalin as threat

• FDR sees Stalin as a friend and ally

Changing of the Guard

• FDR dies April 1945

• Harry Truman takes over

– Agrees with Churchill

The United Nations • 1945 – San Francisco

Conference forms United Nations – Created

• Security Council (11 members) – 5 permanent members:

China, France, Soviet Union, Britain, US

– Each could veto ANY security action

• General Assembly – All nations could cast

votes on various issues

• UN based in NY

Post WWII Europe

Post-WWII…US style

Soviet Union Post-WWII

• 50 times the fatalities of the US

– 25% of Soviets are killed or wounded

• Cities and Economy destroyed

Soviet Goals

• Terrified of Germany

• Need Security

– Satellite states – states to

create a buffer btw USSR and US controlled W. Europe

• USSR wants communist HEGEMONY – leadership or

dominance, esp. by one country over another

US Goals • Tired of European Wars

– Want democracy • Capitalistic democracies

don’t fight

• Liberty to oppressed

• Self-interest

• Rebuild European countries – Reunite Germany

• Gain access to raw materials and new markets

• US sees Soviet land grabs as offensive, not defensive

• USSR sees US as trying to isolate them from the world

Stalin Breaks the Yalta Pact

• Yalta said monitored elections in E. Europe – Stalin took control

as Germany retreated • Installed

Communist gov’ts

– Truman and Churchill angered

Potsdam Conference

• July 1945 – Truman, Stalin, and Churchill met in Potsdam

– Truman pressed Stalin to allow free elections

– Stalin refused

The Iron Curtain Falls

George Kennan and the “X Letter”

• US authority on Russia

• Sent letter signed “X” to US intelligence, said

– US could NOT co-exist with USSR

– Only option: CONTAINMENT – keeping communism w/in existing borders and protecting weaker countries

Greece and Turkey in Trouble

• Situations that allow containment:

– Stalin wants Greece and Turkey to free Black Sea Fleet

• Demanded military bases in the Turkish Straits

Truman’s Solution

• Truman Doctrine 1947

– Goal: US will support free people resisting subjugation (and Communism)

• Gives $400,000,000 to Greece and Turkey

• Paves the way for US military options

The Marshall Plan 1948

• Communism becoming popular in W. Europe

• George Marshall (Secretary of State) developed plan to give $13,000,000,000 to W. Europe

– Food, loans, fuel, machinery

– Offered to satellite states in E. Europe

• Yugoslavia (Communist) took US aid

• Others could not

Germany Post-WWII

• US Goal - build up W. Germany

• USSR Goal - keep E. Germany weak – 1948 – Allies allow

Germany to reunite

– USSR holds Berlin hostage • Cut off highway,

water, and rail traffic into Berlin’s W. zones

The Berlin Airlift

• Stalin gambled Allies would give up W. Berlin or give up reunifying W. Germany

• Allied response

– Food and supplies dropped into W. Berlin for 11 months

The Berlin Airlift con’t

Comecon – the Soviet Response

• Marshall Plan seen as plan to split satellite states from USSR

• Stalin introduced Comecon, a Soviet version of Marshall Plan

– Economic organization under leadership of USSR

NATO - 1949

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization

– military alliance to counter USSR

• COLLECTIVE SECURITY – principle of mutual military assistance

– One country attacked, all the others would aid

Warsaw Pact

• USSR answer to NATO

– Mutual military alliance between all E. Bloc countries

– 1961 – USSR built wall dividing E. and W. Berlin (Berlin Wall)

• Symbolized divisions of Cold War

Brinkmanship

• 1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower elected

– John Foster Dulles; Secretary of State

• If USSR threatened US interests, US would retaliate

• Brinkmanship – willingness to go to the brink of war BUT not to war

Mutually Assured Destruction

• Both sides build up nuclear programs

– Submarines, planes, missiles…

• MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION – US and USSR deterred

nuclear war building enough weapons to destroy one another

Sputnik I (1957)

• 1957 – Soviet Union launches steel ball containing transmitter into space – Russians are first

into space

• Then send a dog - Laika

• Russians have technological advantage

Open Skies and the U2 Incident

• Geneva Summit 1955 – Eisenhower proposed “Open Skies” treaty – Allowed for

monitoring each other

– Soviets turned it down

• U-2 Spy Plane (1960) – Francis Gary Powers

shot down over Russia