After WWII, Europe and Asia were divided between communist and capitalist spheres of influence. Germany, Korea, and Vietnam were divided, and forced population transfers altered ethnic distributions. The USSR imposed communist rule in Eastern Europe against the will of many citizens. The US responded with containment policies like the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan to counter Soviet expansion. This began the Cold War period characterized by proxy conflicts and an arms race between the US and USSR with nuclear threat.

2. After the War (Starting Ch. 27)
• Japan is occupied from 1945-1952
• Wrote a new constitution (modeled after the US) - 1946
• They are limited to a small defense force which is not allowed to leave Japan
• Women gain the right to vote
• Korea is divided into the North (occupied by the USSR) and the South
(occupied by the US) – more on this to come
• While at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 it became clear to
Truman that Stalin had no intentions of allowing free elections in
Eastern Europe
• Europe would be divided along east/west lines throughout the Cold
War

3. Changing Borders and
Occupations- Korea
The Korean Peninsula
was taken from
Japanese control. With
both the US fearing that
Korea would become
communist, and the
Soviets fearing US
intervention and control
the country was divided
along the 38th parallel.
The Soviets occupied the
north, while US troops
occupied the south.

4. Changing Borders and Occupations –
Germany and Austria
Germany and Austria were divided between the
allied victors, with British, French, American, and
Soviet zones.
Likewise, the capital cities of Berlin (below) and
Vienna (bottom right) were also divided into
zones – both of which were well within Soviet
territory.

5. Changing Borders and Spheres
of Influence - Europe
• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were independent states between
the two World Wars.
• After the war, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became Soviet Socialist
Republics within the USSR, as did Moldova (territory kept from
Romania).
• Territory from interwar Eastern Poland was taken and incorporated into
the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs. Most of the Ethnic Poles living in
this territory were forcibly relocated west, into the (communist)
Republic of Poland.
• The historic homeland of German Unification, East Prussia, was divided
between communist Poland and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist
Republic within the USSR. Ethnic Germans were forcibly removed and
sent to East Germany.
• Territory of mixed Polish/German settlement in interwar eastern
Germany was taken and given to Poland. Germans in these areas were
forced to move west into East Germany, while Poles removed from
Byelorussian and Ukrainian territory were encouraged to relocate there.

6. Changing Borders and Spheres
of Influence - Europe
• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were independent states between
the two World Wars.
• After the war, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became Soviet Socialist
Republics within the USSR, as did Moldova (territory kept from
Romania).
• Territory from interwar Eastern Poland was taken and incorporated into
the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs. Most of the Ethnic Poles living in
this territory were forcibly relocated west, into the (communist)
Republic of Poland.
• The historic homeland of German Unification, East Prussia, was divided
between communist Poland and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist
Republic within the USSR. Ethnic Germans were forcibly removed and
sent to East Germany.
• Territory of mixed Polish/German settlement in interwar eastern
Germany was taken and given to Poland. Germans in these areas were
forced to move west into East Germany, while Poles removed from
Byelorussian and Ukrainian territory were encouraged to relocate there.

7. Changing Borders and Spheres
of Influence - Europe
• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were independent states between
the two World Wars.
• After the war, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became Soviet Socialist
Republics within the USSR, as did Moldova (territory kept from
Romania).
• Territory from interwar Eastern Poland was taken and incorporated into
the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs. Most of the Ethnic Poles living in
this territory were forcibly relocated west, into the (communist)
Republic of Poland.
• The historic homeland of German Unification, East Prussia, was divided
between communist Poland and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist
Republic within the USSR. Ethnic Germans were forcibly removed and
sent to East Germany.
• Territory of mixed Polish/German settlement in interwar eastern
Germany was taken and given to Poland. Germans in these areas were
forced to move west into East Germany, while Poles removed from
Byelorussian and Ukrainian territory were encouraged to relocate there.
This area was also taken from
Italy and given to Yugoslavia.

8. Germans from here
And here
Were forced to move here
Poles from here
Were forced to
move to the new
borders of
Poland, and
many moved
here.
Russians were moved into hereForced Population Shifts

9. Changing Borders and Spheres
of Influence - Europe
• There were actually elections in Czechoslovakia and Hungary in 1946
• Czechoslovakia had a non-communist president (Edvard Benes) and
a communist PM (Klement Gottwald)
• Initially agreed to the Marshall Plan, but forced to back out
• Stalin met with Gottwald in Moscow in 1947, then in 1948
used militias and the police to take the remaining power away
from opposition groups.
• Jan Masaryk, moderate Foreign Minister (and son of the
interwar president) was found dead.
• Hungary, similarly, founded a coalition government after the war
• Communists merge with a less radical party, and use that to
take control of key offices, then force opposition parties to
merge and later, declared them illegal.
• Write a new constitution in 1949 modeled after the 1936
Soviet Union constitution.
• Communists took power in Poland early on, forcing the opposition into
exile. Romania, likewise, saw a communist takeover, within a few years
both countries saw pro-Stalin leaders in power.

10. The Early Cold War
• The “Long Telegram”
• George F. Kennan, expert on the USSR working in
the embassy in Moscow
• Asked to give insight into Soviet strategy/intentions
• February 22, 1946 - 5,000 words
• Recommended a policy of containment towards
Soviet expansionism
• Believed that the Soviets, viewing democratic
capitalism as fundamentally opposed to
communism, would continue to build their military
strength and attempt to subvert capitalist
democracies all over the world
• Also believed that the economic potential of
capitalism was the best way to combat Soviet
expansion, and that this would eventually lead to
Soviet collapse (foreshadowing)
Divided Berlin
Why was it called the Cold War?

11. The Early Cold War
• The Truman Doctrine
• A civil war started in Greece in 1946 between Monarchists and Communists
• By 1947 Great Britain could no longer afford to help the Monarchists and asked
the US for help
• Truman, acting on the ideas of containment from Kennan, needed to gain public
support for helping Greece
• He used the idea of a “domino theory” to strike fear into the hearts of Americans
• The more aggressive form of containment envisioned by Truman would influence
policy for the next half-century (against communism)
• For all its force it was, in fact, very vague and much less of an actual foreign policy
• Many saw this as potentially getting the US into conflicts all over the world, and
forcing the US to ally with less-than-ideal governments and movements, just
because they were anti-communist
• His posturing was successful, though, and Congress passed aid to help Greece

12. The Marshall Plan
• A plan developed by George C. Marshall, Secretary of State, in 1947
• Used ideas of Kennan and others to suggest using heavy US financial and
technical assistance to rebuild Europe
• By this time it was apparent that all of the European states were struggling to
rebuild (physically and economically)
• Was not just because of the goodness of our hearts, it was also strategic
• Kennan’s ideas about subverting communist beliefs by showing how good life could be
under capitalism, with goods (particularly American goods) making life better
• Also connected participating countries to a broader economic system, driven by the US
• Soviet Union (and the Eastern Bloc) declined to participate
• Between 1948-1951 $13 billion was poured into European countries

14. The Berlin Blockade – June 1948-May 1949
• The Marshall Plan enabled the British/French/American sectors of
Germany (and Berlin) to unite into a formalized government with their
own currency and economy
• Stalin did not want to allow West German currency to be used in West
Berlin and stopped allowing vehicles and trains to cross East Germany
to get into West Berlin
• The US and UK bypassed this blockade by flying in supplies
• Known as the Berlin Airlift
• Lasted 321 days
• Eventually the Soviets lift the blockade
• In 1949 West Germany and East Germany officially
became separate countries

15. International Treaties and Reorganization at Home
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Military pact to defend member states from military attack
• Initially joined by 12 countries in 1949
• Included the US and Canada
• Greece and Turkey joined in 1952
• West Germany joined in 1955
• National Security Act (1947)
• Created the Department of Defense
• Secretary of Defense - Cabinet
• Joint Chiefs of Staff (Military Branches)
• National Security Council
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Tasked with intelligence gathering abroad

16. Cold War Overview
• 1949 – Chinese Civil War ends with Mao Zedong and the communists
taking over China, nationalist retreat to the island of Formosa
• What is Formosa known as to the world today?
• 1950-1953 – Korean War
• 1955 – Warsaw Pact
• 1956 – Hungarian Revolution
• 1961 – Berlin Wall
• 1961 – Bay of Pigs
• 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis
• 1965 – 1973 – Vietnam War (US Military Advisors had been in
Vietnam since the 1950s, first supporting the French, then the South
Vietnamese)

17. Space Race
• USSR
• 1957
• First Satellite – Sputnik
• First animal – Laika (dog)
• 1959
• First lunar spacecraft and impact – Luna 1 and 2
• 1960
• First animals returned from space – Belka and
Strelka (dogs) – Sputnik 5
• 1961
• First human in space – Yuri Gagarin – Vostok 1
• 1963
• First woman in space – Valentina Tereshkova –
Vostok 6
• 1966
• First impact into another planet (Venus)(first to
do a flyby also in 1963)
• US
• 1958
• Solar-powered satellite
• Communications satellite
• 1960
• First successful spy satellite
• 1961
• First hominid (Chimpanzee named
Ham) – Mercury-Redstone 2
• First pilot-controlled space flight –
Freedom 7, Alan Shephard
• 1968
• First human orbit of the moon –
Apollo 8
• 1969
• First humans on the moon – Apollo 11

18. Nuclear Culture
• The fear of nuclear warfare enters popular culture during the
Cold War
1954 - Godzilla
1962
Hulk
and
Spider-
Man
Bombing drills

19. Final Thoughts
• Be sure to view the two Cold War
Crash Course videos
• Read Chapter 28
• View the Crash Course Civil Rights
and the 1950s video
• Next week we will attempt to cover
the 1960s-1990s