Germany surrendered in 1945 and was divided and occupied by the Allies. The Potsdam Conference established this division and began de-Nazification efforts. Europe was largely bankrupt after the war while the US and USSR emerged as new superpowers. The Soviets wanted to rebuild the German economy to their benefit while the Americans prioritized self-determination, leading to the origins of the Cold War between them. Japan also surrendered in 1945 after atomic bombs were dropped and was remade under US occupation with a new constitution and demilitarization. These postwar changes established the foundations for the ensuing global Cold War conflict between capitalist and communist ideologies.

2. Europe
Germany surrenders May 1945
Potsdam Conference:
Germany divided, occupied by Allies
Germany de-Nazified
Nuremberg Trials:
War Criminals, Holocaust collaborators
tried
Crimes Against Humanity developed

3. Europe
European countries largely bankrupted
by war
USA and USSR new world
superpowers

4. Treatment of Germany:

5. Leads to Origins of the Cold
War
Soviets want to rebuild economy using
German industry
Allies agreed to divide Germany
temporarily
Soviets wanted a “buffer”
Americans wanted “self-determination”

6. Treatment of Germany:

7. Japan/Asia
 Surrendered August
1945 after First (and
only) use of atomic
weapons:
August 6 –
Hiroshima,
August 9 – Nagasaki

8. Japan/Asia
Loses all territories since 1895
General MacArthur oversees drafting
of new constitution
 Emperor looses god-like status (though
not war criminal)
Japan demilitarized
Minimal war crimes (compare to Germany)
1951 - Regains independence

9. Long-standing changes
Difference between the west and east
would quickly start the Cold War
Nuclear weapons complicate issue
United Nations: works for world peace
& improve the lives of the people of the
world. (Replaces League of Nations)

10. Long-standing changes
 Nationalism and anti-colonialism = desires
for independence and self-determination
See: India, Africa, Asia
 Advances in science and technology
(synthetic rubber, radar, synthetic materials,
jet engines, atomic weapons/energy)
 New world powers, new threats, new rules
lead to … COLD WAR

11. 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.

12. What was the Cold War?
A state of economic, diplomatic, and
ideological discord among nations
without armed conflict after World War
II.
But, no direct fighting (“hot war”)
between superpowers…but in Vietnam,
Korea, etc.
Why?

13. Cold War Begins
a non-military battle of
diplomacy and
propaganda between
the United States and
Soviet Union
- Many of the smaller wars were
called proxy wars because
the U.S. and U.S.S.R. never
fought face to face

14. Berlin Wall

15. The Cold War 1945-
1991

16. Origins of the Cold War
Cold War defined by issues raised at
Potsdam Conference

17. Iron Curtain…

18. U.S. vs. USSR (Soviet
Union)
U.S. U.S.S.R
Capitalism Communism
Private property State owns
Democratic Totalitarian

19. Similarities
Both the US & USSR:
wanted to defeat Hitler
wanted their values and economic and
political systems to prevail
wanted a sphere of influence
agreed that capitalism and communism
could not coexist
believed the other to be a threat to their
own existence

20. Differences
Soviets thought capitalism brought
imperialism and war
Americans thought communism was
totalitarian and bent on subjugating
other nations

22. New World Classifications
 “First World” Countries: Industrialized,
wealthy countries (Western Europe, Canada,
US, Australia)
 “Second World” Countries: Communist /
Communist-controlled countries (USSR,
Soviet-bloc countries, China)
 “Third World” Countries: Poor,
unindustrialized countries that have some
sort of natural resource to exploit. (Congo,
Iraq)
 “Fourth World” Countries: Poor,
unindustrialized countries that have little- to
no resources to exploit (Haiti)

23. Nuclear Weapons
Soviets began their nuclear program in
1943
US hoped to regulate nuclear arms
after WWII - but clearly held the
advantage
Soviets refused to participate, started
arms race

24. The Ideological Struggle
Soviet & US & the
Eastern Bloc Western
Nations Democracies
[“Iron Curtain”]
GOAL 
GOAL  spread world-wide “Containment” of
Communism Communism & the
eventual collapse of
METHODOLOGIES:
the Communist world.
 Espionage [KGB vs. CIA] [George Kennan]
 Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
 Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts
of Third World peoples [Communist govt. &
command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist
economy]  “proxy wars”
 Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]

25. Nuclear Testing

26. Nuclear Weapons

30. What’s at stake?
 If a 25 megaton bomb
was dropped on
downtown San Diego
the following would
be the result

31. What’s at stake?
12 psi
 Radius: 6.5 miles
 Some building
foundations left
 98% of the population
within this area are
dead

32. What’s at stake?
5 psi
 Radius: 10.7 miles
 Virtually everything is
destroyed
 All single family homes
are gone
 50% of population is
dead, 40% is injured

33. FIGHTING COMMUNISM
CONTAINMENT POLICY: The U.S.
would work to stop the spread
of communism.
1. Truman Doctrine
2. Marshall Plan
3. NATO and other alliances

34. 4. The Truman Doctrine &
Domino Theory
Truman Doctrine: U.S. would aid
countries around the world who
are fighting communism (like
Greece and Turkey).
Domino Theory: If the U.S. will not
fight communism, then
countries will fall to communism
like dominos.

35. The ‘Truman Doctrine’
 Truman had been horrified at the pre-war
Allied policy of appeasement and was
determined to stand up to any Soviet
intimidation.
The Truman Doctrine in March 1947
promised that the USA “would support
free peoples who are resisting
subjugation by armed minorities or
by outside pressures”.
 Triggered by British inability to hold the
line in Greece, it was followed by aid to
Greece and Turkey, and also money to
help capitalists to stop communists in
Italy and France.
It signalled the end of “isolationst”
policies.

36. The Marshall Plan 1948
Plan to aid Europe—
in ruins
Prevent countries
from falling to
communists
Aid American
business
$17 billion to 16
countries in Europe
(not Soviet Union)

37. The ‘Marshall Plan’
 The Marshall Plan offered huge sums to
enable the economies of Europe to rebuild
after World War II, and, by generating
prosperity, to reject the appeal of
Communism.
The Soviet Union (USSR) prevented Eastern
European countries from receiving American
money.

38. NATO vs. WARSAW
PACT
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization: defense
alliance among U.S. and
Europe against the
Soviet Union. Still
exists.
Warsaw Pact: Defense
alliance among Soviet
Union and its satellite
governments in Eastern
Europe.

39. North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(1949)
 United States  Luxemburg
 Belgium  Netherlands
 Britain  Norway
 Canada  Portugal
 Denmark  1952: Greece &
 France Turkey
 1955: West Germany
 Iceland
 1983: Spain
 Italy

40. Warsaw Pact (1955)
} U. S. S. R. } East Germany
} Albania } Hungary
} Bulgaria } Poland
} Czechoslovakia } Rumania

41. Post War Japan:
 U.S. occupied – under
General MacArthur
New constitution
Democracy with Emperor as
figurehead
Rebuild economy
Abolished army and navy

42. The Red Scare
 Intense fear of Communists taking
over U.S.
China became a Communist country
in 1949.
Soviets developed an atomic bomb
in 1949.
Rosenbergs convicted of selling
atomic secrets to Soviet Union.
Executed 1953.

43. Korean War
[1950-1953]

44. Korean War
[1950-1953]
Kim Il-Sung
Syngman Rhee
“Domino Theory”

45. MacArthur
at Inch'on
landing
• U.S. General Douglas MacArthur led the U.N. force,
approximately 80% of which were U.S. soldiers.

46. Korean War, 1950-53
 Divided north and south at 38th
parallel at end of WWII.
 In 1950, Communist North
Korea invaded South Korea.
 The U.S. and United Nations,
aided the South; China aided
the North Koreans.
 Treaty signed in 1953, keeping
dividing line at 38th parallel (still
today).
 33,000 American soldiers died,
100,000 wounded.

47. The Shifting Map of Korea
[1950-1953]

48. Ending the War:
U.N. troops regained South Korea by March of 1951.
• Gen. MacArthur wanted to attack China with support
of Chinese nationalists.
• President Truman disagreed with MacArthur about
attacking China.

49. • Truman fired MacArthur for defying him by publicly
taunting and threatening the Chinese.

50. • In July of 1953, the Korean War ended

51. Space Race
 Began when Soviets beat the
U.S. into space
 Soviet satellite Sputnik launched in
1957
 Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite,
was launched in 1958.
 The National Defense Act of
1958 approved federal funding
of education in math, science
and foreign languages.
 Reforms in education –

52. The Arms Race:
A “Missile Gap?”
} The Soviet Union
exploded its first
A-bomb in 1949.
} Now there were
two nuclear
superpowers!

53. Nuclear Arms Race
 Hydrogen bomb
invented – both U.S.
and Soviets had them
 1,000 times more
powerful than atomic
bomb—vaporized an
island.
 Dangers of fallout and
radiation
 Many built
bomb shelters!!

54. Premier Nikita Khrushchev
About the capitalist
states, it doesn't
depend on you
whether we
(Soviet Union) exist.
If you don't like us,
don't accept our
invitations, and don't
De-Stalinization
invite us to come Program
to see you. Whether
you like it our not, history is on our
side. We will bury you. -- 1956

55. An Historic Irony: Sergei
Khrushchev, American Citizen
Who buried who?

56. Mao’s Revolution: 1949
Who lost China?

57. • The U.S. gave the Chiang Kai-shek millions of dollars, but
the communists won the war.

58. • China
became a
commu-
nist
country,
and
Chiang
Kai-shek
and his
forces
fled to
Taiwan.

59. Paris, 1961
Khrushchev & JFK meet to discuss Berlin and
nuclear proliferation. Khrushchev thinks that
JFK is young, inexperienced, and can be rolled.

60. The Berlin Wall Goes Up (1961)
Checkpoint
Charlie

61. Ich bin ein Berliner!
(1963)
President Kennedy
tells Berliners
that the West is
with them!

62. Khruschev Embraces Castro,
1961

63. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the
Russians, and the other man blinked!

64. Vietnam War: 1965-1973