The document discusses the start of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union as their wartime alliance broke down. It describes how the US responded through policies like the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan to contain Soviet expansion in Europe and support countries resisting communism. It also explains the Berlin Blockade crisis and how the US organized NATO in response to the threat from the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact.
Origins of the Cold War - Yalta Conference, Potsdam, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade & Airlift, China, NATO http://curriculumglobal.blogspot.com
10.1 Origins of the Cold WarWorld War II left most of Europe in .docxpaynetawnya
10.1 Origins of the Cold War
World War II left most of Europe in shambles. Millions were homeless because the war destroyed thousands of homes, businesses, and public buildings. The European economy was similarly devastated, with much of the industrial infrastructure destroyed or heavily damaged. Great Britain was heavily in debt to the United States and was forced to borrow even more to begin reconstruction. The Soviet Union had suffered severe population losses, including nearly 8.7 million military deaths and 19 million noncombat deaths from starvation, disease, and German prison camps and mass shootings. The USSR also experienced a significant reduction in industrial and food production in the immediate postwar period.
Unable to quickly rebuild, European business elites, conservatives, and even liberals lost ground to Socialists and Communists, who supported the nationalization of banks, manufacturing, and utilities. Smaller European nations such as Greece and Italy also saw major advances by their own homegrown Communist parties. At the war’s end, the United States, with its political stability and rapid economic growth, stood as the lone strong nation among the struggling former combatants. Still, some feared that a Communist upsurge could shake the United States and challenge the nation’s traditions of free enterprise and capitalism.
In this uncertain environment, despite its huge losses, the Soviet Union was the only other world power that had the ideological confidence and military might to join the United States in shaping the new world order. Although the United States and the USSR depended on one another for victory in the war, the alliance between them was tenuous. The Soviets’ Communist-based ideology, culture, and economic system, as well as the dictatorial control of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, stood in stark contrast to American democratic values and capitalism. Although some hoped that the alliance between the two nations would last beyond the war, the relationship quickly began to unravel once the common threat of German aggression was removed.
The United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a protracted struggle in which their clash of ideas and values was as central as their military and diplomatic rivalry. Beginning in the immediate postwar era, this so-called Cold War was as integral to the restructuring of the new world order as was the physical rebuilding of war-torn Europe and Japan.
Roots of the Conflict
When Harry S. Truman assumed the presidency following Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, he faced some of the most delicate and worrisome troubles of any American president. With little experience in international affairs, he confronted the growing division between the United States and the Soviet Union that began during the war, as evidenced in the tensions over Poland at the Yalta conference. His decisions during and immediately after World War II fostered a half century of global competition with the ...
1. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Start of the Cold War
2. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
• Trace the reasons that the wartime alliance
between the United States and the Soviet
Union unraveled.
• Explain how President Truman responded to
Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
• Describe the causes and results of Stalin’s
blockade of Berlin.
Objectives
3. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People
• satellite state − independent nation under the
control of a more powerful nation
• Cold War − struggle in which the U.S. and Soviet
Union became rivals but never fought directly in
military conflict
• iron curtain − imaginary barrier separating
Soviet-controlled countries and the free world
• Truman Doctrine − President Truman’s policy to
aid nations struggling against communism
4. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
• containment − policy of keeping communism
contained within its existing borders
• Marshall Plan − U.S. aid program to help Western
Europe rebuild after World War II
• Berlin airlift − operation in which the United States
and Britain broke the Soviet blockade of West Berlin
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) −
military alliance to counter Soviet expansion
• Warsaw Pact − rival military alliance formed by
the Soviet Union and its satellite states
Terms and People (continued)
5. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
How did U.S. leaders respond to the
threat of Soviet expansion in Europe?
World War II convinced U.S. leaders that the
policies of isolationism and appeasement had
been mistakes.
To counter the growing Soviet threat, U.S. leaders
sought new ways to keep the United States safe
and protect its interests abroad.
6. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Despite their alliance during World War II,
the United States and the Soviet Union had
little in common.
The United States
was a capitalist
democracy. The
American people
valued freedom and
individual rights.
The Soviet Union was a
dictatorship. Stalin and
the Communist Party
wielded total control
over the lives of the
Soviet people.
7. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
These differences were apparent as the
Allies made decisions about the future of
postwar Europe.
Postwar Goals
U.S. and Britain U.S.S.R.
Strong, united Germany Weak, divided Germany
Independence for nations
of Eastern Europe
Maintain Soviet control
of Eastern Europe
8. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Big Three alliance crumbled.
When the Big Three met at Yalta in February 1945,
Stalin agreed to allow free elections in Eastern
Europe, yet free elections were not held.
When the Big Three met again at Potsdam in the
spring of 1945, the United States and Britain
pressed Stalin to confirm his commitment to free
elections; Stalin refused.
9. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The nations of Eastern Europe and the eastern part of
Germany became satellite states of the Soviet Union,
separated from the free world by an “Iron curtain.”
Cold War Europe, 1949
10. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
After the Big Three split at Potsdam, the
Cold War struggle between the world’s two
superpowers began.
Containing communist expansion became
the United States’ top priority.
The Soviets were
determined to
spread
communism to
other lands.
The Americans
were determined
to stop them.
11. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
With the Truman Doctrine, the United States
promised to support nations struggling against
communist movements.
Greece and Turkey were fighting communist
movements. Money was sent to these countries
to provide aid to people who needed it.
12. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The United States also sent about $13 billion to
Western Europe under the Marshall Plan.
The money provided
food, fuel, and raw
materials to help
rebuild war-torn cities
and towns.
The good relationships
the aid created helped
the goals of the
containment policy.
13. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Germany, and the city of Berlin, became
flashpoints in the Cold War.
The Soviet zone
became East
Germany.
The zones
controlled by the
United States,
Britain, and
France were
combined to form
West Germany.
After the war, Germany was divided into four zones.
14. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Berlin lay inside East
Germany. However, it
was also divided.
15. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
West Berlin was controlled by the Allies.
The prosperity
and freedoms
there stood in
stark contrast
to the bleak
life in
communist
East Berlin.
Determined
to capture
West Berlin,
Stalin
blockaded
the city in
1948, cutting
off supplies.
In response,
the United
States and
Britain sent
aid to West
Berlin
through a
massive
airlift.
16. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Berlin airlift saved West Berlin and
underscored the U.S. commitment to
contain communism.
17. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Berlin airlift
demonstrated
that communism
could be
contained if
Western nations
took forceful
action.
The North
Atlantic
Treat
Organization
(NATO)
provided the
military
alliance to
counter
Soviet
Expansion.
In response,
the Soviet
Union and its
allies formed
a military
alliance—the
Warsaw
Pact.
18. TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
NATO Warsaw Pact
Belgium Netherlands
Canada Norway
Denmark Portugal
France Turkey
Greece United Kingdom
Iceland United States
Italy West Germany
Luxembourg
Albania
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
East Germany
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Soviet Union