Warm Up:
What do you think of when you
hear, “The Cold War”
Chapter 15
The Cold War Begins
Section 1
The Iron Curtain Falls on Europe
Causes of the Cold War
Philosophical Differences
• Soviet Union: communism, totalitarian
dictatorship
• United States: free enterprise capitalism,
republic
Causes of the Cold War
World War II Conflicts
• Soviets wanted British and Americans to
open a second front early in the war
• United States secretly developed the
atomic bomb
Causes of the Cold War
Postwar Conflicts
• Soviet Union failed to live up to wartime
promise of elections in Eastern Europe
• United States made efforts to resists
Soviet Expansion
The Cold War
• The Cold War - An era of high tension
between the United States and the Soviet
Union
Iron Curtain
• After World War II,
Soviet armies
occupied Eastern
Europe
• USSR set up
communist regimes in
the occupied nations
• “Iron Curtain”
divided Europe
American Response
• Containment Policy - the U.S. should
resists Soviet efforts of expansion
• Truman Doctrine - provide financial aid to
nations resisting communist expansion
- First applied to Greece and Turkey
American Response
• Marshall Plan – financial aid to European
nations to help Europe rebuild from
destruction of World War II
• 1948-1951, the U.S. spent $13 billion in 17
nations
Effects
• Helped rebuild European economy
• Provided a market for American goods
• Helped win support of European nations
Germany
• Postwar Germany was
divided
• East controlled by
Soviet Union
• West controlled by
U.S., Great Britain and
France
• Berlin located in East
Germany, was divided
in the same manner
Crisis in Berlin
• The USSR did not like having a Western
style government and economy in the
middle of East Germany
• Blocked road, river and rail traffic to west
Berlin in 1948
• Residents without food, coal, basic
necessities
Berlin Airlift 1948-1949
• Berlin Airlift - British and American
airplanes began making nonstop deliveries
• Planes flew 7,000 tons of supplies a day
• Land, unload, take off
• After almost a year, the Soviet Union lifted
the blockade
NATO
• Democracies of Europe knew they would be no match
for massive Soviet armies
• Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the
U.K created an common defense alliance in 1948
• U.S., Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway &
Portugal joined the alliance in 1949
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• An attack on one member nation was considered an
attack on all
• Greece, Turkey & West Germany joined in the 1950’s
• Today, there are 26 member nations