CHAPTER 26 SECTION 1
Origins of the
Cold War
HISTORY OF BAD FEELINGS BETWEEN
THE U.S. AND SOVIET UNION
Wilson sent U.S.
troops to help anticommunists in 1917
Did not politically
recognize Soviet
Union until 1933
Disagreement over
battle tactics in
WWII
U.S. angry about
Stalin’s
nonaggression pact
with Hitler in 1939
Western allies “took
too long” to open a
second front in WWII
DIFFERENCES AT YALTA
 FDR wanted the
Soviets to join the war
against Japan
 Soviets got some
islands in exchange
 Stalin agreed to allow
free/democratic
elections in eastern
Europe ASAP
 Never happened
THE UNITED STATES AGREES TO JOIN THE UNITED
NATIONS. WHY DID THEY AGREE TO JOIN THE UN,
BUT NOT TO JOIN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS?
The lack of
American
participation in the
League of Nations
may have led to its
downfall…and war
American
participation in the
UN was thought of
as a way to prevent
another global war
SUMMARIZE WHAT HAPPENED AT THE
POTSDAM CONFERENCE IN JULY OF 1945
 Postwar plans for
Poland and Germany
continued to create
divisions between
between Clement Atlee
(New British PM),
Truman, and Stalin.
 Stalin wants huge
reparations from Germany
 Truman wants Polish
Democracy
 Truman informs Stalin
of a very powerful new
American weapon
GERMANY
Split into four zones
 U.S.
 Soviet Union
 Britain
 France
SATELLITE NATION
 Countries subject to
Soviet domination on
the western border of
the Soviet Union
 Albania
 Bulgaria
 Czechoslovakia
 Hungary
 Romania
 East Germany
 Finland
 Yugoslavia
WHY DID JOSEF STALIN WANT THESE
SATELLITES?
In order to speed up
communism’s
spread and to
protect the Soviet
western border in
case of another war.
IRON CURTAIN
- Phrase coined
by Winston
Churchill
- Refers to the
nations under
the control of
Stalin and the
Soviet Union
- Angered Stalin
COLD WAR
The competition that
developed between
the United States
and the Soviet Union
for power and
influence in the
world.
Lasts from 1945 to
1991.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
“COLD WAR” AND A “HOT WAR”?
A cold war has no
direct military
fighting between the
main antagonists.
Its is a contest to
gain influence in the
world
A hot war is a direct
military engagement
WHAT MADE JOSEF STALIN SUCH A
DIFFICULT ADVERSARY?
He did not carry out
his agreements
Determined to
expand communism
at any cost
Paranoid
CONTAINMENT
 The American foreign
policy following World
War II
 Recognized the
possibility that
eastern Europe was
already lost to
communism
 It called for the U.S.
to resist attempts to
form Communist
governments
elsewhere in the
world
TRUMAN DOCTRINE
Speech given by
President Truman to
Congress in 1947
Called for the U.S. to
take a leadership
role in the world
Declared that the
U.S. would support
nations threatened
by communism
HOW DO THE POLICY OF CONTAINMENT AND
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE COMPLIMENT ONE
ANOTHER?
 The policy of
containment set out
the U.S. aim to stop
the spread of
communism, and the
Truman Doctrine gave
justification for
American efforts to
intervene against
communism on behalf
of oppressed nations.