The Cold War
The early years 1945-1960
Causes of the “Cold War”
• The United States and the Soviet Union were never
friendly before World War II.
• Although they fought on the same side during the
war, their war aims were different and there was
animosity on both sides.
• The Soviets thought that the U.S. should have
invaded France earlier.
• The U.S. thought that the Soviet Union should have
declared war on Japan earlier.
• Also the U.S. never told the Soviet Union about their
nuclear bomb project.
1945-- Yalta
• With the defeat of Nazi Germany
imminent, the Big Three Allies meet in
the Crimean resort town of Yalta from
February 4-11. Roosevelt, Churchill
and Stalin agree to jointly govern
postwar Germany, while Stalin
pledges fair and open
elections in Poland.
1946 -Iron Curtain
On March 5, at
Westminster College
in Fulton, Missouri,
Winston Churchill
declares, "From
Stetting in the Baltic
to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an Iron
Curtain has
descended across
the continent."
1947 -Truman Doctrine
• On March 12, President Truman
requests $400 million in aid from
Congress to combat communism in
Greece and Turkey. The Truman
Doctrine pledges to provide American
economic and military assistance to
any nation threatened by communism.
1947 -- Marshall Plan
• On June 5, U.S. Secretary of State
George Marshall proposes a massive
aid program to rebuild Europe from
the ravages of World War II. Nearly
$13 billion in U.S. aid was sent to
Europe from 1948 to 1952. The Soviet
Union and communist Eastern Europe
decline U.S. aid, citing "dollar
enslavement."
•
1948 -- Berlin airlift
• On June 24, the Soviet Union makes a
bid for control of Berlin by blockading
all land access to the city. From June
1948 to May 1949, U.S. and British
planes airlift 1.5 million tons of
supplies to the residents of West
Berlin. After 200,000 flights,
the Soviet Union lifts the
blockade.
1949 -- China
• In June, Chinese communists
declare victory over Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist forces, which
later flee to Taiwan. On October
1, Mao Tse-tung proclaims the
People's Republic of China. Two
months later, Mao travels to
Moscow, where he negotiates
the Sino-Soviet Treaty of
Friendship, Alliance and Mutual
Assistance.
1950 -- Korean War
• On June 25, North Korean
communist forces cross
the 38th parallel and
invade South Korea. On
June 27, Truman orders
U.S. forces to assist the
South Koreans while the
U.N. Security Council
condemns the invasion
and establishes a 15nation fighting force.
Chinese troops enter the
conflict by year's end.
Battle Maps
Battle Maps
These maps show four stages of the
Korean War. The first map shows the
farthest extent of the North Korean
invasion—to the Pusan Perimeter in
September 1950. The second map
shows the site of the Inchon landing
by the United Nations (UN) forces.
Following this surprise move, the UN
troops advanced as far north as the
Yalu River by October 1950. The
third map shows the extent of the
retreat by the UN forces after China
entered the war in October 1950.
The fourth map shows the territory
held by the two sides when they
signed an armistice agreement on
July 27, 1953.
1951 -- Rosenberg Spy Case
• On March 29, Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg are
convicted of selling U.S.
atomic secrets to the
Soviet Union. The
Rosenbergs are sent to
the electric chair in 1953,
despite outrage from
liberals who portray them
as victims of an anticommunist witch hunt.
1952 -- Hydrogen bomb
• On November 1, the United States
explodes the first hydrogen bomb at a
test site in the Marshall Islands. Less
than a year later, the Soviets
announce their first test of a hydrogen
bomb.
1953 -- Stalin dies;
Korean War ends
• Soviet leader Joseph Stalin dies of a
stroke on March 5. On July 27, an
armistice is signed ending the Korean
War, with the border between North
and South roughly the same as it had
been in 1950. The willingness of China
and North Korea to end the fighting
was in part attributed to Stalin's death.
1954 -- Guatemalan coup
• A U.S.-sponsored coup topples leftist
Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz
Guzman on June 27. In 1952, his
government had nationalized 400,000
acres of unfarmed banana plantations
belonging to the American-owned
United Fruit Company.
1954 -- Dien Bien Phu
• After a long siege, Vietnamese
communists under Ho Chi Minh defeat
French colonial forces at Dien Bien
Phu on May 7. In July, the Geneva
Accords divide the country at the 17th
parallel, creating a North and South
Vietnam. The United States assumes
the chief responsibility of providing
anti-communist aid to South Vietnam.
1955 -- Massive Retaliation
• On January 12, U.S. Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles first announces
the doctrine of Massive Retaliation. It
threatens full-scale nuclear attack on
the Soviet Union in response to
communist aggression anywhere in
the world. The policy
became known as Mutually
Assured Destruction.
1956 -- Khrushchev's 'secret
speech'
• In a speech before Communist Party
members on February 14, Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev denounces the policies
of Stalin. Khrushchev rejects the Leninist
idea of the inevitability of war
and calls for a doctrine
of “peaceful coexistence”
between capitalist and
communist systems.
1957 -- Sputnik
• On October 4, the
Soviet Union launches
Sputnik, the first manmade satellite to orbit
the Earth. In 1958, the
U.S. creates the
National Aeronautics
and Space
Administration, and the
space race is in full
gear.
Fear in the U.S.
1959 -- Castro
takes power
• On January 1, leftist forces under
Fidel Castro overthrow the
government of Fulgencio Batista in
Cuba. Castro soon nationalizes the
sugar industry and signs trade
agreements with the Soviet Union. The
next year, his government seizes U.S.
assets on the island.
1960 -- The U-2 Affair
• On May 1, an American high-altitude
U-2 spy plane is shot down on a
mission over the Soviet Union. After
the Soviets announce the capture of
pilot Francis Gary Powers, the United
States recants earlier assertions that
the plane was on a
weather research
mission.
Questions
• What is meant by the term “cold war”?
• Why couldn’t the U.S. and the Soviet
Union just agree to disagree?
• What made this confrontation so
dangerous?
• Would the “cold war” end in 1960?