THE COLD WAR
1947 - 1991
Postwar Conferences

Yalta Conference- February 1945 (V-E Day not until
May 1945)
 Big
Three met (Stalin, FDR, Churchill) to discuss post-war
Europe.
 Agreed to temporarily divide Germany into four zones.
(USSR, US, GB and France)
 USSR would allow free elections in Poland

Potsdam ConferenceDifferent Big Three met (Stalin, Truman, Attlee)
 Discussed how they would divide Germany and USSR
entrance into the war against Japan

Origins of the Cold War


The Cold War lasted from the end of World War II until the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.
Cold War: competition between the United States and the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for power; both
tried to influence Europe
US and the USSR had different ideals.
Political
system
United States
Soviet Union
Democratic government
Totalitarian government
Capitalism (Free market)
Economic
system
Why were
they angry
with each
other?
Communist (socialist)
Capitalism: economic system
in which the factors of
production are owned
individually; different social
classes exist
Communism: economic system in
which property is owned
communally; no social classes
1. US dislikes/Fears
Communism
2. USSR dropped out of First
World War
3. USSR signed a pact with
Hitler (Nonaggression Pact)
1. Allies waited to invade Germany
in World War II
2. took the US 17 years to
recognize the Soviet
government
3. USSR not invited to Peace
Conferences in World War I
4. US did not tell the Soviets about
the atomic bomb
Events of the Cold War
1945: Truman is president
 Containment: keep communism in the areas where it
already exists, do not allow communism to spread

Truman Doctrine (1947) - support democracies in
Europe to help contain communism
 give
economic and military aid to Turkey and Greece
($400 million)
 1947-1950: $660 million to European countries
More Events of the Cold War


Marshall Plan (April 1948): US gives $$ to European
Countries to help them recover from WWII and to keep
communism out (improve European economies)
Development of Competing Alliance
NATO (1949)
North Atlantic Treaty Org.
The Warsaw Pact (1955)
US & Western Europe promise
common defense
USSR & Eastern Europe
promised common defense
(Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Hungary, Poland, Romania, and
the Soviet Union)
If one is attacked, all are
attacked

Europe is divided
The Cold War Changes

USSR exploded a nuclear device (1949)
US is not the only one with the bomb
 new threat of a nuclear war that would destroy both
countries


China became communist (1949)
Civil war between Mao Zedong (Communist) and Chiang
Kai-Shek (supported by capitalists) ended; capitalist Chinese
flee to Taiwan
 increased American fears of communist domination of most
of the world, however…
 China and the Soviet Union became rivals, not allies

The Cold War Changes

North Korea (com) invaded South Korea (cap) (1950)
Why did the US get involved? – to contain communism
 American troops in a United Nations led force, attacked
North Korea
 Chinese troops entered on the side of North Korea
 War could have become World War III
 Eventually ended with a stalemate


Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes president (1953)

New policy of “massive retaliation” to deter any nuclear
strike by the Soviets.