Early Cold War
Seek & Find – Europe
World Hist. II
Mr. Aiello
The Early Cold War
Part I – Europe
1. During World War II, Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt met here to make decisions about the
postwar world.
2. One of the first signs that the Soviet Union was not going to uphold the pledges it made
was when they did not allow totally free, democratic elections in this former Germanoccupied nation.
3. Former Prime Minister Churchill came to this small college in Fulton, Missouri and
delivered what became known as the “Iron Curtain” speech.
4. On February 4, 1947 the British Empire began its decline as the world’s most powerful
force, asking the United States to help prevent a communist revolution or attack in this
Mediterranean country.
5. “. . . the policy of the United State to support free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
6. This career American diplomat had spent many years in Russia, and in a long telegram to
President Truman, argued that the best way to beat the Soviet Union was not by fighting a
war against them, but by containing them and by using diplomatic, economic, and smaller
military engagements.
Early Cold War
Seek & Find – Europe
World Hist. II
Mr. Aiello
7. Because of the desperate situation in much of Western Europe, the American Secretary of
State offered economic aid to any and all European countries that agreed to trade and
economically cooperate with each other. Eventually, 12.5 billion dollars of aid was given
to 16 Western nations because of this program.
8. When the British, French, and American governments decided to combine their sectors of
Germany into one large country, the Soviets responded by closing off this capital city,
located well within their eastern section of Germany. Eventually, the three western allies
decided to supply this capital by flying in supplies for almost a full year.
9. By the winter of 1949, most of the western nations now realized that the Soviet Union was
not going to live up to its pledges, and planned on keeping its “control” of eastern Europe,
and actually wished to expand its influence and control. Therefore, this new military
alliance was formed for the express purpose of common protection against the expansion
attempts of the Soviet Union.
10. The Soviets responded to the new, western military alliance system with its own military
alliance system.