Origins of the Cold War
What are some words or phrases in your
language which speakers of other languages
don't understand in the same way as you?
“Do not worry about Latin
America. Nothing important
ever happens down there”.
Henry Kissinger
Ideological Differences
Different philosophies/ideologies:
– Democratic capitalism
– Marxist communism
KEY TERMS:
President Woodrow Wilson 14 Points:
Self-Determination
Collective Security
League of Nations
Isolation
Allies (WWI)
Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)
Red Army
White Army
Comintern
Sphere of Interest
1. The U.S. and Russia
Why was there hostility between the U.S. and
Russia, 1917-20?
2. The Russian Revolution and Allied Intervention
The Russian Civil War
How did Allied intervention after the Russian
Revolution have an impact on subsequent Soviet
Foreign Policy?
-The Polish-Russian War, 1920
Cordon Sanitaire
3. Soviet Foreign Policy, 1922-45
To what extent was Soviet foreign policy based on the
aim to consolidate the Soviet state?
-Hitler and Stalin, 1933-41
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
U.S. vs. Soviets



Private control
Voting by the people
Competing political
parties



State controlled all
economic activity
Totalitarian gov’t
No opposing parties
Long History of Distrust
The U.S. had intervened in the Russian
Civil War against the Bolsheviks
No Soviet representative participated in
the Treaty of Versailles
The U.S. did not establish diplomatic
relations until 1933
The Soviets were not invited to join the
League of Nations until 1934
The conflicting aims of the Big
Three



The USSR’s aims
Eastern Europe
Continued co-operation
US aims


Economic aims
The United Nations
Britain’s aims
Inter-Allied negotiations, 1943–
44


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The foreign ministers’ meeting at
Moscow, October 1943
Tehran Conference, 28 November–1
December 1943
The Churchill–Stalin meeting, October
1944
Yalta Conference – Feb. 1945
Churchill, Roosevelt (gravely ill), and Stalin
Germany
Agreed to spilt Germany into four different
pieces/zones
The American, British and French zones
became one West Germany and the Soviet
zone became East Germany
Poland
Stalin knew that Poland was a good place to
invade Russia
He did not want Poland’s old government to
resume power
Stalin said they had to be sympathetic to Soviet
security needs
United Nations


April 25, 1945
representatives of 50
nations met in San
Francisco to
establish UN.
Charter signed on
June 26, 1945.
Potsdam – July 1945



Big Three: U.S., Great Britain, and the
Soviet Union met at Potsdam near Berlin
in July ’45.
At Potsdam, Stalin agreed to allow vote
by secret ballot with multiparty
system in Poland and other parts of
Eastern Europe.
Stalin did not keep his promise.
Why was the fight to contain
communism so important?
Soviet Post-War



Estimated 20 million deaths, half of
whom were civilians.
Communist governments established in
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, and Poland.
Became known as satellite nations.
New World Order
(outlined by Roosevelt in Four Freedoms Speech)



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Create a world of nations with selfdetermination.
Grow economically.
Ensure stability in Europe.
Reunite Germany, to be more
productive.
Containment – The Long Telegram



Feb. ’46, George F.
Kennan, American
diplomat in Moscow
proposed containment
policy.
Prevent any extension
of communist rule.
Dominate U.S. Foreign
Policy until 1989 and
fall of U.S.S.R.
Truman Doctrine – March 1947



“it must be the policy of the United
States to support free people who are
resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside
pressures.”
Policy of Containment
Official beginning of Cold War
Greece and Turkey

Between 1947 and
1950, U.S. sent $400
million in economic
and military aid to
prevent communist
takeover.
What was the Cold War all
about?


To the U.S. and the Western Europe…
To the U.S.S.R…
Cold War



Conflict between the U.S. and Soviet
Union in which neither nation directly
confronted the other on the
battlefield.
Dominated global affairs from ’45 until
breakup of Soviet Union in ’91.
Black & White World
Marshall Plan



In June ’47, Secretary of State George
Marshall proposed U.S. provide aid to all
European nations that needed it.
Why would the U.S. partake in this
measure?
16 countries would receive $13 billion in
aid over next four years.
“Iron Curtain”

Taken from a 1946 speech given by
Winston Churchill in the U.S., metaphor
representing the stark division of
Europe between the East and West.
Crisis #1
Berlin
Division of Germany



After WWII, Germany divided into four
zones occupied by U.S., Great Britain,
and France in the West and Soviet
Union in the East.
’48, U.S., Britain and France combined
their three zones into one nation – West
Germany.
Soviet, communist zone – East Germany
Events



In June ’48, Stalin closed all highway
and rail routes into West Berlin, no food
or fuel could reach that part of the city.
2.1 million residents had no food.
Britain, France & U.S. begin 24/7 airlift to
resupply city.
~Berlin Airlift
Blockade Lifted



For 327 days, planes took off and
landed every few minutes.
277,000 flights, 2.3 million tons of
supplies.
May 1949, Soviet Union lifted blockade.
Western Germany Formed


May ’49, western part of Germany
officially became a new nation: Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany,
including West Berlin)
Soviet Union created German
Democratic Republic (East Germany,
including East Berlin).
NATO formed


Ten Western European nations,
including Belgium, Denmark, France,
Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal
joined U.S. and Canada on April 4, 1949.
Defensive military alliance called North
Atlantic Treaty Organization.