“Seldom, if ever, has a war ended
leaving the victors with such a sense
of uncertainty and fear, with such a
realization that the future is obscure
and survival is not assured.”
Edward R. Murrow
Russia in Eastern Europe
• Agreements for democracy broken
• Americans: elections in Italy – popular
communist party
• Soviets: Eastern European
• Influence Agreements
Potsdam Conference
• Churchill, Stalin and
Truman meet July 1945
• Failed to resolve problems
• Stalin
– German reparations
– Stay in Eastern Europe
• Truman emboldened by
atomic test
– Stalin in Eastern Europe
unacceptable
– Proposed smaller
reparations
– Keep Russia reliant on US
The Long Telegram
Iron Curtain
• Soviet analyst George F.
Kennan
• Stalin won’t Negotiation
• Stalin respected
strength/threats
• US needed to be destroyed
• IRON CURTAIN
• Winston Churchill Westminster College, Fulton
Missouri
Atomic Monopoly and the UN
• US to share atomic energy
• Give up atomic weapons in
stages
• UN consent
– Countries submit to
inspection
– US rep. to UN proposed
punishments for violators
• Soviets rejected proposal
rush to build bomb
– Suggest US disarmament
total disclosure of Secrets
The Truman Doctrine
• 1947: Britain supports Greece Civil War against communist
guerillas
• Congress opposed, Truman
roused Citizens support,
outlined the Truman doctrine
– Aid to free people resisting
armed minorities, outsiders
– $400 million, economic/military
help Greece and Turkey
– Condemned communism
Domino Theory
• US sided with dictators Greece and Turkey
• “Domino Theory,” If one nation falls to
communism then its neighbors will surely be next
• Containment policy must prop up those
“Dominos” from falling
European Economic Recovery
The Marshall Plan
• European recovery slow
• Important to revitalize economy
– Encourage sale of US goods
– Alleviate suffering of European
peoples, diminish support of
communists
• Marshall Plan / European Recovery Act
• George C. Marshall’s plan - massive
economic aid assistance
• 16 Nations, $17 billion
• “Our policy is directed not against any
country or doctrine, but against hunger,
poverty, desperation, and chaos.”
Czechoslovakian Coup
• Republicans: communist threat
a mere struggle over ideas
• Then communist seize power in
Czechoslovakia
• US public shocked
• Confirmed fears of a soviet
aggression / internal
subversion
• Truman warned US on verge of
war
• Soviets “destroyed the
independence and democratic
character of a whole series of
nations”
Stalin and Klement Gottwald
• Germany and Berlin split 4 occupied zones
• US/Soviets argue about German reparations, not
yet signed peace treaty
• US/Britain to merge 2 occupational zones
Berlin Blockade
• June 1948: Soviets close off
occupational zone
• Truman:
– Give up Berlin to Soviets,
undermine doctrine of
containment
– Negotiations allow USSR to
engineer crisis to exact
concessions
• Truman ordered a massive airlift
of supplies
• 11 months - 4000 tons daily 250,000-supply missions
• Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen
”Candy Bomber”