Transcript Chapter 18, Section 1: Things to Know

Chapter 18, Section 1: Things to Know
• What best describes the underlying cause of the Cold War?
• Why was the conflict between the Soviet Union and the US described as a
“Cold” war?
• Who spoke first of the “iron curtain”?
• What was the Truman Doctrine?
• Who was the American diplomat who stressed the need to contain
communism within its current borders?
• What is containment?
• What was the Marshall Plan?
• What was the one main goal of the Marshall Plan?
• In order to try to gain control over West Berlin, what did the Soviet Union
do?
• What is NATO?
• What was the Warsaw Pact?
• What were NATO and the Warsaw Pact examples of?
• In response to NATO, with whom did the Soviet Union form the Warsaw
Pact?
Chapter 18: The Cold War
Section 1: The Cold War Begins
Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin at the Yalta Conference
Why It Matters
• In the 1930s, the policies of isolationism and
appeasement had contributed to the rise of
dictatorships and the outbreak of global war.
After World War II, US leaders viewed these
past policies as mistakes. They sought new
ways to keep the United States safe and to
protect its interests around the world.
Roots of the Cold War
• The US was a capitalist democracy.
– We believe in free elections, economic and religious
freedom, private property, and respect for individual
differences.
• The Soviet Union was a dictatorship.
– It was ran by the Communist Joseph Stalin, which
made all key economic, political, and military
decisions. They could not worship as they pleased,
own private property, or express their views freely.
– What best describes the underlying cause of the Cold
War?
• Basic political and economic differences between the US and
the Soviet Union.
Roots of the Cold War
• The Allies were also having a hard time of
deciding the fate of Eastern Europe. Soviet
troops already occupied much of Eastern Europe
by the war’s end.
– Stalin wanted to keep Germany weak and divided, and
under the control of the Soviet Union.
– The US and Britain wanted a stronger, united Germany
and independent nations in Eastern Europe.
• Stalin agreed to establish representative governments in
Eastern Europe and to only divide Germany temporarily.
• The Eastern Europe countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as the eastern
portion of Germany, became satellite states, controlled by
the Soviet Union.
Roots of the Cold War
• Stalin and Truman began to clash, as Stalin
refused to make a commitment to allow free
elections in Eastern Europe.
– Truman left Potsdam believing the Soviet Union was
planning world conquest and that the alliance with
the Soviet Union was falling apart.
• The stage was set for a worldwide rivalry between the US
and the Soviet Union.
– Why was the conflict between the Soviet Union and
the US described as a “Cold” war?
• The two sides did not engage each other directly in a military
conflict.
Meeting the Soviet Challenge
• Truman was not the only leader that believed
that Stalin was planning world domination.
– Churchill also spoke out forcefully against the Soviet
Union.
– Who spoke first of the “iron curtain”?
• Winston Churchill. He described this “iron curtain” as being
dropped across Europe and has divided the continent.
• East of that curtain the Soviet Union was gaining more
control by installing communist governments and police
states and by crushing political and religious dissent.
• Churchill feared that the Soviets would try to spread
communism to Western Europe and East Asia.
Meeting the Soviet Challenge
• Truman shared the same beliefs as Churchill.
In 1947, communism was spreading fast
across the world.
– European and Asian countries were struggling
against communist movements supported by the
Soviets.
– Greece and turkey needed aid, and in 1947 the US
was the only country with the resources to help
them.
Meeting the Soviet Challenge
• To oppose the Soviet spread of communism,
Truman presented Congress with the Truman
Doctrine.
– What was the Truman Doctrine?
• The US policy to assist countries struggling against
communist movements.
– On March 12, 1947, President Truman addressed both
the House and Congress. He voiced his emotions
about the plight of the Greek and Turkish people.
• He said the fight they were waging was the fight that all free
people had to confront. Truman requested money from
Congress to support the Greek and Turkish people.
Containing Soviet Expansion
• Who was the American diplomat who stressed
the need to contain communism within its
current borders?
– George F. Kennan.
• What is containment?
– It is the US policy to limit communism within its
existing borders.
– Kennan was the main spokesman for containment
policies. In July 1947 in an issue of Foreign Affairs
magazine, a writer who called himself “X” published
an article titled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct.”
• Kennan published this article while he was an American
diplomat and a leading authority on the Soviet Union.
Containing Soviet Expansion
• Kennan contended that while Stalin was
determined to expand the Soviet empire, he
would not risk the security of the Soviet Union for
expansion.
– He said that the Soviet Union would only expand
when it could do so without serious risks and that he
would not chance war with the US to spread
communism.
– The US would stand behind its containment policies
when it came to communism and the Soviet Union.
Containing Soviet Expansion
• The containment policy’s first great success
was in Western Europe. After WWII, people
there confronted severe shortages in food,
fuel, and medical supplies, as well as brutally
cold winters.
– Secretary of State George C. Marshall came up
with a recovery plan for Europe. It was called the
Marshall Plan.
Containing Soviet Expansion
• What was the Marshall Plan?
– It was the US policy giving massive loans and grants to
Western Europe.
• What was the one main goal of the Marshall Plan?
– To make European countries strong enough to start buying
American goods. It gave them nearly $13 billion and
provided them with food to reduce famine, fuel to heat
homes and factories, and money to jump-start economic
growth.
– This provided a prime example of how US aid could serve
the ends of both economic and foreign policy.
– The good relationships that the aid created worked against
the expansion of communism
The Cold War Heats Up
• The front lines of the Cold War were in Germany. The
zones that were controlled by France, Britain, and the
US were combined to form West Germany.
– West Germany was bordered on the east by the Sovietcontrolled East Germany.
• The Allies controlled the western part of Berlin, a city tucked deep
inside communist East Germany.
– In order to try to gain control over West Berlin, what did
the Soviet Union do?
• Set up a total blockade cutting off that section of the city.
– The US began airlifting in goods to the Soviet blockaded
area of West Berlin. This showed West Berlin, the Soviet
Union, and the world how far the US would go to protect
noncommunist parts of Europe and contain communism.
The Cold War Heats Up
• In May 1949, Stalin was forced to
acknowledge his failure to attempt to
blockade West Berlin.
– This was a proud moment for Americans and
Berliners and a major success for the policy of
containment.
– The Berlin airlift demonstrated that Stalin could be
contained if Western nations were prepared to
take forceful actions.
The Cold War Heats Up
• What is NATO?
– It was the military alliance of the US and countries in
Western Europe. It stands for North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
• It was consisted of twelve Western European countries and
North American nations that agreed to act together in the
defense of Western Europe.
• They agreed that an armed attack on one or more of them
shall be considered an attack against all of them. This is
called collective security.
– What was the Warsaw Pact?
• The military alliance of the Soviet Union and its satellite
states. It was created in 1955 in response to NATO.
The Cold War Heats Up
• What were NATO and the Warsaw Pact examples
of?
– Military alliances made for “collective security.”
• In response to NATO, with whom did the Soviet
Union form the Warsaw Pact?
– Eastern European nations that were considered the
Soviet Union’s satellite states. The only Eastern
European nation not a part of the Warsaw Pact was
Yugoslavia.
– Members of the Warsaw Pact agreed to defend one
another if attacked. Although on paper they agreed
not to interfere in one another’s internal affairs, the
Soviet Union continued to exert firm control over its
Warsaw Pact allies.