The Cold War Beginnings: Truman, Stalin, and the Iron Curtain

1. The Cold War Begins Main Idea The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II deeply distrustful of each other and with conflicting visions for the future.  Vocabulary • containment  • cold war Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-1

2. The Cold War Begins Read to Find Out . . . • the events that led to Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, the Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan.  • how ideological differences between the Soviet Union and the United States fueled the cold war. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-2

3. In evaluating his presidency, Harry S Truman said: “History will remember my term of office as the years when the cold war began to overshadow our lives.” Section 1-3

4. An Iron Curtain Falls • At the heart of the Allied alliance stood the United States and the Soviet Union–two nations bound together by a common enemy and mutual distrust of each other. When the war ended, the Soviets and the Americans looked at the world through different eyes. • The Soviets saw awful destruction. Nothing was more important to them than protecting their nation from a rearmed Germany and rebuilding their shattered economy. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-4

5. An Iron Curtain Falls (cont.) • The Americans, on the other hand, saw a booming economy and a thriving democracy. Many Americans felt they had a mission to build a free world, with the United States leading the way. Section 1-5

6. In Stalin’s view, possession of a ring of pro-Soviet satellite nations such as Poland was “not a question of honor for Russia, but one of life and death.” What may have prompted this comment? Soviet leaders felt they needed a ring of buffer nations along their western border to protect Russia against future attacks. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 1-8

7. Turning Point at Yalta • Near the end of the war, the Big Three– Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin–met at the Soviet city of Yalta to work out control of the postwar world.  • At Yalta, Stalin agreed to support the United Nations and to join the fight against Japan after Germany surrendered. In exchange, Stalin would receive territories in Asia. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-9

8. Turning Point at Yalta (cont.) • When agreement broke down over Germany and Eastern Europe, the three leaders agreed to joint control of Germany until a commission could settle the issue of war payments. With war still raging in the Pacific, Roosevelt and Churchill had little choice but to accept Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. Section 1-10

9. Turning Point at Yalta (cont.) • Roosevelt felt confident that he could win Stalin’s trust and convince him to relax his iron grip on Eastern Europe. However, he died before he had a chance to test this belief. Section 1-11

10. How did the Soviets take power in Eastern Europe? Soviet armies occupied Eastern Europe on their march into Germany. With the war still raging in the Pacific, Roosevelt and Churchill had no means of forcing Stalin to give up control of the region. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 1-13

11. Truman Comes to Power • Truman, who had little international experience when he assumed the presidency, stepped forward to support formation of the United Nations and to resolve control of Germany. Section 1-14

12. Truman Comes to Power (cont.) • Truman assumed a get-tough attitude at Potsdam that would become a trademark of his cold war diplomacy. Despite this attitude, the leaders worked out an agreement to carve Germany and the capital of Berlin into four zones controlled by France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Each occupying nation would take war payments from its zone. Section 1-15

13. Truman Comes to Power (cont.) Section 1-15

14. Truman Comes to Power (cont.) • As Truman’s and Stalin’s mistrust of one another grew, they began to see the world as divided into two camps–one dominated by capitalism, the other by communism.  • In 1946 Stalin declared that capitalism was a danger to world peace. Truman responded by adopting the policy of containment suggested by George Kennan. Churchill added fuel to the fire with his “iron curtain” speech and urged a show of strength against the Soviets. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-15

15. Do you think Roosevelt could have negotiated more effectively with Stalin had he lived? Possible answer: Agree–Roosevelt had managed to force compromises out of Stalin in the past. Disagree– Stalin had refused to back down on Germany and Eastern Europe in talks with Roosevelt at Yalta. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display a possible answer. Section 1-16

16. Cold War Is Declared • The start of the cold war marked a long struggle in which the United States and Soviet Union would try to block each other’s goals around the world, using all tactics short of all-out war. Section 1-17

17. Cold War Is Declared (cont.) • The first test of containment came in GreeceandTurkey,whichTrumanbelieved might soon fall under Communist influence. To prevent Communist takeovers, he proposed a plan to provide military and economic aid to all free people who were “resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.”  • The so-called Truman Doctrine defined United States foreign policy for the next 20 years. The cold war was not just a struggle for territory but a fight between two opposing world views. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-18

18. Cold War Is Declared (cont.) • To prevent the Communists from making gains in war-torn Europe, the United States implemented the Marshall Plan, named after Secretary of State George Marshall. The plan provided massive amounts of financial aid to help European nations rebuild their infrastructures and economies. Section 1-18

19. Cold War Is Declared (cont.) • The Soviet Union, which was included in the Marshall Plan, rejected the aid. Because the money had to be spent on American goods, Soviet leaders charged that the aid strengthened United States capitalism at the expense of European freedom. Section 1-18

20. Cold War Is Declared (cont.) Section 1-18

21. What economic reasons did the United States have for stopping the spread of communism? The United States wanted to have free access to the markets of the world. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 1-19

22. Main Idea Use a diagram like the one below to show how differing world views paved the way for a cold war between the United States and Soviet Union. Section 1-20

23. Vocabulary Match each definition in the left column with the appropriate term in the right column. b a __ 1. the United States-Soviet conflict that followed World War II in which the two powers avoided military confrontation but opposed each other’s political and economic goals __ 2. after Wold War II, the United States policy of securing the peace by trying to contain communism, or keep it from expanding beyond its current borders a. containment b. cold war Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answers. Section 1-21

24. Checking Facts What was the toll taken in Russian life and property during World War II? Which six Eastern European nations did Stalin demand control over at Yalta? More than 20 million died, and 25 million lost their homes and livelihood. Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were the six nations Stalin demanded control over. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 1-23

25. Checking Facts Describe the commitment of the United States to rebuild Europe as part of the Marshall Plan. The United States pledged billions of dollars to European reconstruction. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 1-24

26. Critical Thinking Making ComparisonsWhy did the Soviets prefer Roosevelt’s style of diplomacy to Truman’s? Truman dealt with the Soviets from a position of distrust. Roosevelt wanted to work with the Soviets. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 1-25

27. End of Section 1

28. The Cold War Deepens Main Idea Both the Soviets and Chinese Communists tested the United States policy of containment, triggering a dangerous arms race and the Korean War.  Vocabulary • land reform • limited war • arms race Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-1

29. The Cold War Deepens Read to Find Out . . . • the causes of the Berlin blockade and the Communist takeover of China and the effect of each event on United States foreign policy.  • how the Korean War strengthened the powers of the presidency and the United States military. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-2

30. To guard cargo shipments into Berlin, Truman stationed 60 United States B-29s– planes capable of delivering atomic bombs– in England. The President was bluffing; the planes carried no bombs. But at the time, nobody knew for sure–including the Soviets. Section 2-3

31. Berlin Crisis • Since the end of the war, Soviet and American plans for Germany had put the two nations on a collision course. Unable to find a common ground, the United States, Great Britain, and France laid the basis for a free West German state with strong economic ties to the rest of Europe. Section 2-4

32. Berlin Crisis (cont.) • The introduction of a common currency in the three western zones and West Berlin enraged the Soviets, who demanded that Western leaders scrap their currency plan or accept a Soviet currency in eastern Germany and all of Berlin.  • When Western leaders went ahead with their plan, the Soviets imposed a blockade around Berlin. Taking advantage of a 1945 agreement to keep three air corridors open to Berlin, Truman organized a massive airlift into West Berlin. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-5

33. Berlin Crisis (cont.) • World opinion turned against the Soviet Union for starving innocent people to achieve its ends. The United States, on the other hand, won the goodwill of many West Germans, melting wartime hatreds. Section 2-5

34. Berlin Crisis (cont.) • In 1949, with cold war tensions rising, the United States, Canada, and 10 European nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance to prevent Soviet invasion of Western Europe. In 1955 the Soviet Union matched NATO with the Warsaw Pact–a Soviet-Eastern European alliance planted squarely across the iron curtain. Section 2-6

35. Berlin Crisis (cont.) Section 2-5

36. How did United States membership in NATO mark a departure from its traditional pre-World War II foreign policy? Membership in NATO drew the United States into an “entangling alliance” with Europe. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Section 2-8

37. The Cold War in Asia • World War II caused nations throughout Asia to seek independence. Stretched thin by the job of rebuilding at home, Great Britain gave in to demands for freedom in India and Pakistan–which later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dutch did the same in Indonesia.  • Meanwhile, a civil war raged in China between the Nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) and the Communist forces of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung). Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-9

38. The Cold War in Asia (cont.) • The war grew, in part, out of broken promises by the Nationalists to institute land reforms when they took power in 1910. Only the Japanese invasion during World War II had caused a temporary alliance between the warring armies. Section 2-10

39. The Cold War in Asia (cont.) • Late in 1945 Truman sent George Marshall to find a way to end the fighting, but both Mao and Jiang wanted to control China alone. Truman made a decision to back the Nationalists, but the aid came too late. Corruption and refusal to enact land reforms made Jiang’s war-tattered army vulnerable to defeat. Section 2-10

40. The Cold War in Asia (cont.) • In December 1949 the Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan, which seemed in the eyes of many to be a failure of containment. The National Security Council urged the President to support the remaining friendly governments in Asia, including Vietnam. Section 2-10

41. The Cold War in Asia (cont.) Section 2-10

42. The Cold War in Asia (cont.) • Events in Berlin and China unnerved everybody–including Truman. A high-level defense study–National Security Council Report NSC-68–suggested beginning a massive buildup of weapons to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. The nation now embarked on a dangerous arms race. Section 2-10

43. What was the link between the Communist victory in China and the arms race? Sample answer: Many American leaders saw the Communists posed for an attempt at world domination and wanted to be prepared. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display a sample answer. Section 2-11

44. Hot War Flares in Korea • Korea, which had been brutally ruled by Japan since 1910, suffered a fate much like Germany. At the end of the war, it was divided at the 38th parallel, leaving a Communist government in the north and a pro-Western government in the South.  • On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops followed Soviet-made tanks across the 38th parallel. Truman, who saw the assault as a test of containment, ordered air and naval forces to Korea without the approval of Congress. He then sought help from the UN. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-12

45. Hot War Flares in Korea (cont.) • With the Soviet delegate absent from the Security Council, the UN backed Truman’s request. UN troops, led by the United States, drove the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel. Smelling victory, MacArthur persuaded Truman to let him attempt to unify Korea. Section 2-13

46. Hot War Flares in Korea (cont.) • With North Korean troops pinned against the Chinese border at the Yula River, MacArthur ignored warnings from Mao to back off and crossed into China. The action drew Chinese troops into the conflict, which pushed UN forces back across the 38th parallel.  • During the ensuing stalemate, MacArthur openly criticized Truman for refusing to use nuclear weapons against North Korea. Truman defended his policy of limited war and fired MacArthur. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-14

47. Hot War Flares in Korea (cont.) • Fighting in Korea dragged on until the next President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, oversaw a ceasefire. Section 2-15

48. Hot War Flares in Korea (cont.) Section 2-15

49. Why do you think Truman jumped so quickly into the Korean conflict? Sample answer: After China, he did not want to risk another failure at containment in Asia. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display a sample answer. Section 2-16

50. The Korean War’s Impact • The Korean War settled little. Korea remained divided geographically and politically in much the same way as before the war.  • However, the war had long-lasting effects on the United States. It convinced Americans to back a huge military buildup and to overlook the fact that Truman had never sought a formal declaration of war from Congress–a fact that greatly enhanced the power of the presidency. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-12