The East-West Split

1. The East-West Split Academic World History II

2. The East-West Split • The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as the world’s two superpowers. • No other countries equaled their military and political influence. • Differences in political beliefs and policies led to a cold war between them. • The U.S. and Soviet Union both sought world influence by means short of total war. • The “weapons” used in the cold war included the threat of force, the use of propaganda, and the sending of aid to weaker nations.

3. Soviet Cold War Propaganda

4. The United Nations • As World War II came to an end, the Allies began preparing for the postwar world. • They agreed to replace the League of Nations with the United Nations (UN). • The purpose was to maintain peace by guaranteeing the security of member nations. • The bulk of the UN’s power was assigned to two bodies, the Security Council and the General Assembly. • During the postwar period, the UN resolved many crises. • The veto power of the Security Council’s permanent members made the UN powerless to resolve disputes between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

5. From Allies to Enemies • After WWII, the U.S., France, and Great Britain wanted to strengthen democracy in Europe. • The Soviets wanted to establish pro-Soviet governments in Eastern Europe. • This would prevent future invasion, which Stalin feared. • Stalin could also expand his empire. • Stalin feared democracy in Eastern Europe would result in governments unfriendly to the Soviets. • U.S. President Harry S. Truman and other western leaders viewed Stalin as a ruthless dictator who wanted to control Eastern Europe the same way he did the USSR.

6. The Iron Curtain • Soviet and Western interests first came into conflict in Eastern Europe. • In Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, the Soviet Union made sure governments included Communists. • Stalin refused to allow free elections in these places, breaking the promise he made at Yalta. • By 1947, Communists took charge and most of the nations in this region were Soviet satellites. • Winston Churchill used the phrase “iron curtain” to describe the Soviet-made barrier that split Europe into non-Communist Western Europe and Communist Eastern Europe.

8. The Containment of Communism • In 1947, the U.S. developed a new foreign policy. • The U.S. adopted a policy of containment – holding back the spread of communism. • The containment policy was applied for the first time in Greece, where Communists were fighting a guerilla war against the pro-Western monarchy. • Truman asked Congress for $400 million to aid Greece claiming: • “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way”

9. The Containment of Communism, cont. • This statement of foreign policy became known as the Truman Doctrine. • The acceptance of the Truman Doctrine meant that the U.S. would provide aid to any nation threatened by communism. • To provide economic aid to Europe, the U.S. adopted the Marshall Plan. • The U.S. feared that weak European economies would lead to a rise in communism. • The Marshall Plan required European countries to give the U.S. information about their economies. • The Soviet Union refused to participate, and forced their allies to do the same.

10. The Containment of Communism, cont. • The Marshall Plan was a great success. • By 1951, Western Europe’s economies were thriving and the prospect of communism declined. • The Soviet Union set up a rival plan in 1949, known as COMECON, transforming Eastern Europe into an economic rival.

11. Germany Divided • In 1945, Germany was divided into four zones. • West Germany was controlled by the Western Allies. • The Soviet Union controlled East Germany. • The City of Berlin, located in the Soviet zone, was divided into four zones. • The two areas in Berlin were governed very differently. • The Soviet zone was stripped of resources. • The Western Zone moved toward economic recovery.

13. The Berlin Blockade • The Soviets tried to block western influence in Berlin by cutting land access from the west. • The people of Berlin couldn’t get food and supplies. • The western countries airlifted supplies to get supplies to the people of Berlin. • As a result of the Berlin Airlift, the Soviets lifted the blockade. • The western countries approved a constitution, creating the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany. • The Soviets created the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany.

14. New Alliances • In April, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed by the western democracies. • It was a military alliance that agreed an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all members. • In response to NATO, the Soviet Union and its Allies formed the Warsaw Pact. • The Warsaw Pact was used to strengthen the Soviet Union’s hold on Eastern Europe as much as defend it.

15. Worldwide Struggle • The Cold War grew into a worldwide struggle. • An arms race developed after the USSR exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949. • Communism made advances in Asia. • Communist governments came to power in China and North Korea and allied with the Soviet Union. • North Korea attacked pro-Western South Korea, leading to western fear that Communism sought to conquer the world. • By the 1950s, the Cold War became a test of competing ideologies, or political and economic philosophies between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

16. Worldwide Struggle, cont. • Germany became a key area during the Cold War. • Many East Germans moved to West Berlin to escape the harsh conditions created by the USSR. • The East German government, with Soviet backing, built a concrete wall across the city in August, 1961. • The Berlin Wall stopped East Germans from fleeing Communism and became a symbol of the Cold War. • By the late 1970s, the division of the world into blocs, groups of nations headed by a superpower, was ending. • The world was moving away from being dominated by superpowers toward one where there were many competing groups of countries.