The Cold War Standards & 7-5.2

1. A Growing Threat A. The political and economic ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union were polar opposites.  U.S.: capitalism and representative democracy  Soviet Union: socialism and communist state B. 2. This led to the beginning and escalation of the Cold War.

2. Beginning of the Cold War A. The Cold War began immediately at the end of WWII. B. Among the Big 3 leaders, tensions had developed when they discussed the post-war world. 1.Churchill and FDR wanted the German lands to be given self-rule with representative governments and capitalist economies. 2.Stalin wanted the lands to become communist with socialist economies.

2. Beginning of the Cold War cont. ► C. Stalin promised to give these countries a chance to choose their own form of government. ► D. Instead, he broke the promise and forced those countries to become communist. ► E. The result was a SPLIT between the major leaders.

3. East and West Germany A.Germany was divided into 4 sections. 1.The Soviet Union occupied the East. 2.The United States, France, and Great Britain occupied the West.

3. East and West Germany cont. ► B. Each side wanted its own political and economic ideology to be chosen for Germany. ► C. The United Nations agreed to officially divide Germany into 2 separate countries: East Germany and West Germany. ► D. The city of Berlin was also divided into 4 sections with a wall between the East and West sides.

4. The Truman Doctrine ► A. The United States wanted to contain the spread of communism. ► B. President Truman created a foreign policy that would provide money to countries that were resisting communist takeover= The Truman Doctrine ► C. The United States gave $400 million dollars to help stop the spread of communism.

5. The Marshall Plan A. The Marshall Plan put $13 billion into Western Europe after the war. B. It was instrumental in helping to rebuild Western Europe AND in helping to prevent the spread of communism in the West. C. The United States also gave money to help rebuild Japan, but this was not a part of the Truman Doctrine OR the Marshall Plan.

6. The United Nations A. The League of Nations had epically failed to prevent wars. B. In 1945, it was replaced with the United Nations 1.The United Nations had the ability to use military force and it was directly involved in many of the conflicts of the Cold War.

7. The Berlin Airlift ► The first major showdown of the Cold WAR happened in Berlin.  Soviets blocked all entrances to West Berlin to try and drive western influence out of the city.  The U.S., France, and Great Britain responded by airlifting supplies into West Berlin.  The Soviet Union was forced to lift the blockade.

The first episode in the Cold War was the Berlin Airlift that began on June 26, 1948 in response the the blockade by the Soviets of all entrances to the city of Berlin.

USAF C-47s carried 80 tons of food into Berlin, on the first day - far less than the estimated 4,500 tons of food, coal, and other material needed daily to maintain a minimum level of existence. More help was on the way!C-47s

Before long hundreds of flights a day brought in tons of supplies for eleven months. At the end, Berliners were in better shape than they had been since before the war. The Soviets backed down.

This map shows the places where the planes made their drops – 272,000 flights brought in 2 million tons of supplies to the people of West Berlin. But there was another story, behind the scenes.

Lt. Gail Halvorsen was so impressed with the friendliness of the children around the airport where he dropped the supplies every day that he decided to drop a surprise for them. The next day his plane dropped hundreds of packets of candy on handkerchief parachutes to the waving children.

Operation Little Vittles ► The response from children was amazing ► Many hundreds would show up each day to see if “Uncle Wiggly Wings” had more candy ► They wrote letters to thank him ► Newspapers carried the story back to American cities and before long The Chocolate Pilot had tons of candy to deliver. He needed help. Many people volunteered to make the parachutes until more than 250,000 parachutes had been dropped

Because of his humanitarian efforts, Lt. Halvorsen was presented with the Cheney Award. His greatest satisfaction came, however, from the letters sent by the children, and…

Later, when he actually met the children.

Helpless to prevent it, the soldiers in the West watch the wall rise to divide Berlin

The Brandenburg Gate, symbol of Berlin, stands like other living prisoners behind the Berlin Wall.

Checkpoint Charlie was one of three gates through which one could enter East Berlin for a brief visit. It was a favorite point for escape attempts.

During the 28 years that it separated East from West, over 5000 people escaped over, under, or through the wall. More than 200 people died while trying to escape; most shot by border guards.

8. NATO ► 12 Western countries formed a military alliance to protect itself against the spread of communism= North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ► The Soviet Union made a military alliance with Eastern European countries= Warsaw Pact.