1. The Cold War

2. Definition
Centered around the intense rivalry between the communist Soviet Union and the democratic United States from the late 1940s to the collapse of the USSR in 1991
The state of hostility was usually without direct military conflict but, in several instances, the Cold War brought the world very close to nuclear war
The term was coined by the journalist Walter Lippman

3. Origins
The two nations had WWII allies and become permanent members of the UN Security Council in 1945, but disagreements over the future of Eastern Europe and Germany became evident at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences

4. Origins FDR/Truman wanted strong, stable democracies
Stalin wanted Eastern Europe to be buffer states under Communist control to protect against future invasions and not compete economically with the USSR

5. Origins
Ideological differences--Soviet expansion and domination of post-war Eastern Europe contradicted the American belief in self-determination and economic and political freedom

6. Origins
FDR had been able to work with Stalin; Truman was inexperienced in foreign policy and did not trust Stalin
Resentment likely lingered from the USSR having to fight the eastern front of WWII alone—20 million died

7. Early Incidents Fueled the Divide
USSR refused to join the new World Bank
Rejected the Baruch Plan for regulating nuclear energy and atomic disarmament
armed Mao in China
Re-industrialized East Germany
Established communism in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia

8. Foreign policy adopted in 1947, devised largely by George Kennan
U.S. Containment Policy
Foreign policy adopted in 1947, devised largely by George Kennan
a long-term, firm, and vigilant containment of Soviet expansive tendencies

9. Early Examples of Containment
The Truman Doctrine implemented (March 1947)
Asked Congress for military and economic aid to support nations who are threatened by Communist expansion
First used to aid Turkey and Greece in $400 million in economic and military aid

10. Early Examples of Containment
The Marshall Plan implemented (June,1947)
an extensive program ($12.5 billion) of economic aid to help the nations of Europe revive their economies and strengthen democratic governments
began after the Soviet takeover of Czechoslovakia

11. Early Examples of Containment
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 1949
military defense alliance to protect Western Europe
USSR formed the Warsaw Pact for the defense of the Communist states of Eastern Europe (1955)

12. Early Examples of Containment
National Security Act of 1947
Created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency

13. Cold War Conflicts Berlin Airlift Loss of China to Communism
The Korean War
Covert operations in the Middle East and Latin America
Fall of Indochina
Suez Crisis
Bay of Pigs/Cuban Missile Crisis
Berlin Wall standoff
The Vietnam War
Grenada