1. Origins of the Cold War

2. After WWII Germany & Japan were in Ruins
Germans were “…without houses without window panes, without roofs, holes in the asphalt, rubble, rubbish, and rats.”
“Tokyo was flattened, and people were living in holes with corrugated roofs.”

3. Postwar Germany
July Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany Potsdam Conference Stalin, Truman, & Attlee Came up with joint occupation of four zones West -- Britain, France & America East -- Soviets

6. They also divided Austria into zones
Jointly with Russia  Berlin with in Eastern patrician

7. Nuremberg Trials
Many Nazis faced trial for their roles in the Holocaust.
The court was located at Nuremberg, Germany.
Twelve Nazi leaders were sentenced to death, Seven others received jail sentences and three were acquitted

8. Founding of Israel
Zionism: The movement seeking a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Both the US and the Soviet Union recognized the nation of Israel in 1948
Arabs reacted violently, and set out to reclaim the state for Palestine.

10. Cold War = the competition for global power and influence between the US and the Soviet Union.

11. The Cold War (1945-91) was one of perception
The Cold War ( ) was one of perception. Where neither side fully understood the intentions and ambitions of the other. This led to mistrust and military build-ups.

12. United States
U.S. thought that Soviet expansion would continue and spread communism throughout the world.
They saw the Soviet Union as a threat to their way of life; especially after the Soviet Union gained control of Eastern Europe.

13. IRON CURTAIN
In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech at Fulton College in Missouri in which he proclaimed that an “Iron Curtain” had fallen across Europe.

14. Truman Doctrine
In March 1947, U.S. president Harry Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine.
Reasoning
Threatened by Communist influence in Turkey and Greece
“Two hostile camps” speech
Stalin’s "Two Hostile Camps Speech" : In Feb Stalin gave a speech to voters in Moscow. In it he predicted that the unevenness of development in capitalist countries would result in a split of two hostile camps with war the inevitable result. He also warned that the future would not bring internal or external peace. In Washington Stalin’s words were interpreted to mean that war with the West was inevitable.

15. Financial aid “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation”
Sent $400 million worth of war supplies to Greece and helped push out Communism
The Truman Doctrine marked a new level of American commitment to a Cold War.
Truman called on the U.S to resist communism throughout the world. He stated, ... it must be the policy of the U.S  to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation... our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid... free peoples of the  world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms...Truman’s speech was  designed to get support for an American pledge of hundreds of millions of  dollars to prevent the spread of communism in Europe. Greece was in the middle  of a civil war in which rebel forces, including communists were attempting to overthrow the pro-western government. The policy of fighting communism around  the world became known as the Truman Doctrine. American aid would be given to a number of regimes, including right wing dictatorships, in an effort to block  communism. Thus the U.S. committed itself to sacrificing money and lives to stop the spread of communism.

17. Marshall Plan
Economic aid to all European countries offered in the European Recovery Program
$17 billion to western Europe
Soviets were refused – The blame for dividing Europe fell on the Soviet union, not the United States. And the Marshall Plan proved crucial to Western Europe’s economic recovery.
George C. Marshall won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953

19. Berlin Airlift The Soviet Union opposed the Marshall Plan
June 24th 1948 Soviets blocked all roads in and out of Berlin cutting off supplies and shipments.
Western leaders over the next 10 months carried more than 2 million tons of food and supplies to the people of West Berlin.

20. Beginning of NATO
After Berlin the US shifts attention from economic recovery  military security.

21. North Atlantic Treaty Organization & the Warsaw Pact
Stalin’s aggressive actions accelerated the American effort to use military means to contain Soviet ambitions.
The U.S. joined with Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to establish NATO, a mutual defense pact in 1949.
Early critics of the UN insisted that it was doomed to fail because it did not have the power to enforce its own decisions
When West Germany joined NATO in 1955, the Soviet Union countered by creating its own alliance system in eastern Europe– the Warsaw Pact (1955)