1. Ms. Meeks Exeter High School
1950s Unit
Ms. Meeks
Exeter High School

2. Former Allies Clash
United States and Soviet Union’s economic and political systems were incompatible.
Communism vs. Capitalism
U.S. vs. Soviet Union
United Nations

3. Truman Becomes President
Unprepared to be President of the United States
Met with Roosevelt only twice in the 82 days Truman was Vice President
Roosevelt left him uninformed about:
Military matters
Peace negotiations
Atomic Bomb

4. Truman Meets Stalin at Potsdam
Potsdam Conference – final wartime conference of the Big Three
First time meeting the Big Three
Stalin refuses Truman’s push to allow free elections in Eastern European nations that were under Eastern European
This American cartoon of 1945 shows the Atomic Bomb overshadowing the peace-makers at the Potsdam Conference.  

5. Tensions Mount
Truman wanted to spread democracy to nations that were previously under Nazi rule
He and advisors want to avoid another world war
Create a new world order where nations had a right of self-determination through free elections
Truman was cautious of giving into too many of Stalin’s demands for territory and war reparations
Allies would take reparations from the part of Germany it occupied

6. New British prime minister Clement Attlee, U. S
New British prime minister Clement Attlee, U.S. president Harry Truman, and the Soviet state and party leader Joseph Stalin

7. Soviets Tighten Their Grip on Eastern Europe
Soviet Union felt justified in staying in Eastern Europe
Communist governments in the satellite nations: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland.
War is inevitable

8. United States Establishes A Policy of Containment
Stop “babying the Soviets”
Policy of containment

9. The Iron Curtain…
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”
Winston Churchill

10. Cold War in Europe Conflicts in U.S. and Soviet aims in Eastern Europe
Cold War: The state of hostility short of direct military confrontation that developed between the two superpowers.
Dominates global affairs and U.S. foreign policy
“Battle” by spreading their political and economic influences wherever they could
Spread to Asia, Africa, and Latin America

11. Truman Doctrine and The Marshall Plan

12. The Controversial Truman Doctrine
Britain running out of aid, United States to the rescue
$400 million in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey
The United States should support free peoples throughout the world who were resisting takeovers by “armed minorities” or “outside pressures.”
Created controversy
interfering with internal affairs of other nations
U.S. power would be spread too thin if country carried on global crusade against communism
Opposed helping any dictators, even if they were anti-Communist

13. Marshall Plan to the Rescue
Western Europe was in economic chaos
Winter of was harsh in several countries
Damaged crops
Froze rivers – cut off water transportation and causing fuel shortage
June 1947 – General George Marshall – U.S. secretary of state proposed that the United States provide aid to all European countries that needed it
“Not directed against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos”

14. Superpowers Struggle Over Germany
Allies and Soviets clash over German reunification
Divided into four zones
1948 – recombined the three western zones into one nation

15. Berlin Airlift and the Formation of NATO

16. The Berlin Airlift
Soviet Union retaliated by holding West Berlin hostage
Berlin was also divided into four sections even though it was deep in Soviet territory
Cut off all highway, water, and rail traffic into the western zones of Berlin

17. Peacetime Alliance - NATO
Increased fear of Soviet aggression
Ten European nations joined with the U.S. and Canada on April 4, 1949 to forma defensive military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO
Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal
Attack on one equals attack on all
Cold War had ended U.S. isolationism