2. Chapter 18 Section 1 Pages 602-608
Origins of the Cold War
Chapter 18 Section 1
Pages

3. Former Allies Clash
The U.S. and the USSR had a very different view of the future after World War II.
Remember that in Communism the state controlled all property and in the U.S. individual people did.
The U.S did not like that the Soviets were allies with the Germans until 1941.
Stalin did not like that the “Western Allies” did not attack Germany sooner or that the U.S. kept their nuclear bombs secret.
These underlying feelings of suspicion between the two nations caused a lot of tension.

4. The United Nations Forms
After the bloodshed of WWII something positive did arise, the United Nations (UN) was officially established in June of 1945.
The UN was composed of 50 nations and intended on promoting world peace.
However the UN became a stage for the U.S. and the Soviets to compete on and spread their influence over other nations.

5. Truman and the Potsdam Conference
In April of 1945 Harry Truman suddenly becomes president when FDR dies in office.
Many Americans worried when this happened because Truman was not involved in much of the policy decisions under FDR.
Truman’s abilities as a leader were put to the test when in July of 1945 the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union met at Potsdam.
At the conference Stalin made it clear that the Soviet occupied territories, including Poland, would not have free elections.
This made President Truman begin to not trust Stalin.

6. Tensions Mount: US vs. USSR
At Potsdam, the Soviets thought they would get war reparations from Germany to help pay for war time losses.
Truman objected to the USSR getting reparations but it was agreed that Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the U.S. would take reparations from Germany.
They would only take reparations from their separate zones.
Truman wanted to have access to the raw materials that were in Germany so that the now booming U.S. business could continue to grow.

7. Soviets and Eastern Europe
The Soviets felt that they should occupy Eastern Europe.
The Soviets suffered a lot during the war because of intense fighting on their soil and their near 20 million deaths.
The Soviets felt that by claiming Eastern Europe they could prevent attacks from the west.

8. Containment
American diplomat in Moscow, George Kennan proposed a policy of containment in 1946.
Containment = prevent the spread of communist rule to other countries.
This policy would dominate U.S. foreign policy until the fall of the Soviet Union.
Europe was now divided into two regions; the Western half being mostly democratic and the Eastern half being communist.
This division of the two halves of Europe was called, the “iron curtain”

9. Truman Doctrine and Marshal Plan
The U.S.’s first attempt in containing communism was in Greece and Turkey. Congress was asked by Truman to give $400 million to the two nations so that they could fend off communist influence.
Truman declared that the U.S. must help other nations to resist outside pressures (communism). This statement before congress became known as the Truman Doctrine.
The U.S. also gave aide to the European countries. George Marshall proposed that this aide was “against hunger, poverty, and chaos. Not against any other nation.”
This plan to aide European countries was named “The Marshall Plan.”

10. Superpowers Struggle Over Germany
The U.S. and its allies next clashed with the Soviets over German unification.
The French, British, and the Americans decided to combine their German zones into one nation, without consent from the Soviets.
This led to Stalin closing off roads and blockading West Berlin from food and supplies.
To counter this, the U.S. started the Berlin Airlifts to fly food and supplies into West Berlin.

11. NATO
Because of the blockade in Berlin, the Western European countries began to fear the Soviets more and more.
To counter act these fears the Western European countries along with the U.S. and Canada formed NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
This was an alliance that guaranteed military support of one of its members would come under attack from an enemy.