Cold War: Superpowers Face Off
By: Maddy, Katie, Zac, & Jacob
Allies Become Enemies
- Yalta Conference
- Leaders of US, Britain, and Soviet Union met
- Soviet Black Sea resort of Yalta
- Agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation controlled by the Allied military forces
- Germany also had to pay the Soviet Union money for its loss of life and property
- Stalin agreed to join war against Japan
- Promised that Eastern Europeans would have free elections
- In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States joined the United Nations
- The 5 permanent members were Britain, China, France,United States, and the Soviet Union
- Each could veto any Security Council action
- After the agreement at Yalta, the United States and the Soviet Union split apart
- Each country suffered differently from the war
- The US had suffered 400,000 deaths, but its cities were still intact
- The Soviet Union had at least 50 times as many deaths. 1 out of every 4 Soviets were killed.
Yelta Conference
Leaders of Britain, United States, and Soviet Union meet.
Marshall Plan
The Berlin Airlift
Eastern Europe's Iron wall
· Russia had no natural land borders so it was prone to invasion
· Russia created Communist governments in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, and Yugoslavia which created a buffer
· Europe was now divided communist east Europe and Capitalist Western Europe.
· The Division wasn’t called the iron curtain till Churchill stated “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "Iron Curtain" has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
United States Tries to Contain Soviets
- United States was worried because of the growing Soviet threat to Eastern Europe
- President Truman adopted containment (policy that was for blocking Soviet influence and the expansion of communism
- Containment policies involved forming alliances to help weak countries resist Soviet advances
- Truman Doctrine caused controversy & was Truman's support for countries that rejected communism
- Food and Jobs were in demand , the secretary of state, George Marshall suggested that the U.S. give aid to European countries in need, it was named the Marshall Plan, it would provide food,machinery, and materials to rebuild Western Europe.
- During the rebuilding of Western Europe, The U.S. and its allies clashed with the soviet Union over Germany.
- In 1948 France, Britain, and the U.S. decided to withdraw their forces from Germany but The Soviet Union responded by holding West Berlin hostage.
- American and British officials flew food and supplies into West Berlin for almost 11 months.
- May 1949, The Soviet Union admitted at they were defeated and removed the blockade.