Start of the Cold War Post World War

Start of the Cold War Post World War II

Europe in 1945 • 40 million dead • Cities are destroyed • Economies are in ruins • Massive migration of people

Threat of Communism • Western European countries attempted to become democracies • Internally communism posed a problem

Eastern Europe • USSR set up communist governments as a buffer zone to protect against further aggression against its nation

Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” • March 5, 1946 • Describing an imaginary wall dividing Europe • "Iron Curtain"

Communism Spreads • China- 1949 Communists force nationalists out of Mainland China • Korea- North Korea comes under Communist control and splits with South Korea after the war ends in 1953 • African nations seek economic aid and support – Some do turn to the Soviet Union

Containment • US policy directed at blocking Soviet influence and stopping the expansion of Communism

Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan • Truman Doctrine- Support for countries that rejected Communism – Congress authorized $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece • Marshall Plan- US policy to provide food, machinery, and materials to rebuild Western Europe

Berlin Airlift • East and West Germany were divided • USSR did not want them united and held Berlin hostage • US, Great Britain, and France flew in supplies for 11 months until Soviets lifted blockade

NATO • North Atlantic Treaty Organization • Western European countries created defensive alliance • Pro Democracy

Warsaw Pact • Eastern European countries created a defensive alliance • Pro Communism

Atomic Weapons • MAD- Mutually Assured Destruction • Brinkmanship- “Poker game” of who will back down first • H-Bomb is a device developed by Sovietseven more powerful than the atomic weapons used on Japan