The Cold War PostWorld War II Fear of

The Cold War Post-World War II

Fear of Communism • People In the U. S. saw the spread of Communism as a threat to American life. • Communism is an economic and political system, theorized in the writings of Karl Marx. • It attempted to equalize wealth and power by ending private property and having the government own all factories, railroads, and other businesses.

The Red Scare • The Communist take-over in Russia and their claim of taking over the world and destroying capitalism everywhere caused fear in the U. S. • Communists waved a red flag, so they were called “Reds”. • A Communist Party formed in the U. S. Several dozen bombs were mailed to the government. • This caused a fear called the “Red Scare” that they were taking over. • Many people in the U. S. were wrongly accused of being a communist and jailed without a trial from the 1920’s into the 1960’s. Many people’s rights were violated.

Stalin’s Russia • Vladimir Lenin and a few other leaders lead the Revolution in Russia that established Communism as the official government and political system of Russia. • Stalin was one of the leaders during this time period and took all power after the death of Lenin. • He set himself up as the dictator of what was then called the Soviet Union- also known as the U. S. S. R (Russia).

Stalin during World War II • Stalin was the dictator of Russia during World War II. • At first he was an ally of Hitler, but when Hitler went back on his word and invaded Russia, Stalin joined the Allied Powers in fighting Hitler. • The other leaders of the Allied Powers did not trust Stalin, but joined forces with him with the hope of defeating Hitler by using the massive army of Russia.

After World War II • Stalin defeated the Nazi’s and invaded Germany from the east. After defeating the Nazi’s in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and other areas; Stalin’s army stayed in those countries and Stalin basically annexed them and they became part of the Soviet Union (controlled by Stalin). • This angered the other Allied Powers, but they didn’t do anything about it because they were trying to make peace.

The Yalta Conference • Stalin (USSR), Roosevelt (US), Churchill (UK) were in attendance. • Conference held at Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine on February 4 -11 1945 • This conference took place before the Germans surrendered • Purpose: To discuss what would happen to Germany after the war in Europe ends and to discuss how to attack Japan • Roosevelt wants the UN, Stalin wants to protect against future German invasions, and Churchill wants to not give Stalin too much power • Main ideas: peace and security

The Results of Yalta Agreed upon the following items: • divide Germany into four ‘zones’, which Britain, France, the USA and the USSR would occupy after the war. • bring Nazi war-criminals to trial. • Hold democratic elections for the people in Europe (He did not follow through with this promise). • Russia would help fight Japan.

The Potsdam Conference • After Japan was defeated, the Allied powers met again to discuss the peace treaty. • They divided Germany into four zones. Stalin controlled East Germany and all the other countries that were between Germany and Russia. • He did not allow the people of these areas to have elections. Instead, he ruled them. • The United Nations was created to help keep peace in the world.

Post WWII Germany • The Soviets (Russia) controlled East Germany. • The British controlled North West Germany • The US controlled South East Germany • France controlled South West Germany. • The plan was for Germany to become its own democratic country in the future.

Post WWII Soviet Union • As you can see on this map, Russia increased its land its communist influence after WWII. • Now it had 6 new territories that were under communist control. • This is why the U. S. and other democratic countries began trying to stop communism from spreading to any other parts of the world.