THE COLD WAR: BEGINNINGS Done by: Layanne Nayfeh, Alia al Hosani, Amal al Eidani
Jul 13, 2015
THE COLD WAR:
BEGINNINGS
Done by: Layanne Nayfeh, Alia al Hosani, Amal al Eidani
WHAT WAS THE COLD WAR?
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 – 1991
of political conflict, military tension and economic competition
between the communist world and the western world. There were two
sides:
• The U.S and its allies
• The Soviet Union and the Satellite States
COMMUNISM
A social, political, and economic ideology that aims at the
establishment of a classless, moneyless, stateless, society based on
common ownership of the means of production. (tools used to
produce wealth)
W H A T W E R E T H E D I F F E R E N C E S B E T W E E N
R U S S I A A N D A M E R I C A A T T H E E N D O F
W W 1
Russia wanted to spread communism and control the world. Stalin,
Russia’s ruler wanted to keep Germany weak and divided, and he wanted
to leave his troops in East Germany, so they could “defend” him from the
west. The countries that he decided to keep under his reign were called
the satellite states, they too were forced to become communist countries.
Truman, America’s leader wanted to end communism and spread
democracy. He wanted to make Europe free and strong again.
After Stalin made it clear that he wasn’t planning on retrieving his
troops from East Europe, Truman and Churchill met at the Fulton
College in Missouri, where Churchill stated that “an iron curtain
has descended across the continent [Europe]”. By this he meant
that Europe was being split in two.
To the east was the Soviet Union, and the satellite states, and to the
west lied the Allies.
The satellite states included:
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East
Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and
Bulgaria.
The Allies were: Ireland, Great Britain, Denmark, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
H OW D I D P R E S I D E N T T R U M A N R E S P O N D T O
T H E S OV I E T D O M I N A T I O N O F E A S T E R N
E U R O P E ?
At Potsdam Stalin refused to make a commitment to allow free
elections in Eastern Europe. This left Truman believing that the SU was
planning world conquest, and that the alliance with the SU was falling
apart. This angered Truman and he, like Churchill, wanted to put an end
to the SU’s spreading of communism. So he issued the Truman Doctrine,
which stated that the US would aid countries struggling against the
communist movement, in effort to apply the containment idealism.
W H AT W E R E T H E C AU S E S A N D R E S U LT S
O F S T A L I N ’ S B L O C K AG E O F B E R L I N ?
Stalin was determined to capture Berlin and keep it from joining the
Allies, so he stopped all highway, railway, and water traffic from west
Germany into West Berlin. This way, West Berlin would have no means of
communication and would fall to the communists.
In response the US and Great Britain supplied West Berlin through
massive airlifts. Food, fuel, medical supplies, clothes, and toys were flown
into the city for its residents. This was known as the Berlin Airlift.
Seeing that he lost, Joseph Stalin lifted the blockage off West Berlin.