The Cold War
Escalating Tension
• Allied victors have different goals
▫ U.S. = wants a Europe dependent
on American capital
▫ USSR = wants a weak Germany; wants to exploit
German resources for Soviet advantage
• Potsdam Conference (16 July – 2 August 1945)
▫ “New Big Three” = Attlee, Truman, Stalin
▫ Germany is to be territorially limited and divided
▫ Emphasis on denazification & demilitarization
The “Iron Curtain”
• Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech
▫ Territorial marker dividing democratic west from
communist east
▫ Cold War = conflict between those ideologies
• Population Transfers . . .
The “Iron Curtain”
• Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech
▫ Territorial marker dividing democratic west from
communist east
▫ Cold War = conflict between those ideologies
• Population Transfers . . .
▫ Soviets expel Poles from new territory
▫ Poles expel Germans from new territory
▫ 12,000,000 Germans expelled from Eastern Europe
 Lots of retributive justice . . .
 500,000 – 1,000,000 deaths
• Resentment among displaced persons
Germany, Divided
• Four zones: American, British, French, Soviet
▫ Four zones in Berlin, as well
Germany, Divided
• Four zones: American, British, French, Soviet
▫ Four zones in Berlin, as well
• 1947 = Marshall Plan
▫ Billions of $$$ invested into Germany
• Soviets do not want a split, initially
▫ Thought Communists would win 1946 elections
• 1948 = British & American zones become the
“Bizone” (then later, with the French, “Trizone”)
▫ June 1948 = Trizone announced the “Deutsche Mark”
▫ Soviets announce the “Ostmark”
Germany, Divided
• 24 June 1948 = Soviets stop train traffic, land
communication, and water from West Berlin
▫ 25 June = food transports stop to West Berlin
• 28 June 1948 = “Operation Vittles” (Berlin
Airlift) supplies West Berlin with provisions
▫ Lasts until May 1949
▫ 200,000 flights in less than one year
Germany, Divided
• 24 June 1948 = Soviets stop train traffic, land
communication, and water from West Berlin
▫ 25 June = food transports stop to West Berlin
• 28 June 1948 = “Operation Vittles” (Berlin
Airlift) supplies West Berlin with provisions
▫ Lasts until May 1949
▫ 200,000 flights in less than one year
• April & May 1949 = formal split
▫ April = German Democratic Republic (GDR)
▫ May = Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)
Europe, Divided
• Soviet domination of Eastern Europe
▫ 1947 = Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania
▫ 1948 = Czechoslovakia
• March 1953 = Stalin dies; Nikita Khrushchev
becomes new Soviet Premier
▫ Leads to some moderation . . .
• Not all is happy in the USSR . . .
▫ Uprising in East Berlin (17 June 1953)
▫ Uprising in Hungary (October 1956)
▫ Prague Spring (1968)
Europe, Divided
• U.S. Response to Soviet domination?
▫ Containment!
• 1949 = creation of North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
▫ Collective defense against external enemies . . .
 . . . Like the Soviet Union . . .
• Soviets respond with the Warsaw Pact (1955)
▫ Creates a buffer zone between Western Europe
and the Soviet Union
Escalating Nuclear Tension
• 1940s = Brits, Germans, Americans, Soviets –
everybody wants the bomb
• 1945 = U.S. drops the only atomic bombs ever
used in warfare
• 1949 = Soviets develop their atomic bomb
• 1953 = U.S. and Soviets develop hydrogen bombs
Escalating Nuclear Tension
• 1940s = Brits, Germans, Americans, Soviets –
everybody wants the bomb
• 1945 = U.S. drops the only atomic bombs ever
used in warfare
• 1949 = Soviets develop their atomic bomb
• 1953 = U.S. and Soviets develop hydrogen bombs
• 1963 = Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
• 1974 = Britain, France, China, India, U.S., Soviets
all have atomic bombs
Abandoning the Colonial Model?
• The hunt for sovereignty . . .
▫ Decolonization after WWII, but with Cold War
reservations
• Asia
▫ North & South Korea
▫ North & South Vietnam
• Africa
▫ Algeria
• Middle East
▫ 1948 = creation of Israel
▫ Iran
• Latin America
▫ Guatemala
▫ Cuba & the Cuban Missile Crisis