Post-World War II

Military Alliances
Former Allies Clash
 Although Nazi Germany had
been defeated, the former Allies
of the United States and the
Soviet Union had very different
ideas for the future.
 Under the American capitalist
system private citizens controlled
almost all economic activity and
voting by the people elected a
president and congress from
competing political parties.
 Under the Soviet System
communism had the state control
all property and economic
activity, and the Communist Party
had totalitarian control over the
government with no opponents.
Mounting Tensions

 At the Potsdam Conference in

July 1945, Soviet Premier Joseph
Stalin promised American
President Harry Truman that he
would allow free elections in the
Soviet-controlled countries
throughout Eastern Europe.
 Stalin would not keep his
promise, asserting their
dominance over eastern Europe
and establishing satellite
nations, countries dominated by
the Soviet Union.
The United Nations

 In April 1945 in San Francisco

representatives of 50 countries met to
establish a peacekeeping body known as
the United Nations (UN).
 The UN was officially established in June
1945, but soon turned into an arena of
debate between the United States and
Soviet Union.
 In February 1946 the UN established a
policy of containment, meaning they would
take measures to prevent any extension of
communist rule to other countries.
Excerpt from Winston Churchill, Prime
Minister of Great Britain
 “A shadow has fallen upon the
scenes so lately lighted by the
Allied victory…from Stettin in
the Baltic to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has
descended across the
Continent.”

 What does Churchill

mean when he says
“an iron curtain”?
The Formation of NATO

 On April 4, 1949, in an attempt to combat the

growing threat the Soviet Union presented, the
nations of Western Europe, Canada, and the
United States formed a defensive military
alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
 The 12 member states of NATO pledged
military support to one another in case any
member was attacked.
 Greece and Turkey would later join NATO in
1952 and West Germany in 1955.
 By the 1950s, NATO kept a standing military
force of over 500,000 troops and thousands of
planes, tanks, and other equipment.
Why was the
formation of NATO
so significant?
The Creation of SEATO

 Following the end of WWII, the civil war in China

between the Nationalists and Communists resumed.
 In 1949 the Nationalist government, which had been
supported by the United States, was defeated by the
Communists and fled to the island of Taiwan.
 The United States continued its involvement, now
more directly in the Korean War, failing in its attempt
to prevent communism from taking over the Korean
Peninsula.
 In 1955, the United States and its allies formed the
Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) to
prevent further communist gains in Southeast Asia.
Political Cartoon Analysis

Jot down some thoughts

which come to mind after
viewing this political cartoon
in your notes.
The Policy of Brinkmanship

 Following Harry Truman’s presidency, he was

succeeded by Dwight D. Eisenhower, a highly
successful American general from World War II.
 Eisenhower adopted a policy know as
brinkmanship, meaning the United States would
be willing to go to the edge of all-out war
against communism.
 Under this new policy, the United States began
spending more money on its nuclear arsenal and
less on its army and navy.
 Lesson Closure

 Usingthe space allotted to you on the

back of your notes, answer the following
question…
Did the United States OR
the Soviet Union contribute
greater to the rising Cold
War tensions in the 1950s?