Beginning of the Cold War

How did the US and the Soviet

Union move from allies to enemies?
 Uneasy alliance
 Different economic and political systems
 Development of atomic bomb
 Stalin resents U.S. hid atomic bomb
 COLD WAR: conflict between nations carried
on by political and economic means rather than
direct conflict
 Former Allies Clash
 The Potsdam Conference
 July 1945 conference with U.S., Great Britain, and

Soviet Union
 Stalin does not allow free, multiparty elections in
Poland
 Bans democratic parties

 Soviets want reparations from Germany; Truman

objects
 Agree to take reparations mainly from own occupation
zones
 U.S. emerges from war as great economic power
 Wants Eastern European raw materials, markets
 TENSIONS MOUNT
 Soviet Union also has great economic and
military strength
 Unlike U.S., Soviet Union suffered heavy
devastation on own soil
 Installs communist rule in satellite nations
(countries it dominates)
 1946 Stalin announces that war between
communism and capitalism inevitable
DEMOCRACY VS. COMMUNISM

A form of A system of
government in government in
which the which there is no
supreme private property
authority rests and there are no
with the people economic classes
Democracy vs. Communism
 Freedom  Socialism

 Individual  Equality

 Capitalism  Totalitarian
CAPITALISM:
Economic
system in which
most
businesses are
privately owned

Freedom of
competition
SOCIALISM:
Government
ownership of
industry
Created as a
reaction to
capitalism
Classless society
Goal is to bring
economic equality
to the people
DEMOCRATIC
 Government by
the people
 2 forms
1. Representative

2. direct
TOTALITARIAN
A form of
government in
which the
person or party
in charge has
absolute control
over all aspects
of life
No freedom of
press or speech
FREEDOM
The condition
of being free
Most valued
Freedom of
the press
Freedom of


speech
Freedom to


do business
EQUALITY
Conditionof
being equal
Most valued:
basic needs met
for all such as
food, housing
education and
jobs
INDIVIDUAL
Stresses the
need for people
to do things on
their own
Competition:
the best get to
the top
 CONTAINMENT
 U.S. establishes policy of containment
(measures to prevent spread of
communism)
 IRON CURTAIN

 Coined by Winston Churchill

 March 1946
 Described Soviet control over Eastern
European countries
 Stalin used Churchill’s words to persuade
his people that the US and Great Britain
were enemies of the Soviet Union
 WORLD RELATIONS
 Conflict between US and Soviet Union
made many western Europeans nations
uneasy
 NATO forms in April 1949
 Warsaw Pact forms in 1955
 WWII also raised concerns about the
financial relationships between countries