Yalta Conference
Important decisions were made for the future development of the war by U.S. president Franklin D Roosevelt, Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin and Britain's prime minister Winston Churchill at the Yalta conference in 1945. During this conference, Germany was divided into occupation zones, each controlled by the Allies. Also, Germany had to pay compensation for life and property losses. Stalin guaranteed for the Eastern Europeans to have free elections and joined the war against Japan. Furthermore, the United Nations (UN) was created and was comprised of the U.S., the Soviet Union, and 48 other countries. This was designed to protect its members from aggression.
Important decisions were made for the future development of the war by U.S. president Franklin D Roosevelt, Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin and Britain's prime minister Winston Churchill at the Yalta conference in 1945. During this conference, Germany was divided into occupation zones, each controlled by the Allies. Also, Germany had to pay compensation for life and property losses. Stalin guaranteed for the Eastern Europeans to have free elections and joined the war against Japan. Furthermore, the United Nations (UN) was created and was comprised of the U.S., the Soviet Union, and 48 other countries. This was designed to protect its members from aggression.
What caused it?
The Soviets and the U.S. had different goals after World War II. The U.S. wanted to encourage democracy and prevent Communist spread, rebuild European governments to generate new markets, and stabilize Germany. In contrast, the Soviet Union’s goal to spread Communism, use Europe to rebuild the Soviet economy, balance America's influence in Western Europe, and ensure that Germany is weak and divided. Other causes include the U.S. refusal to share nuclear secrets, the Soviet Union's fear of America's atomic bomb and America feared Communist attack.
The "iron curtain" in Europe
On March 5 1946, at the demand of Westminster College, Churchill gave his famous "iron curtain" speech to a crowd of 40,000. Later on Eastern European nations became communist. It divided east Europe and west Europe which split Germany into 2 sections, the eastern section and the western section. The eastern part was controlled by the Soviets under a Communist government, and was called the German Democratic Republic. The western zones were known as the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. In summary, the division was mostly into democratic western Europe and Communist eastern Europe.
Containment and the Truman Doctrine
The policy of containment was given in the Truman Doctrine by U.S. President Harry Truman directed towards the Soviet Union. Truman said that the United States would support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. They wanted to contain the spread of Communism as much as possible. United States foreign policy lead into the start of the Cold War, directed at ending the spread of communism and keeping it "contained" and separated within its current borders.
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, presented by George Marshall, was an assistance program that sent food, machinery, and other materials to Western Europe. This helped the European countries that lacked jobs and food after World War II. Fortunately, the plan was very successful.
Berlin Airlift
The Soviets wanted to separate Western Berlin from highway, water, and rail traffic in order to keep it weak and divided. To combat this plan of Stalin's, Allied (British and American) planes brought tons of food, fuel, medicine, and even Christmas gift into West Berlin. This lasted for nearly 11 months until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade in 1949.
Warsaw Pact
The Berlin blockade led to a fear of Soviet aggression for Europe. This caused 10 western European countries, along with the United States and Canada, to form a defensive military alliance called the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The soviet union perceived NATO as a threat and formed its own alliance called the Warsaw Pact. This included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship was a type of willingness displayed by the United States to go to the brink, or edge, of war. It required a reliable source of nuclear weapons and airplanes to deliver those weapons. Once this policy was declared, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union responded by building up their own armies and producing nuclear weapons.
Space Race
Soviet Union and the U.S. competed against each other to prove that one had better technology than the other. For example, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched the very first successful artificial satellite called Sputnik. In response, US then came up with their own satellite called Explorer I in 1958. The two "superpowers" did not cooperate in space exploration until nearly 2 decades later. In 1975, the first joint space mission between the U.S. and Soviet Union took place. By landing on the moon, the United States won the race that had begun with the Sputnik's launch in 1957.