Topic #12 – Superpower Tensions & Rivalries: Origins of the Cold War (Year 2, Unit 3)

Victoria Vaca

Ideologies & Global Context

Communism
A system advocating for a classless, stateless society based on collective ownership. Central ideology of the USSR.

Capitalism
An economic system based on private ownership, free markets, and competition. Advocated by the USA during the Cold War.

Iron Curtain
A term by Churchill describing the ideological and physical division between Western democracies and Eastern communist states.

The Grand Alliance
The WWII alliance of the USA, UK, and USSR, which dissolved due to post-war ideological conflicts.

Differing goals of the Big Three
USA and UK pushed for democracy and open markets; USSR wanted security through pro-Soviet governments.

Conferences & Diplomatic Breakdown

Tehran Conference (1943)
Meeting where the Big Three agreed on opening a second front in Europe and coordinating post-war plans.

Yalta Conference (1945)
Summit where leaders discussed dividing Germany, holding free elections in Eastern Europe, and the formation of the UN.

Potsdam Conference (1945)
Exposed growing East-West tensions; disagreements on reparations, Poland, and Germany’s future.

German reparations
At Potsdam, USSR demanded heavy reparations from Germany, while the US favored economic recovery.

Conferences of Foreign Ministers (1946 & 1947)
Aimed to write peace treaties and resolve postwar disputes but highlighted widening East-West divisions.

Bizonia
The 1947 economic merger of the American and British zones in Germany, increasing Soviet suspicion.

Conflict & Military Tensions

Polish Home Army & Warsaw Uprising
In 1944, Soviet troops paused outside Warsaw while Nazis crushed a Polish resistance uprising, heightening Polish distrust of the USSR.

Czechoslovakia Coup (1948)
Communist takeover backed by the USSR; marked the end of democracy in Czechoslovakia.

Communist revolution in Greece
Greek civil war between monarchists and communists prompted the Truman Doctrine to stop Soviet influence.

NATO (1949)
A military alliance formed by the U.S. and Western allies to protect against potential Soviet aggression.

Warsaw Pact (1955)
The USSR’s response to NATO, forming a military alliance with its Eastern bloc satellite states.

Nuclear Weapons & Arms Race

Atomic bomb/nuclear weapons
The use of atomic bombs by the U.S. in WWII gave it a strategic edge and began a Cold War arms race.

Manhattan Project
Top-secret U.S. program that developed the atomic bomb used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

UN Atomic Energy Commission
Formed to regulate nuclear energy and prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, but U.S.–USSR cooperation broke down.

U.S. Foreign Policy Respons

Truman Doctrine (1947)
U.S. policy pledging support to countries threatened by communism, starting with aid to Greece and Turkey.

Containment
The long-term American strategy to prevent the spread of communism around the world.

Marshall Plan (1948)
Massive U.S. economic aid package to help rebuild Western Europe and resist communist influence.

Kennan’s Long Telegram (1946)
Diplomatic cable from Moscow describing Soviet aggression and advising a containment strategy.

Soviet Strategy & Influence

Cominform (1947)
An organization created by Stalin to coordinate communist parties and ensure ideological conformity across Eastern Europe.

Allied Control Commissions
Post-war governing bodies in Axis-aligned nations, often used by the USSR to install pro-communist regimes.

Liberation of Europe
As Soviet troops liberated Eastern Europe from the Nazis, they installed communist governments loyal to Moscow.

Key Figures

Harry S. Truman
U.S. President who oversaw the end of WWII, use of the atomic bomb, and the beginning of the Cold War through containment policy.

Joseph Stalin (role in Cold War, 1941–53)
Soviet leader who pushed for buffer states, suppressed dissent in Eastern Europe, and resisted cooperation with the West.

Josip Broz (Tito) & Yugoslavia
Yugoslav communist leader who broke away from Soviet influence in 1948, asserting Yugoslavia’s independence from Moscow.