Chapter 25 the Cold War

what was the atlantic charter?

- 1941, before the US entered the war

- meeting between FDR and Winston Churchill

- they outlined their vision for a post-war world

- they no longer wanted military alliances and there was an international organization that would oversee peace

what was the casa blanca conference?

- january 1943

- a meeting between US, Britain, and the Soviet Union ("the big three")

- stalin (soviet union) did not attend the conference because he was mad that the US and Britain didn't open a second front in the west

- the allies assured that they would accept nothing but unconditional surrender

what was the tehran conference?

- november 1943

- stalin (soviet union) agreed to join the war in the pacific and the allies agreed to open the western front

- the cause of the D-Day invasion

what was the yalta conference?

- February 1945

- stalin insists that eastern europe needed pro-soviet governments

- the allies agreed to divide germany and berlin into 4 administrative zones

- they agreed to establish an international body to replace the league of nations

united nations

- general assembly: all countries that are members of the united nations are represented

- the security council: composed of the 5 major allied powers that cannot be removed and have the power to veto the general assembly

5 major allied powers

- US

- Britain

- France

- Soviet Union

- China

what was the potsdam conference?

- july 1945

- the last conference between the "big three"

- stalin told the allies that he would not hold elections in eastern europe

- allies agreed to punish Nazi collaborators through the Nuremberg trials

what set the stage for communism to descend on eastern europe?

the potsdam and yalta conference

what was the "iron curtain"?

a divide of the democratic side of europe from the communist side

what was the foreign policy of containment?

- it was used to contain communism

- the idea was to let communism exist where it already existed, but to stop the spread of it

Who governed japan the first few years after WWII?

General Douglas MacArthur

What place is considered a big democratic success in the post-war era?

Japan

- they became a developing country, became a democracy, and encouraged economic growth

who did china enter a civil war with?

- the supporters of Chiang Kai-Shek (democratic) and the supporters of Mao Zedong (communist)

what did the US and Soviet Union agree to jointly occupy?

- the Korean Peninsula

- divided it at the demarcation line (38th parallel)

- south side: US occupied; democratic

- north side: Soviet Union occupied; communist

What happened what the armies of north korea invaded the south?

- this began the korean war, a proxy war

- the first time the US military engaged in the cold war

- ended in 1953 in an armistice, including an agreement to keep Korea divided

what is a proxy war?

a small war within a large-scale war

what is an armistice?

an agreement to stop fighting

what was the truman doctrine?

- provided large-scale economic assistance for Greece and Turkey

- shows that part of the containment policy will be from the economic support from the US

why did the US provide Greece with money?

- Greece was undergoing a civil war

- the US provided $300 million to Greece on the democratic side of the war

why did the US provide Turkey with money?

- Turkey was in a dispute with the Soviet union over control of the dardanelles

- the US gave Turkey $100 million to fight off the soviets

what are the dardanelles?

a small body of water between the black sea and the mediterranean

- an important trade route

what was the marshall plan?

- was created by George Marshall

- the US contributed $13 billion to the recovery of western europe

what were the reasons that the US contributed $13 billion to the recovery of western europe?

- they did not want them to become communist

- there was a humanitarian concern

- there was a desire for a strong european market in order to sell american goods

national security act of 1947

- department of national defense

- the national security council

- the central intelligence agency (CIA)

department of national defense

- located in the pentagon

- oversees all branches of the military

the national security council

- operates out of the White House

- overlooks military policy, how the military will act

the central intelligence agency (CIA)

- the government's spy agency

NSC-68

- report on military policies

- set out a plan to stop the spread of communism during the cold war

- called for major expansion of the US military

Occupation of Berlin

- consolidation of the 3 zones of Berlin

- west Berlin = democratic side

- east Berlin = communist side

- stalin issued a military blockade of all traffic coming in and out of west Berlin

- President truman (US) airlifted the supplies people needed into west berlin

berlin airlift

- the closest the two sides of berlin came to an actual war

- west berlin became a symbol of communist resistance

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

- democratic alliance

- first peace-time military alliance the US has joined since the American Revolution

- 12 countries were originally part of the NATO

- the alliance was created during the containment era

- *an attack on one NATO country was an attack on ALL NATO countries*

Warsaw Pact

- communist military alliance

- was created in response to the creation of NATO