Cause of the Cold War

  • Yalta Conference
    • Meeting of three WWII allies
    • U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
    • British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
    • Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin
    • Held in February 1945 in New York City
    • Discussed
    • Post-war fate of Germany
    • Terms of Soviet entry in to ongoing war in the Pacific against Japan
    • Formation and operation of the new United Nations
  • Iron Curtain
    • Political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union
  • Truman Doctrine
    • 1947
    • U.S. would provide political, military, and economic zssistance to all democratic nations under threat
  • Marshall Plan
    • Provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts on the continent
    • Designed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall
    • Intended to halt the spread of Communism on the European continent
    • Cited as beginning of the Cold War
    • Key catalyst for the formation of NATO