Cold War: Superpowers Face Off

Early Cold War Events Timeline

• 1945: Yalta Conference
• 1960: U-2 incident

Setting the Stage

• During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union joined forces against the Germans.
• The animosity caused by competing political philosophies led to a nearly half-century of conflict called the Cold War.

Allies Become Enemies

• Even before World War II ended, the U.S. alliance with the Soviet Union had begun to unravel.
• The United States was upset that Joseph Stalin had signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939.
• Stalin blamed the Allies for not invading German-occupied Europe earlier than 1944.

Yalta Conference: A Postwar Plan

• In February 1945, the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union met at Yalta.
• There, they agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation controlled by the Allied military forces.