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The Cold War BeginsHow did the United States and the Soviet Union become Cold Waradversaries?

Vocabulary

Glossary VocabularyCards

Cold War

Yalta Conference

Potsdam Conference

Iron Curtain

Introduction

T H E C O L D W A R B E G I N S

2020 Teachers' Curriculum Institute Level: A

American and Russiansoldiers meet across a bridgeon the Elbe River (top) andembrace near Torgau,Germany (bottom).

In the spring of 1945, as World War II began to draw to a close inEurope, a historic encounter occurred between U.S. and Soviet troops inGermany. Although the Americans and Soviets had been allies in thewar, they had not yet fought together. Now, the two forces prepared tomeet as they moved into Germany, pressing in on the Nazis from thewest and east.

As the U.S. Army advanced eastward, small patrols were sent ahead ofthe main force to search for Soviet troops. Lieutenant Albert L.Kotzebue, a 21-year-old officer from Texas, led one of these patrols. OnApril 25, as his men approached the Elbe River near the German city ofTorgau, they spotted a Soviet patrol on the opposite bank. Shoutingand waving frantically, they caught the Soviet soldiers’ attention. Themen on the other side pointed and waved back, yelling, “Americanski,Americanski!” Lieutenant Kotzebue found a small boat near the shoreand made his way across the river, where the Soviet and U.S. soldiersgreeted each other warmly. Working together, the Allies wouldaccelerate the end of the war in Europe, an event, noted PresidentHarry Truman, “for which all the American people, all the British peopleand all the Soviet people have toiled and prayed so long.”

However, the days of U.S. and Soviet soldiers hugging and shakinghands would not last. Before long, the United States and the SovietUnion would engage in a grim struggle for world power, known as theCold War. As one momentous global conflict ended, another was aboutto begin. The two countries would soon become bitter enemies.

In this lesson, you will examine the relationship between the United


Level: A 2020 Teachers' Curriculum Institute

States and the Soviet Union after World War II. In particular, you willconsider why the relationship deteriorated and how this lead to theCold War. Finally, you will explore communism in China and its effectson China’s relations with the United States and Soviet Union.

1. An Uneasy PeaceBefore the end of the World War II, in February 1945, FranklinRoosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill met in the Soviet city ofYalta for the Yalta Conference. During these mostly amicable talks,the three decided how they would shape post-war Europe. They agreedto divide Germany into four occupation zones each controlled by anAllied country. They also discussed the Soviet proposal to redrawPoland’s borders, which gave Polish territory to the USSR and Germanterritory to Poland.

The leaders prepared to establish post-war governments as well. Theydeclared their support for self-government and free elections in EasternEurope. They also recognized a Polish provisional government builtaround the Soviet-backed governing authority rather the Polishgovernment-in-exile supported by the United States and UnitedKingdom.

Many U.S. officials believed this agreement would ultimately placePoland in communist hands. Despite this, Roosevelt returned from Yaltahopeful that the Allies could maintain friendly relations. Instead, therelations soon weakened.

Alliances Begin to Erode After Germany was defeated, the Alliedleaders convened again in July. This time they met in Potsdam, nearBerlin. The United States was represented by President Harry S.Truman, who had taken office after Roosevelt’s death in April. Churchilland Stalin also attended, but Churchill was replaced by new Britishprime minister Clement Attlee in late July. At the PotsdamConference, the Allied leaders finalized both their post-war plans forGermany, including the division of Berlin into occupation zones, and theredrawing of Poland’s borders.

The atmosphere at Potsdam was tense. The alliance forged by Stalin,Roosevelt, and Churchill at the Yalta Conference had become fragile.Roosevelt’s death was a major blow to the partnership, especially as heand Stalin had shared a friendly relationship. In contrast, Truman andStalin were highly suspicious of one another.



In 1945, Churchhill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met at Yalta, a resort on theBlack Sea. There, they discussed plans for post-war Europe. It would beRoosevelt’s last meeting with his World War II allies, as he died shortlythereafter.

Events surrounding the conference did not help to ease relationsbetween the American and Soviet leaders. During the conference,Truman learned that the United States had tested its first atomic bomband hinted to Stalin about this powerful new weapon, although he didnot name it. This fueled Stalin’s distrust of the United States.Meanwhile, Truman was already wary of Stalin and concerned aboutSoviet intentions. In particular, Truman was suspicious of the Sovietarmy’s continued occupation of much of Eastern Europe, which Stalinjustified based on the Nazis’ devastating invasion of the Soviet Union.



Soviet citizens sufferedduring World War II. Some 18million died, while thesurvivors endured hunger,loss of land, and shortages ofbasic goods.

Relations further deteriorated during 1945, after the United Statesdetonated atomic bombs over Japan. U.S. possession of the atomicbomb was viewed as a threat by the Soviets. Some U.S. officials mayhave hoped that this threat would prompt the Soviets to agree to freeelections in Eastern Europe or to reduce their control over someregions. However, the threats led the Soviets to develop their ownatomic capabilities.

Two Views of Post-war Europe The growing tensions betweenTruman and Stalin were the result of the different versions of post-warEurope that the two leaders envisioned. Their approaches, in part, wereinfluenced by their countries’ contrasting experiences during World WarII. Other than Pearl Harbor, no fighting took place on U.S. soil, whereasthe Eastern Front in Europe stretched into Soviet territory and camewithin 20 miles of Moscow.

As a result, security concerns motivated many of Stalin’s decisions.Germany had attacked the Soviet Union in both world wars, usingPoland as its invasion route. During World War II, more than 18 millionSoviet citizens died, including at least 11 million soldiers. Many werekilled or died of disease in German labor camps. Others starved afterinvading Nazi forces stripped the Soviet countryside of crops, farmanimals, and equipment, torched farms as well as villages. In addition,the Nazis leveled several Soviet cities, including Stalingrad and Kiev.Flying into the USSR in 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower observed,“I did not see a house standing between the western borders of thecountry and . . . Moscow.”



In contrast, the United States emerged from the war relativelyunscathed. Approximately 290,000 U.S. soldiers died, but civiliancasualties were limited to those killed or wounded in the Pearl Harborattack. No American cities were bombed, and none of the country’sfarms or factories were destroyed. In fact, the U.S. economy boomedduring the war. By 1945, the United States was producing over half ofthe world’s total industrial output. The country ended the war with astrong economy, as well as nuclear capabilities. Yet, like the SovietUnion, the United States was concerned about security. Pearl Harborhad made it clear that the United States was not safe from attack. Itneeded to defend itself against threats from abroad.

A key part of the U.S. strategy was to prevent hostile powers fromtaking control of the countries and resources of Eurasia, as the Axispowers had tried to do during the war. To accomplish that, the UnitedStates sought to maintain a strong military presence overseas, withmilitary bases and strong allies in Europe and Asia.



This Soviet poster from 1945promotes the role ofindustrial and agriculturalworkers in building a socialistsociety. Under socialism, theSoviet state owned allfactories and collectivizedagricultural production.

The Soviets had similar plans for Eastern Europe. Stalin wanted toensure neighboring countries were allied with the Soviet Union. Hesought to create a buffer zone of friendly states to protect the USSRfrom future attack, particularly from the West. Believing control ofEastern Europe was critical to his nation’s security, Stalin claimed theregion, which was already occupied by the Soviet military, as a Sovietsphere of influence.

The contrasting U.S. and Soviet plans for post-war Europe were guidedby each country’s ideology about politics and economic systems. Andthe differences between U.S. and Soviet ideology were stark.

The U.S. system centered on democratic government and capitalisteconomics. In a capitalist system, individuals and private businesses



make most economic decisions—business owners decide what toproduce, and consumers choose what to buy. Most property, factories,and equipment are privately owned. The United States hoped thatcapitalist democracy would spread throughout Europe after the war andworked to expand U.S. influence. President Truman viewed the morethan $320 billion the United States spent on the war as “an investmentin world freedom and world peace.” And this investment paid off inmuch of Western Europe.

In Eastern Europe, the Soviets wanted to promote regimes sympatheticto its own political and economic system: communism. Envisioning acommunist utopia of social justice and economic equality, they soughtto establish single-party political control and government economiccontrol.

To achieve its goal, the Soviet government set out to reorganize eachneighboring country’s economy along socialist lines. Under socialism,the government owned all factories. The state seized private land andtook charge of agricultural production, or turned land over to peasantcollectives. Soviet leaders were confident communism would inevitablyprevail over capitalism, as ordinary workers and peasants in othernations followed the Soviet model. And while communism did prevail inmany countries, it did so primarily because the Soviet model restrictedopposition and dissent.

2. The Cold War IntensifiesBy 1946, the global balance of power was shifting. Two world wars andsevere destruction of economic infrastructure had greatly weakenedthe formerly dominant Britain, France, and Germany. Now, the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union stood alone as the world’s leading powers.Their size, economic strength, and military prowess enabled them todominate global affairs. Each country thus became known as asuperpower, or a nation that influences or controls less powerfulstates. Most nations chose or were forced to align with one of thesesuperpowers, dividing the world into two power blocs.



Winston Churchill, picturedhere, is giving a speech atWestminster College inFulton, Missouri. During thisspeech, Churchill coined thephrase “the Iron Curtain” torefer to the Soviet occupationof Eastern Europe.

The Division of Europe On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill gave aspeech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, warning of thegrowing Soviet threat. As British prime minister, Churchill had earnedthe respect of many Americans by challenging Nazi aggression andleading his nation during World War II. Having known Stalin for years,Churchill was concerned about the Soviet dictator’s plans for EasternEurope. In his speech, Churchill cautioned that Stalin was isolating theregion from the rest of Europe. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste inthe Adriatic,” he declared, “an iron curtain has descended across thecontinent.” The term Iron Curtain came to symbolize the barrierbetween East and West.

At the time of Churchill’s speech, Stalin was already establishing Soviet-controlled governments in Eastern European countries. The SovietUnion’s regional hegemony, or the dominating influence of one countryover others, had begun. The Soviet-dominated countries of EasternEurope became known as Soviet “satellites.”



Although Stalin had promised to allow Eastern European countries todecide their own fate, he soon withdrew that pledge. In Romania, forexample, the Soviets forced the king to appoint a procommunistgovernment. Once in power, Communist Party leaders used secretpolice to silence all opposition. The Romanian government promisedearly elections after protest from the United States and Britain, butRomanian communist officials manipulated the electoral process toensure it won a majority. Bulgaria followed a similar pattern. Supportedby the Soviets, local communists employed threats and violence todischarge opposing political leaders. Police charged the oppositionparty leader with plotting to overthrow the government, and a fewmonths later, officials arrested and executed him. Similar events led tocommunist takeovers in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

George Kennan, picturedhere, was responsible forsending the Long Telegram.In the telegram, Kennanoutlined what he believedwas the fanaticism of theSoviets for the expansion ofcommunism.

Nine days after Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, Stalin responded bydefending the communist takeovers, explaining that his country



needed loyal governments nearby “to ensure its security.” Hequestioned how one could see “these peaceful aspirations of the SovietUnion as expansionist tendencies.”

Restricting Soviet Expansion Although Stalin described the SovietUnion’s efforts to ensure its security as “peaceful” in March 1946, hisstatements had been more belligerent the previous month. In February,Stalin delivered a speech that attacked capitalism, declaring that peacewas impossible if capitalism existed. He asserted that capitalist nationswould perpetually compete with one another for raw materials andmarkets for their products, and that such conflicts would always besettled by “armed force.” War, Stalin said, was inevitable “under thepresent capitalist conditions of world economic development.” Hisspeech seemed to suggest that communism should replace capitalism.

George Kennan, a U.S. diplomat at the American Embassy in Moscow,studied Stalin’s speech and sent a long analysis to the U.S. secretary ofstate. This “Long Telegram,” as it became known, helped shape U.S.foreign policy for decades to come. In the telegram, Kennan claimed theSoviets were “committed fanatically” to the belief that “if Soviet poweris to be secure,” the U.S. system and way of life must be destroyed. Hesaid that the USSR had imposed tyranny on its people and meant to doso elsewhere.

Kennan argued that the only effective response was for the West tocheck, or contain, the spread of Soviet power and influence. After hereturned to the United States, Kennan expanded on this notion in aforeign policy journal article, writing, “It is clear that . . . any UnitedStates policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term,patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansivetendencies.” This approach, known as containment, became official U.S.policy.



President Truman requestedmore than $400 million in aidunder the Truman Doctrine toaid countries resistingcommunism. Here, Truman isshown during the signing ofthe Truman Doctrine.

The Truman Doctrine By the time Kennan had sent his famoustelegram, U.S. leaders had already grown very uneasy, fearing that theUSSR planned to spread communism beyond Eastern Europe to otherparts of the world. Their concerns deepened in March 1946, when theSoviets refused to withdraw troops from northern Iran. Britain and theSoviet Union had shared control of Iran during the war. However, in1942, both countries had signed an agreement to withdraw within sixmonths of the war’s end. By refusing to leave, the Soviets directlyignored this pact, causing the first major post-war crisis. Even though itended peacefully when the USSR relented to U.S. pressure andwithdrew, the crisis clearly reflected increasing tensions between thetwo nations.

President Harry Truman soon acted on the containment policy. In aMarch 1947 speech to Congress, he outlined a policy that becameknown as the Truman Doctrine. “It must be the policy of the UnitedStates,” he declared, “to support free peoples who are resistingattempted subjugation [conquest] by armed minorities or by outsidepressures.” He then called on Congress to provide aid to Greece andTurkey, two countries under communist threat.



Congress granted Truman’s request. With U.S. aid and militaryequipment, both countries overcame communist threats. The Greekgovernment defeated the communist rebels who had tried to overtakethe government. Likewise, Turkey was able to resist Soviet attempts totake control of the Dardanelles, a shipping channel linking the BlackSea and Mediterranean Sea.

The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to foreign policybased on Kennan’s strategy of containment. Truman hoped to stop thespread of communism by limiting it to countries in which it alreadyexisted. Underlying his policy was the assumption that the Soviet Unionsought world domination. Therefore, the United States believed it hadto combat the Soviets with aid as needed and with force if necessary.

Scholars still debate how well each side understood the goals andmotives of the other. U.S. leaders viewed Eastern European communisttakeovers as brutal efforts to suppress democracy. In contrast, theSoviets regarded the United States and its allies as hostile powerscommitted to destroying communism and threatening Soviet security.Each side talked past the other, and as one superpower acted, theother reacted.



The Marshall Plan broughtbillions of dollars in aid toWestern Europe. This postershows an American shipbringing aid to people inEurope.

Rebuilding Europe Rebuilding war-torn Europe was a dauntingchallenge. Across the continent, governments and economies barelyfunctioned. Warfare had devastated numerous cities, leaving many ofthe inhabitants homeless and unemployed. It had destroyed schools,hospitals, churches, and factories. It had knocked out communicationsand transportation systems. In the most affected areas, deadly diseaseslike tuberculosis spread rapidly.

U.S. leaders feared Europe’s poor condition would fuel political andsocial unrest. In some countries, workers staged strikes anddemonstrations to protest the hardships of daily life, while some poorand jobless people looked to communism to solve their problems. Manyrecalled how local communist groups had resisted the Nazis’ rise topower. In these grim and difficult times, communism quickly gainedappeal in Italy and France.

President Truman believed that rebuilding Europe’s shatteredeconomies and supporting freely elected governments would be the



best way to stop the spread of communism. Truman also understoodthat, as the strongest economic power in the world, the United Statespossessed sufficient money and resources to help Europe rebuild. Withthese factors in mind, Truman and his advisers developed a plan forEuropean recovery. They hoped economic recovery would bringpolitical stability.

In June 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall unveiled a financialaid plan to assist post-war recovery in Europe. This plan became knownas the Marshall Plan. Its supporters hoped the plan would promotedemocracy in Europe while opposing the spread of communism, thusreinforcing the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment.

The Marshall Plan was offered to all European nations and was warmlyreceived in Western Europe. Between 1948 and 1952, the Marshall Planprovided $13 billion in aid to Western European countries, helping topromote economic growth and political stability. In contrast, the Sovietsforbade their Eastern European satellites from participating,recognizing that U.S. aid would undermine Soviet influence. Instead,the Soviet Union initiated its own recovery plan, the Molotov Plan,which helped to create trade agreements between the Soviet Union andits satellites.

In addition, the Western Allies worked to help establish a new WestGerman state by combining their German occupation zones. This planangered Stalin, who declared a blockade of the Allied sectors of WestBerlin in June 1948.

The Berlin blockade cut West Berlin off from all supplies brought in byland. Stalin hoped to starve the city into submission and force the Alliesto retract their plans for West Germany. Instead, the United Statesorganized the Berlin airlift, a massive effort to fly food and otheressential goods into Berlin. The plan succeeded, and after a year, Stalinlifted the blockade. Soon afterward, Germany split into two nations. TheFederal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany, wasunder Western influence. The German Democratic Republic, known asEast Germany, became a Soviet satellite.

The Lines Harden By 1949, Europe was divided between thecommunist East and capitalist West. The two sides carried out the ColdWar through economic policy, diplomatic actions, propaganda,espionage, and secret operations. Although the superpowers neverengaged in a direct shooting war, the threat of violence was alwayspresent.



This cartoon shows the Russian attempt to blockade Berlin off from therest of the world. Stalin hoped that by blockading Berlin, he could forcethe Western powers to abandon the sections of the city they controlledafter World War II.

In 1949, the Western allies formed NATO, the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization. This group, which included the United States, Canada,and Western European nations, was dedicated to mutual defense.Members agreed to treat an attack on one country as an attack on all.Six years later, in 1955, the Soviet Union formed its own defensealliance, the Warsaw Pact, which included the nations of EasternEurope.



During the Cold War, theUnited States and the USSRengaged in a tug-of-war overworld power and influence.The conflict centered in parton the development ofatomic weapons.

These mutual defense pacts revealed the rising military tensionsbetween East and West. The possibility of a nuclear attack compelledboth countries to show restraint in their use of force, but it also fueledtheir race to develop nuclear weapons. After World War II, the UnitedStates continued to test and improve its nuclear arsenal. In 1949, theSoviet Union successfully tested its own atomic bomb. By the early1950s, both superpowers had developed a more powerful nucleardevice, the hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb. By the 1960s, they had createdlong-range missiles called intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs,which could carry nuclear warheads to targets a continent away. Thesuperpowers had become engaged in an expensive and deadly armsrace. This competition over weaponry stoked fears of nuclear war andraised the stakes in the superpower conflict.

The United States and Soviet Union also got involved in a space race. In1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite toorbit Earth. A few months later, the United States put its own satelliteinto space. In 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first astronaut into orbit.This was followed soon after by the first American astronaut, and in1969, the United States landed the first men on the moon. The space



race was another costly form of superpower competition, but it alsobrought important advances in science and technology.

The Cold War continued for more than 40 years. During that time, thesuperpowers sought to dominate each other and bring less powerfulnations over to their side. The United States and the Soviet Union werenot the only major players in the Cold War, however. Another importantactor was China.

This Chinese poster from1949 celebrates the triumphof the Communists, led byMao Zedong, over theNationalists in China. Boththe United States and theSoviets were surprised by theCommunist victory in China.

3. China’s Communist PathAfter World War II, China was torn by civil war. Nationalists fought withCommunists for control of the country. The Communists, led by MaoZedong, eventually won, and in 1949, they founded the People’sRepublic of China. The Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan where



they formed their own government.

China in the Cold War The triumph of communism in China tookboth the United States and the Soviet Union by surprise. They hadassumed that the Nationalists would defeat Mao’s forces. With theCommunists in power, American officials had initially held out hope thatChina would reject Soviet influence and remain neutral in the Cold War.However, Mao soon sided with the Soviet Union. In February 1950, heand Stalin sealed their alliance by signing a mutual defense pact.

Communist states now ruled a vast portion of Eurasia, from EasternEurope to the East China Sea. This made the United States and itsWestern allies very nervous. The balance of power in Eurasia wasclearly tilting toward the communists.

Over the next few years, Mao consolidated his control over China andexpanded China’s borders. In 1950, Chinese forces invaded andoccupied Tibet, a land with a long history of Chinese influence. Chinaalso threatened to invade Taiwan and take control of the island. TheUnited States intervened and provided military aid and assistance todefend Taiwan and its Nationalist government.

Mao’s Revolutionary Policies Meanwhile, Mao sought to strengthenCommunist rule in China. He placed power in the hands of theCommunist Party and began to restructure the economy based onMarxist principles. However, the character of Chinese communism wasdifferent from Soviet communism. Mao and his followers believed thatpeasants—not urban workers—were the revolutionary class.



During the CulturalRevolution, student groupsknown as the Red Guardswere empowered by Mao toattack people who wereconsidered antirevolutionary.Members of Red Guard unitssometimes even attackedtheir own teachers andparents. Here, Red Guardsparade their victims, who arewearing hats proclaimingtheir supposed crimes, on thestreets of Beijing.

The first step was to organize Chinese agriculture along socialist lines.In 1950, the government passed a land reform law to break up largeestates and distribute land to poor peasants. These small plots of landwere soon combined into larger collective farms, which in theory wouldbe more efficient. A few years later, the government followed the Sovietmodel of development by setting up even larger collective farms—called communes—where private property was abolished and the stateset production goals. Chinese women were granted equal rights andgiven a greater role in production.

The government also socialized industry, putting most factories under



state ownership. In 1953, it began a Five-Year Plan designed tomodernize the country and to increase industrial production. The planwas a success. Industrial output doubled with the greatest gains madein heavy industries, particularly the steel industry. However, theseresults did not satisfy Mao.

In 1958, Mao announced a new plan called the “Great Leap Forward.”This plan set higher targets for both agriculture and industry. Farmerswere forced to work on large rural projects and create their own“backyard industries” to produce steel and other goods. The plan was adisaster. Farming suffered and food production fell sharply. By 1962,around 30 million Chinese had died of starvation—the largest famine inhuman history.

Shifting Course The failure of the Great Leap Forward damagedMao’s reputation, both at home and abroad. Relations with the USSRbecame strained after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953. Under Stalin’ssuccessor, Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR rejected the murderousviolence and repression that had characterized the Stalin era.Meanwhile, the Chinese continued to laud Stalin as a hero. The SovietUnion chose to distance itself further, cutting off aid to China andending their alliance.

Mao’s image also suffered in China. Facing mounting criticism, hestepped down as head of state. The government launched a program ofeconomic reform, making investments in agriculture and industry, aswell as shutting down many state enterprises. Within a few years, theeconomy began to recover. Mao regarded these new policies as abetrayal of communism, and he accused reformers of promotingcapitalist values. Mao claimed that the Communist Party had lost touchwith the people.

In 1966, Mao called on students to revive China’s revolutionary spirit.Radical student groups, known as the Red Guards, took to the streetsdemanding a return to communist ideals. China was soon engulfed in awave of revolutionary turmoil known as the Cultural Revolution. Maoordered the Red Guards to persecute or attack anyone they consideredantirevolutionary. Targets of violence included government officials,artists, intellectuals, and others who were said to embrace “old” ideas.Many people were beaten or jailed, and it is estimated that 400,000 to20 million people were killed. Rival armed groups began to fight pitchedbattles in the streets. The country was on the verge of civil war.

In 1968, the Red Guards were officially disbanded. The most extremephase of the Cultural Revolution was over by the following year.



However, political struggles continued until Mao’s death in 1976. Newleaders eventually took over and introduced reforms, but Chinaremained a communist state.

SummaryThe Cold War lasted for more than four decades, from the endof World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ithad a major impact on the course of history.

Cultural Interactions The U.S.-Soviet rivalry centered on the clashbetween their opposing belief systems: capitalism and communism.This political struggle for global domination was expressed in terms ofideology. The Soviet Union and the United States sought to advancetheir beliefs and bring other nations over to their side.

Political Structures Governments during the Cold War tended toembrace the values of either communism or democracy. From theAmerican point of view, it was a choice between freedom and tyranny.From the Soviet point of view, it was a choice of either equality andsocial justice, or endless competition and armed force.

Economic Structures The economies of East and West also reflectedtheir ideological foundations. The Western democracies built capitalisteconomies based on private enterprise. The communist nations of theEast created socialist economies based on state and collectiveownership.

Human-Environment Interaction The Cold War promoted thedevelopment of advanced technology in many fields, includingweapons systems and space travel.

How Was the Cold War WagedAll over the World?After World War II, both the capitalist United States andcommunist Soviet Union hoped to promote their respectiveideologies, leading to a Cold War that was waged around theworld. Examine these primary sources to construct anargument about how the Cold War played out on a globalstage.



Much of Europe had been ravaged by World War II. With the war nowover, European countries began rebuilding both physically andeconomically. Many countries, however, required assistance. Greeceand Turkey were two specific areas of concern for the United States.

In a speech to Congress, Truman asked Congress to help providefunding to both countries. Read this excerpt from Truman’s speech.How does Truman describe life under a capitalist system? Contrast thatwith his description of life under a capitalist system. What reasons doTruman give to justify giving aid?

Truman succeeded in convincing Congress to grant $400 million toGreece and Turkey. His speech also planted the foundation for theTruman Doctrine, the American foreign policy plan to combatcommunism. The Truman doctrine committed the United States toforeign policy based on a strategy of containment, or the restriction ofSoviet expansion. This policy involved military and financial support tocountries whose governments were challenged by communists.



However, not everyone agreed with Truman’s plan. Examine thispolitical cartoon that depicts criticism of Truman’s plan. How does thecartoonist characterize Truman’s foreign policy? What concerns aredepicted in the cartoon?

The United States also pledged millions of dollars to Western Europe.Americans worried that without economic assistance, Europeans wouldfind communism appealing. In 1948, Congress authorized the MarshallPlan, a program that they hoped would prevent communism fromspreading further. Through this program, the United States offeredfinancial assistance to countries that established liberal democracies.

Below is an excerpt from the text of the Marshall Plan. How does theMarshall Plan align with the Truman Doctrine? What is the ideologicalreasoning behind the Marshall Plan? How might the Soviet Union reactor respond to this plan?



Additionally, the United States, Canada, and Western Europeestablished a military alliance known as the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization, or NATO, in 1949. Member nations signed the NorthAtlantic Treaty, which stated that an attack on one member would beconsidered an attack on all members. The treaty was created out of thefear that the Soviet Union would launch an attack on Western Europe.



In response to the Marshall Plan and NATO, the Soviet Union created analliance of their own. In 1955, they and a number of other communistcountries signed a “Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and MutualAssistance.” These countries included Hungary, East Germany, andPoland. This treaty, known as the Warsaw Pact, created a “mutualdefense” system among communist countries in Europe.

The following primary source is the opening of the Warsaw Pact. Whatdoes the treaty lay out as its goals, and why? How does it criticizeNATO? Compare this plan to the Marshall Plan excerpt above. What arethe similarities and differences between the two?

Use these primary sources, as well as those from your ownresearch, to create an argument about how the Cold War waswaged not just in the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but around theglobe.

Reforms in Communist ChinaIn 1976, the death of Mao Zedong, China’s longtime authoritarianleader, brought the People’s Republic of China to a crossroads. Theeconomy could not sustain its rapidly expanding population. Agricultureneeded to be more productive. Industry suffered from a lack of creativeenergy. Under its new leader, Deng Xiaoping, China undertook a radical



shift in economic policy. The government, run by the Communist Party,gave up some of its traditional control of the economy. It ended thesystem of collective farms, which had been a tragic failure under Mao.It granted farmers long-term leases on public land. Instead ofgovernment officials spelling out what and how much to grow, farmersbegan making those decisions.

China also reformed its industry. The government invested inmanufacturing to spur industrial growth and increase exports. It beganencouraging entrepreneurs to develop their own businesses to servethe domestic market. Through these and other policy changes, Dengtransformed China’s economy. He chose to limit the central planningtypically found in communist countries in favor of a greater reliance onmarkets. However, China remained a one-party dictatorship. Deng saidthat China would make economic progress by using “communism asthe basis, capitalism as the means.”

The results of Deng’s reform program were nothing less thanspectacular. China’s grain production soared, as did its industrialoutput. China today is a key player in the globalized world economy.However, China remains a communist nation politically. Strictgovernment control and the lack of democratic freedoms have factoredinto keeping wages low. But Chinese workers have been pushing forhigher wages, and pay rates have increased in response to highlypublicized protests and high levels of poverty in hopes that higher paywill increase productivity. Some observers think that as more and moreChinese move out of poverty and into the middle class, they will beginto demand more political rights. China’s amazing economic growth,some people believe, might possibly be the undoing of its communistsystem.



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