DBQ 20: The Cold War Begins

The "iron curtain" was a dividing line because it was an imaginary line that separated Eastern and Western Europe. The countries that lied behind the line were called the Soviet sphere.

President Truman suggested that the U.S. give $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey so that they would not be affected by the outside pressure. This was to get rid of the poverty and strife.

To restore economic health to the world, the U.S. needed to help rebuild Europe from the aftermath of the war. They would also not be pressured into communism.

NATO, which is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was signed by the U.S., Canada, and ten nations of Western Europe in 1949. They agreed that an attack against one or more of them would be considered an attack on all of them. They needed to maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

The Soviets could retreat as much east as they want without running into NATO members.

Khrushchev said the U.S. was setting up military blocs so that it could gain a dominant position. The arms race was supposed to result in a balance of power. According to Khrushchev, it could easily lead to war. Capitalism will end in "another world war" if it follows that path.

The U.S.S.R. had more ICBMs, but the U.S. had more long-range bombers and land launched ICBMs. There was fear of a nuclear war because of all the arms and weapons both governments had.

His objective was to prevent the use of missiles against Cuba or any other country. He said that it was an open threat to the peace and security of the American citizens.

He said that they did it with means of defense against aggression- only with means of defense purposes.

The Cold War began due to a multitude of reasons. It was a political, ideological, and economic struggle between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. It began when Nazi Germany surrendered and the alliance between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. started to fall apart. The "iron curtain" as referenced in Document 1 was an imaginary line that separated East and West Europe. Th area behind the line was referred to as the Soviet sphere. This may have been a sign that the U.S. and the Soviet Union were not on good terms. One long term cause was the difference in ideology that the west including the USA believed that the Soviets wanted to spread communism, while the Soviets feared that the west wanted to destroy and get rid of communism. Russia was invaded during WWI by Germany and by Hitler in 1941, so Stalin wanted to prevent this from happening again. In the U.S., the government did not want the Depression to occur again and wanted to secure markets. Because of the U.S.'s economic interests they did not want communism to spread. This caused the whole McCarthyism practice during the 50's. One short term cause is the Yalta conference. This conference was a meeting between the heads of the U.S., the U.K., and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization. There was dispute over Poland, as Stalin wanted there to be a "friendly government" and the West wanted Poland to have free elections. Truman was very anti-communist and did not want to negotiate with Stalin, angering him. As in Document 2 Truman wanted to provide Greece and Turkey with $400 million because he didn't want them to be pressured into communism. During the Potsdam conference in 1945, Stalin demanded a $20 billion compensation. Truman and Clement Attlee (the British prime minister) both disagreed because they did not want a recurrence of the Treaty of Versailles. Even when Truman and Attlee wanted free elections, Stalin set up a communist government and didn't put free elections. On the same day of this conference the U.S. had tested the atom bomb, Truman told Stalin about it, but did not tell him about the technology, which made Stalin suspicious about the west. Stalin then began an arms race to make the U.S.S.R.'s weapons equal to the U.S. The U.S.S.R. created their own nuclear weapon in 1949, which pushed the U.S. to create the H-bomb. When the U.S.S.R created the H-bomb as well, the U.S. began to build bomber aircraft. Weapons played a huge role in the impact of the war. Some possessed mass destruction, such as the AN-22 gravity bomb, the ASMP stand-off attack missile, and the Pluton & Hades ballistic missiles.