Origins of the Cold War and Containment

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Origins of the Cold War and Containment
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Winston Churchill

• In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron
  Curtain" speech.
• Although today it is regarded as one of the most
  influential speeches of the period, the speech
  was not well received at the time.
• Some thought Churchill was seeking an Anglo-Saxon
  alliance against the Soviet Union -- something
  the general American public felt unnecessary at
  the time.

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George Kennan

• The single document that best illustrated
  American anti-communism and general suspicion of
  Soviet aspirations, was George Kennan's famous
  Long Telegram of 1946.
• Kennan witnessed collectivization and the terror
  from close range
• In 1946, Kennan was 44 years old, fluent in the
  Russian language and its affairs, and decidedly
  anti-communist.
• The essence of Kennan's telegram was published in
  Foreign Affairs in 1947 as "The Sources of Soviet
  Conduct" and circulated everywhere.
• For Kennan, the Cold War gave the United States
  its historic opportunity to assume leadership of
  what would eventually be described as the "free
  world."

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Truman Doctrine

• Truman stressed the duty of the United States to
  combat totalitarian regimes worldwide.
• His March 12, 1947 speech specifically called for
  400 million in aid to be delivered to Greece and
  Turkey.
• The Doctrine shifted American foreign policy as
  regards the Soviet Union from Détente to, as
  George F. Kennan phrased it, a policy of
  containment of Soviet expansion. Historians often
  use it to mark the starting date of the Cold War.

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The Marshall Plan

• The Marshall Plan was proposed to help Europe
  begin its ascent from the ashes of World War II.
• The Plan took root in the Economic Cooperation
  Administration (ECA) created by Congress in
  April, 1948.
• Its official title was the European Recovery
  Program.

This map shows aid received by European nations
in a graphical format.
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NATO Treaty and Warsaw Pact

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was
  established as an international organization for
  defense collaboration established in 1949 which
  attempted to align nations opposed to Soviet
  expansion.
• Similarly, the Warsaw Pact was signed by eastern
  European nations in an effort to combat western
  alliances.

This map shows the division of Europe between the
NATO Treaty (green) and the Warsaw Pact (orange).
The United States and Canada are also part of
NATO.
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Cold War Maps
These two maps illustrate the shifting global
alliances evident from 1959 to 1982 at the end of
the Cold War
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• Multimedia Citations
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• Slide 3 http//media.npr.org/news/images/2005/mar
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• Slide 6 http//www.worldstats.org/continents/euro
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• Slide 7 http//users.erols.com/mwhite28/coldwar1.
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• Slide 8 http//users.erols.com/mwhite28/coldwar1.
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