emergence of cold war

• Iron Curtain speech


  Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton, Missouri, USA in March 1946 where he condemned Stalin's attempts to control Eastern Europe and demanded an Anglo-American alliance to stop the spread of communism
• Churchill: 'An iron curtain has descended across the continent... and all are subject in one form or another... to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow.'
• Stalin reacted angrily to Churchill's speech
• Stalin's argument


  The way in which the USSR suffered during the war made it only natural that he should want to protect his country from invasion
• Churchill's speech


  Played a significant part in the development of the Cold War
• Churchill gave his speech in America, rather than in Britain
• Reasons why the Cold War was the fault of the USA


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• Reasons why the Cold War was the fault of the USSR


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• In March 1947, the British Government announced it could no longer afford to continue funding the Greek forces engaged in a civil war with Greek communists
• Truman Doctrine


  US policy to use military and economic means to stop countries falling to communism either from external invasion or internal revolution
• Congress released $400 million to provide support and equipment to end the communist threat in Greece
• Marshall Plan


  Massive US investment of $13.3 billion into Europe over a four year period to aid economic recovery and prevent the spread of communism
• Some Marshall Aid was spent on weapons
• The introduction of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan was an important turning point in the development of the Cold War
• President Truman: 'It is the policy of the US to support the peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures... The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive...'
• George Marshall: 'It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.'
• In February 1948, communist Action Committees in Czechoslovakia organised armed demonstrations and threatened a general strike, leading to the appointment of a communist government
• On 31 March, the US Congress approved the Marshall Plan
• Sixteen countries, particularly Britain and the Allied parts of Germany, benefited from the Marshall Plan
• Stalin's view of the Marshall Plan

  'Dollar diplomacy' - the USA was using its investment to gain influence over countries by controlling their economies
• Stalin rejected the offer of Marshall Plan finance and made sure all the countries he controlled did the same
• Stalin established the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) in 1947 to ensure communist nations worked together more effectively
• Stalin set up the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1949 as a Soviet version of the Marshall Plan, encouraging economic co-operation among Iron Curtain states
• The Marshall Plan played a vital part in the economic reconstruction of Europe
• The success of the Marshall Plan


  Caused a crisis in Soviet-Western relations
• The Marshall Plan helped to revive world trade and create stable national economies in Western Europe, reducing the threat of communist subversion
• The Marshall Plan and the Soviet reaction to it marked an important turning point on the way to the split of Europe