The Cold War developes

• Truman Doctrine

  In a speech in 1947, US President Truman set out why the USA should get involved: Countries faced a choice between capitalism or communism, communism was bad because it meant people could not be free, the USA must try to contain the spread of communism, the USA should provide money and troops (if necessary) to help free governments to combat communist takeovers
• Marshall Plan

  About $13 billion from USA to help rebuild Europe, communism appealed most to people with nothing to lose, so the Marshall Plan hoped to stop communism by giving people a stake in the capitalist system, countries must trade with the USA to get the money, sixteen Western European countries took the money including Britain, France and West Germany
• Post-war Berlin. Much of Europe had been destroyed during the war. Many people were homeless and starving. Truman feared that this could lead to people electing communist governments.
• Capitalism

  Economic system where private individuals and businesses own and control property and production
• Communism

  Economic and political system where the state owns and controls property and production
• Communism was bad because it meant people could not be free
• The USA must try to contain (hold back) the spread of communism
• The USA should provide money and troops (if necessary) to help free governments to combat communist takeovers
• Truman Doctrine


  Policy of the USA to stop the spread of communism, using both military and economic methods
• Post-war Berlin had much destruction, homelessness and starvation, which Truman feared could lead to people electing communist governments
• Marshall Plan


  $13 billion from the USA to help rebuild Europe after WWII, to stop the spread of communism by giving people a stake in the capitalist system
• Countries must trade with the USA to get the Marshall Plan money
• Sixteen Western European countries took the Marshall Plan money, including Britain, France and West Germany
• The Soviet Union criticised the Marshall Plan as an attack on them because it threatened communist control in Eastern Europe
• Cominform

  Communist Information Bureau set up by Stalin in 1947 to organise and control communist parties in Europe
• Cominform

  • Got rid of any opposition to Soviet control in satellite states
  • Encouraged communist parties in Western countries to block Marshall Plan assistance
• Western Europe was now in one camp, linked to the USA through the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment of communism
• Comecon

  Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Stalin's alternative to the Marshall Plan, building up trade links between communist countries and preventing them signing up to the Marshall Plan
• Eastern Europe was now in one camp, tied to the Soviet Union as satellite states, with the Soviet Union believing socialist revolution would spread worldwide
• Iron Curtain

  The line dividing Western Europe (capitalist and pro-American) and Eastern Europe (communist and controlled by the Soviet Union)
• NATO

  North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a military alliance of the USA, Britain, Canada, Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark and Norway, directed against a possible military attack from the Soviet Union on Western Europe
• NATO showed that, after the Berlin Blockade and the Soviet Union's development of the atomic bomb, neither the USA nor Western European governments were prepared to accept future Soviet aggression
• The Soviet Union turned to strengthening its control over Eastern Europe, resulting in the formation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955
• There were now two military alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, facing each other across the Iron Curtain
• The Allies were unable to agree about Germany's future, so it was divided into zones of military occupation
• The USA wanted a united, capitalist Germany that could trade with and would help prevent the spread of communism
• The Soviet Union felt threatened by the USA's holding of Western Germany and West Berlin
• Bizonia

  The area where the British and US zones of occupation in Germany were joined together
• The Soviet Union wanted Germany to be weak, communist and divided, so that it would never be able to attack the Soviet Union again
• The Soviet Union closed all road, rail and canal links into West Berlin in 1948 to force British, French and US troops to leave their zone in the city
• The Berlin Airlift, where thousands of tonnes of supplies were flown daily into Berlin, made the USA appear powerful and generous
• The Berlin Blockade made the Soviet Union appear aggressive and threatening
• In 1949, West Germany (FRG) was officially formed, with US support, and Western European countries and the USA formed NATO
• In 1949, East Germany (GDR) was officially formed, and in 1955 the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact