“Iron Curtain”

Mon. April 30

The Iron Curtain• Britain’s Winston Churchill

made his famous Iron Curtain speech in March 1946 in which he described the new Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

• In 1944 and 1945, Soviet armies established Communist government across Eastern Europe closing it off from the west like a “curtain”.

• Only Yugoslavia had some independence although it had a Communist leader as well.

Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech

• Cold War was a contest for “hearts and minds”!

• New postwar media: global radio, television, international satellite communications– Democracy and public opinion could now be used

as a weapon for global influence

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=223181&title=Iron_Curtain_Speech

O.P.V.L of the speech

ORIGIN• Who is the author? What is their occupation?• When was the speech created?• Is it a primary or secondary source? • Who is the intended audience?• What fear does the author have?

PURPOSE• Why did Churchill create this speech?

• What was his intent or objective? What is he attempting to achieve?

• What was the thesis of his speech?

• What did Churchill believe was hidden behind the iron curtain?

VALUE• What can we learn from this document?

• What can we tell about this time period (Cold War) from this speech?

• What techniques does the author use to persuade his audience?

LIMITATIONS• Does the author attempt to examine all sides of

the issue? Why or why not?

• What does the author leave out and why does he leave it out?

• At what point does this source cease to be of value to us as historians?

The U.S. & the U.S.S.R. had now emerged as the

two Superpowers of the late 20th century

The Cold War (1945-1991)was not a typical war; it was a diplomatic

world war for global domination!

The bear was often used to symbol the U.S.S.R. as big, brutal and clumsy.

USSR’s European Expansion

• U.S.S.R. viewed capitalism as the enemy.

• Helped Communist parties in other nations to gain power.

• Attempted Communist expansion by influencing elections in Greece, Turkey, Italy and other ‘western’ countries.

The Truman Doctrine

• In March 1947, President Harry Truman declared he would send Greece and Turkey economic and military aid to prevent them from falling under the control of Communism.

• Truman Doctrine (a policy): “We will help any nation to defend itself against Communism.”

• America shifted to a policy of containment of Soviet expansion (limit Communism to the areas already under Soviet control only).

Marshall Plan• Announced June 5, 1947 in a Harvard

speech by Secretary of State (General) George C. Marshall

– US offered aid to all European countries including the USSR and Eastern Europe to rebuild after WWII

– On orders by Stalin, Communist countries declined all aid!

• Churchill called the Marshall Plan: “the most unselfish act by any great power in history”

Marshall Plan: 1948-1952• Total aid provided (1948-52)

was $13 billion – on top of the $12 billion given between 1945 and 1948.

• While invited, the Soviet bloc nations refused participation since conditions of joining required a unified cooperation with the West.

• By time funding ended in 1952, the economy of every participant nation had surpassed pre-war levels!

Red bars show the amount of aid.

German Division and the Berlin Crisis

• Plans at Potsdam and Yalta divided Germany and Berlin into 4 zones under temporary military rule.

• U.S. ultimately decided Europe would not be stable without an economically strong Germany, which upset U.S.S.R.

• By March 1948, reunification with Soviet cooperation seemed impossible and the three Western zones were fused into a “new country” called West Germany.

Berlin: a symbol of the Cold War1. Place where East

vs. West split starts.

2. Place where conflict repeatedly flares.

3. Place where the end of the Cold War becomes clear in 1989.

• Berlin was originally the capital of Germany but was now a large destroyed city smack in the middle of Soviet controlled East Germany.

• Half of Berlin was Soviet (east Berlin) and the other half was controlled by the Allied powers.

Berlin Airlift: 1948• The first major crisis of the

Cold War.

• To pressure the West into surrendering Berlin, the USSR blocked off the city so no one could go in or out.

• With only 1 month of food left, USA and Britain began an airlift that lasted almost a year.

• Planes dropped over 2 million tons of food in over a quarter of a million flights.

• Eventually, the USSR gave up and re-opened the city.

Berlin Blockade• Truman was advised to

send tanks along the autobahn (motorway system) and see if the Soviets would shoot at them; he refused, saying he did not want to instigate a war.

• Stalin could have ordered the cargo planes shot down but he had signed a treaty allowing flights to enter Berlin and also did not want to start a war.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)• Established in 1949

with USA, Canada and 9 Western European countries to fight against Communism.

• “An attack on one, is an attack on all!”

• NATO continues today with 14 new nations including several that were once Soviet allies.

The Warsaw Pact

• 1955: The USSR set up its own alliance system with a total of 8 Communist nations.

• The Warsaw Pact broke up in 1991 with the fall of Communism.

U.S. quickly lost its Nuclear Monopoly

• Aug. 1949: USSR tests its first atomic bomb using plans stolen from the Manhattan Project.

• 1951: USA tests its first Hydrogen bomb; a weapon over 10 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

• 1953: USSR tests its first Hydrogen bomb.