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15 views

Yalta - Cold Warhttps

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hidegrebeka9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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https://www.khanacademy.

org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/postwar-era/a/the-
cold-war-part-1

Start of the Cold War - The Yalta Conference and containment

Learn how the end of World War II contributed to the rise of the Cold War.
Overview

 The Cold War was a struggle for world dominance between the capitalist United
States and the communist Soviet Union.
 At the Yalta Conference, the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom,
and France agreed to split Germany into four zones of occupation after the war.
 The US ambassador in Moscow warned that the Soviet Union desired to expand
throughout the world and prescribed the "containment" of communism as the chief
US foreign policy strategy.

What was the Cold War?

The Cold War was a global conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, lasting
from 1947 to 1991, over which of the two superpowers would hold economic and ideological
sway over the world. It's called the Cold War because no actual military engagement took
place between the United States and the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Instead,
fighting took place in proxy wars conducted in "third-world" countries.
The United States and USSR clashed over their economic and political philosophies. As a
capitalist, democratic nation, the US sought to promote free elections and free markets. As a
communist, totalitarian state, the USSR sought to ensure the security of its borders and the
political dominance of the Communist party.
The Yalta Conference and the end of World War II
The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union worked together to win World
War II, but their relationship was tense and fraught from the beginning. The Soviet Union
originally had signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany in 1939; the USSR only
entered the war on the side of the Allies when Hitler double-crossed Soviet Premier Joseph
Stalin and invaded Russia in 1941. This proved to be a fatal mistake for Hitler: the Russians
eventually stalled his invasion and overtook all of the territory the Nazis had conquered in
Eastern Europe.
‍
Before the war's end, the leaders of the Allied powers met at the Russian resort town of Yalta
to plan for the future after Hitler's defeat. At this Yalta Conference, they could not agree on
much, but they did agree that any remnant of Nazi power had to be stamped out of Germany.
To this end, they agreed to divide Germany, as well as the city of Berlin, into four zones, each
of which would be occupied by one of the major Allied powers (the "Big Four"): France, the
United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
‍
Photograph depicting Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin seated
together outdoors during the Yalta Conference.
The leaders of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union met at the
Yalta Conference to plan for the postwar era. From left to right: Winston Churchill,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
As the war moved into its final stages in mid-1945, suspicion flared between the United States
and the Soviet Union. The terrifying new power of the atomic bomb, which the United States
dropped on Japan in August, made the Soviets justifiably nervous. The United States also
didn't endear itself to Russia when it abruptly cut off all military and financial aid to the
Soviet Union upon the war's conclusion, at a time when Russian citizens dearly needed the
help. For its part, the Soviet Union was sending clear signals that it did not intend to give up
the territory it had gained from the Nazis, including stalling on its promises to remove troops
from oil-rich regions in the Middle East and to allow free elections in conquered Poland.
‍ The "Long Telegram" and containment
Amid this tense atmosphere, George F. Kennan, who was the deputy chief of the American
Embassy in Moscow, sent a dire warning to the US government. In a Long Telegram sent to
the US Secretary of State in 1946, Kennan warned that the Soviets believed that "there could
be no peaceful coexistence" between communists and capitalists, and that the Soviets desired
the relentless expansion not only of their own borders but of communism writ large.
‍
Kennan advised the US government that the only way to handle relations with the Soviet
Union was to pursue a vigorous policy of containment: blocking the advance of both Soviet
power and communism everywhere in the world.
The US government adopted Kennan's ideas for containment, which became the cornerstone
of American foreign policy in the twentieth century.
‍ What do you think?
Is "Cold War" really an appropriate name for the conflict between the United States and the
Soviet Union? In what ways was the Cold War actually a hot war?
Do you think it would have been possible for the United States and the Soviet Union to
coexist peacefully in the postwar era, or was conflict destined to arise between them?
Do you think that George F. Kennan was right in his assessment of the Soviet Union, or was
he exaggerating the risk posed by communism?

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