American-Soviet Tensions

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American-Soviet Tensions

• An Introduction to the Cold War

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• Soviet Union became a communist nation during
  World War I
• US feared communist rhetoric
• Anti-capitalist
• No personal freedoms
• Single-party system
• Anti-religion
• Called for worldwide revolution

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• US-Soviet relations soured in WWII when Stalin
  signed non-aggression pact with Hitler
• After Hitler invaded USSR in 1941 Soviets joined
  US, Great Britain, and France in the Grand
  Alliance

Tehran- 1943
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• Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in February
  1945 at Yalta Conference
• Agreed on creation of United Nations
• An international peacekeeping organization

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• US and USSR disagreed on what post-war Europe
  should look like
• After WWII US hoped the atomic bomb would make
  USSR agree to US plans for postwar Europe
• It didnt--USSR got the bomb in 1949

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American Goals
Soviet Goals

• Bring freedom, democracy and capitalism to world
• Other countries to have similar economic systems
• Continued health of US economy
• To contain the spread of communism

• Had suffered huge losses in WWII
• Stalin wanted to protect USSR from further attack
• Wanted to establish satellite nations on its
  western borders
• Refused to participate in International Monetary
  Fund, World Bank (established capitalist
  economies in Western Europe)

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• Stalin promised free elections for the land
  Russia controlled
• He lied
• Winston Churchill said the USSRs satellite
  countries were behind an Iron Curtain

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Stettin
Trieste
Stettin
Trieste
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• The mutual suspicion between the two superpowers
  led to the Cold War
• Was a power struggle between the US and the USSR
• Lasted from 1945 until collapse of USSR in 1991