![]() In total, around $13 billion was given out across Europe in grants and loans. He had seen first-hand the damage that the war had done to European countries.Ī system was set up where countries could apply for loans from America. Marshall had been Chief of Staff in the American army in World War Two and was then appointed Secretary of State. General George Marshall visited European countries to see the extent of the support needed for their recovery. This was followed up in 1948 with the Marshall Plan. In this speech, he pledged that America would do whatever they could to support European countries and stop the spread of communism, pledging $400 million to Greece and Turkey for economic and military aid. Harry Truman gave a notable speech in 1947 called the ‘Truman Doctrine’. There were also concerns that western countries such as France or Italy may turn to communism as they looked to recover from the war. Some historians have argued that these tensions between the Big Three helped to set the stage for the Cold War.Īmerica was concerned about the spread of communism and feared the Soviet Union would take advantage of the poverty in Eastern European countries that were still recovering from the effects of World War Two. The Potsdam Conference formally agreed the division of Germany into four zones, but failed to settle other important issues. Truman also felt that Stalin was failing to keep the agreement made at the Yalta Conference, that there would be free and fair elections in Eastern Europe. This meant he no longer needed Soviet help in the war against Japan. During the conference, he found out that an American test of the atom bomb had been successful. Truman thought Roosevelt had been too lenient with Stalin and communism. This change in leadership meant that a lot of the personal relationships were lost. ![]() The American President Franklin Roosevelt had died and was replaced with Harry Truman. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had lost a general election and had been replaced by Clement Attlee. Nazi Germany had been defeated and the war in Europe was over. Things had changed a lot since the Yalta Conference. The Big Three met again five months later in Potsdam, just outside of Berlin, in July 1945. In 1991 the Soviet Union split up and the Cold War ended. ![]() By the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev was reforming the Soviet Union as they faced economic problems and individual countries were demanding independence. During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear Armageddon was an everyday fear. The Soviets sent the first people into space, but the Americans achieved the first moon landing. The world came very close to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.Įach side also tried to show their technological superiority in the space race. Both the USA and the Soviets spent huge amounts of money on their military and nuclear weapons, trying to outdo each other, creating an Arms Race. These wars happened in Korea, Algeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan and other countries. So the two sides were indirectly fighting each other. Proxy wars were wars fought in or between other countries, with each side getting financial and military support from either the Soviets or the Americans. But they battled each other in different ways. It was called the Cold War, as the two sides never directly fought. The Soviets and their satellite states believed in communism, a political system where the government controls the economy and the people work collectively.Ī symbolic Iron Curtain cut through the middle of Europe: East vs West. The USA and their allies supported a democratic system that gave economic power to individuals and companies: capitalism. The conflict was about ideologies, how each side thought the world should be run. The Soviet Union led one side with other Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland, whilst the USA was allied with countries such as France and Britain. One side was led by the USA, the other by the Soviet Union - the two superpowers. Narrator: After World War Two, a 45-year struggle for global supremacy emerged: the Cold War.
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