Cold War

The Cold War: Causes and Events

• The Cold War was a period of tension between the USA and USSR and their allies from 1945 to 1991.
• The USA was capitalist and democratic, while the USSR was communist.
• After World War Two, the USSR believed the USA wanted to destroy communism, while the USA thought the USSR wanted to spread communism and destroy capitalism.
• The Grand Alliance was the name given to the USA, USSR, and Great Britain who were allies fighting Nazi Germany in World War Two.
• At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, the ‘Big Three’ agreed to launch an attack on Germany from Western Europe and set up a United Nations organization after the war.
• The Yalta Conference was held in February 1945, before World War Two had ended, and the ‘Big Three’ agreed to divide Germany into 4 zones and allow free elections in Eastern European countries.
• The Potsdam Conference was held in July 1945, and many of the plans from Yalta were finalized, but there were disagreements about reparations, Poland, and the atom bomb.
• The USA dropped 2 atom bombs on Japan, which ended World War Two but also angered and scared the USSR, starting the arms race.
• The Long telegram sent by George Kennan and the Novikov telegram sent by the Soviet ambassador helped create suspicion and fear between the USA and the USSR.
• Communist governments were set up in countries in Eastern Europe occupied by the Soviet Union’s army, which angered and scared the USA.
• The Iron Curtain was a political and economic division, not a physical divide, between communist and capitalist countries in Europe.
• The Cold War ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.