1.  How did relations break down between the US and the Soviet Union after WWII?

• The US & USSR had different ideas for the post war world
• The USSR wanted unstable regions to become Communist
• State controls all economic activity
• The US wanted to establish Democracy & free elections
• The US still didn't trust Stalin who had allied with Hitler in first year of WWII
• Stalin resented the Allied delay in attacking Europe (Africa first, then Italy)
• Stalin resented the fact that the US kept the atomic bomb secret from them

2. How did the UN represent a new hope for post war peace?

• representatives of 50 nations met in SF, April, '45
• intention: to promote peace
• but both superpowers competed for influence

3. How did Truman become president and what was his first challenge?

• FDR died suddenly Apr 12, 1945- VP Truman sworn in as Pres.
• didn't even know about Manhattan Project
• Potsdam Conference (July)- first meeting w/ Churchill, then Clement Atlee & Stalin
• Clear now that Stalin would not keep his promise from Yalta (Feb) for free elections in Poland
• Truman found out about successful test of Atom Bomb
• Stalin wanted reparations from Germany
• All decided to take them from their own occupation zones

4.  How did Europe become divided?

• Soviets lost 20 million lives in WWII; half: civilians
• 'needed' Eastern Europe as a buffer zone- to prevent future attacks
• installed communist govs in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland- Satellite Nations- controlled by USSR
• Stalin speech 1946: Communism & Democracy are incompatible; another war is inevitable!
  
• In US, George F. Kennan proposed policy of Containment
• became Truman's foreign policy
• Churchill's Iron Curtain speech: 'has descended across Europe' separating Free countries from Communist ones
• This conflict became a Cold War lasting from 1945-1991
  

5. How did Truman meet Stalin's first attempt at Soviet Expansion?

• Soviet backed communist groups within Greece & Turkey threatened those governments.
• British support drawing near an end
• Truman issued statement, Truman Doctrine: We will support all free peoples resisting subjucation by armed minorities or outside pressures.
• We sent $400 million in aid to both Greece and Turkey
• Western Europe was in chaos after WWII
• factories bombed or looted
• millions in refugee camps
• fuel & food shortages
• Sec St George Marshall's Plan: provide aid to rebuild Western Europe
• 16 countries received $13 Billion in aid
• Communist parties, then rising in favor, lost most of their appeal

6.  How did the Superpowers struggle over Germany after WWII?

• First issue: German Re-unification
• French, British & US zones merged in 1948 & became West Germany
• 2nd issue: Western Berlin, also divided, was deep in Soviet territory
• June, 1948 Stalin closed roads leading to West Berlin from W Germany
• "Berlin Blockade"- to force West to give up West Berlin
  
• no food or fuel; W. Berliners had only 5 weeks worth of supplies
• Berlin Airlift: flew food, supplies into Berlin next 327 days
• flights went 24/7
• By May, 1949 Soviets gave up and lifted blockade
• 3rd issue: May, 1949: West Germany officially became Federal Republic of Germany
• Soviet zone became German Democratic Republic
• 4th issue: alliances-
• Berlin blockade frightened W. Europe into forming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
  
• Soviets & Eastern bloc nations form the Warsaw Pact- defensive alliance.