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Yalta Conference
A major conference including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin. The three allied leaders meet at Yalta in Crimea. There plan was to discuss the defeat and state of Nazi Germany. -
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Potsdam Conference
Held at Potsdam in Berlin. At the conference was President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill(and Clement Attlee), and Premier Joseph Stalin. During this conference they discussed the peace settlement in Europe but did not write a peace treaty. They established a Council of Foreign Ministers and a central Allied Control Council for administration of Germany. They also made agreements on Germany's economy, punishments for war criminal, land boundaries, and reparations. -
Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech
The term “iron curtain” was said in a famous speech by the Prime Minister of Britain. What he meant by “iron curtain” is that there was a divide in Europe between communism and democracy. The Soviet Union and its neighboring countries were communists. Even though the Soviet Union did no directly control the Eastern European countries, they had a strong influence on them. -
Truman Doctrine
At a joint session of Congress, President Truman asked for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey, who were threatened by Communism. After Great Britain announced they could no longer aid those Mediterranean countries, the West feared the Soviets were going to take over and make the West Communists. -
The Marshall Plan is Announced
The Marshall Plan is also known as the European Recovery Program. The Marshall Plan is a four year plan. The U.S. program provided aid to Western Europe after the devastation of World War II. This plan funded more than $15 billion to help rebuild Western Europe. This plan was also used to help stop the spread of communism in those countries. The Marshall plan is considered to have sparked NATO. -
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Berlin Airlift
The Soviets blocked roads and railroads so the four power were not to get in to Berlin. The U.S. and Britain supplied food and fuel Berlin by air. Even though the blockade end on May 12, 1949 there were still rising tensions between Western Powers and the Soviet Union. -
Formation of NATO
NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The United States and eleven other Western countries were apart of NATO. NATO was formed to to keep communism from spreading. With the Soviet Union influence Eastern Europe, the countries apart of NATO were afraid of Communism spreading to Western Europe. -
Formation of West Germany
Also known as the Federal Republic of Germany. The president of the council and the future president of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer said “Today a new Germany arises” as if were a happy time but the representatives of Germany at the meeting were not happy because of the hope that Germany might be reunified was gone. -
Soviet Union (Russia) explodes first atomic bomb
The Soviet Union successfully detonate its first atomic bomb, “First Lightning” in Kazakhstan. The Soviet built buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures to measure the effects of the blast. They also placed animal in cages nearby to test the effect of nuclear radiation. The bomb destroyed the structures and burned the animals. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact is a mutual defense organization consisting of the Soviet Union and seven other European satellites including Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. They put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the members. The Warsaw makes it so that if any of the member were to be attacked the others would come to defend.
