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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. Stalin also agreed to permit free elections in Eastern Europe and to enter the Asian war against Japan, for which he was promised the return of lands lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. -
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Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof from July 17 to August 2 1945. The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman, gathered to decide how to administer Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier on May 8. They also discussed postwar order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of war. -
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. -
The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Truman before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. The cause for the speech was a recent announcement by the British Government that it would no longer provide military and economic assistance to the Greek Government in its civil war against the Greek Communist Party. Truman asked Congress to help the Greek Government and Turkey, which had also been dependent on British assistance, against the Communists. -
Marshall Plan Announced
The Marshall Plan was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II. It provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts on the continent. It was crafted as a four-year plan to reconstruct cities, industries and infrastructure heavily damaged during the war and to remove trade barriers between European neighbors – and foster commerce between those countries and the United States. It was also used to prevent the spread of Communism. -
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Berlin Airlift
When the Allies and the SU became hostile, the question of whether the west zones in Berlin would remain under Allied control or be absorbed into SU-controlled east Germany caused a crisis in Berlin. SU forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The US and UK responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. The crisis ended on May 12, 1949, when Soviet forces lifted the blockade on land access to western Berlin. -
Formation of NATO
On April 4, 1949, the foreign ministers of 12 countries in North America and Western Europe gathered in Washington DC, to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. It was primarily a security pact, stating that an attack against one of them would be considered an attack against them all. When U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson signed the document, it reflected an important change in American foreign policy. For the first time since the 1700s, the US had formally tied its security to nations in Europe. -
Formation of West Germany
The Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany, was created in 1949 by the British, French, and American areas of occupation in Germany. In response to this formation, the areas occupied by the Soviet Union created German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. However the Chancellor of The Federal Republic of Germany refused to recognize the legal existence of the German Democratic Republic. -
Soviet Union explodes first atomic bomb
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. The atomic explosion destroyed those structures and incinerated the animals. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign the Warsaw Pact, which called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force and it set up a unified military command under Marshal Ivan S. Konev of the Soviet Union. The United States and the other members of the NATO on May 9, 1955 moved to make West Germany a member of NATO and allow that nation to remilitarize. The SU obviously saw this as a direct threat and responded with the Warsaw Pact.
