WHAT HAPPENED!?

WHAT HAPPENED:

At the Postdam Conference, which started in late July after Germany's surrender, serious differences emerged over the future development of Germany and Eastern Europe. In attendance were the US, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union with the correlating representatives being Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. They had gathered on this day to determine how to "punish" the German Nazis after they had been defeated and to settle on an agreement for post-war peace and order between nations. Disagreements regarding the division of German land and resources and the debate over Germany's political and economical future, furthered the mistrust between the "Big three." As the discussion went on, Stalin was surprised to be informed by President Truman of the development of nuclear weaponry, the atomic bomb, by the US that later on was used bomb Japan's cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stalin was further irritated when the US refused to aid the USSR in their battle with Japan.


These are the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.

33^rd President Harry S. Truman

First nuclear weapon


"Fat Man"

After the nuclear bombing in Japan, the country surrendered to the Allied Powers, along with the surrender of Germany, ending WWII.

As suspicions arose and friction between nations worsened, the US began to break ties with the USSR and rallied against the spread of Communism, especially in the European countries that were still trying to recover from the effects of the previous war. The Truman Doctrine was established along with the Mashall Plan that helped Eastern Europe in its post war recovery attempts and vowed that the US would aid any country that was threatened by communism.

The "Long Telegram" of 1946 became the basis for US strategy toward the Soviet Union for the duration of the Cold War, stressing the divide between themselves and the USSR.

"During the cold war the general policy of the West toward the Communist states was to contain them (i.e., keep them within their current borders in Berlin) with the hope that internal division, failure, or evolution might end their threat." In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was signed by the US and 11 other nations in an effort against the Soviet Union. As a response to the formation of NATO, the Communist bloc formed the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization in Warsaw, Poland, consisting of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and the U.S.S.R to ward of threats from NATO. Each side attempted to gain more allies in the countries of Asia, Africa and China, but neither succeeded in winning their alliances.

As the Cold War, battled on, it encompassed more nations in war. The Korean War began as a result of the conflict between Communist/North and non-Communist/South forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953 with the UN forces aiding South Korea.

The Berlin Wall (1961-1989), was built to keep people in, as a result of the flood of people from East Germany into the non-communist West. The wall was dismantled in a failed gamble by the Communists to keep power.

Berlin Wall map

In 1962 a tense confrontation occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union after U.S. intelligence discovered the presence of Soviet missile installations in Cuba. Direct conflict was avoided, however, when Premier Khrushchev ordered ships carrying rockets to Cuba to turn around rather than meet U.S. vessels sent to intercept them. The United States, in return, pledged not to invade Cuba, and subsequently secretly removed ballistic missiles it had placed in Turkey. It was obvious from this and other confrontations that neither major power wanted to risk nuclear war

Democrat John F. Kennedy tried to reduce tensions with the USSR following the Cuban Missile Crisis, but in maintaining his anti- cold War platform, he had no intention of pulling out of the containment set by the Truman Doctrine. It was also for these reasons that Kennedy held the line in Vietnam, determined to not let the nation succumb to the Communists, he increased the number of troops from 500 to 16,000. Confronted with the suggestion of pulling out he responded "I think that would be a mistake." Kennedy was involved with Vietnam all the way even until the eve of his own death.

JFK

He promised more money toward the national defense while charging Eisenhower for allowing non-existent "missile gaps" to develop between US and Soviet nuclear arsenals.

The Vietnam War was in some ways a turning point in the Cold War. The United States was forced to realize that military might alone was insufficient to win. The instability inside the US encouraged the Soviet Union to overextend itself around the world-which helped hasten its defeat. Soviet adventurism in Afghanistan was as costly to it as Vietnam was to us. However, the Soviet economy proved much less resilient than the American economy. North won, Vietnam was unified as a communist country.

By 1962, China started to position itself as the 'other' superpower. The US made attempts to meet with China because as the largest power in the world and the controller of the spread of communism, the American people needed the assurance that this relationship was in good standing. Nixon met with Chinese Prime Minister Mr. Chou En-lai and broke the tensions that were building since the beginning of the Cold War and helped dispel the fear that China might get involved by backing up the Vietcong, our enemy.