origins
ARTIFACTS
June 28, 1948 - May 11, 1949, American C-54sThe Berlin Airlift started when the U.S. was still bringing in supplies for West Berlin to help them rebuild the city. Stalin of course did not approve of the of the overland traffic of supplies since they had to travel through Soviet Germany to get to Berlin. The result of this disapproval was Stalin putting a halt to all overland traffic, of course the U.S. didn’t like this sudden stop to their brilliant plan and came up with yet another. Truman had then ordered that the supplies would be brought by airplane, now these plans would land about every 90 seconds for the 11 months until Stalin decided to approve the overland traffic once again.
-Stefanie Bartels |
AUGUST 12-13, 1961, BERLIN WALLBefore 1961, East and West Berliners were allowed to travel freely between East and West Berlin. However, a lot of professionals, such as lawyers and teachers were leaving East Berlin to move to West because West Berlin had better living conditions and more of a “lavish” lifestyle. At first, Khrushchev tried to make negotiations with Kennedy about the amount of professionals that were leaving but Kennedy didn’t agree to that. Khrushchev then decided to build a wall that would be called the Berlin Wall at midnight on August 12-13, which was a barrier to keep the East Berliners out and the West Berliners in. Once it was built people tried to escape to the West side and some lucky people made it but a lot didn’t make it.
-Josie Parks |
THe SATELLITE COuntriesAfter WWII, Europe needed to be rebuilt and both the United States and Russia stepped in to help. The U.S. and Russia knew that whoever rebuilt it, Europe would become either communist or non-communist. Russia was closer so it would have been easier for Russia than the U.S. to rebuild Europe because it would be easier to move materials. After WWII, Joseph Stalin ordered the Red Army to stay in East Europe and place communist governments. The United States was very afraid that Europe would be communist so they did their best to make it so that they would rebuild Europe and it would become non-communists.
-Josie Parks |
January 5, 1968 - August 21, 1968, Soviet Tank used in the Brezhnev Doctrine
Czechoslovakia was one of the many satellite countries controlled by formally Khrushchev who was overtaken by Leonid Brezhnev. Now the leader of Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubcek wanted to get some new ideas into Czech and brought forward some reforms. These being: more democratic, relaxed censorship, and new political parties, basically he wanted more options. Now Brezhnev did not like this at all as he feared the upcoming of another revolution, his means of actions were to arrest Dubcek and carry out a speech to Czechoslovakia “ The Soviet Union would intervene when necessary to maintain control over satellite countries.” To maintain control he sent in 500,000 troops to Czechoslovakia, thus becoming known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.
-Stefanie Bartels |
SUmmaries
The origins of the Cold War began after the devastation of Europe during WWII. This created conflict between U.S. and the Soviet Union, who both thought that they would spread their communism or capitalism. The U.S. came up with a plan to rebuild Europe called the Marshall Plan and the U.S. knew if they didn’t rebuild Europe, the Soviet Union would and Europe would become communist. In March 1947, the Truman Doctrine became a policy saying that if the spread of communism anywhere in the world and the U.S. would intervene by using force if necessary. This created what was called the policy of containment saying that the U.S. wanted communism to stay put and not spread. Both the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine were created because the Soviet Union and the U.S. distrusted each other, which lead to mistrust and fear of the spread of either communism or capitalism (depending on which side you were on). Because that was feared, it resulted in attempts to gain control of the other through scientific advancements which became the Cold War.
-Josie Parks
With WWII leaving Europe in ruins, many countries including Germany needed help being rebuilt which brought on the Marshall Plan which specifically focused on Germany. This was a plan that Stalin feared greatly, suspecting that this could lead to the spread of capitalism. This fear brought Stalin to form Satellite countries, these countries, including Poland, Hungary, Romania and many more, were ruled by communist governments. This created what many people call a “buffer” zone between capitalist and communist countries. This led to conflict between countries, each trying to prevent the spread of the others beliefs, each racing to always be better than the other. Back to Germany being in ruins, Berlin, a city inside communist Germany also split into West and East needed rebuilding, being a main target in WWII. Now to help rebuild Berlin Truman brings supplies to West Berlin, however Stalin did not approve of this plan and blocked all overland travel into West Berlin. Truman on the other hand found a way to work around this new order and decides to bring Berlin their supplies by airlift. The planes carrying the supplies landed about every 90 seconds and it continued this way for the next 11 months until Stalin decided to lift the overland travel ban. This created more conflict between the countries because it showed Stalin that we were prepared to figure out a way around anything or to fight back.
-Stefanie Bartels
-Stefanie Bartels