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The United States was upset that Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader,had signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939.
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Creation of the United Nations In June 1945, the United Statesand the Soviet Union temporarily set aside their differences. Theyjoined 48 other countries in forming the United Nations (UN).
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Franklin D. Roosevelt had died on April 12, 1945.
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The Soviet leader refused. In a speech in early 1946, Stalindeclared that communism and capitalism could not exist in the sameworld.
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U.S.-Soviet relations continued to worsen in 1946 and 1947. An increasingly wor- ried United States tried to offset the growing Soviet threat to Eastern Europe. President Truman adopted a foreign policy called containment.
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The Marshall Plan Much of Western Europe lay in ruins after thewar. There was also economic turmoil—a scarcity of jobs and food. In1947, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall proposed that the UnitedStates give aid to needy European countries.
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The Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. Congress immediately voted approval.
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in 1948, France, Britain, and the United States decided towithdraw their forces from Germany and allow their occupation zonesto form one nation.
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The western zones became the Federal Republic of Germany in1949. Winston Churchill described the division of Europe:
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In May 1949, the Soviet Union admitted defeat and lifted theblockade.
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Beginning in 1949, the superpowers used spying, propaganda,diplomacy, and secret operations in their dealings with each other.
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In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its own atomic weapon.
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President Truman was determined to develop a more deadlyweapon before the Soviets did. He authorized work on a thermonuclearweapon in 1950.
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The hydrogen or H-bomb would be thousands of timesmore powerful than the A-bomb. Its power came from the fusion, orjoining together, of atoms, rather than the splitting of atoms, as inthe A-bomb. In 1952, the United States tested the first H-bomb. TheSovi
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D. Eisenhower became the U.S. president in 1953.He appointed the firmly anti-Communist John Foster Dulles as hissecretary of state.Dwight
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In August 1957, the Soviets announced the development of arocket that could travel great distances—an intercontinental ballisticmis- sile, or ICBM. On October 4, the Soviets used an ICBM to pushSputnik, the first unmanned satellite, above the earth’s atmo
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Americans felt they had fallen behind in science and technology,and the government poured money into science education. In 1958, theUnited States launched its own satellite.
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In 1960, the skies again provided the arena for a superpowerconflict. Five years earlier, Eisenhower had proposed that the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union be able to fly over each other’s territory toguard against surprise nuclear attacks.
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Much of the world allied with one side or the other. In fact, untilthe Soviet Union finally broke up in 1991, the Cold War dictated notonly U.S. and Soviet for- eign policy, but influenced world alliances aswell.