Origins of the Cold War by Sheldon Short....American History

By Sheldon Short

  • Yalta Conference

    Yalta Conference
    February 4 to 11, 1945, the meeting held governmentof the United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union for the purpose of discussing Germany and Europe's postwar reorganization. The states were represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin.

  • Potsdam Conference

    Potsdam Conference
    From July 17 to August 2, 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.

  • United Nations are established

    United Nations are established
    A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II with the aim of preventing another conflict

  • Containment Policy/Iron Curtain

    Containment Policy/Iron Curtain
    A informal term used by the British prime minister Winston Churchill in a speech at Fulton, Missouri, U.S., on March 5, 1946, when he said of the communist states, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

  • Truman Doctrine

    Truman Doctrine
    American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947 and further developed on July 12, 1948 when he pledged to contain threats to Greece and Turkey.

  • The Marshall Plan

    The Marshall Plan
    An American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.

  • NATO is formed

    NATO is formed
    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European countries based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.

  • The Berlin Airlift

    The Berlin Airlift
    One of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control.