Cold War Tension 3: Truman in Office and the Result of Stalin's Speech

The United States main problem with the Soviet Union was supposedly President Harry S. Truman. Truman came into office unprepared for the responsibilities he would have and the learning of the Manhattan Project. He became President after Franklin Roosevelt death. Franklin Roosevelt failed to tell Truman about the atomic bomb. During Truman's Presidency he felt fear over giving into too many demands from Stalin. In 1946 Stalin gave a speech, "Communism and capitalism are incompatible and another war is inevitable." He then said that the Soviets would focus more on making weapons instead of focusing on consumer goods. The United States took Stalin's speech as a declaration of war......

Cold War Tension 2: The United States' Plan of Containment and The Marshall Plan

After Truman said it was time to stop "babying the Soviets", George F. Kennan's, a U.S. diplomat in Moscow, suggested containment in February 1946. Containment would be an effort to block the Soviet Union's attempts to spread communism. The United States and Soviet Union trying to take over Eastern Europe was a huge problem in the Cold War. They both tried to spread their beliefs to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The United States sent 400 million dollars to Turkey and Greece to decrease the danger of communists taking over those nations. In February 1948 the Soviets took over Czechoslovakia. The United States came up with the Marshall Plan. It was a plan to help rebuild parts of Europe after World War II.

Cold War Tanks

Cold War Tension 1: Atomic Bomb

The Manhattan project was a plan to build the first atomic bomb. The plan started when the world was afraid that Hitler was planning to build an atomic bomb, this was in 1939. Albert Einstein urged Franklin Roosevelt to start the development of the atomic bomb. Some people felt they needed to get the atomic bomb done first to be a protection for the country. In time, the President agreed. The Manhattan project was a big secret and it was a huge surprise to Truman when he became President after Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945. Before he became President he knew nothing of the Manhattan Project. By this time there were 40 factories building the atomic bomb and about 200,000 employees. Many scientists were part of the 200,000 employees. Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, J. Robert Openheimer, and Harold Urey were some of the scientists that were involved in the project. After awhile the Manhattan project goal was reached. The first atomic bomb was made. They used this bomb as a test bomb in New Mexico, and it was known as "Fat Boy". The test went well so on August 6, 1945 the second bomb, "Little Boy"was used on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb was 9,000 pounds and the result was 66,000 deaths. Three days after another atomic bomb was used on Nagasaki, Japan. This atomic bomb was 10,000 pounds and is known as "Fat Man". People who didn't die from these bombings suffered with many dangerous burns, vomiting, fatigue, diarrhea, and hair loss. Also the possibility of passing on Leukemia to offspring. It is said that Truman said the use of these atomic bombs would save American lives and would shorten the war. However, many people still question today if that was the right choice....

Summary of the Cold War

The Cold War got its name because it wasn't a "hot war", it never really heated up and there wasn't much action throughout the years.

The Cold War started after World War II in about 1945. It involved mainly the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a result of what happened from the tension between communist and democratic countries. The Soviet Union was communist and the United States were democrats. The tension between the United States and Soviet Union increased at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. The Yalta Conference was a meeting in which the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union leaders met. They agreed on the decision to divide Germany up amongst the Allies. The two superpowers were trying to influence other countries through out the world of each other beliefs. All through 1945 to 1991 many big things happened and I will go into detail about some of them in my other posts. When the Iron Curtain came up in 1991 the Cold War finally ended.