InNo+seank2013+4.8.11

=Roots of the Cold War=

The Manhattan Project

 * April 12, 1945 - FDR died
 * April 25 - Successor president Truman was briefed of the Manhattan Project (the development of the Atomic Bomb)

Knowledge of the Bomb

 * It was kept a secret from the soviets despite efforts to gain Stalin's trust.
 * The bombing was without a doubt to be used in the current war because it would essentially warn the world what would happen if war was to break out again.

Potsdam

 * July 1945 - Conference held in Berlin suburb of Potsdam where Truman, Churchill and Stalin discussed the matters of the German occupation, the invasion of Japan, and the Manattan Project
 * The atomic bomb was supposed to be used in order to save the lives that would've been lost due to an invasion to Japan.
 * July 18 - Truman received a brief cable informing him the first atomic test had been more successful than anticipated. Now Us could end the Pacific war quickly without Soviet involvment.
 * The attempt to keep the knowledge of the Manhattan Project confirmed Stalins fear that the atomic bomb was to be used against the USSR as well as Japan.

Containment

 * George F. Kennan wrote a 5300 word cable to Secretary of State Bymes discussing the matters of the Soviet Union
 * He said that the US had to have a long-term containment of Russian expansive tendencies, which in other words means to apply sufficient countpressure on them so that there would be no need to militarize the Cold War.

The Truman Doctrine

 * March 12 - Truman agreed to the commitment of the United States to aid, economically and/or militarily, any nation threatened by Communism. It was Acheson's argument that convinced the congress which led to four hundred million dollars funding to aid Greece and Turkey. The speech he gave on this day became known as the Truman Doctrine.

The Dissaray in Postwar Europe

 * The devastation of nearly six years of war left Western Europe in economic disarray, providing fertile ground for the growth of Communist movements there.