Cold War Origins: Causes and Key Events 1945-1955

Causes and Origins of the Birth of Blocs and the Cold War

The Issue of Iran

Iran, a country occupied during the war by the Soviet and British armies, faced a critical situation. Due to strategic and economic interests, neither army withdrew after the war, aiming to keep Iran under control. American intervention eventually forced the withdrawal of the Soviets.

Eastern Europe

Stalin's expansion in Eastern Europe did not fulfill his promise to hold free elections in countries liberated by the Soviet advance. He expanded his zone of influence by imposing communist regimes by force in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, and East Germany.

The Question of Greece

In Greece, a civil war occurred in 1946 between communist guerrillas, with Soviet support, and the democratic government, supported by the British army. The democratic government applied for help to President Truman, who was alarmed by the influence of the Soviet Union over the people's democracies. Truman complied with the request, preventing a communist regime from being imposed in Greece.

The Truman Doctrine

In March 1947, Truman, the U.S. president, stated in a speech to Congress a set of principles that can be considered the theoretical basis of the polarization and the Cold War. He renounced an isolationist policy and assumed leadership of the free and democratic world in order to contain the spread of communism.

The Soviet response to U.S. initiatives crystallized in the so-called Zhdanov Doctrine. It portrayed the U.S. as the leader of the imperialist and anti-democratic powers. The Soviet intelligence office (Cominform) incited the Communist parties of Western countries to confront the democratic system in order to make the revolution triumph.

COMECON

COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) was an agency for economic cooperation among socialist countries established in 1949. It was disbanded in 1991 after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Military Organizations of the Blocs

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 due to the unrest caused in Europe after the Second World War by the politics of the Soviet Union and the military weakness of Western countries. It aimed to establish a collective security system without eliminating the sovereignty of the states.

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was a treaty signed on May 14, 1955, by the European socialist countries, with a duration of 20 years, renewable for another 10 in 1975 and 1985. It served the Soviet Union to provide a military structure with its allies and to intervene militarily in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Its members disbanded it in 1991.