1. Peace Conferences
1.1. Political tensions, suspicions, and a conflict of ideas led the United States and the Soviet Union into the Cold War.
1.1.1. The Tehran Conference
1.1.1.1. Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill were the big leaders of the Big Three(the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain) of the Grand Alliance
1.1.1.2. Their major tactical decision had concerned the final assault on Germany, an American-British invasion through France scheduled for the spring of 1944
1.1.1.3. The acceptance of the planned invasion meant that Soviet and British-American forces would meet in defeated Germany along a north-south dividing line. Most likely, Soviet forces would liberate Eastern Europe.
1.1.2. The Yalta Conference
1.1.2.1. The Big Three powers met again at Yalta in southern Russia in February 1945. By then, the defeat of Germany was assured.
1.1.2.2. The Western powers, having once believed that the Soviets were in a weak position, now faced the reality of 11 million Soviet soldiers taking possession of Eastern Europe and much of Central Europe.
1.1.2.3. The creation of the United Nations was a major American concern at Yalta. Both Churchill and Stalin accepted Roosevelt's plans for the establishment of a United Nations organization and set the first meeting for San Francisco in April 1945.
1.1.2.4. Once Germany surrendered unconditionally, the Big Three agreed to divide Germany into four zones, one each for the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union to occupy and govern.
1.1.3. The Potsdam Conference
1.1.3.1. The conference in July 1945 began in mistrust. Harry Truman, having succeeded Roosevelt, demanded free elections in Eastern Europe.
1.1.3.2. Stalin sought absolute security for the Soviets. Free elections would threaten his goal of controlling Eastern Europe.
1.1.3.3. Short of an invasion by Western forces, nothing could undo developments in Eastern Europe. Very few supported such a policy of invasion.
1.1.3.4. The Allies did agree that trials should be held of leaders who had committed crimes against humanity during the war. In 1945 and 1946, Nazi leaders were tried and condemned at trials in Nurembearg, Germany. Trials were also held in Japan and Italy.
1.1.4. A New Struggle
1.1.4.1. Many in the West thought Soviet policy was part of a worldwide Communist conspiracy. The Soviets viewed Western, and especially American, policy as nothing less the global capitalist expansionism.
1.1.4.2. Winston Churchill declared that "an iron curtain" had "descended across the continent," dividing Europe into two hostile camps. Stalin branded Churchill's speech as a "call to war with the Soviet Union."
1.1.4.3. Only months after the world's most devastating conflict had ended, the world seemed to be bitterly divided once again.
2. The New Order
2.1. The German conquest of continental Europe forced millions of native peoples to work for the Nazi war machine.
2.1.1. Resettlement in the East
2.1.1.1. Nazi administration in the conquered lands to the east was especially ruthless.
2.1.1.2. Hitler's plans for an Aryan racial empire were so important to him that he and the Nazis began to put their racial program into effect soon after conquest of Poland.
2.1.1.3. Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, was in charge of German resettlement plans in the east.
2.1.2. Slave Labor in Germany
3. The Cold War
3.1. Confrontation of the Superpowers
3.1.1. Rivalry in Europe
3.1.1.1. Eastern Europe was the first area of disagreement. The United States and Great Britain believed that the liberated nations of Eastern Europe should freely determine their own governments. Stalin, fearful that these nations would be anti-Soviet if they were permitted free elections, opposed the West's plans.
3.1.2. The Truman Doctrine
3.1.3. The Marshall Plan
3.1.4. The Division of Germany
3.2. The Cold War Spreads
3.2.1. The Arms Race
3.2.2. New Military Alliances
3.2.3. A Wall in Berlin
3.2.4. The Cuban Missile Crisis
3.2.5. Vietnam and the Domino Theory