Origins of the Cold War and Soviet-American Confrontation: Readings 1 and 2

 This text is provided courtesy of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

 

Reading 1

 

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. The safety of the world, ladies and gentlemen, requires a unity in Europe, from which no nation should be permanently outcast… . Twice the United States has had to send several millions of its young men across the Atlantic to fight the wars. Surely we should work with conscious purpose … in a great number of countries, far from the Russian frontiers and throughout the world, Communist fifth columns are established and work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the Communist center.

 

Winston S. Churchill: "Iron Curtain Speech", March 5, 1946

 

Reading 2

 

One cannot forget the following fact: the Germans carried out an invasion of the U.S.S.R. through Finland, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary….One can ask, therefore, what can be surprising in the fact that the Soviet Union, in a desire to ensure its security for the future, tries to achieve that these countries should have governments whose relations to the Soviet Union are loyal?

 

"Stalin's Reply to Churchill," (interview with Pravda), New York Times, 14 March 1946

Comprehension Questions

1. According to Winston Churchill, what are Warsaw, Berlin, and other “famous cities” in Central and Eastern Europe subject to? 

(written answer)

2. What is the main idea of Reading 1? 

(written answer)

3. Based on Reading 2, why might the Soviet Union want to make sure “Finland, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary” are loyal to it? 

(written answer)

4. What is the main idea of Reading 2? 

(written answer)

5. Contrast the portrayal of the Soviet Union in Reading 1 with the portrayal of the Soviet Union in Reading 2. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. 

(written answer)