Yalta Conference: Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill. Before the war was over they met over to divide German into zones of occupation controlled by the Allied military forces. Germany would also have to pay the Soviet Union to compensate for its loss of life and property.
United Nations: This international organization was intended to protect the members against aggression. The charter for the new peacekeeping organization established a large body called the General Assembly.
General Assembly: In General Assembly, each UN member nation could cast its vote on a broad range of issues. An 11-member body called the Security Council had the real power to investigate and settle disputes, though. Its five permanent members were Britain, China, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Each could veto any Security Council action. This provision was intended to prevent any members of the Council from voting as a bloc to override the others.
Soviet Builds a Buffer: To protect Soviet Union from invasions, Stalin ingored the Yalta agreement and installed or secured Communist governments in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Stalin regarded these countries as a necessary buffer, or wall of protection.

Potsdam Conference (Truman, Churchill, and Stalin): After Roosevelt’s death Truman became the next successor. To Truman, Stalin’s reluctance to allow free elections in Eastern nations was a clear violation of those countries’ rights. At the Potsdam Conference, Truman pressed Stalin to permit free elections in Eastern Europe. But Stalin refused.
Iron Curtain: Churchill’s phrase “iron curtain” came to present Europe’s division into mostly democratic Western Europe and Communist Eastern Europe. Germany had been split into two sections. The Soviets controlled the eastern part, including half of the capital, Berlin (German Democratic Republic). The Western zones became the Federal Republic of Germany.
Containment: A foreign policy adopted by Truman, directed at blocking Soviet influence and stopping the expansion of communism. Containment policies included forming alliances and helping weak countries resist Soviet advances.
Truman Doctrine: Truman’s support for countries that rejected communism. It aided Turkey and Greece.
Marshall Plan: This would provide food, machinery, and other materials to rebuild Western Europe.
Berlin Airlift: Soviets wanted to keep their former enemy Germany weak and divided. But France, Britain, and the United States decided to withdraw their forces from Germany and allow their occupation zones to form one nation. The Soviet Union responded by holding West Berlin hostage. The Soviet Union cut off highway, water, and rail traffic into Berlin’s western zones. The city faced starvation. But American and British officials flew food and supplies into West Berlin. The Soviet Union admitted defeat and lifted the blockade.
Cold War: This war is a struggle over political differences carried on by means short f military action or war. Beginning in 1949, superpowers used spying, propaganda, diplomacy, and secret operations in their dealings with each other.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Ten western European nations joined with the United States and Canada to form a defensive military alliance. This was created because the Berlin blockade heightened Western Europe’s fears of Soviet aggression. An attack on any NATO member would be met with armed force by all member nations.
Warsaw Pact: The Soviet Union saw NATO as a threat and formed its own alliance called Warsaw Pact. This included Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania.
Berlin Wall: The East Germans built a wall to separate East and West Berlin. The Berlin wall symbolized a world divided into rival camps. However, not every country joined the new alliances. Some, like India, chose not to align with either side. And China,