Happy Thursday!!!• Turn in vocab and pick up an agenda on the

stand in the front

• Did you know: The tombstone of Mel Blanc, the famous voice of cartoon characters Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird and Porky Pig, reads: “That’s all folks.”

Cold War

Origins

Origins• The Cold War lasted from the end of WWII

until the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991

• The US and Soviet Union represented very different fundamental values– The US represented democratic political

institutions and a free market economic system• Capitalism- private citizens control all economic

activity

– The Soviet Union was a totalitarian government with a communist economic system

• The state controlled all property and economic activity

What is a “cold war”?• A war fought using methods that are short of

actual fighting– Arms race- US and USSR built large military

forces and nuclear weapons to scare each other– Alliances- US and USSR created alliances to

protect themselves and friends from attack– Proxy wars- at times war broke out between a

nations friendly to US and a nation friendly to USSR- each side sent money, supplies, troops

– Propaganda- each side created and spread information to influence world opinion

Make mine freedom

United Nations

• 50 nations- INCLUDING U.S.• Charter resembled the League of Nations• Initial successes:

– Created Israel and preserve peace in the Middle East

– Guided former colonies to independence

– Set up a benefit organization (UNICEF)

• Failure- to control the use/build up of nuclear weapons

Eastern Europe• The Soviets faced a lot of death in WWII and for that

they justified their claims to Eastern Europe– Felt they could stop future invasions from the west

• Stalin installed communist gov’ts in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Poland– Called satellite nations

• Europe was now divided into 2 political regions• Winston Churchill of Britain made a speech creating

the phrase “iron curtain”– Stood for the division of Europe

Germany Divided

• West Germany- democratic and friendly with US

• East Germany- communist and friendly with USSR

• Berlin was divided as well– West-democratic and capitalist– East- communist and command economy

The Truman Doctrine

• “Containment of communism”• Guiding principle of American foreign policy

throughout the Cold War• Didn’t want to roll it back but wanted to keep it

from spreading and to resist communist aggression into other countries

• Truman asks Congress for $400 million in military aid for Greece and Turkey to fight communism

• Created alliances- most famous being NATO

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization • Formed as a defense alliance among the US and

western European countries (12 nations in total) to prevent a Soviet invasion of Western Europe– “an attack on 1 is an attack on all”

• Soviet allies in the eastern Europe formed the Warsaw Pact– for nearly 50 years both sides maintained large military

forces facing each other in Europe

Marshall Plan

• Western Europe was in chaos

• June 1947, Sec of State George Marshall proposed the US provide aid to all European nations

• Over the next 3 year, 16 countries receive about $13 billion in aid

Berlin Airlift• Remember Berlin is split but is located right in the

middle of USSR territory

• 1948- Stalin attempted to push the US, GB and FR out of Berlin by blocking rail and road traffic in and out.– Thought W. Berlin would suffer from lack of supplies

and eventually get absorbed into USSR

• US Air Force supplied West Berlin by air for a year forcing an end to the blockade

• Later the USSR built a wall around West Berlin– prevent a US invasion of East Germany and to separate

E and W Germany

Communist Takeover in China

• Revolution in 1949: Nationalists v. Communists– Communists win- Mao Zedong

• increased American fears of communist domination of most of the world

• The communist nations of China and the Soviet Union eventually became rivals for territory and diplomatic influence– Later President Nixon exploited this in 1970s

Korean War• At the end of WWII, Korea split into pro-

communist North and pro-democratic South along the 38th parallel

• North Korean forces attacked South Korea in 1950– UN voted to help defend South Korea– US forces made up 90% of UN force

• American involvement reflected the policy of containment of communism

• Us led forces under Douglas MacArthur counter-attacked North Korean forces

• China Sent 300,000 troops to help N. Korea

Result of Korean War

• End in a stalemate at 38th parallel– Success or failure?

• 1953- Armistice signed ending war– 38th parallel line still divides North and South

Korea– Containment of communism successful– US casualties= 54,000 dead

Happy Monday

• Pick up an agenda

• Start the SOL quiz on the back

• Take out cold war packet, I will come around and check that you have completed the first 3

Cold War

Cold War at home

Post WWII America

• GI Bill- paid part of college tuition, a years worth of unemployment benefits, low interest loans– Helped families get new homes in suburbs-

cookie cutter towns

• Baby Boom- 40s-60s the birthrate in US soared- largest generation in the nation’s history

Levittown

Changing Roles• Women were often reluctant to give up their

independence after the war– Most left their jobs and went back home however– Women were homemakers and images were glorified

by tv shows

• African-American veterans demanded more civil rights– Truman attempted to expand civil rights but Congress

shut it down– Jackie Robinson 1947– Dixiecrats- led by Strom Thurmond to protest

Truman’s efforts

Medical advances

• Dr. Jonas Salk- developed a vaccine for polio

• Dr. Benjamin Spock- Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care– Advised parents not to spank or scold children – Mothers need to be home

Interstate Highway system

• After WWII Americans bought a lot of cars– Suburban living required cars

• President Eisenhower authorized the building of a nationwide highway network– In turn encouraged more development– Long-haul trucking replacing need for railroads

• Disneyland opened in 1955

Consumerism and Leisure

• People bought lots of stuff!!– Washing machines, dishwashers, microwaves,

freezers, televisions, tape recorders, record players, grills, pools, toys etc.

• Recreational activities-– Fishing, bowling, boating, golf, baseball,

basketball, football (on tv too!)

Social conformity

• Fast food restaurants standardized what people ate

• Corporations didn’t want individual thinkers– Personality tests to make sure you “fit in”

• Idea was to not draw unwanted attention to yourself

• Everyone following the “American Dream”

Subculture 1950s

• Beat movement- social and literary nonconformity of artists, poets and writers– Went against conformity

• Rock ‘n’ roll- heavy rhythm, simple melodies and lyrics– Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard– Condemned by adults- lead to teenage

delinquency

Pop Culture

• TV was HUGE!– People having TV in their house

• 1948-0.4%, 1954- 55.7%, 1958-83.2%

– FCC-Federal Communication Commission to regulate

– Stereotypical portrayal of women and minorities

Threat of Nuclear War• The fear of communism and the threat of nuclear war

affected American life throughout the Cold War– US developed the Hydrogen bomb- more powerful than

atomic bomb– USSR developed one too!!– US encouraged math and science programs in schools in

order to get ahead of the Soviets

• During the 1950s and 1960s American schools regularly held drills to train children what to do in case of nuclear attacks– “duck and cover”

• American citizens were urged by the gov’t to build bomb shelters in their basements

Fear and Paranoia• The Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and the

Communist take over in China fueled a fear that communism would spread around the world and to the US– At the height of WWII, about 80,000 Americans claimed

membership in the Communist Party• People thought they had loyalty to USSR

• Loyalty Review Board- set up to investigate gov’t employees and dismiss those found to be disloyal to the US– List of 91 “subversive” organizations was formed-

membership in these groups were grounds for suspicion

HUAC• House Un-American Activities Committee• Investigated Communist influence in the movie

industry– Believed the Communists were sneaking propaganda

into films

• “Hollywood Ten”- group of actors that refused to testify- sent to prison

• Hollywood execs issued a blacklist- list of people condemned for having communist background– Actors, writers, producers and directors (about 500 in

total)

How to spot a communist

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQVXHlMvOoU

Spies in the US• Alger Hiss- accused of spying for the USSR

– Document “found” that were said to have been written by Hiss

– Convicted of perjury and sent to jail

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg- accused of spying for the USSR– When the USSR exploded their atomic bomb quickly, people

thought that they were spying on the US

– Rosenbergs were activist in the American Communist Party

– Denied the charges and said they were being persecuted b/c they were Jewish

– Found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death

Space Race

• 1957- the USSR launched Sputnik 1- satellite– People thought it was used to either spy on the US or

launch missiles at the US

• April 12, 1961- Soviet cosmonauts went into space– Kennedy saw this as a challenge and set out to send a

man to the moon

• July 20, 1969- Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon– Universities expanded their science programs

McCarthyism• Republican from Wisconsin• Took advantage of people’s concerns about

communism• Recklessly accused many American gov’t officials and

citizens of being communist– Based these accusations on flimsy or no evidence

• Led to the term McCarthyism- making of false accusations based on rumor or guilt by association

• 1954, McCarthy made accusations against the Us Army which resulted in a nationally televised Senate investigation– McCarthy bullied the witnesses and alienated the audience

The Cold War in Virginia

• The heavy military expenditures throughout the Cold War benefited Virginia’s economy proportionately more than any other state

• Hampton Roads was home to several large naval and air bases

• Northern Virginia- home to the Pentagon and numerous private companies that contracted with the military

Election of 1960

• John F. Kennedy (D) vs. Richard Nixon (R)– TV played a huge role in election

• First televised debate- favored Kennedy

• Kennedy’s inaugural address- rally the US– US would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet

an hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty”

– “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”

Happy Wednesday!!

• Take out your cold war packet so I can check them

• Pick up an agenda on the stand in the front and do the SOL quiz on the back

• Did you know: Pat Sajak, Host of Wheel of Fortune is a Vietnam Veteran

Cold War

Cuba and Vietnam

Castro and Cuba• Fidel Castro led a communist revolution that

took over Cuba in 1959– Relied on support and aid from USSR– Many Cubans fled to Florida

• Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)- failed attempt to overthrow Castro by Cuban exiles that had been trained by CIA– Kennedy accepted blame for the failure-humiliating

defeat for the US

13 Days of Terror• In 1962, the USSR stationed missiles in

Cuba- Cuban Missile Crises– Nikita Khrushchev (USSR) gave Castro missiles– US spy planes (U2) photographed these missiles

• President Kennedy ordered the Soviets to remove their missiles

– 13 days, US and USSR on brink of nuclear war• Naval confrontation resulted in the USSR backing

down– “We are eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow just

blinked.”- Dean Rusk (Sec. of State)

• Resolution- USSR removed missiles in exchange for US pledge not to invade Cuba

Vietnam• American involvement in Vietnam reflected the policy of

containment– US provided France with economic and military support to

keep control of Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh= communist leader of North Vietnam who wanted to unite all of Vietnam under communist rule

• DOMINO THEORY- Eisenhower believed that if one country in SE Asia fell to communism, other would follow- like dominoes

• Dien Bien Phu (1954)- N. Vietnamese forces defeated French- Vietnam divided- North-Communist, South- anticommunist

US Involvement in Vietnam• When France left Vietnam, the US continued to provide

economic and military support to S. Vietnam to resist the spread of communism

• Vietcong (procommunist S. Vietnamese fighters)– Ho Chi Minh Trail- supply route through Laos and

Cambodia along which the Vietcong received weapons and supplies from N. Vietnam

• Kennedy sent US military advisers to train S. Vietnamese army– Assassinated in Dallas, TX by Lee Harvey Oswald in

Nov. 1963• Shakes the nation’s confidence and begins a period of

internal strife and divisiveness especially over Vietnam

American military build-up• Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) agreed with JFK that a

communist takeover in S. Vietnam would be a disaster

• Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964): granted LBJ broad military power in Vietnam to escalate the conflict (but no official war declaration)– Led to increased military buildup of operations

• the scale of conflict grew larger over the course of the 1960s• American military forces repeatedly defeated the N.

Vietnamese forces in the field, but couldn’t force an end on favorable terms

Escalation

• Pleiku (1965): Vietcongs attack US air base. US steps up bombing raids and use land troops for the first time

• Operation Rolling Thunder (1965): full scale bombing attacks- obvious escalation of war

• Tet Offensive (1968): Jan. 30- the Vietcong launched an attack on over 100 towns and cities in S. Vietnam and 12 US air bases– Lasted for about a month– American public increasingly turned against the

war

American strategy• In March of 1965, Johnson began dispatching tens of thousands of

US soldiers to fight in Vietnam– The draft was implemented to increase troops

• Vietcong used hit-and run -tactics– Lived amongst civilians so it was hard for the US to know who was on their

side and who wasn’t – Also built elaborate tunnels so they can withstand air raids

• American strategy was the wear down the enemy by continuing harassment

• Another strategy was to keep the Vietcong from winning support from S. Vietnam’s rural population– Green Berets (US Army Special Forces) sent in to win the

people over• US dropped napalm (a gasoline-based bomb) and Agent Orange (a

leaf –killing toxic chemical) to expose the tunnels and hideouts

Reactions to President Johnson

• LBJ’s popularity plummeted after the Tet offensive

• In public opinion polls taken at the end of Feb 1968 showed nearly 60% of Americans disapproved of his handling of the war

• LBJ decides not to run in election of 1968

Discontent at home

• Vietnam became America’s first “living room war”– Combat footage appeared nightly on the news

• Thousands of men attempted to find ways around the draft– Medical exemptions, college deferment– Many African-Americans fought in the war b/c it was

harder for them to dodge the draft

• Those who opposed the war but couldn’t dodge the draft often resorted to alcohol and drug use while in Vietnam

Country divided• Those who opposed the war were known as doves,

those who supported US involvement were called hawks

• Free Speech Movement (FSM) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) spread to college campuses– Protests were held on a number of college campuses as

well as in cities like Washington DC• Encouraged people to burn their draft cards

Counterculture• A movement made up mostly of white middle-class

college youths who had grown disillusioned with the war in Vietnam and injustices in America– Hippie era, AKA “Age of Aquarius”

• Made a lasting impression in art and music– Andy Warhol- criticized the “cookie cutter” lifestyle– Woodstock

• Conservative Response- “revolutionary terrorism” was a threat on campuses and cities– Helped propel Nixon into office

Nixon and Vietnamization

• Nixon wins the election of 1968– Campaigned on a promise to restore law and order

– Also promised to end the war

• Summer 1969, Nixon announces the first US troop withdrawals– War continued against N. Vietnam

– “Vietnamization”- gradual withdrawal of US troops in order for S. Vietnamese to take over more active combat roles

Mishandling of the war

• My Lai massacre (1969): Americans found out that a US platoon killed innocent civilians in My Lai– People were outraged!

Cambodia

• By 1970 it seemed like the war was winding down• April 30, 1970, Nixon announced that US troops

had invaded Cambodia to clear out Vietcong supply centers– Had not notified Congress– Congress passed the War Powers Act: the president must

report to Congress within 24 hours after committing troops to a foreign conflict, or enlarging American combat units in foreign nations

• College students burst into protest– Closed down some 1,200 campuses

Kent State

• Kent State University in Ohio• Massive student protest led to the burning of the

ROTC building• The local mayor called in the National Guard• May 4, 1970, the Guards fired into a crowd of

protesters– Wounded 9 and killed 4 (2 weren't even involved)

Result of Vietnamization

• Ultimately Vietnamization failed when South Vietnamese troops proved unable to resist invasions by the Soviet- supplied North Vietnamese Army

• In 1975, both North and South Vietnam were merged under communist control

Legacy of War

• Demonstrated power of the American public

• Casualties- 58,000 killed, 303,000 wounded– 15% with PTSD

• Unlike WWII veterans who returned to a grateful and supportive nation, Vietnam vets returned to often face indifference or outright hostility from some who opposed the war

Happy Friday!

• Turn in your Vietnam song wordle

• Pick up an agenda and start on the SOL quiz

Cold War

Cold War Ends

Let’s hop in our DeLorean and flash forward to the 1980s!

Internal Problems for USSR

• Increasing soviet military expenses to compete with the US– USSR had trouble keeping up with the U.S.,

didn’t have enough money

• Economic inefficiency that led to stagnation and recession

New Policies• Mikhail Gorbachev- general secretary of the Communist

Party in the USSR• “Glasnost” (openness)- allowed for open criticism of the

government and took steps towards freedom of the press• “perestroika” (economic restructuring)-less government

control of the economy– Allowed for some private enterprise

– Took steps for establishing a democratic gov’t in USSR

• Significance- revealed the communist system was failing– Rising nationalism in Soviet republics resulted

• 14 non-Russian republics declared independence in 1991

External Pressures from Reagan• President Ronald Reagan’s policies

increased pressure on the USSR that contributed to its collapse– Increased military spending that USSR couldn’t

match• Example: SDI (aka “Star Wars”)- missile defense

shield

– Challenged moral legitimacy of the USSR• Example: Speech at Berlin Wall- Mr. Gorbechev,

tear down this wall”– Berlin Wall torn down in Nov. 1989

Cold War Legacy in US

• During the Cold War era, millions of Americans served in the military to defend freedom in wars and conflicts that weren’t always popular

• As a result the US and American ideals of democracy and freedom ultimately prevailed in the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union’s communist system

The “Reagan Revolution”

• Election of 1980- Ronald Reagan (R) v. Jimmy Carter (D)

• “Reagan Revolution”- term used to describe the shift to a more conservative path during President Reagan’s time in office– Redefining of federalism= more power to the

states, less power to the national government

Reagan and the Supreme Court

• Made appointments of conservative federal judges and supreme court justices who exercised “judicial restraint”– Sandra Day O’Connor- first woman to be

appointed to the Supreme Court

Reagan’s influence

• Extends beyond his time in office– 1988- Reagan’s VP, George H.W. Bush was

elected president– 1994- Republican candidates dominated

congressional elections– 2000- election of George W. Bush

Reaganomics

• Definition- President Reagan’s economic policies that included– Budget cuts- reduction in number and scope of

government

Flash forward to the 1980’s!

• March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union– Advocated a policy known as “glasnost” (“openness”)-

allowed open criticism of the soviet gov’t and took steps towards freedom of press

– In 1987- outlined “perestrokia”- reconstructing Soviet society

• Less gov’t control of economy, some private enterprise, and steps towards democracy

President Ronald Reagan

• Reagan challenged moral legitimacy of the Soviet Union– “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

• Referring to the Berlin Wall in Germany

• Reagan increased the US military and economic pressures on the Soviet Union

• The Cold War officially ends in 1990