THE COLD WAR
BEGINS
Essential QuestionsEssential Questions:What led to the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union?What were the major events between the USA and the USSR during the early years of the Cold War?
The end of World War II led to important changes in the world:
The United Nations was created, which replaced the League of Nations
Member Nations
United Nations Headquarters is in
New York City
General Assembly
Executive Council
The UN created a Jewish nation called Israel; this set off a series of wars between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East
The United States occupied and helped rebuild Japan
The end of World War II inspired independence movements throughout Africa and Asia; these
movements were called decolonization
After WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union entered an era
of distrust and hostility
One of the most important changes after World War II was the beginning of the
Cold War
From 1945 to 1991, the Cold War was a struggle for global influence and power between the
Soviet Union and the United States
The U.S. and the USSR were superpowers and rivals who dominated world politics
After World War II, no other countries could match the United States or the Soviet Union in terms of political influence or military might
WHAT IS “IDEOLOGY”?An IDEOLOGY is a
philosophy, or a way of thinking
Ideologies of nations can be based on politics, economics, or religion
What were the major ideologies of the USA and the USSR?
This was an era of competing
ideologies: the USA promoted democracy and capitalism while the USSR tried
to spread communism
The different ideologies
between the USA and USSR and
their desires to spread these ideas led to
distrust, hostility, proxy battles,
and nearly nuclear war
between them
Capitalism Socialism • Private ownership of industry,
freedom of competition, gov’t keeps hands off (laissez-faire)
• Leads to different economic classes (rich and poor)
• Gov’t owns industries and farms; the goal of the gov’t is to bring equality to people
• The goal is to have a classless society with no rich or poor
Democracy Totalitarianism • Government of the people
• People elect their leaders
• Government led by a dictator
• Total control over many aspects of peoples’ lives
Freedom Equality
• Valuing freedoms of speech, press, and business
• Valuing basic needs (food, homes, education, jobs) for all people
Individualism Collectivism • Emphasizes the need for
people to do things on their own
• Competition is a good thing; The best individuals have more power, status, money
• Emphasizes the need for people to work together to benefit everyone
• Everyone works the same amount and every gains the same benefits
WHAT IS A “COLD” WAR?A “hot” war is a war fought
the usual way: with weapons and soldiers. This struggle
wasn’t fought in the usual way. Why?
Both the Americans and the Soviets were aware that if they fought for real, nuclear weapons
would be used
Mutually Assured Destruction: If nuclear war happened, it would be likely that both sides would be
destroyed, along with the rest of the world
Instead, the USA and USSR engaged in a “cold” war, doing everything to hurt
the other side just short of fighting
So instead of a “hot” war,
like two heavyweights fighting it out
and doing terrible
damage to each other…
…this was a “cold” war, which is like two master chess players who manipulate their
pieces and use their wits to defeat the enemy
THE WEAPONS OF A COLD WAR■Threatening to use force■Use of propaganda (this is
spreading information and stories, which aren’t always true, to make your enemy look bad and yourself look good; mixing fact and emotion)
■Economic and military aid to other nations that are opposed to your enemy and their allies
WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?
In 1917, Vladimir Lenin
led the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution
and created the world’s first communist government
WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?
Distrust began when the USA
sent Americans troops to fight against Lenin’s
Communist “Red Army” during the
Russian Civil War
WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?
After Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin
became dictator of the Soviet Union;
Stalin was even more ruthless and iron-fisted
than Lenin
WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?
During World War II, the
Americans and Soviet Russians
worked together to defeat Nazi Germany,
but…American and Russian soldiers meet for the first time in Germany
…events of World War II increased tensions between the USA and USSR
The ultra-paranoid Stalin never trusted Britain nor the USA during the war; he often
disagreed with FDR and Churchill over strategy
The Manhattan Project gave the USA a monopoly
on nuclear weapon technology, which made
Stalin even more paranoid of the Americans
At the Yalta Conference, Stalin had agreed to allow self-determination in Eastern European countries formerly occupied by the Nazis (and
now occupied by Soviet forces)
In reality, Stalin wanted a “buffer zone” between his Soviet Union and the democratic
nations in Western Europe
Breaking his promise to allow voting in Soviet-
occupied countries, Stalin used his military
to install communist
governments in Eastern
European nations
As a result, Eastern European nations turned communist and became Soviet satellites: nations that were influenced and controlled by
the USSR like puppets
In the years after World War II, the USA began to view Stalin as a new Hitler: a dangerous
dictator who wanted to take over the world
THE “IRON CURTAIN”■ In 1946, Winston Churchill
warned against Soviet expansion into Europe
■He called the area of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe the Iron Curtain
■The “Iron Curtain” divided Soviet-run Eastern Europe from the democratic governments of Western Europe
Capitalism and Democracy
Communism and Totalitarianism
By 1946, Europe was divided by the figurative “iron curtain” that separated
democratic/capitalist Western Europe from communist/totalitarian Eastern Europe
President Truman created a foreign policy
called containment to
stop Soviet influence and
stop the spread of communism
When the USSR began to pressure Greece and Turkey to turn communist, the U.S. created the
Truman Doctrine, promising economic and military help to any nation threatened by communism
T =
The Truman Doctrine worked:
neither Greece nor Turkey fell to communism
Devastated European nations had difficulty recovering after WWII, which led to fears of
communism taking hold in all of Europe
Army Chief of Staff George
Marshall thought that
offering monetary aid
to Europe would stop
communism from spreading
there
The Marshall Plan offered 13 billion dollars to help rebuild the economies of post-war Europe
M =
By 1952, Western Europe
recovered and
Communism never took
root
In 1948, the USSR used military force to turn Czechoslovakia to communism; this led to fears that
Stalin would use similar tactics in Western Europe
In 1948, the USSR used military force to turn Czechoslovakia to communism; this led to fears that
Stalin would use similar tactics in Western Europe
In 1949, the United States formed the
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO): a bloc
(military alliance) among
democratic countries in
Western Europe and North America
In response to NATO, the USSR and its Eastern European Communist satellites formed a bloc
(military alliance) called the Warsaw Pact
At the end of WWII, Germany was divided into
four zones occupied by the
USA, Britain, France, and the
USSRBerlin, the German
capital city, was also divided into
four parts, but was located inside the
Soviet zoneIn 1948, Stalin wanted to turn all of the city of Berlin
communist and ordered a blockade, shutting down all ground transportation into and out of West Berlin
BERLIN: A DIVIDED CITY IN HOSTILE TERRITORY
West Berlin was an island of democracy in a sea of communism; Stalin hoped the blockade would starve
the West Berliners into giving in to communism
Communist East Berlin
Democratic West Berlin
In response, the U.S. began the Berlin Airlift, guessing that Stalin would not shoot down NATO planes and risk starting a nuclear war; NATO guessed correctly
For 11 months, U.S. and British
planes landed in West Berlin to
bring food, fuel, and supplies
The NATO planes flew over the blockade and were never
shot at by Soviet forces
Stalin’s blockade cost a lot of money to keep up, and it was not working; Stalin finally admitted
defeat and lifted the blockade in 1949The United States successfully kept West Berlin from
turning communist
THE ARMS RACEimproving armies and nuclear weapons
LEGACY OF THE COLD WAR
But over the next 40 years, the Cold War intensified as communism spread to Asia,
Africa, and Latin America
From 1945 to 1949, NATO successfully
contained communism to Eastern Europe only
The Cold War intensified as newer and more powerful nuclear weapons were introduced
(arms race), espionage (spying) increased, and several wars broke out in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan between American-backed forces
and Soviet-backed forces (proxy wars)