Questions• Why did the United States and Soviet

Union become enemies after WWII?• How did the rivalry between the two

nations affect Europe and Asia?• Why did Communism collapse in the

Soviet Union?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 many cases, increasing measure of control from

Moscow. Winston Churchill- March 5, 1946 in Speech in Missouri

The Cold War

After the Second World War• Yalta, Feb. 1945 Arrangements

made for occupied territories, including holding of elections– Soviet army ensured

communist governments took power in E. Europe

• Germany divided into 4 zones; Soviets controlled east.

• United Nations established• Soviet Union obtained A-bomb

by 1949, U.S./European Security threatened

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at Yalta

A Bi-polar World• ‘Iron Curtain’

– USSR imposed communist govt’s. on E Europe

• Truman Doctrine: U.S. would try to ‘contain’ communism– Support for govt. in Greece

• 1948 Berlin Airlift• 1949 North Atlantic Treaty

Organization created to stop Spread of Communism in Europe (NATO)

• 1955 E. European nations and USSR sign Warsaw Pact

The Berlin Airlift

The Berlin Airlift is considered the first victory for the west in the Cold War. 

“IRON CURTAIN”Following WWII,

E. Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,

Romania, and Bulgaria signed the Warsaw Pact with

Russia. This created what was called the Eastern Block of the USSR. These countries were considered independent

satellite states, although in reality they were under the

control of the USSR.

Cold War Europe

In the aftermath of WWII, Europe was in a state of ruin, with people living in constant hunger and abject poverty.  The United States sought to relieve some of this suffering through economic aid called the Marshall Plan.  This aid package included the

rebuilding of Germany, which Stalin saw as a threat. 

MARSHALL PLAN

The United States, Canada, and most of the free nations of Western Europe formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 

Conversely, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, an alliance between the USSR and its satellite nations.  The satellite nations were more of a buffer zone used to protect from invasion

than a true alliance system. 

NATO & Warsaw Pact

Therefore, Germany was divided into an eastern and western half.  The city of Berlin itself was also divided.  The western

half of Germany and Berlin was rebuilt by the Marshall Plan, while the Soviet-controlled eastern portion was ignored. Stalin tried to keep Western aid out of Berlin, but failed when Allied planes flew around the clock missions for one year, supplying

West Berlin. 

Rising Tension• 1953 Stalin died

– Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) eventually was named as his successor

• 1956 – Khrushchev denounced

Stalin and his policies– Uprising in Hungary crushed

by Soviet Tanks• 1957 Sputnik• 1961 The Berlin Wall was built• 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis• 1964 Khrushchev removed from

power• 1968 Prague Spring

– Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982)– ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’

The Berlin Wall

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990

US

USSR

Total number of nuclear weapons, 1945-1990Source: Norris and Arkin, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 50 (1994), 58-9

The Cold War in Asia• 1949 Chinese Communists

defeat Nationalists– Oct. 1, 1949 People’s Republic of

China founded– Mao Zedong (1893-1976)

• 1950-1953 Korean War North (Comm) v. South (Dem) China U.S.• Vietnam Conflict

– 1954 Dien Bien Phu– 1968 Tet Offensive– 1975 Communists unite VietnamMao Announces creation of the PRC

Domino Theory

“THE COLD WAR TURNS HOT”

THE KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL

THE KOREAN WAR PARK

1961 Berlin Wall Erected

The Soviets went so far as to construct a wall in the center of the city in the 1960's.  The Berlin Wall's stated purpose was to keep

capitalism out, but was in reality a wall to keep people from escaping the brutal life under Soviet rule.  The policies of both sides created greater tension between the superpowers and by the 1950's military

alliances had been formed with each side expecting the other to attack. 

EAST

WEST

“EAST LOOKING

WEST”

“SOME MADE IT.”

The Collapse of Soviet Communism

• Ronald Reagan and the end of Détente (Back to Brinksmanship)

• 1980 Solidarity founded in Poland– Lech Walesa

• 1981 Martial Law in Poland• 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-)

became Premier– Glasnost ‘openness’– Perestroika ‘restructuring’

• By Late 1980s Soviet Economy in state of near collapse

Mikhail Gorbachev

Why did the Soviet Union Why did the Soviet Union

Fall so Quickly?Fall so Quickly?Command Economy Fails

Military Commitments

Satellite Countries Want Out

The government determines production and where the nation’s resources are going to go:

Results in surpluses and shortages

No motivation to work hard because everyone gets paid the same.

“They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.”

The Soviet Union was responsible for the defense of its entire communist bloc of countries. This was a tremendous burden to the Soviet Union.

50% of the country’s resources are going to the military, this destroys the economy.

The End of the Cold War• Without strong hand in S.U.,

Eastern European governments collapse

• 1989 Year of Change– Poland legalized Solidarity– Berlin Wall fell

• 1990 Germany reunified• 1991 Hard-line coup against

Gorbachev failed– Boris Yeltsin, President of the

Russian Federation gains power, Soviet Union disintegrates

The Fall of the Berlin Wall