The Cold War

Soviet Way of Life

• Communism—economic and political where the government controlled all property and economic activity.

• Totalitarian government; meaning there was no opposition to the Communist Party in USSR (they controlled everything)

American Way of Life

• Capitalism—private citizens control almost all the economic activity. People have a choice.

• In America there are elections and multiple parties have a say in what is done in the government.

• At the end of WWII, we were upset at USSR because they were different than us.

• The USSR was upset at America because we had not acted fast enough to help during WWII and we kept the Atomic Bomb a secret.

United Nations

• Was created after WWII in hopes that we would never have another “world war.”

• 50 nations were at a meeting in San Francisco, all of them were trying to figure out a way to create a lasting peace.

• Joseph Stalin—leader of the USSR did not like the UN and would not be apart of it.

Yalta Conference

• USSR, GB, and USA met to decide what would happen after WWII.

• Stalin had promised that he would allow free elections in all of the countries east of Russia (Poland, etc..). Stalin did not follow through with this, all of those countries would create communist governments.

After the Yalta Conference

• Harry Truman (American President) and others decided to split Germany into Occupational Zones.

• Both the USA and USSR emerged from WWII as the most powerful economic countries in the world.

• The Soviet Union felt that they should be able to claim many of the Eastern European lands as payment for the huge death toll during WWII.

Iron Curtain

• Stalin installed communist governments in the following countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Poland.

• These countries would become known as Satellite Nations—nations that were controlled by the USSR.

• Containment—US policy in which we would do anything in our power to prevent the extension of communism. This would define most of US foreign policy during the Cold War

• Iron Curtain—the division between Eastern and Western Europe

Cold War

• The USA and the USSR never fought each other during this conflict, which is why it is called the “cold war.”

• This conflict lasted from 1945-1991.

Truman Doctrine

• The United States was very concerned about Turkey and Greece falling to USSR.

• Truman gave around 400 million dollars to those countries to fight off communism.

• Truman Doctrine—US would support free people throughout the world against communism.

• Marshall Plan—US gave 13 billion dollars in aid to European Countries to help them rebuild after WWII. This was done to help ensure that communism would not occur within Western Europe.

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Issues with Germany

• The United States wanted to reunify Germany (get rid of the Occupational Zones)..the Soviet Union wanted none of this.

• Stalin closed all access to Berlin (half of Berlin was controlled by USA/GB). Berlin was located within USSR Zone of Germany.

• Berlin Airlift—American and British troops dropped supplies to West Berlin (2.3 million tons of supplies) over a years span.

• Eventually, the USSR lifted its blockade of Berlin, however, Germany was still divided (East Germany and West Germany)

Military Alliances

• NATO—military alliance between all of the countries of Western Europe (Belgium, Denmark, France, GB, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, USA and Canada. These countries pledged to come together if one was threatened by Communism.

• The USSR would do the same thing with the Warsaw Pact.

China

• Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Nationalist Government within China. He had been fighting a communist movement led by Mao Zedong.

• As time went on, the Communist Party was able to take control of China (except Taiwan).

• This made many people in America very afraid of communism spreading throughout the world, even into America.

The Korean War

• In 1948, Korea was divided into 2 areas (South Korea—controlled by the US and North Korea—Controlled by the USSR)

• In 1949, the USSR decided to try to take over all of Korea.

• 38th Parallel—Line that divided North and South Korea.

The Korean War

• Truman ordered American troops to go to South Korea and push back the communists.

• 520,000 troops went to Korea and were placed under the command of Douglas McArthur.

• The North Korean’s were able to invade into much of South Korea. Over time, McArthur was able to drive them back into North Korea.

• McArthur was able to drive the North Korean troops all the way to the border of Korea and China. It appeared as though they would surrender.

The Korean War

• The Chinese (who were communist) decided to help the North Koreans and were able to help drive the American troops out of North Korea. For 2 years both sides fought to about a stalemate.

• McArthur really wanted to attack China, Truman did not like this idea because he thought it would start WWIII.

The Korean War

• Truman eventually fired McArthur (who was still very popular in America).

• June 23rd, 1951, the USSR offered a cease fire agreement that would end the fighting.

• The compromise created 2 countries in Korea (North and South).

• 54,000 American Soldiers died in the Korean War and it cost 67 billion dollars

• Truman was not re-elected President in 1952…Dwight Eisenhower (Rep) won

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America during the Cold War

• Many Americans became suspicious that there were communist within the American Government.

• Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were Americans who were accused of being Russian spies (giving secrets to the USSR about the Atomic Bomb). They were found guilty and sentenced to death.

• Joseph McCarthy—Senator from Wisconsin accused many people in Congress of being “secretly communist.”

• Millions of Americans had to take loyalty oaths, labor unions started to decline, people were afraid to speak out against the government

Race for the H-Bomb

• H-Bomb—Hydrogen Bomb, it would have the force of 1 million tons of TNT (67 times more powerful then the atomic bomb on Hiroshima). Scientist argued about the moral issues.

• USA made the first H-Bomb in November of 1952, USSR responded by Sept. of 1953

Brinkmanship

• Brinkmanship—the idea that the United States would use whatever force necessary to stop the spread of communism (Eisenhower and Dulles).

• The United States began to trim the army and navy while making the air force stronger.

• Great fear within America

Spread of the Cold War

• CIA—Central Intelligence Agency, used spies to gather as much information on other countries as possible.

• CIA also began to do many secret operations designed to protect America.

• Guatemala and Iran

Tensions in the Middle East

• Suez War—Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser wanted help building a dam on the Suez Canal. He wanted to get help from both America and the USSR.

• Once American leaders found out about this, the withdrew their loan. Nasser responded by taking control of the whole canal.

• This also really hurt Israel because Nasser would not allow ships for Israel to pass through….war

Tensions in the Middle East

• The Soviet Union had a lot of interest in actions within the Middle East (Egypt, Iran)

• Eisenhower Doctrine—said that the United States would defend the Middle East from any attack by a communist country.

• Hungary wanted a democratic government, the USA would not help them in their revolt because it was a Satellite Nation of the Soviet Union.

Other venues of the Cold War

• Nikita Khrushchev—Soviet leader after Stalin died. He favored a peaceful competition between the two countries (science and economically)

• Space Race—competition to see who could get into space and the moon the quickest.

• Sputnik—first satellite into space; launched by the Soviets.

Spying Issues

• The CIA was making secret high altitude flights over the Soviet Union using a plane called the U-2 (no radar detection).

• This was a very controversial program that had a lot of opposition within the American and Soviet Governments.

• The Soviet Union shot down one of these planes (both sides had promised not to do these missions).

• This significantly increased the tension between the 2 sides heading into the 1960s.

JFK

• John F Kennedy was elected President in 1961. This was a very influential time because many Americans thought we were losing the Cold War (Sputnik, U-2, bad economy, Cuba and the USSR were aligning)…beat Nixon (one of the closest ever)

• Kennedy used television to gain many supporters (overcame doubts of him)

• African American vote helped Kennedy• Kennedy was very much in the “public eye”• He surrounded himself with the “ best and brightest”

JFK’s military policy

• Kennedy saw how communism was popular to poorer countries (Republicans didn’t)

• Flexible Response—main military strategy in which nuclear weapons would not be the answer/threat to every situation

• Increased dollars spend on other factions of the military• Allowed the US to fight limited wars while keeping pace with

USSR’s nuclear capability

• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper comparing and contrasting Kennedy to Barack Obama

Cuba

• Fidel Castro—leader of a Cuban revolutionary force had taken control of the country and declared the country communist.

• This caused the US to cut off ties with Cuba• Hundreds of thousands of Cubans left the country for

America, Castro and the United States were at odds, USSR would help.

• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper detailing the main event of Castro’s life. You will also need to include the direction that Cuba is going in after Castro’s resignation.

Extra Credit

• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper comparing and contrasting Kennedy to Barack Obama

• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper detailing the main event of Castro’s life. You will also need to include the direction that Cuba is going in after Castro’s resignation.

• These will be due next Friday. If you do both papers, you will not have to take the exam. If you do one, it will go as extra credit. (up to 15 points)

Bay of Pigs

• CIA began to train Cuban’s who had left the country because they were opposed to Castro. The plan was to have the Cuban exiles go into Cuba and start a revolution.

• This plan was a complete failure, the invading group met around 25,000 Cuban soldiers. Most of the invading forces were either killed or jailed.

• Kennedy took a lot of heat, America was embarrassed, and we had to give Cuba 50 million dollars to get our prisoners back.

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Khrushchev sent all sorts of weapons to Cuba to help them defend themselves (including nuclear weapons).

• Kennedy responded by saying that America would not let this happen.

• In October of 1962, American planes revealed that the Soviets had missiles ready to launch that could strike any American city within minutes.

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Kennedy demanded that the missiles be removed from Cuba.

• He said that any missile attack from Cuba would send an all-out nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.

• For 6 days the world waited for something to happen…meanwhile, American ships were not allowing Soviet ships access to Cuba.

• Finally, Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union would remove missiles if the US would promise not to invade Cuba. (US would removed missiles from Turkey as well)

Results of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Both Kennedy (brinkmanship, not invading) and Khrushchev (being too weak) took a lot of criticism for what happened with Cuba.

• Cuban exiles blamed the Democrats for “losing Cuba” and voted Republican.

• Many Cubans left Cuba, Cuban population in Miami increased to around 300,000

Berlin

• Berlin Wall—concrete wall that split Berlin in two. This was done to prevent people from East Germany from escaping to West Germany. (3 million had fled)

• Soviets decided to do this after Kennedy had threatened to attack if the Soviets cut off all access to Berlin.

• Became an ugly symbol of the Cold War

Things get better

• Neither the Soviet Union or America wanted to go to nuclear war.

• Hot Line—direct phone connection between the Soviets and Americans.

• Limited Test Ban Treaty—agreed on by both countries, barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere.