• Uneasy peace between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

• Competition for world dominance and global power. • Fought on political and economic fronts rather than on military

battlefields---------Even though the threat of war was always present. • Defined America’s foreign policy from 1946 to 1989.

• It affected domestic politics and how Americans viewed the world and themselves.

• Constant state of military preparedness and arms race· Propaganda war----Democracy vs Communism

· US policy: Support nations threatened by Communism

coldwar

Differences between Capitalism and Communism

CAPITALISM COMMUNISM

System of government: democratic

Property is privately owned

Driven by free enterprise (gov’t not interfering in economy)

Wealth distributed unevenly

Most education and health care provided by private entities

Freedom of the press

Class distinctions: upper class, middle class and working class

Focus is on the individual and his/her own progress in life

 

System of government: totalitarian

Property is owned by the state

No free enterprise is allowed (gov’t controls economy)

Wealth distributed equally

Education and health care provided by the state

Press controlled and owned by the state

Classless society: all members of society are considered to be equal

Focus is on the progress of the community as a whole

 

Ideology Differences

CAPITALISM COMMUNISM

People need freedom

Competition great accomplishments

Some people have more than others because they make better use of their

abilities

Governments should not interfere with the rights of individuals to make

their own living

The government should interfere in the economy as little as possible

 

People need one another

Cooperation great accomplishes

No-one should have more than anyone else - everybody's needs are equally

important

Governments should make sure that everyone's needs are being met

There is central control of the economy

 

Capitalism VS Communism

map/cold war

Soviet Union/China and Allies……..

Containment: Stop the expansion of Communism in Asia and Europe

US, Allied Nations and Allied colonies.

1950’s

Focus on Berlin

• After World War II, Germany was divided into four zones, occupied by French, British, American, and Soviet troops.

Occupation zones after 1945. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone.

· In June of 1948, the French, British and American zones were joined into the nation of West Germany after the Soviets refused to end their occupation of Germany.

Soviet blockade:

West Germany

East Germany

West Berlin

East Berlin

· In response, the Soviets cut off West Berlin from the rest of the world with a blockade.

Eventual site of the Berlin Wall

· President Truman decided to avoid the blockade by flying in food and other supplies to the needy people of West Berlin.

Berlin Airlift

· At times, over 5,000 tons of supplies arrived daily.

Satellite State

When a nation is under the control of another.

Ex. Part of Germany was under the control of the Soviet Union.

Other examples: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria

Truman Doctrine [1947]Civil War in Greece.

Turkey under pressure from the USSR for concessions in the Dardanelles.

1. The U. S. should support free peoples throughout the world who were resisting takeovers by armed minorities or outside pressures…We must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey $400 million in aid.

Marshall Plan [1948]“European Recovery Program.”

Secretary of State, George Marshall

1. The U. S. should provide aid to all European nations that need it. This move is not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.

$12.5 billion of US aid to Western Europe extended to Eastern Europe & USSR, [but this was rejected].

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)

United States

Belgium

Britain

Canada

Denmark

France

Iceland

Italy

Luxemburg

Netherlands

Norway

Portugal

1952: Greece & Turkey

1955: West Germany

1983: Spain

Military alliance to counter Soviet expansion.

intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty

Warsaw Pact (1955)

} U. S. S. R.

} Albania

} Bulgaria

} Czechoslovakia

} East Germany

} Hungary

} Poland

} Rumania

Soviet Union and satellite states rival alliance to NATO

was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe

• Red Scare was Americans response to the fear of

Communism

• Senator Joseph McCarthy accused 205 US Govt.

officials of being Communist.

•McCarthyism to destroy or assassinate one’s

character without proof and it ruined the careers

of many Americans.

red scare

Became a witch hunt that led to Americans pledging a “loyalty oath” to the United

States…….

NATO

• Soviets detonate their first atomic bomb…..

• The question is raised, where did they get the technology the bomb?

• Ethel and Julius Rosenberg would be accused of giving away atomic bomb secrets. • Charged with espionage they would be found guilty

and executed in 1953.

Effects of Russian Launch of Sputnik on United States

Effects of Russian Launch of Sputnik on United States

Americans began building underground bomb shelters and cities had underground fallout shelters.

Atomic Testing:Between July 16, 1945 and Sept. 23, 1992, the United States conducted 1,054 official nuclear tests, most of them at the Nevada Test Site.

Atomic Anxieties:“Duck-and-Cover Generation”