Transcript The Cold War

Chapter 18: Cold War Conflicts
[1945-1991]
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Section 1
Origins of the Cold War
Why did it happen?
1. The Ideological Struggle
Soviet &
Eastern Bloc
Nations
[“Iron Curtain”]
GOAL  spread worldwide Communism
METHODOLOGIES/How:
US & the
Western
Democracies
GOAL  “Containment”
of Communism & the
eventual collapse of the
Communist world.
[George Kennan]
 Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
 Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
 Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts
of Third World peoples [Communist govt. &
command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist
economy]  “proxy wars”
 Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
Espionage
Video
The Arms Race:
A “Missile Gap?”
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The Soviet Union
exploded its first
A-bomb in 1949.
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Now there were
two nuclear
superpowers!
Battle for the Hearts and Minds
Bipolarization of Europe
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)
 United States
 Luxemburg
 Belgium
 Netherlands
 Britain
 Norway
 Canada
 Portugal
 Denmark
 1952: Greece &
Turkey
 France
 Iceland
 Italy
 1955: West Germany
 1983: Spain
Warsaw Pact (1955)
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U. S. S. R.
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East Germany
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Albania
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Hungary
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Bulgaria
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Poland
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Czechoslovakia
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Rumania
2. US/Soviet Rivalry
(distrust went back into the early days of WWII)
Why?
a. Soviet/Germen Non-Aggression Pact
b. Allied delay in invading France
c. Manhattan Project
Formation of the United Nations
• Created on April 25, 1945. In San
Francisco.
Why?
• To promote world peace.
• But, became a battle ground
for the SU and US.
Adlai E. Stevenson and Soviet representative Valerian A.
Zorin
October 23, 1962
3. Personality Conflicts
Harry S. Truman
•Became president when FDR
died on April 12, 1945.
•Not prepared to be president.
Why?
•FDR kept him in
the dark.
•Did not know
much, including
about the A-bomb.
•Had excellent leadership
qualities
Joseph Stalin
•Became leader of the USSR
when Lenin died
•Strong supporter of
communism
•Modernized the USSR
•Totalitarian ruler
•Ruled with an “iron fist”
Potsdam Conference
US/Soviet Tensions Rise
Why?
1. Who was going to control Eastern Europe?
•Stalin installed
communist
governments
throughout E.
Europe.
•Known as
“satellite
nations/states”.
2. US/British Response: “Containment”
•New US/British
policy: designed to
actively prevent the
spread of communism.
•Winston Churchill said
that an, “iron curtain”
now divided Europe.
•When Stalin learned of
it, he called Churchill "a
warmonger,” and
associated him with
Hitler.
The “Iron Curtain”
“From Stettin in the Balkans, to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the
Continent. Behind that line lies the ancient
capitals of Central and Eastern Europe.”
-- Sir Winston Churchill, 1946
Containment in Action:
Europe
Truman Doctrine [1947]
1. Civil War in Greece.
2. Turkey under pressure from the
USSR for concessions in the
Dardanelles.
3. 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.
4. The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey
$400 million in aid.
Marshall Plan [1948]
1. “European Recovery
Program.”
2. Secretary of State,
George Marshall
3. 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.
4. $12.5 billion of US aid to Western
Europe extended to Eastern Europe &
USSR, [but this was rejected].
Cold War Conflicts:
Europe
Germany
How would the Allies handle the occupation
of Germany?
1. Germany was divided in 4 Zones: US/GB/SU/French.
2. Stalin blocked access to Berlin.
Post-War Germany
Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-49)
Germany and the Berlin
Airlift
1. US and GB tried to break the blockade by flying
supplies into Berlin.
2. The airlift lasted for almost a year.
3. SU backed down
4. Germany was not reunified. Remained
divided into two nations: W. Germany and
E. Germany.
The Berlin Wall Goes Up (1961)
Checkpoint
Charlie
Ich bin ein Berliner!
(1963)
President Kennedy
tells Berliners
that the West is
with them!
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty