Transcript Slide 1

The Cold War [1945-1991]:
An Ideological Struggle
Soviet &
Eastern Bloc
Nations
[“Iron Curtain”]
GOAL  spread worldwide Communism
METHODOLOGIES:
US & the
Western
Democracies
GOAL  “Containment”
of Communism & the
eventual collapse of the
Communist world.
[George Kennan]
1. Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
2. Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
3. Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts
of Third World peoples [Communist govt. &
command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist
economy]  “proxy wars”
4. Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
America WANTED to forget the war
Which of the following was not
characteristic of the suburbs?
A. offered privacy, playgrounds and built in
appliances
B. increased property ownership and
symbolized the crusade against
communism
C. served as model communities of ethic
and gender integration
D. benefited from federal loan policies and
tax breaks
The Cold War
The Anxieties (and Stability) of a
Post-Atomic, Bi-Polar World of
Foreign Policy
Historians have emphasized which of the
following in their analysis of the Cold War?
A. It was the Soviet Union's responsibility for
beginning the Cold War because of rampant
expansionism.
B. It was the United States' responsibility for
beginning the Cold War because of the hard
line stance it took against essentially
defensive moves on the part of the Soviets.
C. It was Harry Truman's critical role.
D. All of the above.
The Truman Doctrine
A. argued that the United States must
oppose communist aggression around
the world.
B. argued that the United States must
allocate money for nations resisting
outside subversion.
C. was initially tied to the Greek Civil War.
D. all of the above.
ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR
The Cold War would dominate
global affairs from 1945 until the
breakup of the USSR in 1991
• While being Allies
during WWII, the U.S.
and U.S.S.R. viewed
each other with
suspicion
• Their political
differences created a
climate of icy tension
that plunged the two
countries into an era of
bitter rivalry known as
the Cold War
POLITICAL DIFFERENCES
• At the heart of the tension
was a fundamental difference
in political systems
• America= representative
democracy that has a
managed capitalist economic
system, free elections and
two competing political
parties
• In the U.S.S.R., the sole
political party – the
Communists – established a
totalitarian regime with little
or no rights for the citizens.
Not really Communist.
Soviets viewed Marx, Engels and
Lenin as founders of Communism
SUSPICIONS DEVELOPED
DURING THE WAR
ISSUES
• Even during the war, the two nations disagreed
on many issues
• The U.S. was furious that Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin had been an ally of Hitler for a time
• Stalin was upset that the U.S. had kept its
development of the atomic bomb a secret
YALTA (in the USSR)
Date: Feb 1945
Present: Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin
The major goal of the Marshall Plan
was to
A. crush the Soviet Union.
B. destroy communist subversion in the
United States.
C. build a series of military alliances
throughout the world.
D. counter communism by offering
economic aid to war torn European
countries.
POTSDAM (Germany)
Date: July 1945
Present: Churchill,
Truman and Stalin
Improve your knowledge
• Yalta and Potsdam were the the penultimate
of the wartime allied conferences. they dealt
mainly with the settlement of post-war
Europe.
• Allegedly FDR was too ill to withstand Stalin’s
demands, and his successor, Harry S Truman,
took a tougher line. By by the time of the
Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the West
had the bomb and were anxious to restrict
Russia.
• In reality—what choice did FDR have?
SOVIETS DOMINATE EASTERN
EUROPE
• The Soviet Union
suffered an estimated
20 million WWII
deaths, half of whom
were civilian
• As a result they felt
justified in their claim
to Eastern Europe
• Furthermore, they felt
they needed Eastern
Europe as a buffer
against future German
aggression
STALIN INSTALLS PUPPET
GOVERNMENTS
In a 1946 speech, Stalin said communism
and capitalism were incompatible – and
another war was inevitable
• Stalin installed
“satellite” communist
governments in the
Eastern European
countries of Albania,
Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania,
Yugoslavia and East
Germany
• This after promising
“free elections” for
Eastern Europe at the
Yalta Conference
CHURCHILL: “IRON CURTAIN”
ACROSS EUROPE
Churchill, right, in Fulton,
Missouri delivering his “iron
curtain” speech, 1946
• Europe was now divided
into two political regions; a
mostly democratic
Western Europe and a
communist Eastern Europe
• In a 1946 speech, Churchill
said, “An iron curtain has
descended across the
continent”
• The phrase “iron curtain”
came to stand for the
division of Europe
Iron Curtain
cartoon,
1946
The "G.I. Bill" set in motion postwar policies that
A. provided veterans with financial
assistance for education.
B. mandated veterans receive favorable
terms for securing loans for home
purchases.
C. mandated preferential treatment when
veterans applied for public-sector jobs.
D. all of the above.
The Origins of the Cold War
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Delay in opening a 2nd front in Europe
Yalta and the end of WW II
Potsdam and the Iron Curtain
Germany and Berlin Crisis
Secrecy surrounding the Bomb
Containment and the Truman Doctrine
NATO and the Marshall Plan
Usefulness of a Red Scare at Home
Proxy Wars (if you can get some other country to
fight your war—why not do it??? (except Korea
• US vs. THEM program engrained in humans
Background and the Presidency
of Harry Truman
• Cold War is the central
fact of U.S. diplomacy
from 1945-1990
• Pre-war and WWII
tension with the Soviets
• Truman’s background
• Truman did not cause the
Cold War, but his policies
and attitudes contributed
• Truman is counseled to
get tough with the Soviets
Presidency of Harry Truman
(cont.)
• Truman ends Lend-Lease
to USSR and stalls loan
request
• Truman “chews out”
Soviet ambassador
• Stalin’s paranoia (to
some extent justified)
contributed to the Cold
War
• Stalin wants “Buffer
Zones” in Eastern Europe
Possible American Responses to
the Cold War Tension
• Traditional Isolation
• Cooperate with the
Soviets
--Henry Wallace
• Turn the Cold War into a
Hot War
• “Containment”
– George Kennan
– Only planned for EUROPE
– “Long Telegram”
(February, 1946)
– Containment hard to
contain
U.S. (false) Assumptions About
Soviet Communism
• Communism is monolithic.
• Worldwide communism is centrally directed by
Moscow.
• Communism is infinitely expansive.
• Communism is a threat to American trade.
• Communism is a threat to democratic
institutions.
• Communism is evil morally.
• No room for neutrality in a bi-polar world.
• U.S. is militarily and diplomatically omnipotent.
The so-called "white flight" refers to
A. middle-class white families leaving
the cities to live in the suburbs.
B. middle-class whites leaving the
Northeast to live in the West.
C. wealthy whites leaving the city to live
on country estates.
D. none of the above.
US Efforts to fight Communism
•
•
•
•
•
•
Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
National Security Act
Voice of America
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Da Bomb
George Kennan and the “Long
Telegram
• Argued that the Soviet Union was intent on
expansion.
• Unless the United States stopped them,
they wouldn’t be content until they had
obtained worldwide domination.
• Leads to doctrine of Containmentstopping the spread of Communism
worldwide
The Truman Doctrine
• “It must be the policy of the United States
to support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities
or outside pressures”
• Plan to provide $ to rebuild WESTERN
Europe
• $ to all nations that refused Communists
• Eminently successful
THE MARSHALL PLAN
The Marshall Plan helped
Western Europe recover
economically
• Post-war Europe was devastated
economically
• In June 1947, Secretary of State
George Marshall proposed a
U.S. aid package to European
nations
• Western Europe accepted the
help, while Eastern Europe (read
Stalin) rejected the aid
• Over the next four years 16
European countries received
$13 billion in U.S. aid
• By 1952 Western Europe’s
economy was flourishing
Marshall
Plan aid
sent to
European
countries
According to many social
commentators, the ideal mother of
the early 1950s
A. maintained outside employment and
domestic duties as well.
B. worked primarily outside of the home.
C. devoted herself to working at home
and rearing her own children.
D. all of the above.
Harry Truman's policy in regard to the Soviet
Union was based on his belief that
A. the Russians were honest and could be
trusted to negotiate in good faith.
B. the United States should cut off all contact
with the U.S.S.R.
C. the United States had to take a firm stand in
opposition to Soviet territorial and
ideological expansion.
D. the United States should maintain friendly
relations with the U.S.S.R at all costs.
Marshall
Aid
cartoon,
1947
Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.
Improve your knowledge
• The Russians took very high casualties to
capture Berlin in May 1945. They spent the
early occupation trying to take over all zones
of the city but were stopped by German
democrats such as Willy Brandt and Konrad
Adenauer. Reluctantly the Russians had to
admit the Americans, French and British to
their respective zones.
The Berlin Crisis and Airlift
• Soviet blockade of
western Berlin
• Possible Soviet aims
• Possible U.S.
responses
• “Operation Vittles”
• June, 1948-May,
1949: 1.5 million tons
of supplies delivered
The U.S. anti-Communist crusade
caused the federal government to
A. reduce U.S. military spending.
B. support corrupt, oppressive, racist
governments in other countries.
C. encouraged freedom of speech and
conscience at home and abroad.
D. lose interest in U.S. holdings in the
Pacific.
The Creation of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization
What everyone
FEARS
• Successful Soviet test of
an atomic weapon
(September, 1949)
• Nuclear proliferation
• NSC-68
• NATO created (April,
1949)
• Soviet perception of this
alliance
• Warsaw Pact (1955)
• Change in Soviet policy
after Stalin’s death (1953)
National Defense Budget [1940-1964]
The House un-American
ActivitiesCommittee (HUAC)
A. accused Richard Nixon and John Wayne of
spying for the communists.
B. proved that the labor movement was loyal
and pro-capitalist.
C. helped capture and convict some of the
most dangerous Soviet spies in the United
States.
D. Conducted an anti-Communist witch-hunt
that destroyed the careers of hundreds of
TV and movie workers.
Anti-communism in Govt.
• 1940 Smith Act: made it illegal to join an organization
that promoted the overthrow of the govt. (Communism,
etc) declared certain cases under this law as
unconstitutional in 1957 but is still an official law.
• HUAC
• McCarthy
• McCarren Act: 1st sedition law since 1798
• Loyalty Review Board: Launched by Truman to catch
spies. 90 organizations were listed as disloyal, 3,000,000
Federal employees had to sign…
• Dennis v. U.S overturns LRB.
The Cold War in Asia
U.S. Intervention in post-war
Japan
CHINESE CIVIL WAR: 19441947
• After Japan left China at the end
of the War, Chinese Nationalists
and Communists fought a
bloody civil war
• Despite the U.S. sending $
billions to the Nationalists, the
Communists under Mao won the
war and ruled China
• Chiang and the Nationalists fled
China to neighboring Taiwan
(Formosa)
• Mao established the People’s
Republic of China
MAO
Kai-Shek
A DOMINO FALLING?
• The American public
was shocked that China
had fallen to the
Communists
• Many believed
containment had failed
and communism was
expanding
• American fear of
communism and
communist expansion
was increasing
• Containment failed in China b/c the US tried to force a
Western model (Containment) onto an Asian reality
• U.S. omnipotence is drawn into question
• Failure to recognize this war as one fought for
nationalism
• McCarthism had fired Asian experts from State Dept.
• Real reason for the “loss” of China
• U.S. relations with Communist China
The Korean War
• “Temporary” division of
Korea into 2 zones
• No national security
interest in Korea
• The call for free elections
• North Korean invasion of
South Korea (June, 1950)
• United Nations’ sanction
of the Korean War
• The “Pusan” perimeter
General Douglas MacArthur
1 The Korean War (cont.) 2
• MacArthur’s landing
at Inchon
• Threat of the
introduction of
Chinese forces on
behalf of North Korea
• MacArthur calls for a
“new war” against the
Chinese and North
Korea
CHINA JOINS THE FIGHT
• Just as it looked like the
Americans were going to
score a victory in the
North, 300,000 Chinese
soldiers joined the war on
the side of the North
Koreans
• The fight between North
and South Korea had
turned into a war in which
the main opponents were
Chinese Communists vs.
America
MACARTHUR RECOMMENDS
ATTACKING CHINA
• To halt the bloody stalemate,
General MacArthur called for
an extension of the war into
China
• Furthermore, MacArthur called
for the U.S. to drop atomic
bombs on several Chinese
cities
• President Truman rejected the
General’s requests
• Rift develops between MacArthur
and Truman
• Truman fires Mac
The Korean War (cont.)
• The “lesson” of Korea
• Peace talks (1951) and
the Election of 1952
• Eisenhower visits Korea
and pressures the North
Koreans for an armistice
(July, 1953)
• Consequences of the
Korean War
--M*A*S*H*
--We learned to never
invade another country
The Cold War 1945-1991
(or have the names just been changed
Improve your knowledge
• The nuclear bomb gave America a lead
which was expected to last at least 5
years. The rapid Russian development of
nuclear technology, helped by the work of
the “atom spies” was a shock.
Significantly, Russia hurriedly declared
war against Japan at the beginning of
August 1945 and rushed to advance into
Asia to stake out a position for the postwar settlement. This helped make both the
Korean and Vietnamese conflicts more
likely.
THE COLD WAR AT HOME
• At the height of WWII, about
80,000 Americans claimed
membership in the
Communist Party
• Some feared that the first
loyalty of these American
Communists was to the
Soviet Union
• Overall, Americans feared
communist ideology, a
world revolution and Soviet
expansion
The Fear Grows
Anti-Soviet cartoon
U.S. GOVERNMENT TAKES
ACTION
• In March of 1947, President
Truman set up the Loyalty
Review Board
• The board was created to
investigate federal
employees and dismiss
those disloyal to the U.S.
government
• The U.S. Attorney General
also drew up a list of 91
“subversive” organizations
– membership in any of
these was ground for
suspicion
THE ROSENBERGS
• Another high profile trial
was the Rosenberg spy
case
• The Rosenbergs were
accused of providing
information to Soviets
which enabled them to
produce an atomic bomb
in 1949
• Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg were found
guilty and executed
The Rosenbergs were the first U.S.
citizens executed for espionage
The Red Scare (again!)
• HUAC:House Un-American Activities Committee
HUAC
• Goes all the way back to 1938 - WWII
• Heats up in 1947 when it goes after Hollywood. To be
safe one had to “name names” (Ronald Reagan)
• Blacklists
• Alger Hiss 1948-1950: Nixon makes his name known as
the bulldog against Commies. Alger was:
–
–
–
–
–
–
President of the Carnegie International Peace Org.
Harvard trained
At Yalta with FDR
A New Dealer
HISSSSS
Employed at State Dept
He MUST be a Commie
THE BLACKLIST TEN
• Ten witnesses refused to
cooperate because they
believed the proceedings
were unconstitutional –
they were jailed
• Subsequently, the
committee blacklisted
500 actors, directors,
writers and producers
whom they believed had
communist connections
The “Blacklist Ten” (And
two lawyers)
• An admitted Commie, to get out of trouble
names Hiss as his contact
• Says he hides secret microfilm in his
PUMPKIN Patch
Improve your knowledge
• The “Red Scare”, launched by Senator Joe
McCarthy, dominated US politics for several
years 1948-53 and helped pressure Truman
into the Korean War, a costly and ultimately
stalemated conflict. Given the suddenness of
the fall of China, the development of the
Soviet bomb, and the shocking performance
of the Western secret services, the level of
panic is predictable.
Tail-Gunner Joe
• Drunken Wisconsin Senator
• 1950: at a Rep Womyn’s Club meeting he
claims to have a list of 205 commies in the
State Dept.
• Although the number kept changing, no
one questioned him. Supported by:
– Fellow Rep’s (good campaign stuff)
– Catholics
– Conservative Protestants
– Blue Collar workers
McCathyism Cont.
• The new President (Ike) also lets Joe have
free rein. “I will not get down into the gutter
with that man”.
• MacCarthy finally meets his demise when
he goes after the Army, and they stand up
to him.
• Seen as a mean cruel bully on national
TV.
AntiCommunist
propaganda
during
McCarthy
era
TWO NATIONS LIVE ON THE
EDGE
An H-bomb test conducted by
America near Bikini Island in
Pacific Ocean, 1954
• After World War II, the U.S.
and U.S.S.R. competed in
developing atomic and
hydrogen bombs
• The Soviets tested their
first atomic bomb in 1949
• The U.S. began work on a
bomb 67 times stronger
than the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima –
the hydrogen bomb
BRINKMANSHIP
• By the time both countries
had the H-bomb (1953),
President Dwight D.
Eisenhower and his
Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles made it clear
they were willing to use all
military force (including
nuclear weapons) to stop
aggression
• The Soviets followed suit
• This willingness to go to the
edge of all-out war became
known as brinkmanship
Some Americans created shelters in
their backyards in case of nuclear
attack
Makes as much sense as this guy
THE COLD WAR SPREADS
• As the Cold War heated up,
the U.S. depended more
and more on information
compiled by the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• The CIA began attempts to
weaken or overthrow
governments unfriendly to
the U.S.
COVERT ACTIONS IN THE
MIDDLE EAST
• One of the first
covert operations
occurred in the
Middle East
• In Iran the U.S.
orchestrated the
return of the proU.S. Shah of Iran in
1953
The last Shah of Iran
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
COVERT OPS IN LATIN
AMERICA
• In 1954, the CIA also took
covert actions in
Guatemala (a Central
America country just
south of Mexico)
• The U.S. believed
Guatemala was on the
verge of becoming
Communist, so the CIA
trained an army which
invaded the small
country
• Assassinated their leader
• The actions eventually
failed as a military
dictator rose to power
But also the Latin American
Marshall Plan
THE WARSAW PACT
• To counter the U.S. defense alliance
(NATO), in 1955 the Soviets formed their
own mutual defense alliance known as the
Warsaw Pact
THE COLD WAR TAKES TO
SPACE
• The Space Race was
initially dominated by the
Soviets
• On October 4, 1957, they
launched Sputnik, the
world’s first artificial
satellite
• Sputnik traveled around
earth at 18,000 miles an
hour, circling the globe
every 96 minutes
U-2 PLANES SPY
•
ON SOVIETS
In the late 1950s, the
CIA began secret
high-altitude spy
missions over Soviet
territory
• The U-2’s infra-red
cameras took
detailed pictures of
Soviet troop
movements &
missile sites
Cold War Thaws
• Khrushchev visits United States
• 1960, US and USSR decide to meet in Paris for a deescalation of nuclear bombs and other war material.
• But then…
U-2 SPY PLANE SHOT
DOWN OVER USSR
Powers was released in 1962 in
exchange for convicted Soviet spy
Rudolph Abel
• On May 1, 1960, Gary
Power’s U-2 spy plane was
shot down over Soviet
territory
• Powers parachuted into
Soviet territory, was
captured and sentenced to
10-years in prison
• Because of this incident, the
1960s opened with tension
between the two
superpowers as great as
ever
Cuba falls to Castro in 1959, and he
declares it a Socialist State in 1961
Cold War Historiography
• Early History: Soviet Union at fault
• Revisionist History: 1960s- United States
at fault; Soviet Union only acting
defensively.
• Post-Revisionist History: 1970s- United
States and Soviet Union about equally
culpable.