Transcript Cold war conflicts

Chapter 18
What was the Cold War?
 State of hostility
between the US and
Soviets without a direct
war between them.
• From 1945 – until
breakup of Soviet Union
in 1991
United States
Soviet Union
 Capitalism – private
 Communism state –
citizens controlled most
economic activity
 Voters elected president
& congress from
competing parties
controlled all property
and economic activity
 Communist party
established a totalitarian
govt. with no opposing
parties
 Soviets request for $20
billion for reparations
was denied
 United Nations is formed 1945
 50 nations met in San Francisco to establish
peacekeeping body
 Intended to promote peace
 The two “superpowers” used the UN to spread their
influence over others
 President Truman
 Becomes President two weeks before UN meeting
 Many Americans doubted his ability to serve as president
 Potsdam Conference
 Final Wartime conference
 The Big Three – United States, Great Britain, & Soviet Union
 Same as Yalta, Truman replaced FDR, Attlee replaced
Churchill, Stalin remained.
 Stalin's broken promise...
 Stalin would not allow free elections in Eastern Europe
 Different political and
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economic systems
Soviet had been an ally of
Germany
Stalin resented Allies
delay in attacking
Germans in Europe
Atomic bomb secret
Stalin REFUSED to allow
free elections
At Potsdam, Truman
objected Stalin’s request
for reparations
United States –
Economic Goals
Soviets –
Protection Goals
 New World Order
 Eastern Europe countries
 Democratic Governments
 Self-determination
 Rebuild Europe
 Access to raw materials &
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new markets
Thriving economically
Free/New Markets
Productive Germany
Avoid totalitarianism
Reunify Germany
to serve as protective buffer
– satellite nations
 Spread communism &
workers unite against
wealthy business owners
 Rebuild its ravaged
economy, using East
European raw materials
 Keep Germany divided &
weak
 Satellite nations
 Albania
 Bulgaria
 Czechoslovakia
 Hungary
 Romania
 Poland
 Establish Soviet domination
 Albania – Communist leaders
 Bulgaria – Communist leaders
 Czechoslovakia – free elections, but Communists take
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over
Hungary – Communists lose election, take out
competition
Romania – Communist Prime Minister forced on King
East Germany – Brutal totalitarian government
Yugoslavia – Dictator keeps Soviets out
 George F. Kennan – American diplomat in Moscow
proposed policy of containment
 Meant to prevent extension of communist rule to other
countries – contain it
 Truman's goal: Stop the spread of Soviet influence
 Winston Churchill
 Fulton, Missouri – 1946
 Makes clear statement
describing the situation
in Europe
 “From Stettin in the
Baltic to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain
has descended across the
Continent” - Churchill
 March 12, 1947
 US tried to contain Soviet
influence in Greece &
Turkey
 Truman requested
economic & military aid
for Greece & Turkey
 Asked congress for $400
million for both
countries
 Successful effort –
congress agrees
Becomes US policy
“It must be the policy of the
United States to support free
peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by
outside pressures.”
 June 5, 1947 – US Secretary
of State George Marshall
 Proposed the US provide
aid to all European nations
needing it
 Designed to fight hunger,
poverty, desperation, and
chaos
 Nearly $13 Billion sent
within 4 years, helping 16
countries
 Stalin would not accept aid
 Marshall Plan
 Credited with rebuilding
Europe
 Eliminated conditions that
might’ve been helpful to
spread of communism
 Communist party loses
appeal
 Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance
 Soviet response to Marshall
Plan
 Established in 1949
 Britain, France, & US
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decided to combine their 3
zones into one nation –
West Germany
Soviets are upset about
combining into 1 nation
Stalin takes this opportunity
to take all of Berlin
Soviets block all roads &
trains into Berlin – want to
take over West Berlin
No supplies, food, medicine
 This was an attempt to
break the blockage by
American and British
officials
 From June 18, 1948 to May
1949, US and British planes
airlift 2.3 million tons of
supplies to residents of
West Berlin
 Planes were landing every
few minutes
 After 327 days, and 277,000
flights, the Soviet Union
lifts the blockade
 1st Peacetime Alliance US
had ever joined – April 4,
1949
 12 members of NATO
formed a defensive
military alliance
 pledged military
support to one another
in case any member was
attacked
 12 members of NATO
 United States
 Belgium
 Britain
 Canada
 Denmark
 France
 Iceland
 Italy
 Luxemburg
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Portugal
 Communists struggle for
20 years against
nationalists government of
Chiang Kai-shek
 US supported Chiang
sending $3 billion in aid
 Impressed by his
resistance to Japanese
 Chiang Kai-shek
 Government inefficient
 Corrupt
 Exploited farmers – shot
civilians for protesting
 Communist leader Mao Zedong
 Gained strength throughout country
 Strong leadership
 Worked to win peasant support
 Encouraged peasants to learn to read
 Helped improve food production
 More recruits flocked to the Communists’ Red Army
 1945, most of North China under Communist control
 Nationalists & Communists during WWII, but go back
to Civil War when it ends
 May 1949, Chiang & govt. flee to Taiwan
 Mao established the People’s Republic of China
 Americans stunned another country had become
Communist
 “Containment” failed
 Truman administration attacked for supplying only
limited aid to Chiang
 State department responds that China takeover was
result of internal forces
 Chiang’s inability to retain support of people
 June 25th, 1950 N. Korean
communist troops cross
the 38th parallel.
 38° North latitude
 Surprise attack on S. Korea
 South Korea calls upon
United Nations
 June 27th Truman ordered
troops to support S.
Koreans
 General Douglas
MacArthur commanded
the troops from total of 16
nations, totaling over 1
million troops
 When troops reach Yalu
River, “victory &
reunification” in sight
 Chinese get involved
 Send over 300,000 Chinese
troops to help N. Korea &
push UN troops backs to
38th parallel
 Neither side made
advances
 Armistice brings war to
end by 1953
 End up in the same place
as started
 MacArthur wants war with China
 Calls for use of nuclear weapons
 Truman rejects the request
 MacArthur keeps insisting on war…
 MacArthur goes over presidents head…
 Spoke to newspapers, magazines, etc
 Felt his views were correct about war
 Warned he had no authority to make decisions
 Continued to criticize the president
 President Truman
 Refuses to stand for this
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kind of behavior
Couldn’t tolerate a
commander sabotaging
his policy
April 11, 1951 – fired
MacArthur
Parade in NYC
“Old soldiers never die,
they just fade away”
 July 1953, both sides of Korea
signed an armistice ending
war
 54,000 American soldiers died
 $67 billion spent
 Caused rejection of
Democratic Party in 1952
election
 Eisenhower Elected
 Increased fear of communism
 “Forgotten War” – right in
between WWII & Vietnam
 Anti-communist
republicans accuse
Truman of being “soft of
communism”
 Truman, 1947 issued
executive order for Federal
Employee Loyalty
Program
 Loyalty Review Board
 3.2 million employees
investigated
 Dismissed 212 as risks
 2,900 resigned – felt it
violated their
constitutional rights
 Not allowed to see
evidence against them
 HUAC – House Un-
American Activities
Committee
 Investigated communist
influence in movie
industry
 Sneaking propaganda into
films
 43 witnesses subpoenaed
 Hollywood Ten
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10 “unfriendly” witnesses
Refused to testify
Unconstitutional
Refused to answer questions
Sent to prison
 Blacklist created in response to
hearings
 List of people who were condemned
for having a Communist background
 Approx. 500 actors, writers,
producers, and directors
 Careers ruined
 Alger Hiss
 Found guilty of spying for
the Soviets
 Denied accusations
 Prosecuted by Richard
Nixon
 Rosenbergs
 Ethel & Julius Rosenberg
 Activists in American
Communist Party
 Plead the 5th when asked
if they were Communists
 Found guilty of espionage
 Sentenced to death
 Senator Joseph McCarthy – most famous anti
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Communists activist
Continually made unsupported accusations on
suspected Communists
These attacks became known as McCarthyism
Refers to unfair accusation of disloyalty,
without the evidence
“Witch Hunt”
Claimed to have “list” of names of
Communists
 Never actually gave names…
 Made accusations against US Army
 Senate condemns him “tended to bring
Senate into dishonor & disrepute”
 Today – when people make unsupported
accusations, it’s called “McCarthyism”
 Nuclear arms race began during Truman’s presidency
 Soviet Union exploded first atomic bomb in 1949
 Decision to develop an even more horrifying weapon
 H-bomb: hydrogen bomb, 1 million tons of TNT
 The US entered into deadly race with Soviet Union to see
which country would be first to produce an H-bomb
 November 1952 – US exploded the first H-
bomb
 August 1953 – Soviets exploded their own
weapon
 Dwight D Eisenhower becomes
president
 Brinkmanship – proposal that US
could prevent the spread of
communism, go to the edge of war if
necessary
 CIA – Central Intelligence Agency
 Used spies to gather information abroad, carried out
secret operations to weaken governments unfriendly to
US
 Took action in Iran 1951 & Guatemala 1954
 Soviet grew fearful when West
Germany joined NATO
 Soviet formed its own
military alliance in response
to NATO
 7 Eastern European countries
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East Germany
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
Romania
Bulgaria
Albania
Soviet Union
 Soviet Union was becoming prestigious in the middle
east
 President Eisenhower issued warning that the United
States would defend the Middle East against an attack
by any Communist country
 Hungary was dominated by Soviet Union since end
of WWII
 Hungarian people revolt and call for a democratic
government
 Imre Nagy, Hungarian Prime Minister
 Promised free elections
 Denounced Warsaw Pact
 Demanded Soviets leave Hungary
 Soviets response…
 send troops killing 30,000 Hungarians
 Overthrow Nagy government and replace with Soviet
leaders
 United States did nothing to help Hungary break
free
 Became Soviet Unions leader a few years after Stalin’s
death
 Believed Communism would take over the world
 Thought it could be done peacefully
 October 4, 1957, Soviets
launched Sputnik
 Worlds first artificial
satellite
 Traveled around Earth
at 18,000 mph, circling
globe every 96 minutes
 Americans shocked
 Respond with creating
National Aeronautics
and Space
Administration (NASA)
 Space Race in full gear
 CIA began making secret high-altitude flights over
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Soviet territory
Planes used for these missions was the U-2
May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane is shot down on a
mission over Soviet Union
Pilot Francis Gary Powers was captured and
sentenced to prison
Eisenhower denied it was a spy plane
 Later admitted
 This opened new tensions
 Soviets pull out of Paris Sumit