Transcript Post WWI and the Origins of the COLD WAR

THE COLD WAR
THE COLD WAR
What was it & why did it happen?
Part I
What was the COLD WAR?
• Who was it between?
– The US (and their allies) vs. USSR (and their
allies)
• What were they doing?
– State of conflict, tension and competition
• When did this occur?
– 1940s-early 1990s
• Why were they fighting?
– Each country wanted to spread and promote its
goals and influence around the world
What was the COLD WAR?
• How did they “fight” a cold war?
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Military coalitions
Espionage
Weapons development
Technological development
Space Race
Also included “proxy” wars
Nuclear arms race
And of course….PROPAGANDA
Cold War Propaganda – Pop Culture
Nikolai Volkoff
Hulk Hogan
1980
US Hockey
Cold War
Propaganda –
Movies
An Iron Curtain
• Winston Churchill’s “Iron
Curtain” speech marks the
start of the Cold War
– Speech given in Missouri
– Symbolized the ideological
boundary separating Europe
post WWII
– Expressed the vast
philosophical ideologies
Soviet
Expansion
• Stalin expresses desire
to create “buffer zone”
of “friendly nations”
– Satellite nations
• Actually under the control
of the Soviet Union
How did the U.S. view Stalin and
his Communist regime?
The Soviet Union
point-of-view
“All communist parties must take the lead in
resisting the plans of American imperialist
expansion and aggression in all spheres…its
basic aim is the establishment of the world
domination of American imperialism and the
smashing of our freedom (1947).”
The Cold War – The 1940s
The Early Stages
Part II
Important Events of 1946
• Greece
– Civil war
– Communists attempting to overthrow the gov’t
• Turkey
– Soviet Union makes territorial demands
• Canada
– Soviet spy ring is exposed
Early US Response
• Containment (1946)
– Established by George Kennan
– Goal was to restrict Soviet expansion
Early US Cold War Policies
• Marshall Plan (1947)
– European Recovery Program
– $17 Billion in aid
– Aid is offered to USSR (refused)
– No aid is given to communist
governments of Eastern Europe
How do the
Russians
interpret
the Marshall
Plan?
Soviet Response to the
Marshall Plan
They believed the
U.S. was trying to
bribe European
countries to accept
capitalism and
democracy
The Soviet Union in Eastern
Europe
• Soviet Union troops
crush uprisings in
– Hungary (1956)
– Poland (1956)
NATO & Warsaw
What is NATO?
• Official Name
– North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
• Purpose
– Military Alliance
– Attack on one of them is an
attack on all
• Membership –
• Formed in 1949
– US, France, United
Kingdom, Canada, West
Germany, and others
What is the Warsaw Pact?
• Official Name
– The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation
and Mutual Assistance
– Also known as the Warsaw Treaty
Organization
• Purpose
– Military alliance
– The Soviet Union’s response to NATO
• Membership –
– Established in 1955
– Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary,
East Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, and the
Czechoslovak Republic
Crisis in Germany
Crisis in Berlin
• USSR opposes Allied plan to
create West German govt.
• (6/1948) USSR blocks
traffic to and from W. Berlin
• Berlin Airlift – Allies drop 2
tons of food over 10 month
period
• 1949 – German division =
West Germany and East
Germany (USSR)
• 1955 West Germany
granted full independence
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.
The Berlin Wall
• Built 1961 – stood until 1989
• Built to surround the Western half of the capital
city of Berlin
– Barred travel for all East Germans to the West
– Could only travel to West with gov’t pass
• Most were denied
• Initially a wire fence, concrete wall starting 1965
• 5,000 people successfully defected, 100 – 200
deaths trying to escape
THE BERLIN WALL
Communism in China
• Mao Zedong led
communists
• US attempted to aid the
Chinese who fought
Communism
• 1949 – The People’s
Republic of China
– Communist government
The Cold War – The 1950s
The Arms & Space Race
Part IV
“The Bomb”
• The Nuclear Arms Race Begins
• USSR test “atomic bomb” in August 1949
– US gov’t educates public on how to respond
to a nuclear attack
• “Duck and Cover” and “fall-out” shelters
• US tests Hydrogen bomb in 1952
• USSR tests their own H-Bomb in 1953
“Duck and Cover”
and
Fall-out Shelters
Eisenhower and a New
Philosophy
• President Eisenhower
– Vowed to liberate all countries that fell to USSR
control since 1954
– CIA used to gather strategic info and pursue Cold
War goals
• Brinkmanship
– “The ability to get to the verge [brink] w/o getting
into war is a necessary art”
The CIA & The Cold War
• CIA used military power and influence to
install pro-US governments
– The Shah in Iran in 1951
– Guatemala in 1954
• US U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia
in 1960
– Pilot Gary Powers served almost 2 yrs and
was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel
Nikita Khrushchev 1953 - 1964
The Space Race
• Nikita Khrushchev new USSR
leader
– Beginning of the Space Race
• Sputnik – 1957
– First satellite in space
• Sputnik II – 1957
– Dog on board
• US responds
– Explorer I (1958)
– Man on the Moon (1969)
The Cold War Turns HOT!
War in Korea (1950-1953)
• Japanese control Korea 1910-1945
• Post WWII
– Soviet controlled North (Kim Il Sung)
– Allied controlled South (Syngman Rhee)
– Divided at the 38th Parallel @ Potsdam Conference
• 6/25/1950 North invades the South
– Truman and the UN pledge support to South Korea
Fighting in Korea
• General MacArthur led US
forces in Korea
– U.S. 350,000
– Total Forces
• ~800,000
• North Koreans forces
– Aid from USSR
– Aid from China
• Enters the war in November
Fighting in Korea
• Fighting turns to
stalemate
– Near the 38th parallel
• Peace talks began in 1951
– Agreement finally on
6/27/1953
• Results of the war
– 54,000 US deaths
– Stalemate – little land was
won/lost on both sides
– North and South Korea
remained divided
The Cold War in the 1960s
Crisis and More War
Part V
The Cold War under
President Kennedy
• Continued a nuclear arms
buildup
• Increased US participation in
Vietnam
• Created aid programs for
developing countries
The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Soviet Missiles could
not reach US from
Soviet Union
– Began constructing
missile launching pads
in Cuba
– US could hit USSR via
missile bases in Turkey
Results of the
Soviet bases
gave USSR range
to attack the US
The Cuban
Missile Crisis
• United States U-2 spy plane
captures the building of the
pads on 10/14/1962,
– JFK institutes a blockade of Cuba
on 10/22
– Soviet Union sent ships to deliver
more materials to Cuba
– Two days of tension as nuclear
war looms
The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Soviet ships turn away
before reaching the
blockade on 10/24
• US removed missiles
from Turkey
• USSR removed
missiles from Cuba
The Soviet Union
• Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops
invade Czechoslovakia (1968)
– Crush a “liberalization” movement
• The "Brezhnev Doctrine“
– Established by Leonid Brezhnev
• Head of the Politburo 1964-1982
– USSR can intervene in other
communist states if communism is
threatened in any way
The Vietnam War (1959-1975)
• Why does the US get involved?
– The Domino Theory
• If North took South it would trigger the further spread of communism
The Vietnam War
• Sides of the war
– North Vietnam
• Communist leader Ho Chi Minh
• Aid from USSR
• Also had allies in the South
– Known as the Vietcong
– South Vietnam
• Dictator Ngo Dinh Diem
• Aid from the US
Vietnam War Information
• Important Events
– First Major Battle
• Battle of the Ia Drang Valley (1965)
• US troops got hammered— “We Were Soldiers”
– Tet Offensive of 1968
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North guerillas launch massive surprise attack
Turning point of the war
Anti-war sentiment in US increased
Bloodiest year of the war (15,000 American troops died)
Vietnam War Information
• “Vietnamization” Policy
in 1968
– Gradually pulled troops
from the war
• President Nixon
arranged a cease fire
– Paris Peace Accords
(1973)
– Two years later the North
captured the South
Vietnam War Results
• For Vietnam
– Unified country
– 2 million killed
– 3 million wounded
• For the United States
– 57,685 killed
– 153,303 wounded
– 587 POW were released from
POW camps
– 2,000+ personnel are still
unaccounted for
The Cold War in the 1970s
Revolution and War
Part VI
War in Afghanistan 1979-1988
• USSR invades
Afghanistan
– To install a pro-Soviet
leader
– Would become the
USSR’s “Vietnam” – led
the downfall of the USSR
• Unpopular war, drains
military resources, very
expensive
War in Afghanistan 1979-1988
• Results of the war
– Over 14,000 Soviet
troops dead
– Afghan losses are well
over 100,000
– Afghan civil war
continued
• Until Taliban took control
in 1996
– Increased tension with
the US
Anti-US Sentiment Grows
• Revolution in Iran
– “Islamic Revolution” of 1979
– Ousted pro-US regime (monarchy)
– Replaced with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini
• Revolution in Nicaragua (1979)
– Ousted pro-US regime (dictatorship)
– Replaced by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación
(FSLN)
The Cold War of the 1980s
• US view of the USSR
– USSR = the “Evil Empire”
– Strong anti-communist feelings
– Increased military spending
• The Invasion of Grenada
(1983)
– 7,000 troops b/c of Cuban
military buildup on the island
– 800 US medical students on the
island
The Cold War of the 1980s
Fall of the Soviet Union
Part VII
Cold War of the 1980s
• US begins the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
– Space based missile defense system- “Star Wars”
• USSR shoots down Korean commercial jet (1983)
– Killed some Americans
– US places missiles in Great Britain & Germany
• USSR boycotts 1984 Summer Olympics in Los
Angeles
Cold War Tensions Ease
• USSR Economy of the 1980s
– Saw a rapid decline since the
1970s
• The New Soviet General
Secretary
– Mikhail Gorbachev (1985)
• His new political ideas
– Glasnost
» Openness and freedom for
Soviet people
– Perestroika
» Restructure the economic
system
The INF Treaty (1988)
• Intermediate Range Nuclear forces Treaty
– Reagan & Gorbachev both signed
– Eliminated intermediate range nuclear and cruise
missiles
– Over 2,500 weapons were destroyed by 6/1/1991
– Both nations were allowed to inspect each other's
military installations
The End of the Cold War
• USSR announces a
“nonintervention policy”
– July 1988
– No longer able to bear costs of
other communist nations
• East Germany opens the
Berlin Wall on 11/9/1989
– Free election united Germany
in 1990
End of
“The Wall”
The End of the Cold War
• 6/1/1991 – Warsaw Pact
Nations disband their
alliance
• Gorbachev resigns on
12/25/1991
– Boris Yeltsin elected
Russian President
– The USSR “ceases to exist”
THE
END