Transcript The Cold War Divides the World

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The US, USSR, and even China often
used a variety of strategies to gain
influence in the Third World
They would back wars of revolution,
liberation, or counterrevolution
The US and the USSR both
established intelligence agencies –
the CIA and the KGB
The US gave military aid, built
schools, set up programs to combat
poverty, and sent volunteer workers
to many developing nations
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In 1955, Indonesia hosted many
leaders from Asia and Africa at
the Bandung Conference
They met to form what they called
a “third force” of independent
countries, or nonaligned nations
Some nations, like India and
Indonesia, managed to remain
neutral throughout the Cold War
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In the 1950s, Cuba was ruled by an
unpopular dictator, Fulgencio
Batista, who had US support
Cuban resent led to a popular
revolution, led by Fidel Castro,
which overthrew Batista in
January 1959
At first, many praised Castro for
bringing about many social
reforms, however Castro soon
revealed himself to be a harsh
dictator
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He suspended elections, jailed or
executed his opponents, and tightly
controlled the press
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When Castro took over, he
nationalized the Cuban economy,
which included taking over USowned sugar mils and refineries
In response, President Eisenhower
ordered an embargo on all trade with
Cuba
Castro then turned to the Soviets for
economic and military aid
In 1960, the CIA began to train antiCastro Cuban exiles
In April 1961, they invaded Cuba,
landing at the Bay of Pigs
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Without proper US military support, the
exiles failed in their invasion and Castro
easily defeated the forces, humiliating
the United States
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The failure at the Bay of Pigs convinced
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that
the US would not resist Soviet
expansion in Latin America
July 1962  Khrushchev secretly began
to build 42 missile sites around Cuba
In October, US spy planes discovered
these sites, setting off an international
crisis
President JFK demanded the removal
of the missiles and announced a
blockade of Cuba to prevent the further
arrival of more missiles
Eventually, Khrushchev agreed to
remove the missiles if the US agreed to
never invade Cuba and to remove
missiles from Turkey
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The US supported the anti-communist
dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and his
family in Nicaragua from 1933-1979
In 1979, communist rebels, known as the
Sandinistas, overthrew the Somoza reign
Originally, the US and the USSR
supported the Sandinistas’ leader Daniel
Ortega, but he quickly began to support
Marxist rebels in El Salvador
In response, the US gave its support to
the anti-communist rebels known as the
Contras
The civil war raged on for over a decade,
greatly crippling Nicaragua’s economy
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Following WWII, Iran’s leader,
Pahlavi, embraced western
governments and wealthy
western oil companies
This clashed with the traditional
Islamic beliefs and customs of
many of the people
Iranian nationalists united under
Prime Minister Muhammed
Mossadeq and forced the shah to
flee
With US support, the shah was
restored following fear of Iran
turning to the Soviet Union for
support
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The shah continued to westernize
Iran throughout the 1950s and
1960s, including weakening the
power of the ayatollahs, or Islamic
religious leaders
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, while
living in exile, began to encourage
revolution in Iran
The shah fled Iran in 1979 and
Khomeini returned to establish an
Islamic state and to export Iran’s
militant form of Islam
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In 1979, young Islamic revolutionaries seized
the US embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60
people hostage and demanding that the shah
face a trial for his actions
They remained prisoners for 444 days before
being released in 1981
Khomeini encouraged Muslim radicals to
overthrow their secular governments, however
this policy heightened tensions between Iran
and Iraq where Saddam Hussein governed in a
secular state
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For several years following WWII,
Afghanistan had maintained its
independence from both the US and
the USSR
However, in the 1950s, the Soviet
Union began to increase its influence
In the late 1970s, a Muslim revolt
threatened to topple the communist
regime, so the Soviets invaded
The Soviets expected to quickly
invade, prop up the communist
government, and leave but they got
stuck
Supplied by American weapons, the
mujahideen, were able to hold off
the Soviet forces
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President Jimmy Carter warned
the Soviets against any attempt
to gain control of the Persian
Gulf
To protest against the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, the
United States stopped shipments
of grain to the Soviet Union and
boycotted the 1980 Moscow
Summer Olympics
In 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev
withdrew all of the Soviet troops
from Afghanistan