The Cold War: Main Idea
Once partners in war, the Soviet Union and the other former Allies found it much more difficult to
cooperate in peace.
The result was an era of conflict and confrontation called the Cold War.
Cold War: Period of conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States in which they do not
directly attack one another.
COLD WAR INTRO
COMMUNISM
VS
CAPITALISM
• Determine post war
trial: Nuremburg Trial
for Holocaust Crimes
• Determine the post-war
governments of the
Eastern European
nations
Buffer Zone (Shield or Sponge)
Soviet Bloc
Iron Curtain
•
•
•
•
•
Democratic or Communist?
Soviet Union had been invaded by Germany in both WWI and WWII.
Wanted buffer zone of friendly governments to guard against another attack
Stalin promised to respect Eastern Europeans’ right to choose governments
More likely scenario: Stalin just wanted to spread Communism
• President Truman announced
Truman Doctrine—pledge to
provide economic, military aid to
oppose spread of communism
• Congress agreed to send aid to
countries on “the fence.”
• Marshall Plan provided $13 billion
for rebuilding Europe
• Containment – A pledge to
prevent the spread of Communism
around the world
• Domino Theory – Belief that if
one nation “fell” to Communism,
neighboring nations would soon
follow.
• After the second world
war, Germany was
divided into two halves,
East and West Germany.
• Then Berlin was divided
into four zones and
occupied by Britain,
France, the United
States, and the Soviet
Union.
Early Cold War Confrontations
•Early Rejection of the Marshall Plan by the Soviets
leads to conflict
•“Truman is trying to “buy” a pro U.S. Alignment in
Europe -Stalin
•The Currency Crisis: Reichsmark-Deutsche Mark-?
•Soviets reject the introduction of the Deutsche Mark
•Leads to a Blockade of West Berlin by the Soviet
Union -Block of land, rail, and water routes
•Plan: Force the West to leave Berlin for good
•West response: The Berlin Airlift
•Airlift successful: Soviets call off Blockade
• To counter the blockade, the western powers organized and airlifted a total of 2,326,406 tons of
food, coal, passengers, and other items into the city in a total of 278,228 flights. The mission was
known as a success and nicknamed "Operation Vittles" by the United States. The Soviets did not
respond to the airlift to try to stop it. Mainly because they believe that it would fail, and interfering
could trigger a war. At the height of the airlift, planes flew around the clock in four hour blocks
taking off and landing every 90 seconds.
The Soviets officially claimed that
the wall was erected to protect its
population from fascist elements
remaining in Germany. However, in
practice, the Wall served to prevent
the massive emigration and
defection to Western Germany after
WWII.
• U.S., Canada, most Western European countries joined in military
alliance—North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO —designed
to counter Soviet power in Europe
• 1955, Soviet Union, Communist nations of Eastern Europe formed
own alliance, Warsaw Pact
• June 1950, North Koreans attacked South Korea
• Eisenhower: “We’ll have a dozen Koreas soon if we don’t take a
firm stand.”
1 & 2) MacArthur at Inchon
•Truman was concernedth that such actions would draw the Soviet Union into the conflict and risk nuclear war.
4)
Stalemate
at 38 force;
parallel
• UN
formed military
troops from 17 nations sent to Korea
•MacArthur disagreed with Truman publicly.
th parallel
3)
Push
towards
theWar
Yalua River
4The
Stages
to
the
Korean
••MacArthur
With
support
from
China,
stalemate
is
created
at
the
38
will issue an ultimatum to China.
••MacArthur
The
UN offensive
greatly
Inchon
will be relieved
of hisconcerned
duties. the Chinese, who worried that the UN forces would not stop
at the
Yalunever
Riverand
might
into China.
•"Old
soldiers
die; they
just extend
fade away…”
The
Space
& Arms
Race
The
“One Up”
Game
During the 1950s and early 1960s nuclear war
seemed to draw ever closer as the Soviet Union
and the United States raced to develop powerful
new weapons. This rivalry between the world’s two
superpowers became increasingly tense—and
dangerous.
The Nuclear Arms Race
• 1945, U.S. has Atomic Bomb
• 1949, Soviets successfully tested atomic bomb
• 1952, U.S. has Hydrogen Bomb
• Less than 1 –year later, Soviets have Hydrogen
Bomb
The U.S. technological advantage was short-lived. Less than
one year later the Soviets tested their own hydrogen bomb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu5jw60&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Growing Threat of Nuclear War
•Built bomb shelters to help protect from nuclear explosion
•Schools led air-raid drills to prepare for possible Soviet attack
•Books, movies, comic books had plots centered on dangers of radiation, nuclear war
“If we go on with this race, there won't be a winner!”
Soviet Union Launches Sputnik
Sputnik, history’s first artificial satellite—object orbiting earth
Soviet military technology now feared to be in the lead
U.S. government established National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA
Agency would eventually return United States to forefront of space research
In October 1957 the arms race took another leap forward with the Soviet
Union’s successful launch of Sputnik.
On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He received
medals from around the world for his pioneering tour in space.
NUGGET: Astronauts cannot burp in space.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Invasion of Cuba
Leader of Cuba: Fidel Castro
Ultimately will be a dismal failure
What happens…
Castro took control of Cuba in January of 1959, and in 1960 he took over U.S. oil refineries in Cuba.
As a result, the United States stopped buying Cuban sugar.
Castro responded by taking over all of U.S. businesses in Cuba.
This led President Kennedy to authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
In April 1961, the United States attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow premier Fidel Castro.
“Surprise attack” goes horribly wrong
Castro defeats the invasion
Until President Kennedy was killed, it
wasn’t a federal crime to assassinate the
President.
13 days of intense fear and uncertainty
•Nikita Krushchev of the Soviet Union places MRBMs in Cuba for several reasons.
•1) countering an emerging lead of the U.S. in developing and deploying missiles (Arms
Race)
•2) To prevent another invasion of what is now Communist Cuba
•3) To rid the U.S. of their missile base in Turkey
•Kennedy is shown photos of the missile bases in Cuba
•Kennedy responds on television and issues the following: 1) any attack from Cuba
means the U.S. and the Soviet Union are at war! 2) U.S. Navy will blockade Cuba until
missiles are removed
•Kruschev suggests a removal if the U.S. does the following: 1) remove missiles in
Turkey 2) U.S. assurance of never invading Cuba again 3) Cuban blockade removed
•Kennedy agrees ending the Cuban Missile Crisis
Imperialism and Colonialism
•The Vietnam War has roots in Vietnam’s centuries
of domination by imperial and colonial powers—
first China, which ruled ancient Vietnam, and then
France, which took control of Vietnam in the late
1800s and established French Indochina.
•In the early 1900s, nationalist movements emerged
in Vietnam, demanding more self-governance and
less French influence.
•The most prominent of these was led by
Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, who founded a
militant nationalist organization called the Viet
Minh.
Ho Chi Minh
• The First Indochina War
• During World War II, when France was occupied by Nazi
Germany, it lost its foothold in Vietnam, and Japan took
control of the country.
• The Viet Minh resisted these Japanese oppressors and
extended its power base throughout Vietnam. (with the help
of the U.S.)
• When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II in 1945,
Ho Chi Minh’s forces took the capital of Hanoi and declared
Vietnam to be an independent country, the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam.
• France refused to recognize Ho’s declaration and returned to
Vietnam, driving Ho’s Communist forces into northern
Vietnam.
• Ho appealed for aid from the United States, but because the
United States was embroiled in the escalating Cold War with
the Communist USSR, it distrusted Ho’s Communist leanings
and aided the French instead.
• Fighting between Ho’s forces and the French continued in this
First Indochina War until 1954, when a humiliating defeat at
Dien Bien Phu prompted France to seek a peace settlement.
Divided Vietnam
The Geneva Accords of 1954 declared a cease-fire
and divided Vietnam officially into North Vietnam
(under Ho and his Communist forces) and South
Vietnam (under a French-backed emperor).
•The dividing line was set at the 17th parallel and
was surrounded by a demilitarized zone, or DMZ. The
Geneva Accords stipulated that the divide was
temporary and that Vietnam was to be reunified
under “free elections” to be held in 1956.
The Cold War and the Domino Theory
•U.S. policy at the time was dominated by the domino theory, which believed that the “fall” of North
Vietnam to Communism might trigger all of Southeast Asia to fall, setting off a sort of Communist chain
reaction.
•Within a year of the Geneva Accords, the United States therefore began to offer support to the antiCommunist politician Ngo Dinh Diem.
•With “U.S. assistance”, Diem took control of the South Vietnamese government in 1955, declared the
Republic of Vietnam, and promptly canceled the elections that had been scheduled for 1956.
•Why cancel?
The Diem Regime
Johnson
and U.S. Escalation
•Diem’s
provedassassination,
corrupt, oppressive,
and extremely
unpopular.
• Afterregime
Kennedy’s
Kennedy’s
successor,
Lyndon B. Johnson,
•Nonetheless,
UnitedKennedy’s
States continued
support, fearful
of thetoincreasing
Communist
pledged tothehonor
commitments
but hoped
keep U.S.
resistance
activity.in Vietnam to a minimum.
involvement
•This resistance against Diem’s regime was organized by the Ho Chi Minh–backed
•National
AfterLiberation
North Vietnamese
forces allegedly attacked U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf
Front, which became more commonly known as the Viet Cong or V.C.
of
Tonkin
in
1964,
however,
Johnson
was
given
carte
blanche
in
the
form
of
or “Victor Charlie”.
GulfU.S.ofpresident
Tonkin Resolution
and began
to send“military
U.S. troops
to Vietnam.
•In the
1962,
John F. Kennedy
sent American
advisors”
to Vietnam to
•helpBombing
campaigns
sucharmy,
as 1965’s
Operation
ensued,
train the South
Vietnamese
but quickly
realizedRolling
that theThunder
Diem regime
was and
the conflict escalated. Johnson’s “Americanization” of the war led to a
unsalvageable.
presencein of1963,
nearly
400,000
U.S.backed
troops
in Vietnam
by the end
1966.
•Therefore,
the United
States
a coup
that “overthrew”
Diemofand
installed
a new leader.
•The new U.S.-backed leaders proved just as corrupt and ineffective.
• Quagmire and Attrition
• As the United States became increasingly mired in Vietnam, it
pursued a strategy of attrition, attempting to bury the
Vietnamese Communist forces under an avalanche of
casualties. However, the Viet Cong’s guerrilla tactics frustrated
and demoralized U.S. troops, while its dispersed, largely rural
presence left American bomber planes with few targets. The
United States therefore used unconventional weapons such as
napalm and the herbicide defoliant Agent Orange but still
managed to make little headway.
• The Tet Offensive (U.S. Wins…But Loses???)
• In 1968, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong
launched a massive campaign called the Tet Offensive,
attacking nearly thirty U.S. targets and dozens of other cities in
South Vietnam at once. Although the United States pushed
back the offensive and won a tactical victory, American media
coverage characterized the conflict as a defeat, and U.S. public
support for the war plummeted. Morale among U.S. troops also
hit an all-time low, manifesting itself tragically in the 1968 My
Lai Massacre, in which frustrated U.S. soldiers killed hundreds
of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a small village.
• The Antiwar Movement
• Meanwhile, the antiwar movement within the United States gained
momentum as student protesters, countercultural hippies, and even many
mainstream Americans denounced the war. Protests against the war and the
military draft grew increasingly violent, resulting in police brutality outside
the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and the deaths of four students
at Kent State University in 1970 when Ohio National Guardsmen fired on a
crowd. Despite the protests, Johnson’s successor, President Richard M.
Nixon, declared that a “silent majority” of Americans still supported the
war.
• Vietnamization and U.S. Withdrawal
• Nonetheless, Nixon promoted a policy of Vietnamization of the war,
promising to withdraw U.S. troops gradually and hand over management of
the war effort to the South Vietnamese. Although Nixon made good on his
promise, he also illegally expanded the geographic scope of the war by
authorizing the bombing of Viet Cong sites in the neutral nations of
Cambodia and Laos, all without the knowledge or consent of the U.S.
Congress. The revelation of these illegal actions, along with the publication
of the secret Pentagon Papers in U.S. newspapers in 1971, caused an
enormous scandal in the United States and forced Nixon to push for a peace
settlement.
The End of the Vietnam War
• The Cease-fire and the Fall of Saigon
• This cease-fire was finally signed in
January 1973, and the last U.S. military
personnel left Vietnam in March 1973.
• The U.S. government continued to fund the
South Vietnamese army, but this funding
quickly dwindled. Meanwhile, as President
Nixon became embroiled in the Watergate
scandal that led to his resignation in August
1974, North Vietnamese forces stepped up
their attacks on the South and finally
launched an all-out offensive in the spring
of 1975. On April 30, 1975, the South
Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the
North Vietnamese, who reunited the
country under Communist rule as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, ending the
Vietnam War.
4,000 Years of Democracy in 90 Seconds
India is the largest current democracy in the world.
Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?
Perestroika: (restructuring of the Soviet political and economic systems)
Glasnost: (freedom of speech or openness)
1) The Economy : The economy of the USSR was severely stunted by the continued arms
buildups to stay on par with the capabilities of the United States.
2) The
War in Afghanistan: United States’ “Vietnam War or
Dissatisfaction and Change
The dissatisfaction and distrust of the people in
the Soviet system lead to a withdrawal of
support of the central government of Russia in
the affairs of the Eastern Block countries. Soon
many of the Soviet Block such as: Hungary,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, East
Germany and Bulgaria had their communist
governments removed in public elections.
“The Bear Trap”
Some Historians believe Mikhail Gorbachev was a forward thinker,
and he knew the dangers of his nation repeating its tumultuous
history. When he came to power in the mid-1980s, the Communist
Party was the ruling faction in the USSR. Through his ideas of
perestroika and glasnost, he was able to change 75 years of thought
among his people and move the nation into a new beginning. Other’s
feel perestroika and glasnost may have led to the collapse of the Soviet
Union like seen in this political cartoon below.
What are your thoughts?