The Cold War 19451991
Cold War
• The Cold War was a time after WW2 when
the USA and the Soviet Union were rivals
for world influence.
• 2 political ideologies – communism and
captialism
• Soviet takeover in E Europe (Hungarians
revolt in 1956)
YALTA (in the USSR)
Date: Feb 1945
Present: Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin
Conferences
Yalta (Feb, 1945)
Potsdam (July, 1945)
•
•
•
•
•
•
When carving up what to do with
Germany after the war, the big 3 met
(Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) met first
in Teheran (1943) and then by the Black
sea in Yalta in the USSR (1945)
The allies drew up an overall strategy for
the defeat and the occupation of Germany.
At the centre of talks was what to do about
Berlin.
It was decided that the Russians continue
their advance and capture Berlin.
When the war was over however, all 3
allies would occupy the city of Berlin.
(The fact that Berlin was allowed to fall to
the Soviets would later haunt the
allies).
•
•
•
•
Instead of coming up with another horrific
treaty of Versailles, the allies decided that
they would a more lasting peace
document.
Atlee, Truman and Stalin met on the
outskirts of Berlin in Potsdam to outline
the plans for peace.
Germany would be divided into four major
occupation zones. (USSR, USA, Britain,
France).
Trials would be set up for Nazi War
criminals. USSR could extend into
Poland.
Berlin would be divided into four zones as
well (big 3 and France). Berlin became
the focal point of an East-West
confrontation.
POTSDAM (Germany)
Date: July 1945
Present: Churchill,
Truman and Stalin
Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.
What was the Cold War?
– A battle of words, propaganda and
intimidation.
– U.S.S.R. and the United States
competed for dominance.
– Proxy wars erupted: Korean and
Vietnam.
– Characterized by a nuclear arms race
and military alliances.
Three types of war
• Hot War: actual
warfare
• Warm War: talks are
going on but military
forces have been
mobilised
• Cold War: neither
side fights but tensions
are always high
Background Causes
– 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
– The US was hostile to Russia for taking her out of
WWI.
– The totalitarian nature of Stalin’s regime.
– Stalin and Roosevelt had opposing aims.
– The US refusal to share nuclear secrets with
Russia.
Causes of Tension
• The United States has free elections, is
democratic and Capitalist, “survival of
the fittest” and personal freedom.
• Soviet Union had no elections or fixed
elections, it was Autocratic and
Communist, the NKVD (secret police)
and few personal freedoms.
Steps Leading to the Cold
War
– Communist Revolution.
– Russian Industrial Revolution created
uneasiness in the West.
– The Yalta Conference.
– Hiroshima and Nagasaki greatly
increased mistrust.
– Igor Gouzenko defected to Canada.
Effects of these
Developments
– International relations were dominated by
the Cold War.
– Capitalist west and the communist east.
– Germany would be divided.
– The USSR tightened its control over
Eastern European states.
– The US abandoned its policy of
isolationism.
Propaganda
Films
Improve your knowledge
Constant
• The nuclear bomb gave America a lead
Reminders
which was expected to last at least 5
of the
Past: The rapid Russian development of
years.
WWII
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 Turning Point- 1946
Speeches
• Stalin
• Churchill
• To voters in Moscow in Feb,
1946
• Stalin predicted that because of
“the unevenness of
developmnent of the capitalist
countries” they would split into
“two hostile camps, with war as
the inevitable result”
• Iron Curtain Speech
• Warning the American people
of the Soviet threat
The sentence “From Stettin in
the Baltic to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has
descended across the continent
of Europe”. These words
marked the beginning of the
Cold War.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
jvax5VUvjWQ
Leaders during the Cold War
USA Leaders
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Franklin Delano RooseveltDemocratic1933–45
Harry S. TrumanDemocratic1945–53
Dwight David EisenhowerRepublican1953–61
John Fitzgerald KennedyDemocratic1961–63
Lyndon Baines JohnsonDemocratic1963–69
Richard Milhous Nixon Republican 1969-74
Gerald Rudolph Ford Republician 1974-77
Jimmy CarterDemocratic1977–81
Ronald Wilson Reagan Republician 1981-89
George Bush 1989-1993
Canada’s Prime Ministers
William Lyon Mackenzie King 1935-1948
Louis St. Laurent 1978-57
John Diefenbaker 1957-63
Lester B. Pearson1963-68
Pierre Trudeau1968-79
Joe Clark 1979-80
Pierre Trudeau 1980-84
Brian Mulroney 1984-1993
Great Britain Leaders
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Winston ChurchillCoalition1940–45
Clement AttleeLabour1945–51S
Sir Winston ChurchillConservative1951–55
Sir Anthony EdenConservative1955–57
Harold MacmillanConservative1957–63
Sir Alec Douglas-HomeConservative1963–64
Harold WilsonLabour1964–70
Edward HeathConservative1970–74
Harold WilsonLabour1974–76
James CallaghanLabour1976–79
Margaret ThatcherConservative1979–90
John Major 1990-1997
USSR Leaders
Joseph stalin 1922-1953
•Nikita kruchev 1953-1964
•Leonid brezhnev 1966-1982
•Gorbachev 1985-1991
Soviet Takeover of Eastern
Europe
– By 1948 Poland, Hungary, Romania,
Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania,
Czechoslovakia and Eastern Germany
were communist.
– Buffer states protected the motherland.
– These nations followed the Stalin model of
economic control.
Truman Doctrine
• The Truman Doctrine in March
1947 promised that the USA
“would support free peoples who
are resisting” communism.
• This led to containment – policy of
containing communism where it is.
• Truman’s image of “apples in a
barrel infected by one rotten one”
became the justification for the
policy of containment, a defining
element of the USA’s policy after
WWII.
Domino Theory
Communism spreads like a disease
Elements of Containment
– The Truman Doctrine.
– Containment.
– The Marshall Plan.
Conversion Calculator
Phase 1: Containment
1947-49
– 1947: Truman Doctrine. Marshall Aid
(Marshall Plan)
– 1948: Berlin blockade. Allies respond
with the Berlin airlift.
– 1949: NATO. USSR exploded her
first atomic bomb. China became
Communist.
– Activity: Concept Map of the Truman
Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
Soviet Response to Marshall
Plan
– Bilateral trade agreements with
Communist nations.
• Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance, Est’d 1949)
– The Cominform was established.
– The Berlin Blockade.
The Berlin Blockade (1948)
– US, Britain and France united their
zones of occupation.
– Stalin closed all entrances to West
Berlin
– Lasted 318 days.
– 275 000 Allied flights carried in 1 ½
million tones of supplies.
– Detailed Background Information
Images of the Berlin
Blockade
Berlin Blockade
• The United States begins to airlift goods to Berlin.
• A very costly commitment
• Under the leadership of General Curtis LeMay, ten-ton
capacity C-54s began supplying the city on July 1.
"Operation Vittles « and often referred to as "LeMay's
feed and coal company ," was bringing in an average of
5,000 tons of supplies a day by the fall of 1948.
• The Blockade ends in 1949 with the Soviets lifting the
blockade as they see the US not giving up.
• As a result, the Federal Republic of West Germany and the
Democratic Republic of East Germany is created.
Berlin blockade led to Berlin
Airlift
Escalation of the Berlin Airlift
Berlin Airlift
• Blockade of Berlin began
on June 24, ’48
• From June 1948 to May
1949, U.S. and British
planes airlift 1.5 million
tons of supplies to the
residents of West Berlin.
• After 200,000 flights, the
Soviet Union lifts the
blockade.
Operation Vittles
• All of the necessities for the city's 2.5 million
residents -- an estimated 4,500 tons of food, coal
and other materials each day -- had to enter the
city by air.
• On its biggest day, the "Easter parade" of April 16,
1949, the airlift sent 1,398 flights into Berlin -one every minute.
• Before it was all over, more than 278,000 flights
would carry 2.3 million tons of relief supplies.
Berlin Airlift
• The airlift marked a rise in tensions between the West and the
Soviets, but it also helped heal divisions left by World War II.
• Almost immediately, The United States, Great Britain, and France
shifted from Germany's conquerors to its protectors.
• "The airlift was the starting point for Germany's inclusion in the West
and for the reconciliation with the Western powers," Berlin Mayor
Eberhard Diepgen says.
• Allied cooperation paved way for formation of new military alliance,
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO
• Soviets formed their own alliance called Warsaw Pact in 1955
Significance
• First Cold War Conflict
• Differing views as to how to deal with
Germany
• Truman’s popularity was at a low- this would
boost it.
• Germany is officially divided
• NATO created shortly after as fear of
communist build-up.
• Warsaw Pact
• Activity: Berlin Blockade Concept Map
• Activity: Berlin Blockade Debate
Consequences of
Containment
– By 1949, Europe was divided into two rival
camps.
– Truman ordered the development of a
hydrogen bomb.
– A peace treaty with Japan was proposed.
– The US became the ‘world policeman’.
– McCarthyism erupted in 1948.
Two sides of Cold War
• NATO (1948) –
• Warsaw Pact
North Atlantic
(1955) – pro Soviet
Treaty
countries – USSR,
Organization
and all countries
controlled by the
• USA, France, Great
USSR.
Britain, West
Germany
• COMMUNISM
• CAPITALISM
The Teams
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
How Successful Was it?
– Capitalist western European states.
– Marshall Aid resulted in economic growth
for many people in Western Europe.
– Territorially, communism made no gains.
– Communist parties were doing less well.
– Korea was partly a success.
– China was the biggest failure.
McCarthyism and
the Red Scare
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” In the years
following the end of World War II, fear of Communism grew. The events of the war
contributed to growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Spy cases made people speculate about the extent of Communist infiltration in the
government.
Could Communists be planning to destroy our way of life? People were afraid.
1950's the "Red" Scare destroyed thousands of peoples lives that were accused of being
Communists. Those accused in both witch hunts were put on trial, and while many were
killed in Salem, the Red Scare had blacklisted those persecuted. The leader of this
modern day witch-hunt was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
In the midst of this fear came Joseph McCarthy. In 1950, this senator from Wisconsin
made a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he claimed to have a list of 205
people in the state department who were members of the Communist party. Aided by the
FBI, McCarthy began his search for Communists. People were called before Congress to
testify about their loyalty to the US government. They were asked to name names and
report their friends, neighbors and family.
With increasing conviction in his anti-Communist crusade, McCarthy recklessly
attacked some of the country's leading public officials.
Films on the Red Scare
•
Guilty by Suspicion is a 1991 film about the Hollywood blacklist
and associated activities steeming from McCarthyism.
•
•
Good Luck and Good Night Trailer
The movie takes place during the early days of broadcast
journalism in the 1950s. Edward Morrow in the CBS
newsroom—defy corporate and sponsorship pressures, and
discredit the tactics used by Joseph McCarthy during his crusade
to root out communist elements within the government.
China becomes a Communist
Nation, 1949
• Mao Zedong brands his own
form of Marxism on an
agricultural society
• Six principles of the army –
reasonable and respectful
• Guerrilla warfare – perhaps
the first?
• Major social reforms in
China – agrarian reform law,
marriage reform law, thought
reform and education reform
• Cultural revolution
China
Mao: “The enemy advances, we
retreat. The enemy camps, we
harass. The enemy tires, we attack.
The enemy retreats, we pursue.”
Background to Korea
• 1910-1945 – Korea was a Japanese
colony
• Soviets (against Japan) invade Korea
from the North
• The USA goes to South Korea to help
fight the Soviets
• As a result of the conferences (Yalta,
Potsdam) Korea was divided into 2 zones
of occupation after the Japanese
surrender.
Korean War, 1950-1953
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
On June 25, North Korean communist forces
cross the 38th parallel and invade South Korea.
On June 27, Truman orders U.S. forces to assist
the South Koreans
Communists invaded from the north. China sent
a million troops to help reds.
The U.N. Security Council condemns the
invasion and est’d a 15-nation fighting force.
Finally a truce was signed on July 27, 1953.
After a loss of 34 000 US soldiers, over 800 000
S. Koreans, 500 000 N.Koreans and nearly two
million Chinese.
The negotiators decided to return to the status
quo, to uphold the division b/w N. and S. Korea
along the 38th parallel.
Video Clip on the Korean War (No talking,
maps and text)
Korean War Video Clip 2 (Better talking)
Korean War Video Clip 3 (Interviews, song with
images)
The Korean War 1950-53
– China remained commercially
isolated from the West and
out of the United Nations for
22 years.
– China gained prestige.
– South Korea remained noncommunist.
– Money needed for
reconstruction had been
diverted to war.
– US and Europe rearmed.
M*A*S*H
(Mobile Army Surgical Headquarters)
• MASH was an American TV show that was a medical
drama following a team of doctors and support staff
stationed in Korea during the Korean War.
• The show was very popular and the finale in 1983 became
the most watched TV episode in US TV history.
• Many of the shows are based on the real life tales told by
real MASH surgeons who were interviewed by the
production team.
Phase 2: Coexistence 1950-68
– 1950: Korean War began.
– 1952: U.S. exploded her first hydrogen
bomb.
– 1953: Korean War ended. USSR exploded
her first hydrogen bomb. Stalin dies.
Khrushchev becomes first secretary.
– 1955: Warsaw Pact is established.
– 1955: Massive Retalation
Massive Retaliation
•
On January 12, 1955 U.S. Secretary of
State John Foster Dulles first announces
the doctrine of Massive Retaliation.
•
It threatens full-scale nuclear attack on
the Soviet Union in response to
communist aggression anywhere in the
world.
•
Prevent the spread of Soviet influence,
balance the budget.
•
Shifted to US nuclear arsenal and
covert intelligence.
John Foster Dulles and MacArthur in Korea, 1950
Phase 2: Coexistence
– 1956: Khrushchev calls for “peaceful coexistence.”
– 1957: Sputnik. USSR successfully tests an
ICBM.
– 1959: Cuba becomes Communist.
– 1960: US embargo on exports to Cuba.
John F. Kennedy becomes U.S. President.
Peaceful Coexistence
– Khrushchev announced “peaceful
coexistence.”
– Warsaw Pact was created.
– US-USSR relations improved.
– Mao opposed ‘peaceful co-existence.’
– Soviet Communist party was
weakened.
Sputnik (1957)
–
•
•
Soviets jumped into the lead of the
space race.
– Soviet missiles could now hit
anywhere on the planet.
– Kennedy promised that Americans
would land on the moon.
– The first satelite
On October 4, the Soviet Union launches
Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit
the Earth.
In 1958, the U.S. creates the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, and
the space race is in full gear.
Space Race
The USA and the Soviet Union raced as the
world watched to be the first to conquer
space.
• Score: USA – 0
• Soviets - 2
• Apollo Program
• USA spent the 60s
trying to catch up to
the Soviets.
Armstrong lands on moon!
•
What is the purpose of a space
program?
•
July 16-24 1969.
•
The mission of Apollo 11 was from
those dates, and the actual moon
landing and first step onto the
moon took place on July 20 1969.
1959 - Castro takes power
• January 1, 1959 leftist
forces under Fidel
Castro overthrow
Fulgencio Batista
• Castro nationalizes the
sugar industry and signs
trade agreements with
the Soviet Union.
• The next year, Castro
seizes U.S. assets on the
island.
Embargoes
• Refusing to
trade or aid
countries in
order to
punish them
Cuba embargo
• Still today, the USA
has an economic
embargo on
communist Cuba.
• Their only cars are
from before the
embargo!
• Should the Americans
end their embargo?
1960 - The U-2 Affair
• On May 1, an American high-altitude
U-2 spy plane is shot down on a mission
over the Soviet Union.
• After the Soviets announce the capture
of pilot Francis Gary Powers, the United
States recants earlier assertions that the
plane was on a weather research
mission.
The U-2 Affair
•Suffering major embarrassment,
Eisenhower was forced to admit the
truth behind the mission and the U2 program, although he refused to
publicly apologize to Khrushchev.
•This refusal caused the Paris
Summit to collapse when
Khrushchev stormed out of
negotiations.
• Powers was sentenced to ten years in prison, including seven years
of hard labor, following an infamous show-trial.
• He served less than two years, however, and was released in 1962
in exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
Phase 2: Coexistence
• 1961: “Bay of Pigs”. The Berlin Wall is built.
• 1963: Huge increase of American aid to
Vietnam. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed.
• 1964: Brezhnev. China explodes its first
atomic bomb.
• 1965: US marines are sent to South Vietnam
for combat.
1961 - Berlin Wall
• On August 15, communist
authorities begin construction
on the Berlin Wall to prevent
East Germans from fleeing to
West Berlin.
• Berlin Wall Questions
The Berlin Wall
– The Russians claimed Americans used
West Berlin for spying.
– Comparisons of East and West would
cease.
– Stop the flow of East German citizens.
– Berlin was split in two.
– Tension grew as both sides started nuclear
testing.
– The West became more anti-communist.
Berlin
BerlinWall
Wall
Note the
Barbed Wire
1961 - Bay of Pigs
• U.S.-organized invasion force
of 1,400 Cuban exiles is
defeated by Castro's
government forces on Cuba's
south coast at the Bay of Pigs.
• Launched from Guatemala in
ships and planes provided by
the United States, the invaders
surrender on April 20 after
three days of fighting.
• Kennedy takes full
responsibility for the disaster.
Captured Cubans
Bay of Pigs
• The CIA trained
and funded an
invasion of
communist Cuba.
The invasion failed,
and Castro had
some powerful
friends!
Soviet response.
• Don’t worry comrade
Castro. We got your
back!
The Cuban Missile Crisis 1961-62
– The Bay of Pigs.
– Hot-line was established.
– The first test ban treaty was signed.
– The USSR began a huge military
buildup.
Cuban Missile Crisis
– The US cut off all diplomatic
and trade relations with Cuba.
– Khrushchev’s loss of prestige
contributed to his fall.
– Both sides were more careful in
the future.
– Cuba remained a Communist
dictatorship.
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
• After Bay of Pigs invasion, the
Soviet Union installed nuclear
missiles in Cuba.
• After U-2 flights Kennedy
ordered a naval blockade of
Cuba on October 22 until the
Soviet Union removed its
missiles.
• On October 28, the Soviets
agreed to remove the missiles,
defusing one of the most
dangerous confrontations of the
Cold War.
The End of the
Cuban Missile
Crisis:
http://library.thinkq
uest.org/11046/day
s/conclusion.html
Copyright 2007 unimaps.com, used with permission
A U2 spy plane found these missile
silos in Cuba, 1962.
End to a crisis!
• The Soviets removed the
missiles in Cuba.
• In exchange, USA pledged to
not invade Cuba again. And to
remove missiles in Turkey
(right).
John F. Kennedy (JFK)
U.S. President – 1961-1963
• JFK
• Famous Speeches
• Ask not what your country can
do for you
• Man on the Moon
• JFK was shot in Dallas
• Video of Shooting
The Vietnam War 1964-75
– The US had lost its first war in
History.
– America’s military could not stop the
spread of Communism.
– The US tried to improve their relations
with China.
– Leaders determined there would be
“no more Vietnams.”
1973 - Vietnam War agreement
(Paris Accords)
• January 27, 1973, the United States, South
Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong sign
the Paris Peace Treaty, establishing a cease-fire.
• The United States is allowed to continue
providing aid to South Vietnam.
• Saigon falls in April 1975.
Vietnam War 1960s-1973
• Through the Kennedy
years, US troops trained S.
Vietnamese troops to fight
the Reds.
• After the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, under LBJ,
US troops started to fight
more.
• From Wikipedia
• Illustrated History Online
Vietnam, 1968
Napalm!
• Napalm
• Case Study of My Lai
• What we did at My Lai (Video
Clip)
• Movies relating to the Vietnam
War:
Platoon, Hamburger Hill, We
were soldiers, Casualties of
War, Full Metal Jacket, The
Walking Dead, A Bright
Shining Lie, Missing in Action
Seeing this on TV led to a
loss of support at home
Phase 2: Coexistence
– 1966: US troops in Vietnam rises to
389 000.
– 1967: International treaty banning
nuclear weapons from outer space.
China tests a hydrogen bomb.
– 1968: USSR invades
Czechoslovakia. Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty is signed.
Mutually Assured
Destruction
– Depended on the maintenance of a
sizable nuclear arsenal.
– Fear of a counter-strike would prevent
either side from using their weapons.
Nuclear Missiles!
1975 - Cambodia
“The Killing Fields”
• Communist Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia, April
16 1975.
• Cambodia's educated and urban population forced into
the countryside as part of a state experiment in agrarian
communism.
• Under the regime of Pol Pot, as many as 3 million
Cambodians died from 1975 to 1979.
1979 - Afghanistan
• December 25, 100,000 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan
as communist Babrak Karmal seized control of the
government.
• U.S.-backed Muslim guerrilla fighters waged a costly war
against the Soviets for nearly a decade before Soviet troops
withdraw in 1988.
• Afghanistan—the Soviet “Vietnam”
• Charlie Wilson’s War
1983 - Star Wars
• March 23, Reagan outlined his Strategic Defense
Initiative, or "Star Wars," a space-based defensive
shield that would use lasers and other advanced
technology to destroy attacking missiles far above
the Earth's surface.
• Soviets accuse the U.S of violating the 1972
Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
• Soviets forced to spend heavily to match the
program causing near economic collapse.
Hippies/Anti-war
• American
Dissent
• Hippie
• Throughout the
60s and 70s!
• Forrest Gump
(Trailer)
1985 - Gorbachev
comes to power
• On March 11, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power
in the Soviet Union.
• Gorbachev ushered in an era of reform.
– perestroika
• Economic reform- restructuring
– glasnost
– means openness, allowed greater free expression and
criticism of Soviet policies
How did the Cold War End?
•
•
•
•
•
•
During the 1970's and early 1980's, the Soviet economy was deteriorating under the cumulative
effects of a centralized bureaucratic system, the burdens of an increasingly costly arms race,
and a failed war in Afghanistan.
A new generation of leadership came to power in 1985 in the person of Gorbachev. He was
determined to end the Cold War and to bring economic and political reform to the Soviet
Union. He initiated dramatic new agreements with the United States, involving unilateral
concessions in the armaments race.
He also brought an end to Soviet support of client governments in Eastern Europe and in Cuba.
He relaxed the police state repression in the Soviet empire and took steps to introduce a
democratic political process.
These initiatives rapidly improved relations with the United States and brought an end to the
Cold War.
What Gorbachev had not anticipated, however, was that, without the domination of the police
and a monopoly of power in the hands of the Communist Party, the Soviet empire would
collapse into 16 different national parts. Nationalism, always a potent force in the modern
world, brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union by 1991.
1989 - Berlin Wall falls
• Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine, which
pledged to use Soviet force to protect its interests in
Eastern Europe.
• On September 10, Hungary opened its border with Austria,
allowing East Germans to flee to the West.
• After massive public demonstrations in East Germany and
Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall fell on November 9.
Fall of Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall is torn down in 1989.
1990 –
German unification
• At a September 12 meeting in Moscow, the United States,
Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and the two Germanys
agreed to end Allied occupation rights in Germany.
• On October 3, East and West Germany united as the
Federal Republic of Germany.
Songs Relating to the World War
• Billy Joel “We didn’t start the fire” (You
tube video) Lyrics
• Songs relating to the Cold War (online list)