Chapter 36
New Conflagrations:
World War II and the
Cold War
Nagasaki, August 9, 1945
1
The Second World War
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Allies vs. Axis powers: Italy, Germany, and Japan are the
main ones, but also Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania
“Revisionists”: The Axis powers wished to revise postWorld War I peace treaties
Allies initially follow policy of appeasement.
Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939: Weak support of
democratically elected government by the West; strong
support of fascists by Italy and Germany
Full-scale war erupts with the Japanese invasion of China in
1937, in Europe with the German invasion of Poland in
1939, and goes global by 1941 with the entry of the U.S.
Ends in August 1945
2
Japan’s War in China

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Conquest of Chinese Manchuria 1931-1932
Japan withdraws from the League of Nations in 1933
Full-scale invasion of Chinese mainland in 1937
The Rape of Nanjing (Dec. 1937 through Jan. 1938)

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City falls on Dec. 13, 1937, followed by six weeks of terror
As many 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese civilians slaughtered: two
Japanese soldiers held a “contest” to see if they could behead 100
Chinese with swords; soldiers used civilians for bayonet practice;
many people were buried alive and mutilated in horrible ways.
Women, men, and even children killed in horrific sexual attacks.
A third of all homes in Nanjing were destroyed by arson.
Japan signs Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy (1940);
neutrality pact with Soviet Union (1941)
3
Chinese Resistance

Chinese Communists and Nationalists agree to a
“united front” against the Japanese in Dec. 1936

Chiang Kai-Shek did not want an alliance, but was forced to
agree to one after being kidnapped by a rival general.

Guerilla warfare ties down half of the Japanese army
Yet continued clashes between Communists and
Nationalists make the resistance less effective than it
could have been.


Communists gain popular support and have the upper hand by
end of the war, in part due to their better treatment of civilian
populations and effective guerilla fighting against the Japanese
4
Italian Aggression

Benito Mussolini invades Ethiopia with an overpowering
force in October 1935.
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2,000 Italian troops killed compared to 275,000 Ethiopians killed
Emperor Haile Selassie’s troops put up a brave resistance despite
terrible odds.
Selassie is forced into exile by March 1936 and appeals to the
League of Nations for sanctions.
Italy had been colonizing Libya since 1911 but
encountered resistance; Mussolini’s forces crushed all
resistance by 1934.
Italy invaded Albania in 1939
5
Germany


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Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) withdraws from League of
Nations in 1933.
Remilitarizes Germany, reviving armaments
industries in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
Anschluss (“Union”) with Austria in March 1938
Pressure on Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) beginning
in April 1938 and intensifying in August and
September. Ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia begin
agitating for autonomy and then express desire to join
the German Reich.
6
Sudetenland Crisis of 1938
7
Munich Conference - Sept. 1938

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Leaders from Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany
meet over the Sudetenland crisis.
Allies follow policy of appeasement and give the
Sudetenland to Germany, leaving Czechoslovakia
virtually defenseless.
Hitler promises to halt expansionist efforts in return.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (18691940) promises “peace for our time” and is celebrated
as a hero upon his return to England.
Russians and Germans shock the world by signing a
Treaty of Nonaggression on August 23, 1939.
8
Munich Conference - Sept. 1938
Left to right: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain, Prime Minister Édouard
Daladier of France, Hitler, Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano
9
Germany Conquers Europe


Invades Poland, Sept. 1,
1939, a week after NonAggression Pact is signed
Blitzkrieg: “lightning war”
strategy


Air forces soften up target,
armored divisions rush in
German U-boats
(submarines) patrol Atlantic,
threaten British shipping
German dive-bombers over Poland
in 1939
10
The Fall of France
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April 1940: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
May 1940: Germans invade the Low Countries and
France. France falls by mid-June without offering much
resistance.
British and French troops evacuate across the Channel at
Dunkirk from May 26 – June 4, 1940.
June 22: Hitler forces the French to sign armistice
agreement in same railroad car used for the armistice
imposed on Germany in 1918. Northern France is
occupied and southern France is ruled by the Vichy
government, sympathetic to the Nazis.
11
The Fall of France
Hitler in Paris on June 22,
1940, with architect Albert
Speer and sculptor Arno
Breker.
12
The Battle of Britain & “The Blitz”


Battle of Britain: The German Luftwaffe tries to gain air superiority
over the Royal Air Force (RAF) in an air war beginning in July
1940 in preparation for an invasion. RAF inflicts heavy damage on
the Luftwaffe and prevents Germans from invading.
“The Blitz”: Strategic bombing campaign by the Luftwaffe from
September 1940 until May 1941.

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After October 1940, the raids only happen at night.
London is bombed for 57 nights in a row during one stretch; people take
shelter in the “tube.”
Industrial centers like Birmingham, Belfast, Coventry, Sheffield,
Glasgow and Manchester were targeted.
Ports cities of Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, Plymouth and Southampton
were also targeted.
40,000 British civilians were killed in urban bombing raids.
13
The Battle of Britain & “The Blitz”
Two German bombers over London in 1940
14
The Battle of Britain
Bombed out London street in 1940
15
The Battle of Britain
Iconic image of St. Paul’s Cathedral undamaged but surrounded by smoke during the Blitz
in December 1940
16
Operation Barbarossa

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Lebensraum: “living space” for Germanic peoples across the
European continent.
June 22, 1941, Hitler double-crosses Stalin and invades Soviet
Union.
Stalin didn’t expect this timing, but was not completely
unprepared: the Soviet Union had been rapidly industrializing;
it actually had more tanks and planes than the Germans did
(although most were outmoded).
Severe winter and long supply lines weakened German efforts.
Soviets regroup and attack in spring 1942.
Turning Point: Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February
1943); Soviets win one of the bloodiest battles in history, with
a total of two million casualties.
17
High Tide of Axis Expansion in Europe
and North Africa, 1942-1943
18
U.S. Involvement in WWII before
Pearl Harbor
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U.S. initiates “cash and carry” policy to supply Allies
with arms
“Lend-lease” Program: U.S. lends war goods to
Allies, Britain leases Caribbean naval bases in return
July 1941: FDR freezes all Japanese assets in U.S.
and places embargo on oil shipments to Japan in
protest of Japanese moving into French Indo-China
Japanese Defense Minister Tojo Hideki (1884-1948)
plans for war with U.S.
19
Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941

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FDR: “A date which will live in infamy”
Japanese military command sought to cripple the U.S. Navy to
prevent it from interfering with the planned expansion into
Southeast Asia.
Attack consisted of 353 planes launched from six different
aircraft carriers in two waves, as well as several five midget subs.
U.S. radar detected the initial approach of the aircraft, but they
were mistaken for U.S. bombers; the attack had been too quick
for even a correct reading to have made much of a difference.
Over 2,400 Americans were killed and almost 1,250 wounded.
Most losses were on the battleship U.S.S. Arizona: 1,177 killed.
All eight battleships in “Battleship Row” were damaged, and four
were sunk; 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed at nearby airfields.
20
Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
This map reads “December 8” since it is in Tokyo time, which is on the
other side of the International Date Line from Hawai’I and the U.S.
21
Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
22
Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
Sinking of the battleship U.S.S. Arizona (commissioned 1916)
23
U.S. Entry and Japanese Victories


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Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the U.S. on
December 11, 1941.
U.S. joins Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
Japanese Empire dominates southeast Asia and
most South Pacific islands.
Japanese Empire establishes “Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere,” with the slogan of “Asia
for Asians.”
24
World
War II
in Asia
and the
Pacific
25
Defeat of the Axis Powers

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
Key factors: personnel reserves and industrial capacity
of Allies were greater than those of the Axis powers.
Soviets absorb massive amount of punishment and
inflict huge casualties on German forces
U.S. joining the war adds tremendous industrial
capacity:

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U.S. shipbuilding, automotive, and aircraft production were
especially important.
U.S. at the peak of its industrial powers: Industrial regions
(what is now the “Rust Belt”) produced massive amount of
materiel for the war effort.
26
Allied Victory in Europe
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Red Army (Soviet Union) gains offensive after Stalingrad
(February 1943). Soviets absorb massive punishment and break
the back of the seemingly invincible Wehrmacht.
British and U.S. forces attack in North Africa in November 1942,
and then invade Italy in Sept. 1943.
D-Day: June 6, 1944, British and U.S. forces land in a
northwestern part of France known as Normandy.
Paris liberated on August 25, 1944
U.S. and Britain bomb German cities

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Dresden, February 1945: 135,000 Germans killed , many in shelters
Russians rush toward Berlin from East; U.S. and British forces
rush toward Germany from the West
April 30, 1945: Hitler commits suicide
May 8: Germany surrenders
27
Allied Victory in Europe
Inmates at the Dachau concentration camp in
southern Germany celebrate their liberation by
U.S. forces on April 29, 1945.
A Russian soldier raises the Soviet flag over the
Reichstag in Berlin on May 2, 1945, just five days
before the German surrender on May 7.
28
Turning the Tide in the Pacific



U.S. code-breaking operation Magic deciphered the Japanese
encryption machine code used for diplomatic and naval
communications and thus gave the U.S. an important
advantage.
Battle of Coral Sea: May 4-8, 1942 – First time aircraft
carriers engage each other; two forces never came within sight
of each other. This battle was a nominal Japanese victory, but
it stopped the momentum of Japanese expansion.
Battle of Midway: June 4-7, 1942 – Turns the course of the
war through air power. U.S. Navy inflicts irreparable damage
on the Imperial Navy: four aircraft carriers and one cruiser
sunk, along with 248 aircraft destroyed. U.S.N. loses one
carrier and one destroyer.
29
Turning the Tide in the Pacific
Aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise on June 4, 1942, at the start of the Battle of Midway
30
Turning the Tide in the Pacific
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Island-Hopping through 1943-1944: U.S. takes the offensive, engages
in island-hopping strategy toward the Japanese islands: just attacking
the most strategic islands and leaving the other alone, cut off.
U.S. Army: Led a push through the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, into
the Philippines.
U.S. Navy and Marines: These forces pushed up through the Gilbert,
Marshall, Caroline and Mariana Island chains.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa: The Japanese increasingly fought to death as
U.S. forces approached the Japanese mainland. Iwo Jima (Feb.-Mar.
1945) and Okinawa (Apr.-June 1945) convinced the Americans that an
invasion of Japan would be a bloody affair. Okinawa was especially
savage, with 100,000 Japanese casualties and 65,000 Allied casualties.
Japanese use kamikaze suicide attacks beginning in October 1944:
planes loaded with explosives and a full tank of gas that attempt to ram
into Allied ships.
31
Hiroshima and Nagasaki

U.S. firebombs Tokyo in March 1945

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100,000 killed in a ferocious firestorm
A quarter of the city’s buildings are destroyed
Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on
August 6 and 9, 1945


Why Hiroshima? Not previously bombed, had many military and
industrial targets, and its flat topography would enhance the bomb’s
effects. The bomb used, “Big Boy, used uranium as fuel.
Why Nagasaki? The port city of Kokura was the first choice for the
second bomb, but it was covered by clouds as the B-29 flew over it. The
port and ship-building city of Nagasaki was a not a preferred target
since its hilly topography would lessen the effect of the bomb, and
previous recent conventional bombings would make the damage hard to
assess. The “Fat Man” bomb used plutonium rather than uranium fuel; it
was more powerful than “Little Man,” but Nagasaki was damaged less.
32
“Little Boy” Atomic Bomb dropped on
Hiroshima
33
Hiroshima after the Bomb
Color U.S. Army photo from 1946
34
Japanese Surrender


Unofficial “V-J Day” was
August 15 (August 14 in
the U.S) when Emperor
Hirohito (1901-1989)
broadcasts over the radio
that Japan would cease to
fight.
The Japanese foreign
minister signs an official
“instrument of surrender”
on September 2, 1945, on
the deck of the battleship
U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo
harbor.
Japanese delegation on the deck of the Missouri
35
Varieties of Wartime Occupation

Independent states with enforced alliances: invaded but
allowed to keep its own political system and institutions


Puppet states: nominally independent states really
controlled by a foreign power


Thailand, Denmark (until 1943)
Manchukuo, Vichy France, Slovakia, Croatia
Military administration

Indochina, Poland, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
36
Collaboration



Woman having
her head shaved
after the
liberation of
Marseilles in
August 1944.
Some collaborators
found an opportunity
for social mobility
under the
conquerors.
Collaboration with occupiers allowed for a degree of
independence which appeared to some as a lesser evil
than direct military administration with no control.
Collaborators were punished and humiliated after the
war; women who had relationships with occupiers
especially.
37
Resistance



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Military forms of resistance: guerilla fighting,
blowing up bridges, assassinations, etc. French
maquis were rural guerilla fighters.
Intelligence gathering: Belgian resistance cells used
secret transmitters to convey information to the
British
Protecting refugees: Resistance hid airmen who had
been shot down.
Propaganda: Underground non-violent Munich
university student group known as the White Rose
disseminated anti-Nazi pamphlets; six were executed.
38
Nazi Genocide and the Jews

Jews primary target of Nazi genocidal efforts


Nazis initially encouraged Jewish emigration


Other groups also slated for killing: Roma (gypsies),
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses
Few countries willing to accept Jewish refugees
Aborted plans to deport Jews to Madagascar or
create a reservation in Poland
39
The Final Solution

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
Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) follow
German army into Soviet Union with Operation
Barbarossa
Round up of Jews and others and execute 1.4 million
by machine-gun between 1941 and 1945
Later in 1941 decided on “final solution”: deportation
of all European Jews to death camps: machine
gunning is too inefficient
Plans for death camps are solidified at Wannsee
Conference in January 1942 in Berlin
40
The Holocaust

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Jews deported from ghettos all over Europe in cattle cars
beginning in spring 1942.
Destinations: Six specially-designed death camps in
eastern Europe: Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau),
Chełmno, Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka.
Technologically advanced, assembly-line style of murder
through poison gas (Zyklon B).
Corpses burned to ash in crematoria.
Estimated number of Jews killed in these camps: 5.7
million.
41
The Holocaust in Europe, 1933-1945
42
The Holocaust in Europe, 1933-1945
The gas chamber at Auschwitz shortly after liberation in 1945
43
Jewish Resistance


German policy of collective punishment hamper Jewish
resistance efforts: one German soldier killed would result
in tens or even hundreds of deaths in retaliation.
Yet ghetto uprisings and armed conflict nevertheless
arise.


Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Spring 1943: armed resistance to the
last round up of Jews being sent to Treblinka; about 16 Germans
killed and 85 wounded and about 13,000 Jews massacred in
retaliation
About 20,000 to 30,000 Jews fought in partisan guerilla
units, mostly in Eastern Europe.
44
Women and the War

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WAVES (Women Appointed for Volunteer
Emergency Service) and WACS (Women Army
Corps) created in 1942 for women to serve in the
U.S. Navy and Army.
U.S. and Great Britain bar women from serving in
combat units; most serve in support roles.
Soviet and Chinese forces include women
fighters.
Women very active in resistance movements.
45
Women’s Roles



Women occupy jobs of men away at war
Also take on “head of household” duties
Temporary: men returning from war displace
women in the postwar era: propaganda moves
from “Rosie the Riveter” to domestic women.

Yet WWII had a lasting impact on women’s
movement: housewives of the 1950s recall this period
of independence.
46
Women’s Roles
Lyrics from the 1942
song “Rosie the Riveter”
by Redd Evans and
John Jacob Loeb
Pittsburgh artist J.
Howard Miller’s
famed 1942 poster
All the day long,
Whether rain or shine
She’s part of the assembly
line.
She’s making history,
Working for victory
Rosie the Riveter
Norman Rockwell’s famous
Saturday Evening Post
cover
47
“Comfort Women”



Asian women forced into prostitution by Japanese
forces
Forced to have 20-30 men per day in war zones
“Comfort houses” or “consolation centers”


Killed when infected with venereal disease
Large-scale massacres at end of war to hide
crimes

Social ostracism for survivors
48
Origins of the Cold War

Creation of United Nations in October 1945 in
San Francisco (NY headquarters finished in 1952)



Five permanent Security Council members: U.S., Great Britain,
France, Soviet Union, and China
Differences over the future of Poland and Eastern
Europe
Soviets help bring communist governments to
power, 1946-1947


Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland
Albania and Yugoslavia already communist-controlled
49
The Truman Doctrine (1947)

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
Doctrine claimed that the world was divided into
free and enslaved states.
U.S. to support all movements for democracy;
commits to interventionist foreign policy.
U.S. pursues a “containment” strategy toward
communism.
50
The Marshall Plan



Named for George C. Marshall
(1880-1959), U.S. Secretary of State
Proposed in 1947, the plan sends
$13 billion to reconstruct Western
Europe
Soviet Union establishes Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance (COMECON) in 1949 to
balance the Marshall Plan
51
Military Alliances

North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
founded in 1949.



NATO
Flag
Collective defense
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, United
Kingdom, United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway,
Denmark and Iceland.
Warsaw Pact formed in 1955

Countermeasure consisting of seven communist European
nations: Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland,
Romania, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia.
52
A Divided Germany

Division of
postwar
Germany,
especially
Berlin


Western powers
merge occupation
zones by 1949
Soviet blockade
of Berlin begins
1949: breakdown
of East-West
cooperation
Occupation Zones in Germany in 1945
53
Occupied Germany, 1945-1949
54
Berlin Airlift

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


Eleven months of air shipments to Berlin,
beginning June 1948
Cold war did not go “hot”
Soviets lift blockade in summer 1949
East Berlin becomes the capital of the “German
Democratic Republic” (GDR)
Bonn becomes the capital of “Federal Republic of
Germany” (FRG)
55
Berlin Airlift
Planes lined up at Templehof
unloading supplies
Berliners watching a C-54 landing at
Templehof Airport during the airlift
56
Construction of the Berlin Wall



1949-1961: 3.5 million
East Germans flee to
West
 Especially younger,
highly-skilled workers
August 1961: East
German authorities
construct a wall
separating East and West
Berlin
The wall becomes a
prominent symbol of the
Cold War
57
The People’s Republic of China


Civil war between Communists and Nationalists
erupts after defeat of Japan
Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) forced to retreat to
island of Taiwan with Nationalist forces


Takes most of China’s gold reserves
Mao Zedong proclaims People’s Republic of
China in 1949.

Begins dramatic transformation of Chinese society into
communist mold
58
Beijing-Moscow Relations



Both China and Soviet Union felt threatened by
U.S. in the post-WWII period.
Both had concerns over the U.S. rehabilitation of
Japan
Beijing recognizes primacy of Moscow as leader
of the communist world and receives military and
economic aid in return
59
Division of Korea


Korea divided along
38th parallel after
WWII
In 1948, two Koreas
were created:


Republic of Korea
(South, capital Seoul)
People’s Democratic
Republic of Korea
(North, capital
Pyongyang)
60
Korean War





North Korea invades in 1950 and captures South
Korean capital of Seoul
U.S. forces lands and drive North Koreans back to
38th parallel, then go on to capture Pyongyang.
Chinese invade and push U.S. back to 38th
parallel.
Three million killed until ceasefire reached in
summer 1953.
No peace treaty signed; continued tensions:
creation of a DMZ (de-militarized zone) between
the two countries that still exists today.
61
Containment


Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO),
Asian version of NATO, is created by the “Manila
Pact” in 1954: Australia, France, New Zealand,
Pakistan (including East Pakistan, now
Bangladesh), the Philippines, Thailand, the
United Kingdom, and the United States.
“Domino theory” moves President Eisenhower
(1890-1969) to consider nuclear weapon use in
Korea: belief that communism in one country
would infect surrounding countries.
62
Soviet-Chinese Tensions



Chinese believe Soviet aid programs are too
modest with too many strings attached.
Both powers compete for influence throughout
Africa and Asia
Successful nuclear testing in 1964 elevates
Chinese prestige; the People’s Republic became
the fifth nuclear power (after the U.S., the Soviet
Union, Great Britain, and France).
63
Cuba



Fidel Castro Ruz (1926): His 1959 revolution
ousts corrupt U.S.backed dictatorship of
Fulgencio Batista.
Accepts massive Soviet
aid
Supports U.S.S.R’s
foreign policy
Castro and Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev in 1960
64
The Bay of Pigs




Castro declares undying allegiance to Soviet
foreign policy in 1960
Kennedy and CIA send 1,500 Cubans into Bay of
Pigs to spur revolution in April 1961
American air support does not appear; Castro’s
troops destroy the force in three days
U.S. suffers international embarrassment; seen as
a huge black eye of JFK’s administration.
65
Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Captured Anti-Castro forces after the Bay of Pigs invasion fails
66
Cuban Missile Crisis




In October 1962, the Soviets begin assembling
missiles in Cuba that could hit most of the continental
U.S.; a U-2 spy plane captured images of the missiles.
President Kennedy publicly challenges Soviet Union
to pull the missiles out.
“Quarantines” Cuba: essentially a naval blockade, but
called a quarantine for legal reasons.
Soviets concede, but U.S. guarantees noninterference
with Castro regime. U.S. also secretly agrees to pull
out intermediate-range missiles in Turkey and Italy.
67
Soviet Intervention

De-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev
(1894-1971), who is in power from 1954 to 1964.


Emboldens experimentation by other communist
leaders



Political thaw in governmental control
Hungarian uprising of 1956 ends with Soviet invasion
“Prague Spring” of 1968 in Czechoslovakia
Brezhnev doctrine (socialist countries have
limited sovereignty when socialism in threatened)
used to crush Prague Spring in 1968.
68
Soviet Intervention
Czech Protester confronts a Soviet tank in 1968
69
Détente in the 1970s



Reduction in hostility between the nuclear
superpowers.
Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT)
negotiated between 1968-1971: reduces number
of nuclear warheads on both sides.
State visit by President Nixon (1913-1994) to
China in 1972.
70