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The Japanese Surrender
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Emperor Hirohito surrender address on August 15, 1945
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Japanese must “bear the unbearable”
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Formal surrender on September 2, 1945 on the USS Missouri
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Allied occupation from 1945-1952
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Results of World War II
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Political Results
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Allies victorious
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VE Day – May 8, 1945, VJ Day – August 15, 1945
Axis defeated
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Germany, Japan, and Italy destroyed and occupied
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Nuremburg and Tokyo War Tribunals
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European empires never recover
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United Nations created
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Meant to prevent future wars, Geneva Convention on conduct during war
Cold War begins
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Results of World War II
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Economic Results
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World economy devastated
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Nations where war occurred are physically destroyed
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Infrastructure in shambles, production minimal, workforce depleted
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Colonies the focus of postwar resource exploitation despite role in the war
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Cold War struggle over how the world will rebuild
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Results of World War II
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Human Cost
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~70,000,000 Dead
•
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~160,000,000 Wounded
•
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10 million killed
Japanese Democide
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Injured in combat or from war related famine and disease
Holocaust (genocide)
•
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Deadliest war in world history
5.5 million killed
Axis Civilian Deaths
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5 million killed
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Growing Distrust
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WWII alliances quickly break after the end of the war
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Yalta Conference, 1945
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Stalin pledges to hold free elections in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe, instead sets up a
belt of communist buffer states
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“An iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
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Winston Churchill
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Bipolar world established between the US and the USSR, all other nations pushed to
take sides
USSR tests atomic bomb Sept. 1949
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The Arms Race
The Cold War was a global competition between the US and the USSR
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Arms race: a contest in which nations compete to build more and more powerful
weapons based on the fear of war (nuclear)
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In 1952 US explodes a hydrogen bomb, USSR soon follows, China has a nuclear weapon
in 1964, H-bomb soon after, UK and France develop nuclear weapons as well
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The Arms Race
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Mutually Assured Destruction
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The idea that if you have a large enough nuclear arsenal then no one would attack you
or risk destruction themselves
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Weapons are stockpiled or collected as a deterrent all the way through the 1970s, US
and USSR have enough to destroy the world many times over
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Not only nuclear weapons were stockpiled, other weapons of mass destruction and
conventional military strength are increased
•
What is a Cold War?
•
A state of international relations in which the world was divided into two ideological camps.
Each side wanted to avoid military confrontation, but both accepted it as a possibility and
prepared for it.
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Free World Leader United States
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Communist World Leader Soviet Union
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There could be no neutrality…war was expected though it was not wanted.
•
Soviet Expansion
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At the end of WWII communist groups began to gain power all over Europe, Eastern Europe
becomes part of the Soviet sphere of influence
•
Stalin asserts his military strength, goal to become the world’s leading superpower
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The Truman Doctrine
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President Truman declares that the United States must contain the spread of
communism worldwide, policy deemed containment
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Use of both military and economic aid to countries in need in war torn Europe and the
developing world
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The Recovery in Europe
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Europe rebuild under both US and USSR stewardship but never recovers its imperial power
•
The Marshall Plan, 1947
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European economies struggle to rebuild after WWII, US steps in to help between 1948
and 1951
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Hugely successful in building alliances with European nations and rebuilding critical
infrastructure
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The German Issue
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The focus of early Cold War hostilities fell on a divided Germany
•
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Germany and its capital Berlin divided into 4 zones
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In 1948 the Western powers wanted to reunite Germany, Stalin opposed
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Stalin blockades the city of Berlin, hope Western powers will back down, instead they
respond with a massive airlift of supplies “Berlin Airlift”
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Soviet blockade ends in 1948, Germany becomes West Germany and East Germany
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The German Issue
The divided Germany remained the focus of Cold War tensions
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Between 1949 and 1961 thousands of East Germans fled Stalin’s iron fist to West Berlin
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Suddenly in August 1961 the East German government started building the Berlin Wall
which stood as a symbol of division for 28 years until 1989
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The Cold War Moves to Space
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The Soviets launch the world’s first satellite into space in October 1957
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The satellite’s name was Sputnik, 184 pounds, circled the earth at 18,000 miles-per-hour
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Space race begins as the US tries to catch up
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Fear that the USSR could hit any US city with a nuclear weapon
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Want to develop tech to control outer space
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US Congress creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
passes the National Defense Education Act to produce more scientists and teachers
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International Organizations
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The United Nations
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US plays the leading role in the creation of the United Nations, ends US isolationism
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Goal of the UN was to resolve disputes between countries and prevent future wars
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Has a General Assembly of all nations and a Security Council to make military decisions
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15 members, 10 rotate
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5 Permanent Members are US, USSR (Russia), China, UK, and France
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Each of the 5 has veto power
UN has accomplished a great deal in providing for international relief
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Dueling Organizations
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NATO and the Warsaw Pact
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US and allies establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
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USSR and allies establish the Warsaw Pact
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An attack on any member would spark a war between all
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Soviet Union During the Cold War
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Soviet Union doesn’t win much in WWII, things don’t get better for the people
•
Stalin dies in 1953 and is replaced by Nikita Khrushchev
•
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Destalinization of the USSR, “Peaceful Coexistence,” and closed labor camps
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Leonid Brezhnev cracks down as Soviet Premier from the mid 1960s through the 1980s
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Uprisings in East Germany (1953), Hungary (1956), and Poland (1968) “Prague Spring”
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Desire for greater freedoms, all put down by Soviet troops
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Andre Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn lead criticisms of corruption and
mismanagement in the Soviet Union
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United States During the Cold War
United States economy comes roaring back after WWII, greatest period of prosperity in US
history
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Driven by the GI Bill, a culture of consumerism, and franchizization of American business
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Roots of both the modern Democratic and Republican parties in the politics of the 1950s
and 1960s
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Red scare and Cold War paranoia
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Culture of conformity battles with counterculture (beats, hippies, punks)