Chapter 15
Post World War Tensions
• Cold War- era of high
tension and bitter
rivalry between US
and USSR
• Iron Curtain- belief
that communism had
created a sharp
division in Europe
Causes of Cold War
• Philosophical Differences- Democracy
vs. Communism
• WWII Conflicts- Soviet front damages,
US atomic bomb
• Postwar Conflicts- USSR refused to live
up to wartime promises, US resists Soviet
expansion
• Containment- late 1940’s, US should
resist Soviet attempts to expand its power
and influence over others. Not just military
force but aid to countries to defend them
against Soviets. Put to test in 1947 in
Greece
• Truman Doctrine- Policy of US to support
free people who are resisting forced
control by armed minorities or outside
pressures
• Marshall Plan- June 1947, called for
massive American aid to help Europe
rebuild and get economy back. Stalin
refused to help. Led to European
economic upswing and USSR’s economy
stalling
Berlin Airlift
NATO and Warsaw Pact
• North Atlantic Treaty
Organization- April
1949 US and 6 other
nations (Portugal,
Norway, Canada,
Denmark, Iceland,
Italy).
• New military alliance
• Attack against 1 is an
attack against all
• 1955 – Military
alliance formed by
Soviet Union and 7
satellite nations in E.
Europe in response to
NATO
• Pact divided Europe
into “eastern” and
“western” blocs
Berlin Wall
• Berlin, Germany split into Democratic West Berlin and
Soviet East Berlin (Berlin located in E. Germany)
• 1950’s – West Berlin showcase for West German
prosperity, led to mass exodus, or departure, of unhappy
East Germans into West Berlin
• 1961 E. Germany built a wall surrounding West Berlin to
prevent further evacuations
Improve your knowledge
• The Russians took very high casualties to
capture Berlin in May 1945. They spent the
early occupation trying to take over all
zones of the city but were stopped by
German democrats such as Willy Brandt
and Konrad Adenauer. Reluctantly the
Russians had to admit the Americans,
French and British to their respective
zones.
Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.
Nuclear Weapons
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Arms race began after WWII
US began as only nuclear power
By 1949 USSR also developed nuclear weapons
“Balance of Terror”; mutually assured destruction –
each side knew they’d be destroyed if it launched its
weapons
• SALT – Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between US
and USSR began in 1969
• Détente – peaceful coexistence or relaxation of
tensions during 1970’s
Cuba goes Communist
• 1950’s- Fidel Castro organized armed rebellion
dictator
• 1959- Cuban Revolution; sought Soviet aid
• 1961- US president, JFK, supported an invasion
attempt by US trained Cuban exiles; Bay of Pigs
invasion was failure when Castro’s forces captured
invaders
• US imposed trade embargo
• 1962 USSR sent nuclear missiles to Cuba (90 miles
south of Florida); US imposed Naval blockade that
prevented further missile shipments
Cold War Nations
Soviet Union
• Soviets controlled most
aspects of life
• Stalin filled labor camps
with ‘enemies of the
state” until death in 1953
• Nikita Krushchev- 1953
new Soviet leader
denounced Stalin’s abuse
of power, closed prison
camps
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USA
Cold War Competition
between economic and
political systems
Free Market
Policy of Containment
Living in fear of Nuclear
fallout: shelters, bomb
drills, emergency food
supplies
Red Scare
– HUAC: House Un-American
Activities Committee, sought
to expose communist
sympathizers
• Hollywood Ten- 1947, Hollywood writers,
directors. 10 refused to answer questions about
beliefs or those of their colleagues. Found guilty
of contempt and blacklisted.
• Sen. Joseph McCarthy- Senator, fought
against communism. Headed the HUAC
• McCarthyism- Sen. McCarthy’s tactic of making
baseless charges and spreading fear of
communism – tried to reveal communists in
government agencies, brought them to
committee
• US Post War economic boom- suburbs, GI Bill,
help rebuild West Europe
Communism Spreads
China:
-End of WWII communists gained
control
-Mao vs Nationalists; defeated
nationalists fled to Taiwan
-Mao won support of peasants,
redistributed land and ended
oppression by landlords
-Hope for ‘new China’ without foreign
domination
-People’s Liberation Army took
control of Nationalist-held cities
-Conquered Tibet 1950; 1959 Dalai
Lama exiled
• China’s Great Leap Forward:
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1958-1960 urged people to increase
farm output and industrial output at
superhuman level
Created communes
Failure:
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Low quality, useless goods
Communes cut food output by removing
incentives for families
Neglect of farmland
Bad weather led to famine
55 million though to have starved to death
• Cultural Revolution: 1966,
purge China of bourgeois
tendencies; urged young to
experience revolution
firsthand
Korean War
After WWII, US and USSR divided Korea between the two, Korea had previously been
part of the Japanese Empire.
38th Parallel- the dividing
line between North Korea
and South Korea as
established by US and
USSR.
-US allied with Syngman Rhee;
USSR allied with Kim Il Sung
- Early 1950 Kim Il Sung tried to
unite the 2 Koreas, and
attacked South Korea
beginning in June
- UN forces organized to help S.
Korea
• Kim Il Sung- First
leader of North Korea
(Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea).
Sought to unify North
and South under
Communist control
• Pusan Perimeter- North Korean troops
advanced until UN forces stopped them in
August near port city of Pusan
• Panmunjom- 1952, Negotiators met and
argued over peace details while smallscale fighting claimed thousands.
-1953 – both sides signed armistice; 2
million troops remained on either side of
DMZ
Vietnam War

PHASE 1 - A WAR OF
COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE
AGAINST THE FRENCH

Vietnam had been a French
colony under the name of
French Indochina (along with
Cambodia and Laos)

Vietnam began to fight for its
independence from France
(during WW II)

Vietnamese revolutionary
leader was Ho Chi Minh, a
Communist

Wanted to be the leader of an
independent, communist Vietnam;
Ho received support from both the
USSR and “Red” China

Colonial war raged from
1946-54, culminating in the
French defeat at
Dienbienphu

Partition Vietnam into a
communist North led by Ho and
a “democratic” South Vietnam
led by Ngo Dinh Diem

Settlement reflected the US
policy of containment with
respect to Soviet communist
expansionism

US had come to see South
Vietnam as a “domino” that
they couldn’t afford to lose
Phase 2

Phase 2 Cold War conflict
1955-1975

The U.S. never formally issued
a declaration of war

Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 2
American destroyers were
apparently fired upon by the
North Vietnamese
- Congress passed the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolutions (August
1964)
- Congress gave LBJ their
support in sending American
personnel and material

1960s: the US experienced a lack of
success against the Vietnamese
guerrilla forces in S.Vietnam (the
Vietcong) as the US Army was
unprepared for their tactics and
mentality

Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply line that ran
between North and South Vietnam via
difficult jungle terrain, often
underground and through neighboring
nations like Cambodia

Tet Offensive : 1968 a
surprise offensive on a
major Vietnamese
holiday that saw attacks
all over the country,
including in Saigon
itself
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Turning point in
American opinion
US manages to remove
itself by Jan. 27, 1973
Cambodia 1975: Khmer
Rouge, communist
guerillas, overthrow
government

The North Vietnamese easily
defeated the South by 1975;

1975 – the US abandoned its
embassy in Saigon, which
was renamed Ho Chi Minh
City in the newly unified and
communist Vietnam
End of Cold War
• Decline of USSR
– Reform
Repression
– Command Economy
Stagnates: poor planning,
inefficiency and waste
– Large military budget; ‘own’
Vietnam in Afghanistan
– Gorbachev attempts
reform:
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Avoided Cold War tensions
Glasnost: openness
Ended censorship
Perestroika: restructuring of
gov’t
• 1989 E. European Nations
began to break away
• 1991 remaining Soviet states
formed 12 independent
nations