The Cold War
Conflicting Ideologies;
Conflicting Superpowers
Adam Smith
• Laissez-faire  The Government should not
intervene in the market
• Individuals are free to buy and sell as they
please in the market
• Supply and demand determine price
• Entrepreneurs open new businesses in the
hopes of gaining profits
• Capital is invested in the hopes of gaining
profits
Karl Marx
• Co-authored with Friedrich Engels;
The Communist Manifesto
• According to Marx, the history of the world is
a history of class struggle
• The proletariat will unite and overthrow the
bourgeoisie
• A dictatorship of the proletariat will usher in a
new era
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
• Abolish Private Property
• Abolish Social Classes
• Economic Equality
And then the dictatorship of the proletariat will
wither away…
Or will it?
Allies During the Second World War
• Yes, Stalin and Roosevelt formed an unlikely
alliance with Churchill during the Second
World War
• However, this alliance’s purpose was to
confront a greater threat
The Cold War
• However, with the defeat of the Fascists,
conflicting ideologies led to conflict and
tension
• The Soviet Union embraced Marxism and
dictatorship.
• The United States embraced capitalism and
democracy.
Soviet Satellites in the East
• Stalin installed communist regimes in Eastern
Europe to ensure a buffer zone or protection
from a Western invasion
• Western democracies referred to these
Eastern European nations as satellites
An Iron Curtain Had Descended
The Alliances:
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
- The United States and its Allies
• The Warsaw Pact
- The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
The Alliances:
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
- The United States and its Allies
• The Warsaw Pact
- The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
USA Containment Policy:
• To Stop the Spread of Communism
1949:
- NATO established
- Soviets tested an atomic bomb
- Communists establish People’s Republic of
China
1950-1953:
- North Korea invades South Korea
- Korean War ensues
- The original line of demarcation is maintained
Stalin died in 1953:
• Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964)
• Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982)
1959:
-Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba succeeds
-A Communist state is established
• Bay of Pigs (1961) was a failure in foreign
policy for U.S.A.
• U.S. had aided Cuban exiles in an attempt to
invade the island but Castro was aware of the
plan and the plan failed
• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was a success for
American foreign policy Soviet missiles on
Cuban soil  Kennedy demanded removal
and yes, removed
And of course, there was the Vietnam
War
• North Vietnam  Communist under the
leadership of Ho Chi Minh
• South Vietnam  Non-communist
dictatorship; civil war ensues; U.S. troops
intervene
• 1975  South Vietnam falls to communism
• Vietnam  Unified under a communist
regime
• During “Prague Spring” of
1968, Czechoslovakia
embarked on a campaign of
liberalizing reforms, Brezhnev
sent in a Warsaw Pact invasion
force
• Brezhnev Doctrine USSR
had right to intervene in
Eastern Europe
But from 1969 through 1979, the Cold
War entered a more peaceful period
known as détente, a diplomatic term
referring to the relaxation of tensions
But greatest surprise  the collapse of
the Soviet Union in 1991
Cold War Cartoons