The Cold War
Summer School
Communism
• Single party rule of a country controlling politics
and the economy.
• The state owns and runs most businesses and
decides what goods are to be produced.
• Communists regard capitalism and an unjust
system the produces great social inequalities and
denies the working class a fair share of the
societies wealth.
Capitalism/Democracy
• In a Democratic Government the people get to
choose who its leaders are through free
elections.
• With a Capitalist Economic System, individuals
and private businesses make most of the
economic decisions.
• Business owners decide what to produce and
consumers decide what to buy.
• Factories, equipment and property are
privately owned.
Origins
• Capitalism and Communism have never gotten
along
• First Red Scare in the U.S. came after WWI
• The Soviets never trusted their Western Allies
during WWII.
– Stalin believed the U.S. was too slow to invade
France, which would have relieved pressure on
the Soviet Union.
• The U.S. never trusted the Communists to
keep their word either.
Yalta Conference
• February 1945 Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill
all meet to plan post war Europe.
• Germany was to be divided into 4 occupation
zones each controlled by a different Allied
Country.
• There would be self government and free
elections in Eastern Europe.
Tensions Begin to Build
• After Germany’s surrender in April the leaders all meet
again at Potsdam Conference.
– Truman now president after Roosevelt's death.
• At Conference Truman hints to Stalin that the U.S. now
possessed a new powerful weapon (Atomic bomb).
• The U.S. also stopped all aid to the Soviet Union when the
War ends and refuses loans for the Soviet Union to rebuild.
– Soviet distrust grows
• Stalin has not allowed free elections in Eastern Europe.
Elections in Poland are rigged for a communist victory
• Soviet Occupation force in Eastern Europe grows.
– U.S. distrust grows
Spread of Communism
• In a speech in 1946, Stalin believed that Communism
needs to spread all over the world and replace
communism.
• Fearing the Spread of Communism the U.S. creates
policy of Containment.
– Keep the Soviets from Expanding Communism anywhere
around the world.
• Policy was meant for a political strategy not a literal
Military one.
• U.S. Fear however drive the U.S. to start making
military plans.
The Bomb and the Iron Curtain
• In 1948 the Soviet union finally had the Atomic bomb to
become the equal of the U.S.
– So the U.S. began developing and even more powerful bomb.
• The Arms Race begins
• The Iron Curtain was a term coined by Churchill. It was
the literal and philosophical divide between Communist
Soviet controlled Eastern Europe and Democratically
controlled Western Europe.
• The city of Berlin while contained completely within
Communist East Germany was also split into Western
Berlin and East Berlin.
– West Berlin was walled off to be separated from East Berlin.
Rebuilding plan
• Marshall Plan
– Best way to stop spread of communism was to rebuild
destroyed economies and support freely elected
governments.
• The U.S. would be able to supply the money and resources to help.
• This would Also create strong bonds with the U.S.
• Soviets Counter with Molotov Plan
– Provide economic aid and rebuilding of Eastern Europe
• Truman Doctrine
– U.S. policy to support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside
pressures.
• Military and Economic support
First Crisis
• France, U.S., and British want to unify there 3
German zones into democratic West Germany.
• Soviet Union Protests
– They plan a blockade of East Berlin that they believed
would force U.S. to either give up East Berlin or their
unification plans.
• Berlin Airlift
– Over the next 10 months over 270,000 flights are
made into West Berlin bringing food, fuel, and other
vital supplies to defeat the Berlin Blockade.
– By Sping of 1949, the Soviet Union gives up and West
Germany is created.
Next Divide
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
– Military alliance designed for collective security
• U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Italy, and other Western
European Countries
• Warsaw Pact
– Communist Security alliance of Soviet Satellite
countries in Eastern Europe.
– Hungary attempts Revolt
• Soviet Army rolls into Budapest and puts down revolt.
War in Korea
• Korea was also split after the war.
– Soviets establish a Communist North
– U.S. establishes and Democratic South
• June 1950 Communists in the north invade the
South.
– Truman sends U.S. troops to push the communists out.
– U.S. pushes North Koreans all the way up to their
Northern border with China.
• Newly Communist China fears U.S. invasions and send
thousands of troops to push back the U.S.
• After 3 years of fighting borders stabilize along original border
at the 38th parallel.
U.S. Covert Actions
• Covert Action is a secret political, economic, or
military operation that supports foreign policy.
– 1953 Iran - CIA remove Democratically elected
Mossadegh after he nationalizes British Oil.
– 1954 Guatemala – U.S. overthrows Democratically
elected Arbenz after United Fruit Company objects to
Arbenz’s reforms giving land to peasants. U.S. puts
Military in charge. They Jail oposition
– 1962 Dominican Republic – Bosch democratically
elected removed. He rallies support for a civil War and
U.S. sends troops to put down revolt.
Weapons get more Powerful
• Hydrogen Bomb (H-Bomb)
– U.S. creates in 1952
– 500 times more powerful than Atomic Bomb
– Soviets have it by 1954
• ICBMs
– Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
• Nuclear Missiles can now be fired from one country to another.
• Deterrence and MAD
– Deterrence policy believed that if we created an arsenal of weapons
so large…The Soviet Union would never dare attack us.
– MAD – Mutual Assured Destruction
• Belief that if there was a war both sides would be able to completely
destroy each other.
• Keeps both sides from attacking each other
• Keeps tensions very high
Red Scare at Home
• 1947 – Due to fear of communists infiltrating the
government, Truman creates loyalty oaths to work for the
Federal Government as well as extensive background checks.
– Hundreds of Federal workers lost their jobs due potentially being
disloyal.
• HUAC – House Un-American Activities Committee.
– Investigates Communists in Hollywood in 1947
• Results in blacklists in Hollywood due to fear of hiring someone with
communist sympathies.
• Spies
– Hiss – Advisor to Roosevelt at Yalta Conference
– Fuchs – physicist who helped Soviets get Atomic Bomb secrets
– Rosenberg's – Passing atomic secrets to Soviets – Executed
• MaCarthyism – reckless persecution of a person for
subversive activities without evidence.
Conflicts Intensify
• Communist Castro takes over in Cuba
– Establishes strong ties to Soviet Union
– U.S. plans attack to remove Castro
• Bay of Pigs invasion
• Fails
• Cuban Missile Crisis
– Soviet Union Puts Nuclear missiles in Cuba
• U.S. creates Blockade of Cuba to prevent weapons from
become active.
– U.S. and Soviet Union are on verge of War
• Finally both sides agree to de-escalation. Soviet union will
remove missiles from Cuba if U.S. removes missiles from
Turkey. Peaceful resolution.
Vietnam
• After WWII Vietnam wants freedom from French control
and go to war with the French to gain their freedom.
• French defeated in Vietnam in 1954 and U.S. fears they
will become communist.
• Geneva Peace conference splits the country in two.
• As French move out the U.S. moves in advisors to help
establish a noncommunist state in south Vietnam.
• U.S. backed Diem starts building an Army with U.S.
advisors to train them.
• When the time came for free elections in 1955 as
according to the Geneva conference, the U.S. rejected the
national vote and only allowed a vote in South Vietnam.
• Diem elected president
Vietnam Escalates
• South Vietnamese rebels called the “Viet Cong” begin
fighting Diem in the South.
• Diem results to brutal tactic to control South Vietnam
and loses more support.
– Buddhist monks protest by setting themselves on fire.
• U.S. starting to wonder what is really happening in Vietnam.
• Gulf of Tonkin Incident
– U.S. warship attacked off the coast of North Vietnam
– Results in Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Congress gives president blank check to stop the communists in
North Vietnam.
• Domino Theory
– If Vietnam fell to communism all of the countries around it
would as well.
Vietnam War
• 1965-1973
• The War is no longer about helping South Vietnam. It is an
American war now.
• Goals were to destroy the Viet Cong.
• Cut off support from (NVA) North Vietnamese Army
• Ho Chi Minh Trail
– Trail through neighboring Laos that NVA used to supply Viet
Cong in the South
• Guerrilla War
– War by which you attack and then hide
– Viet Cong would Strike U.S. then hide
– U.S. had to go into jungle and find Viet Cong
• Very Challenging
Opposition at Home
• Early war protests were small and achieved little
• Media
–
–
–
–
Vietnam is first media driven war
War Correspondents went with troops
People saw the War up close every night on news
As Americans begin to die at rate of 1200 a month
Americans start to question if the war is right.
• 1968
– Tet offensive launched by NVA Army on south
Vietnamese cities makes many Americans wonder if
the war can be won.
War Comes to an End
• By 1973 the U.S. began removing U.S. forces
and let the South Vietnamese Army continue
the fighting.
• By 1975 the NVA defeat the South and Unite
Vietnam.
• Aftermath is over 58,000 Americans dead and
over 300,000 wounded.
• Many Americans believed it was for nothing
The Cold War begin to Thaw
• Nixon Recognizes China - 1972
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) –
Treaty between the U.S. and Soviet Union in
1973 to Limit the increase of Nuclear
weapons.
• SALT II – Treaty in 1979 increasing the limits
on nuclear weapons. (never ratified by U.S.)
• INF treaty - 1987
– Reduces the number of nuclear weapons in
Europe
Cold War ends
• Due to economic issues in the Soviet Union,
they could no longer afford to support their
large military and continue to exert pressure
on satellite countries in Eastern Europe.
• Berlin War Falls
– November 9th 1989
– Symbolic end to Cold War
• Soviet Union Breaks in individual States July
1991.