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An overview of
the Cold War
How can a war be ‘cold’?
What were the Hotspots of the Cold War?
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
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir2/caus
es_coldwaract.shtml
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Cold War -
 The tension and rivalry between the USA and
the USSR was described as the Cold War (19451990).
 There was never a real war between the two
sides between 1945 and 1990, but they were
often very close to war (Hotspots). Both sides
got involved in other conflicts in the world to
either stop the spread of communism (USA) or
help it spread (USSR).
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Background:
 Who: The definition above says it all
(almost). Many smaller countries in Asia,
South America and Africa became
involved.
 What: Intense economic, political,
military, and ideological rivalry between
nations, short of military conflict
 Where: Covered by above.
 When: Approximately 1945-1989
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How:
Beginnings:
 US, USSR, Great Britain unnatural allies during World War II
 Tensions submerged until close of war
 Yalta and Potsdam Conferences (1945)
 Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt
 Decided on USSR declaration of war vs. Japan, setting up
of International Military Tribunal
 Free elections for Eastern Europe
 Truman drops A-Bomb hint to Stalin…
 Stalin arranges pro-communist governments in Eastern
European countries
 1946: “Iron Curtain” descends.
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Soviet and U.S. troops celebrating victory
over the Germans
+“Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin working
together to save the world”
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The Big Three Disagreed…
But in fact the Allies had disagreed openly
about:

The details of how to divide Germany.

The size of reparations Germany ought to
pay.
 Soviet influence over the countries of
eastern Europe.
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The Yalta Conference –
held during the war in 1945
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+ Western Reactions to Soviet Threat
The Truman Doctrine (1947)
 World divided into free and enslaved states
 US to support all movements for democracy
 “containment” of Communism “domino theory”
 Blocs Develop
 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the
Warsaw Pact established
 The Marshall Plan (1947)
 Named for George C. Marshall (1880-1989), US Secretary
of State
 Proposed in 1947, $13 billion to reconstruct western
Europe
 The United Nations formed (1945) to resolve international
disputes

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Berlin
Germany and Berlin split between East and West
(4 ways, but West merges)
 Soviets Blockade Berlin
 East and West struggling for control of Capital
 West Berlin government overwhelmingly elects democratic
leaders…
 Berlin Airlift
 11 months of air shipments to Berlin, beginning June 1948
 Cold war did not go “hot”
 Retribution: British/U.S. embargo on Soviet imports
 Soviets lift blockade in summer 1949
 Berlin Wall (1961)
 Built to stop escaping East Germans
 Becomes symbol of the Cold War

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Focus on Berlin
 After World War II,
Germany was divided
into four zones,
occupied by French,
British, American, and
Soviet troops.
Occupation zones
after 1945. Berlin is
the multinational
area within the Soviet
Soviet blockade:
East Berlin
West
Germany
East
Germany
West Berlin
· In June of 1948, the
French, British and
American zones were
joined into the nation
of West Germany after
the Soviets refused to
end their occupation of
Germany.
· In response, the
Soviets cut off West
Berlin from the rest of
the world with a
blockade.
Eventual site of the Berlin Wall
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STOP
A huge airlift:
· President Truman
decided to avoid the
blockade by flying in
food and other supplies
to the needy people of
West Berlin.
· At times, over 5,000
tons of supplies arrived
daily.
The Berlin Airlift, 1948
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Stalin blockaded the city and the U.S. came to the rescue with “Operation Vittles”
Germany remains divided:
· In May of 1949, Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union ended
the blockade.
· The Soviet
zone of
Germany,
including
East Berlin,
became
known as the
nation of
East
Germany.
October, 1949
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The Berlin Wall 1961
•Between 1949-1961 3.5 million East Germans fled
•1961: Barrier built, barbed wire, watchtowers, guards, “shoot to kill”
The Cold War: Roots of the Conflict
Soviet
Expansion:
· The Soviet
Union
occupied
most of
Eastern
Europe by
the end of
World War
II.
• In 1946,
Winston
Churchill
correctly
warned that
the Soviets
were creating
an “iron
curtain” in
Eastern
Europe.
Winston Churchill giving the “Iron
Curtain” address at Westminster College
on March 5, 1946
Winston Churchill - “The Sinews of Peace”
March 5, 1946 - Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of
Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague,
Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these
famous cities and the populations around them lie in what
I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one
form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very
high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control
from Moscow….Whatever conclusions may be drawn from
these facts - and facts they are - this is certainly not the
Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which
contains the essentials of permanent peace….
What is needed is a settlement, and the longer this is
delayed, the more difficult it will be and the greater our
dangers will become.
From what I have seen of our Russian friends and
Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing
they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for
which they have less respect than for weakness, especially
military weakness.
Peep under the
Iron curtain
March 6, 1946
· By 1948, every Eastern European country was under
communist control.
American Response:
· Truman Doctrine – statement of President Truman that
promised military and economic support to nations
threatened by communism… CONTAINMENT!
Aid for Europe:
· Secretary of State George Marshall toured Western
Europe and witnessed widespread homelessness and
famine.
Children in
a London
suburb,
waiting
outside the
wreckage
of what was
their home.
September
1940.
Jewish children in
the Warsaw
Ghetto in 1942
· Marshall, fearing that
communist revolts
could occur in such an
atmosphere, proposed
that the U.S. help to
rebuild the European
economy in what
became known as the
Marshall Plan.
Nuremberg, Germany,
April 20, 1945
* The U.S. gave over $17 billion in aid to European
countries between 1948 and 1952, helping to improve
their economies and lessen the chance of communist
revolutions.
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The Arms Race
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),
1949
 Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw
Pact), 1955
 Nuclear proliferation
 End of 60s: Mutually Assured Destruction
(MAD)
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US Test Hydrogen Bomb-1952
1000 times more
powerful than the
Hiroshima atomic
bomb
Set off on Bikini
Island in the
Marshall Islands
Massive
Retaliation
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Mutually Assured Destruction
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Hot Spots and Proxy Wars:
 Korea
 Vietnam
 Berlin Wall
 Afghanistan
 Chinese Communist Revolution
 Cuban Missile
Crisis
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The Korean War
1950-1953
The Chinese Communist
Revolution… 1945 -
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The Berlin Wall 1961
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The Cuban Missile Crisis
1962
+ The Vietnam War 1963-
1975
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1
+ Cuba
 Fidel Castro Rus (1926-),
1959 revolution
 Cancels promised elections, expropriates
foreign properties, kills or exiles political
enemies
 US imposes trade embargo
 Soviets step in with massive
foothold off US shores
aid, gain
+ The Bay of Pigs
 Castro declares undying allegiance to Soviet
foreign policy, 1960
 Kennedy and CIA send 1,500 Cubans into
Bay of Pigs to spur revolution
 American Air support does not appear,
force destroyed in 3 days
 US embarrassment
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2
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Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs
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Cuban Missile Crisis
 October 1962 Soviets begin assembling missiles in
Cuba
 Kennedy publicly challenges USSR
 Quarantines CUBA
 Soviets concede, but US guarantees non-
interference with Castro regime
 US Secretary of State Dean Rusk: “Eyeball to
eyball, they blinked first”
The
Cold
War,
1949-1962
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The Space Race

Nonviolent aspect of cold war rivalry
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Initial Soviet successes:
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
1957: Sputnik, first satellite
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1961: Yuri Gagarin orbits space
US sets up NASA, lands Apollo XI on the
moon, July 1969
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Challenges to Soviet Power

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Rebellions quashed:
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Yugoslavia expelled from Soviet bloc, 1948
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Hungary, 1956
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Prague Spring, 1968
Brezhnev Doctrine: right to invade any socialist country
threatened by elements “hostile to socialism”
The Cold War: 1945-1960
The Cold War: 1960-1991
The Cold War in Africa and Asia
· The United States and Soviet Union supported their
allies worldwide, turning small conflicts into international
wars.
Examples:
- In Africa, the U.S. supported Somalia while the Soviets
supported Ethiopia.
- In Asia, Pakistan became an ally of the U.S., while
India accepted assistance from both the U.S. and the
Soviets. Also, the U.S. supported democratic forces in
Indochina while the Soviets supported the communists.
- (Note: today, Indochina consists of the nations of Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam.)
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End of the Cold War

President Ronald Reagan (in office 1981-1989) deeply
opposes USSR
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Promotes massive military spending, beyond Soviet economy
to keep up
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The “evil empire”
Strategic Defense Initiative (“star wars”)
Forces Soviet Mikhail S. Gorbachev (1931- ) to implement
reforms, ultimately brings down the USSR
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Revolutions in Eastern and
Central Europe

Polish trade union Solidarity movement opposes Polish
Communist Party rule, forces multiparty elections, 1989

Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania follow

The “Velvet Revolution”
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Bloodless revolutions
East Germany decides to open the Berlin Wall
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East and West Germany reunite (1990)
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Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Reforms
under Gorbachev
Economic
 Social

 Perestroika:
 Glasnost:
“restructuring”
“openness”
 Nationalist
sentiments, long suppressed, come
to the surface
 Several
1991
non-Russian republics secede, August
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The collapse of the Soviet Union
and European communist regimes