THE COLD WAR
1945-1990
CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR
“Causes” Debated
• Consistent US, British, & French hostility
towards Soviets since 1917 revolution
• Stalin’s aggressive policies & seizure of
Poland made West fear Soviet expansionism
• Suspicions throughout WWII
• Truman ended aid to Stalin’s troops
immediately in 1945
• Stalin thought Soviet Union needed a
“buffer” zone in Europe
– Truman viewed it as communist takeover
– US officials portrayed Stalin as a tyrant
END OF WWII
• During and before WWII, there was a
mistrust between the western Allies
and the Soviet Union
– Stalin’s crimes were known
– Feared communism
• End of the war = 2
superpowers emerged
– United States – democracy; capitalist
– Soviet Union – communist
• Quickly began spreading influence in
respective spheres
Different Goals
United States
• Encourage democracy
• Prevent spread of
Communist governments
• Gain access to markets &
raw materials to fuel
industry
• Rebuild European
governments for stability
& trade
• Reunite Germany to
stabilize it & increase
security of Europe
Soviet Union
• Encourage communism &
global workers’ revolution
• Rebuild war-ravaged
economy using Eastern
Europe’s industrial
equipment & raw
materials
• Control Eastern Europe to
protect borders & balance
US influence
• Keep Germany divided to
prevent its waging war
again
The Iron Curtain
•
US allied with other
democratic/capitalist nations &
spread its influence to others
emerging from WWII
– Major Allies = Great Britain & France
– Additionally = Spain, W. Germany, Italy,
Turkey, Norway, Greece
•
Soviet Union occupied much of
Eastern Europe
– Red Army had liberated area from Nazi
control
– Nations became satellite states of the
USSR
– Installed communist governments
– Poland, E. Germany, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
•
Churchill nicknamed the division in
Europe “the Iron Curtain”
Division of Germany
•
Agreements at Yalta & Potsdam Peace
Conferences split Germany into 4 occupied
zones
–
–
•
Disagreement on how to treat Germany
–
–
•
US – reprogram German attitude through
censorship & confronting Nazi past
USSR – crush Nazism (extreme capitalism) with
communism & redistribute land
Western Allies merged individual zones into
West Germany in 1948
–
–
–
•
Each controlled by Allied victor – Great Britain,
France, US, and Soviet Union
Berlin (capital) also split – East & West
Escalated Cold War tensions
US also began economic buildup of W. Germany
through Marshall Plan aid
Notions of permanently weakened Germany
ended by ‘48
Stalin retaliated by blockading Berlin
–
–
Berlin surrounded by USSR occupied zone – cut
off railways to bring in supplies
Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift 19481949
•
•
Dropped food, supplies, & even coal to Berliners
Stalin ended blockade May 1949
COLD WAR CHARACTERISTICS
Cold War Leaders
Soviet Union
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Led by leader of the Communist
Party
Joseph Stalin [1920s-1953]
Georgy Malenkov [1953-1955]
Nikita Krushchev [19551964]
Leonid Brezhnev [1964-1982]
Yuri Andropov [1982-1984]
Constantin Cherenko [19841985]
Mikhail Gorbachev [19851991]
United States
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Led by democratically elected
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
[1953]1961]
John F. Kennedy [1961-1963]
Lyndon B. Johnson [19631969]
Richard Nixon [1969-1974]
Gerald Ford [1974-1977]
Jimmy Carter [1977-1981]
Ronald Reagan [1981-1989]
George H.W. Bush [19891993]
•
US Foreign Policy Concepts
Truman Doctrine, 1947
–
–
US provides political, military, & economic aid to democratic nations under threat from
external or internal authoritarian forces
Justified intervention in countries at risk of falling to communism
•
•
–
•
Reoriented foreign policy away from isolation to one of intervention in far away
conflicts
Marshall Plan [European Recovery Program] 1948
–
–
–
–
–
–
•
Example = aided Greek government against communists in its civil war in 1940s
Example = aided Turkey, which had lost British aid
US initiative to aid Europe & Asia in postwar recovery named for Sect. of State George
C. Marshall
Rebuild European economies to be stable for trade
Gave $13 Billion [$120B today] – most to Great Britain, France, and West Germany
Fanned by fear of communist expansion & rapid deterioration of European economies
in the winter of 1946-47
Generated resurgence of European industrialization & increased investment
Very suspicious to Moscow
Containment, 1947-1989
–
–
–
–
Foreign policy developed by George F. Kennan
Basic strategy for the Cold War – keep communism & Russian domination from
spreading
Counter “Soviet pressure against free institutions of the Western world” through
“counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points”
Very controversial – required US to intervene wherever Soviets had eyes
Opposing Alliances
• North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, 1949
[NATO]
– Military alliance of
Western European &
North American states
– Against USSR & its
Eastern European
allies
– Attack on any one
member  armed
force by all member
nations
• Warsaw Pact, 1955
– Treaty binding the
Soviet Union and
countries of Eastern
Europe
– Formed in response to
NATO
Nuclear Arms Race & MAD
•
•
World saw US use nuclear bombs at end of
WWII
Prompted race to build up nuclear capabilities
among developed nations
–
–
•
Harsh words heightened tension & threat of
using atomic weapons
–
–
–
•
Eisenhower: US would reduce USSR to “a smoking,
radiating ruin at the end of two hours”
Khrushchev: “We will bury you.”
Brinkmanship – tactic of appearing to be on the
verge of war to persuade the opposition to retreat
Tensions almost erupted in war in 1962: Cuban
Missile Crisis
–
–
–
•
USSR wanted parity with US
Other Western Allies also developed nuclear
weapons
Soviet Union deployed missiles to Cuba in response
to US attempts to overthrow Cuban government
Soviets supported Castro
Chose diplomacy over war in the end
Nuclear weapons never used though due to
theory of mutually assured destruction
–
–
–
Use of bomb on one side would cause use by the
other
Nuclear holocaust
End of mankind?
•
•
Nuclear Arms Limits
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963
–
US, USSR, & Great Britain
–
USSR had been building an Anti-Ballistic Missile defense around Moscow, enabling them to launch a
missile & then shoot down incoming ones…
Believed limiting development of offensive & defensive systems would stabilize USSR-US relations
Continued by Nixon
Johnson called for strategic arms limitation talks [SALT] in 1967
–
–
•
•
•
1968 – US & USSR proposed world treaty against further proliferation, leading to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed by 137 countries
Negotiated weapons limits 1972
Helsinki Accords
–
•
Affirmed boundaries & called for economic, social, & governmental contacts and cooperation in
humanitarian fields between two alliances
SALT II – built upon SALT in 1972-1979
–
–
–
–
–
SALT I didn’t prevent each side from enlarging their forces
SALT II focused on limiting & ultimately reducing Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicles
[MIRVs]
Ford & Brezhnev agreed on basic framework in Nov. 1974
Still didn’t have # cap on strategic bombers or total # warheads
Carter & Brezhnev signed SALT II Treaty in Vienna 1979
•
•
•
•
Limited nuclear forces to 2,250 delivery vehicles
Variety of other restrictions, including MIRVs
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty pursued by Reagan after SALT II’s expiration 1985
–
Argued that research in the Strategic Defense Initiative adhered to 1972 treaty…
–
–
–
Vietnam shocked people
Growing fear of nuclear holocaust
Increased talks & visitation of leaders
Détente – permanetn relaxation in international affairs in the Cold War
Space Race
• Coincided with nuclear arms
race
• Battling science & technology
for greatness
• Contest to launch space
satellites
– Soviet Union launched Sputnik
into orbit in 1957
– US launched own satellite 3
months later
• US placed first men on the
moon – Neil Armstrong & Buzz
Aldrin – in 1969
•
•
Proxy Wars
US & USSR didn’t directly battle each other, rather they supported
opposing sides in other conflicts
Cuba, 1950s--–
–
–
–
•
Nicaragua, 1970s
–
–
–
–
–
•
USSR supported Castro regime
US assisted former dictator Batista
CIA even trained anti-Castro Cuban exiles in 1960, invading (and failing
miserably) in April 1961 at Bay of Pigs
Augmented by Cuban Missile Crisis
Dictator Somoza funded by the US, but both US and USSR aided the
rebel Sandinistas and their leader Daniel Ortega
Sandinistas toppled leader in 1979, then gave assistance to other
Marxist Rebels in El Salvador
US supported anti-Communist forces – Contras – to help El Salvador
fight rebels
Civil War lasted more than a decade & weakened Nicaraguan economy
Ortega did hold free elections in 1990, when he was beaten, but later
reelected in 2006
Iran, 1950s
–
–
–
Oil-rich lands attracted both superpowers
US supported the Shah in westernization & suppressing conservative
Muslim leaders, including Ayatollah Rubolla Khomeini
Khomeini returned from exile & established an Islamic state, requiring
strict adherence to Islam
•
•
•
Hatred of US at heart of foreign policy
Encouraged Muslims everywhere to overthrow secular governments
War erupted with Iraq in 1980 – US secretly aided both sides; USSR aided Iraq
 1M died before UN negotiated ceasefire in 1988
THE COLD WAR THAWS
Khrushchev Thaw
• Came to power in 1953 after Stalin’s death
• Embarked on de-Stalinization, denouncing
his jailing & killing of loyal Soviets
• Called for peaceful competition with capitalist
states
• Did not change life in satellite countries
– Resentment turned to active protest
• Hungary 1956 – Imre Nagy formed new government &
demanded end of Soviet troops’ occupation  Soviet
tanks & infantry entered Budapest
• Thousands of freedom fighters armed, but
overwhelmed
• Nagy executed
• Pro-Soviet government installed by Moscow
• Lost prestige after Cuban Missile Crisis
• Party leaders removed him in 1963
Détente
• Nixon moved toward détente –
lessening tensions of the 1970s
• First president to visit communist
country [China] in 1972
• Began Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks [SALT] in 1972
• Visited Moscow in 1972
• Brezhnev visited Washington DC in
1973
• Helsinki Accords signed 1975 –
US, USSR, & major Western powers
accepted European frontiers
established after WWII
– Recognized West & East Germany
– Agreed to provide for human rights,
incl. freedom of speech
Brezhnev Repression
•
•
•
Succeeded Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Soviet
Communist Party Oct. 15, 1964
Adopted repressive domestic policies
–
–
–
–
Laws limited freedom of speech & worship
Government censorship
Clamped down on protestors
Secret police arrested many, expelled from USSR, or executed
–
Use of Warsaw Pact forces to intervene in any Eastern Bloc nation
which was seen to compromise communist rule & Soviet domination
Foreign Policy = “Brezhnev Doctrine,” 1968
•
•
•
–
–
•
•
Moderating policies…
Leaving Soviet sphere of influence…
“Each Communist Party is responsible not only to its own people, but also
to all socialist countries, to the entire Communist movement.”
Evident prominently in the Prague Spring, 1968 Czechoslovakia
Note – term used by the Western media, not necessarily Brezhnev
or the USSR itself
Equipped Arab states with weapons in the Six Day War [Middle
East, 1960s]
By the time of his death in Nov. 1982, a thaw was detected in
Cold War tensions
–
–
Had met with Richard Nixon
USSR didn’t have economic base to cope with cost of the Cold War
[unlike US]
Gorbachev – Final Impetus
•
•
Entered office in 1985
–
–
54 years old = younger than predecessors
New outlook on challenges facing USSR
–
Had been engaged in unsuccessful war in Afghanistan  people pressuring for
an exit
–
–
–
Uprisings & calls for looser controls on satellite nations in Eastern Europe
Economy struggling
Citizens chafing under poor standard of living & lack of freedom
–
Glasnost – “political openness”
USSR losing ground & hold on territory
•
•
Installed major reforms to avoid total collapse
•
•
•
–
–
•
Gorbachev exited war in 1989
Sought to ease strict controls imposed on citizens
Greater freedom to the media & religious groups
Included democratization by 1988
Perestroika - “restructuring” of economic problems; moving away from
state planning
Determined to end nuclear rivalry with US, pursuing negotiations with Reagan
1985-1988
Swept communist governments in E. Europe from power & ended Cold
War within 5 years
–
–
Decided to abandon Soviet control of E. European nations
1988 – declared all nations should be free to choose their own course without
outside interference
Ending the Cold War
•
•
•
Gorbachev hoped reforms would modernize &
revitalize Soviet Union
Unleashed social forces that dissolved the USSR
1989 – Communist regimes fell in Poland,
Hungary, E. Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
& Romania
– Berlin Wall fell
•
•
1990 – Discussions for reunification of
Germany
Meanwhile, Gorbachev adopted more
conservative policies in Soviet Union, remaining
committed to socialism
– Angry Communists attempted to remove Gorbachev
from power 1991 by staging a coup
•
Failed due to efforts of Boris Yeltsin, president of Russian
Republic – most powerful political figure
– But, by end of the year Yeltsin & other reformers
completely undid the old order
– Soviet Union dissolved into 15 individual republics
– Gorbachev resigned from presidency (of a non-existent
nation at that point) on Dec. 25, 1991
EFFECTS OF THE COLD WAR
End of the Bloc
• 15 new independent states emerged
– Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova,
Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, & Uzbekistan
• Allied under the Commonwealth of Independent
States [CIS] in 1991
– Also called the Russian Commonwealth
– Loose association of states
• Belarus, Russian Federation, Ukraine originally
• Then Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, & Uzbekistan
• Today = 9 member states [Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, &
Uzbekistan] + Ukraine [participating state] & Turkmenistan
[associate state]
– Few supranational powers; more symbolic
• Coordinates trade, finance, lawmaking, and security
• Cooperation on cross-border crime prevention
End of the Bipolar World
• During Cold War, world was bipolar with the US and
USSR as superpowers
• After the war, the international system was unipolar
– United States sole world superpower
– By 1989, had military alliances with 50 countries & 1.5M
troops in 117 countries
• New terminology
– Before:
• First World – US & Western Allies
• Second World – USSR & Allies
• Third World – nonaligned nations; developing states in Africa,
Asia, & South America
– Now:
• Developed – US, Canada, Western Europe, Russia, Japan, &
other industrialized states
• Developing – non-industrial or industrializing nations of Asia,
Africa, South America, and eastern Europe
Russia Under Yeltsin
•
•
Most powerful figure in the Commonwealth of
Independent States = President of Russia
Problems – ailing economy, political opposition, &
unpopular war in Chechnya
– Military spending cut dramatically, leaving many
unemployed
– Suffered recession worse than the Great Depression
– Standard of living worsened overall in Russia
•
Goal to reform economy with shock therapy –
shift to free-market economies
–
–
–
–
Lowered trade barriers
Removed price controls
Ended subsidies to state-owned industries
Initially, prices & inflation soared at 800% [normal is
2%]
•
•
Thousands out of work
Fueled political crisis
–
–
•
Yeltsin ordered troops to bombard building of legislators who
opposed him
Opponents accused Yeltsin of acting like a dictator
Resigned in 1999 – Vladimir Putin took over
War in Chechnya
• Largely Muslim area in
Southwestern Russia
• Declared its independence in 1991
– Yeltsin denied its right to secede
• Ordered 40,000 troops to the area
in 1994
• Reduced capital of Grozny to
rubble
– Sparked anger throughout Russia
• Yeltsin sought to end war because
an election was coming [needed
popularity]
– Signed ceasefire
– Was reelected
• War broke again between Russia &
Chechnya, lasting through the
decade
Russia Under Putin
• Took office 1999
• Forcefully dealt with rebellion in
Chechnya, but violence continues in
the region
– War drew terrorism into Moscow 2002
– seized a theater & killed 150 people
– Popular support for war faded
– Putin moved to suppress critics
– Chechen elections helped restore order in 2005
– Rebels largely quieted by 2010, but rebellion simmers
• Economic, social, & political problems to address
– Growth in homelessness, domestic violence,
unemployment, decreased life expectancy
– Moved to greater participation in world trade,
modernizing banking, insurance, and tax codes
– Attacks on free press – unpopular worldwide
Crimea & Ukraine
•
Russia began sending military equipment & troops into Ukraine
following Feb. 2014 Ukrainian Revolution
– Soldiers began taking control of strategic positions in Crimea
– Russia then annexed Crimea
•
Demonstrations by pro-Russian groups in Donbass area escalated into armed
conflict between separatist forces & Ukrainian government
– Intensive troop movement continued & fought in eastern Ukraine according
to human rights groups [Russia denies claims]
•
Annexation met harsh resistance from international community
– Largely ethnic Russian population with historic ties to Russia
– Was part of Ukraine, but was annexed during turbulent time in Ukrainian
government
– Economic sanctions from US and UN
•
•
•
Annexation illegal?
Use of military force elsewhere in Europe?
Western world largely denounced war as part of foreign policy  likely to only see
economic sanctions
– US pledged $1B to Ukraine on Mar. 4, 2014
– NATO deployed ships & air force monitoring in the Baltics & Poland
Other Cold War Legacies
•
Loss of life in proxy wars, incl. Korea & Vietnam
–
•
Economic & social tensions
–
–
–
•
•
•
Plus interstate, ethnic, and revolutionary wars in postSoviet nations
Newly founded states inherited expenses, commitments, &
resources they weren’t prepared for
National security burdens
Environmental contamination legacies
Increased # liberal democracies, esp. Eastern Europe
New technology for nuclear power & energy + radiation
for medical treatments
Military development & spending has continued, esp.
with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles & defense systems
–
–
–
No formal treaty ending war
Still have disincentives to developing new nuclear facilities
US & Russia inherited responsibilities & costs of maintaining
nuclear arsenals
•
•
•
•
•
•
US – 7,315 warheads
Russia – 8,000 warheads
France – 300
China - 250
Great Britain – 225
Pakistan, Israel, India, & North Korea too (<150 each)
ANALYSIS ESSAY
Explain how & why differences in
What
were
they?
What were
they in the
postwar
period?
ideologies and policies between the United
What
does this
mean?
States and the USSR resulted in a cold
war, the formation of new alliances, and
Who was allied
together in the
West? The East?
How is this diff.
from before?
periodic military clashes.
When did this happen? Cuban
Missile Crisis & Bay of Pigs…