Download The Cold War - Fort Thomas Independent Schools

The Cold War [1945-1991]:
An Ideological Struggle
Soviet &
Eastern Bloc
Nations
[“Iron Curtain”]
GOAL  spread worldwide Communism
METHODOLOGIES:
US & the
Western
Democracies
GOAL  “Containment”
of Communism & the
eventual collapse of the
Communist world.
[George Kennan]
1. Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
2. Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
3. Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts
of Third World peoples [Communist govt. &
command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist
economy]  “proxy wars”  “Limited War”
4. Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
Reasons We Resisted
Communism
•
“Soviet power, unlike that of Hitlerite Germany, is neither schematic nor adventuristic.
It does not work by fixed plans. It does not take unnecessary risks. Impervious to
logic of reason, and it is highly sensitive to logic of force. For this reason it can easily
withdraw—and usually does when strong resistance is encountered at any point.”
According to Kennan:
•
The Soviets perceived themselves to be in a state of perpetual war with capitalism;
•
The Soviets would use controllable Marxists in the capitalist world as allies;
•
Soviet aggression was not aligned with the views of the Russian people or with
economic reality, but with historic Russian xenophobia and paranoia;
•
The Soviet government's structure prevented objective or accurate pictures of
internal and external reality.
Map of NATO vs. Soviet Union
Why is it a Cold War?
• Places where it got Hot (“Limited War”)
– Korea (1950-1953)
• North Korea (Communist supported by China)
– Kim il-Sung – North Korean Leader
• South Korea (Democratic supported by U.S./NATO)
– Vietnam (1955-1973 or 75)
• North Vietnamese (weapons provided by China)
– Ho Chi Minh – North Vietnamese Leader
• South Vietnamese (support provided by U.S.)
– Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
– Fidel Castro attempted to receive a nuclear missile from
Soviet Union
• U.S. threatened nuclear war if Cuba received weapon
The Division of Berlin
The Bipolarization of Europe
Two Superpowers Left in the World
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
– Founded in 1949
– Western Democracies
– Supported Capitalism abroad
• Warsaw Pact
– Founded in 1955
– Eastern Nations under Stalin
– Supported spread of Communism
U.S. Policies to Fight the Cold War
• Marshall Plan
– Announced in 1947
– Give loans ($) to European nations to rebuild
after WWII
– Total of $12.4 billion dollars loaned to Europe
– Significant success in Europe
– U.S. gains a lot of Europeans’ trust
– Soviets felt the plan was Economic Imperialism
U.S. Policies to Fight the Cold War
• Truman Doctrine
– “It must be the policy of the U.S. to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation
by armed minorities or [foreign] pressures”
-Harry S. Truman
– Provide support for nations resisting Communism
– Provide Aid (Military, weapons, money)
– Quickly used to help Greece, Turkey
George Kennan [“X Article”]:
CONTAINMENT
Goals
Means
Actual Application
1. Restoration
of the balance
of power
Encouragement
of selfconfidence in
nations
threatened by
Soviet expansion.
Long-term
program of U.S.
economic
assistance
[Marshall Plan]
2. Reduction of
Soviet ability
to project
outside power.
Exploitation of
tensions in
international
communism.
Cooperation with
communist regimes;
[supporting Titoism
in Yugoslavia]
George Kennan [“X Article”]:
CONTAINMENT
Goals
Means
Actual Application
3. Modification
of the Soviet
concept of
international
relations.
Negotiating
settlement of
outstanding
differences.
Using “carrots &
sticks’;
containing
Germany with an
embrace and
Russia at arms
length.
Failures of US Strategy
• Soviet Union tests an Atomic Weapon (1949)
• Soviet Union tests a Hydrogen Bomb (1953)
• Failure to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba (Bay
of Pigs incident in 1961)
• By 1962, the US created a “Quarantine Zone”
around the Caribbean in order to prevent the
Soviets from delivering Nukes to Castro’s
Communist government
• It was a 13-day stand-off in the sea with both
sides threatening M.A.D. (Mutually Assured
Destruction)
Failures of US Strategy
• One of the biggest failures of Containment was
when China’s civil war ended and Mao Zedong
started the People’s Republic of China a
communist country.
• Mao then began to turn his attention, with the
help of the Soviet Union, to fixing some of the
domestic issues that had plagued China for
almost a century (starvation, lack of
infrastructure, lack of modernization, disparate
peoples and lands, etc.)
National Defense Budget [1940-1964]
Korean War
[1950-1953]
Korean War
[1950-1953]
Kim Il-Sung
Syngman Rhee
“Domino Theory”
The Shifting Map of Korea
[1950-1953]
-Both sides continue to arm the Korean border so that the
possibility of renewed warfare remains a threat even today.
-The most militarized location on the planet = 38th parallel.
Korean Peninsula at Night:
Present Day
Questions (Due Monday)
• What was the policy of Containment?
• How did Containment get the U.S. embroiled in foreign
wars/conflicts?
• Was the U.S. in support of North or South Korea?
Explain why.
• Was the U.S. in support of North or South Vietnam?
Explain why.
• Is there a belief system today that you believe must be
stopped even if it involves invading foreign nations?
• Explain the Truman Policy. How does it encourage
getting into other nations’ affairs?
• Explain the Marshall Plan. Did it work?
Vietnam:
The Long-lasting “limited war”
• Ho Chi Minh had been trying to free his
nation from French rule from 1941-1950
• In 1950, North Vietnamese declared the
independence of Vietnam and the creation
of the Communist Government.
• In 1950, Minh met with Mao Zedong and
Josef Stalin to address recognizing the
nation and providing support from foreign
attack
Vietnam:
The Long-lasting
“limited war”
• By 1954, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed
to fund the government in South Vietnam to prevent all
of Vietnam from falling to Communism.
• The South Vietnamese leader Ngo Ding Diem refused
to hold free elections
– Objective observers: “Ho Chi Minh would have won easily.”
• By 1963, President Lyndon Johnson inherited a smallscale war from President Kennedy. Johnson decided to
commit U.S. troops to try and defend South Vietnam.
• By 1966, 365,000 US troops were in the Vietnam War
• The Viet Cong (Ho’s supporters were called Viet Cong) were
successful at killing US troops and escaping. Ho Chi Minh’s
military success is now considered one of the greatest
military strategies used in Guerilla War
• By 1973 a growing anti-war movement in the US protested
the cost and the growing number of US casualties. A ceasefire was reached between the North and South Vietnam.
• However, in 1975 the North Vietnamese troops overran the
South Vietnamese army and reunited the two parts of
Vietnam.
The Unforeseen Benefit of the Cold War
The Space Race
• With competition for superior technology, the two
superpowers also competed for outer space as well.
• The Soviets launched the first space satellite in 1957
– Sputnik created fears in the US that the Soviets
would control space and the Space Race began.
• The US responded and launched their own satellite a
few months later.
• During the 60s the Science and Technology race
continued until the United States reached the moon
with a manned spacecraft in 1969.