Download The Early Cold War

The Early
Cold War:
1947-1970
Part I:
“Reconstruction
& Confrontation”
1918?? – US fails to recognize
Bolshevik regime and the USSR
April 12, 1945?? FDR dies – Stalin
had immense respect for FDR which
did not carry through to Truman
1946?? – Kennan Telegram – urging
the US gov’t to recognize the evil’s of
Stalin’s regime
Creating a National Security
State, 1945-1949
• Alliance between Soviet Union and the
United States was not based on
collaboration, but on cooperative defeat
of Axis powers
– America sent troops to help anti-communist
during RR
– Did not recognize Soviet government until
1933
• Relations between the two countries
descended into suspicion and growing
tensions
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
The 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]
 Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
 Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
 Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts
of Third World peoples [Communist govt. &
command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist
economy]  “proxy wars”
 Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
Onset of the Cold War
• Interpretations of Cold War’s origins
– Traditional: Soviet expansion and desire to spread
Communism
– Revisionists: U.S. threatened Soviets into the Cold
War
– Rival interests made Cold War inevitable
• Harry S. Truman
• Joseph Stalin
• Potsdam Conference (1945) 1ST MEETING OF
Truman and Stalin
• Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe
• “National security”
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
AMERICAN GOALS ECONOMICALLY
AND POLITICALLY OPEN WORLD
PROVIDES MARKETS FOR PRODUCTS
SOVIET GOALS- REBUILD TO PROTECT ITS
OWN INTERESTS
ESTABLISH SATELLITE NATIONS
COUNTRIES SUBJECT TO SOVIET
DOMINATION AND FRIENDLY TO SOVIET
GOALS “COLLECTIVE SECURITY”
THE SUN SETS ON EASTERN
FREEDOM
• POLAND BECOMES COMMUNIST
ELIMINATES ALL OPPOSITION
• ALBANIA (1945) AND BULGARIA(1948)
FORCED INTO COMMUNISM
• CZECHOSLOVAKIA, HUNGARY, ROMANIA
ARE NEXT
• EAST GERMANY FOLLOWS
• FINLAND AND YUGOSLAVIA GAIN A
MEASURE OF FREEDOM FROM THE SOVIET
UNION BUT, ARE STILL COMMUNIST
The “Iron Curtain”
From Stettin in the Balkans, to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the
Continent. Behind that line lies the ancient
capitals of Central and Eastern Europe.
-- Sir Winston Churchill, 1946
Truman Doctrine [1947]
1. Civil War in Greece.
2. Turkey under pressure from the
USSR for concessions in the
Dardanelles.
3. The U. S. should support free
peoples throughout the world who
were resisting takeovers by armed
minorities or outside pressures…We
must assist free peoples to work out
their own destinies in their own way.
4. The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey
$400 million in aid.
US PLANS TO CONTAIN
COMMUNISM
• TRUMAN DOCTRINE
• MARSHALL PLAN
• Policy of Containment
• GEORGE KENNAN
• Domino theory
CONTAINMENT TO STOP THE
DOMINO’S
• CONTAINMENT THE IDEA OF LIMITING
COMMUNISM TO THE PLACES IT ALREADY
EXISTS
– DEVELOPED BY AMERICAN GEORGE KENNAN
– BELIEVED THAT COMMUNISM WOULD
EVENTUALLY DESTROY ITSELF.
Marshall Plan [1948]
1. “European Recovery
Program.”
2. Secretary of State,
George Marshall
3. The U. S. should provide
aid to all European nations
that need it. This move
is notDomino
against
any country or doctrine,
Theory believe that if left
butuncheck
againstthat
hunger,
poverty,
desperation,
communism
would spread
andquickly
chaos.
containment was a part of the
policy to prevent this.
4. $12.5 billion of US aid to Western
Europe extended to Eastern Europe &
USSR, [but this was rejected].
Post-War Germany
Berlin Blockade & Airlift
(1948-49)
The Arms Race:
A “Missile Gap?”
} The Soviet Union
exploded its first
A-bomb in 1949.
} Now there were
two nuclear
superpowers!
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (1949)
 United States
 Luxemburg
 Belgium
 Netherlands
 Britain
 Norway
 Canada
 Portugal
 Denmark
 1952: Greece &
Turkey
 France
 Iceland
 Italy
 1955: West Germany
 1983: Spain
•NATO – North Atlantic
Treaty Organization
•ANZUS – Australia, New
Zealand and US
•SEATO – South East Asia
Treaty Organization
Warsaw Pact (1955)
} U. S. S. R.
} East Germany
} Albania
} Hungary
} Bulgaria
} Poland
} Czechoslovakia
} Rumania
Premier Nikita Khrushchev
About the capitalist
states, it doesn't
depend on you
whether we
(Soviet Union) exist.
If you don't like us,
don't accept our
invitations, and don't
De-Stalinization
invite us to come
Program
to see you. Whether
you like it our not, history is on our
side. We will bury you. -- 1956
An Historic Irony: Sergei
Khrushchev, American Citizen
Who buried who?
Mao’s Revolution: 1949
Who lost China? – A 2nd } Power!
The Korean War: A “Police
Action” (1950-1953)
Kim Il-Sung
Syngman Rhee
“Domino Theory”
The Hungarian Uprising: 1956
Imre Nagy, Hungarian
Prime Minister
} Promised free
elections.
} This could lead to the
end of communist rule
in Hungary.
Sputnik I (1957)
The Russians have beaten America in
space—they have the technological edge!
Nixon-Khrushchev
“Kitchen Debate”
(1959)
Cold War --->
Tensions
<--- Technology
& Affluence
U-2 Spy Incident (1960)
Col. Francis Gary
Powers’ plane was
shot down over Soviet
airspace.
Paris, 1961
Khrushchev & JFK meet to discuss Berlin and
nuclear proliferation. Khrushchev thinks that
JFK is young, inexperienced, and can be rolled.
The Berlin Wall Goes Up (1961)
Checkpoint
Charlie
Ich bin ein Berliner!
(1963)
President Kennedy
tells Berliners
that the West is
with them!
Khruschev Embraces Castro,
1961
Bay of Pigs Debacle (1961)
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the
Russians, and the other man blinked!
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Vietnam War: 1965-1973
“Prague Spring” (1968)
Former Czech President,
Alexander Dubček
Communism with a human face!
“Prague Spring” Dashed!
Dissidents/playwrights arrested [like
Vaclav Havel—future president of a free
Czech Republic].
1969 -- SALT
• On November 17, the
1st phase of Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks
began in Helsinki,
Finland.
• The finished
agreement, signed in
Moscow on May 26,
1972, placed limits on
both submarinelaunched and
intercontinental
nuclear missiles.
1972 –
Nixon visits China
• Nixon becomes the first U.S. president
to visit China, meeting with Mao Tse-tung
on February 21.
• The two countries issue a communique
recognizing their "essential differences"
while making it clear that "normalization
of relations" was in all nations' best
interests.
• The rapprochement changes the balance
of power with the Soviets.
1973 - Vietnam War
agreement (Paris Accords)
• January 27, 1973, the United States,
South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the
Viet Cong sign the Paris Peace Treaty,
establishing a cease-fire.
• The United States is allowed to
continue providing aid to South
Vietnam.
• Saigon falls in April 1975.
1979 - Afghanistan
• December 25, 100,000 Soviet troops
invaded Afghanistan as communist
Babrak Karmal seized control of the
government.
• U.S.-backed Muslim guerrilla fighters
waged a costly war against the Soviets
for nearly a decade before Soviet
troops withdraw in 1988.
• Afghanistan—the Soviet “Vietnam”
1980 - Solidarity
• On August 14, Lech Walesa led massive
strikes at the Lenin shipyards in
Gdansk, Poland.
• The strikes soon spread to other cities
and formed the nucleus of the
Solidarity movement.
• The communist government conceded
to worker demands on August 31, and
recognized their right to form unions
and strike.
1983 - Star Wars
• March 23, Reagan outlinrd his Strategic
Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars," a
space-based defensive shield that would
use lasers and other advanced
technology to destroy attacking missiles
far above the Earth's surface.
• Soviets accuse the U.S of violating the
1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
• Soviets forced to spend heavily to
match the program causing near
economic collapse.
1985 - Gorbachev
comes to power
• On March 11, Mikhail Gorbachev came
to power in the Soviet Union.
• Gorbachev ushered in an era of reform.
– perestroika
• Economic reform- restructuring
– glasnost
– means openness, allowed greater free
expression and criticism of Soviet policies
1987 - INF
• On December 8, 1987,
Reagan and Gorbachev
signed the Intermediate
Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty
• It mandated the removal
of more than 2,600
medium-range nuclear
missiles from Europe, &
eliminated the entire
class of Soviet SS-20 and
U.S. Cruise and Pershing
II missiles.
1989 - Berlin Wall falls
• Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev
Doctrine, which pledged to use Soviet
force to protect its interests in
Eastern Europe.
• On September 10, Hungary opened its
border with Austria, allowing East
Germans to flee to the West.
• After massive public demonstrations in
East Germany and Eastern Europe, the
Berlin Wall fell on November 9.
Fall of Berlin Wall
1990 –
German Unification
• At a September 12 meeting in
Moscow, the United States, Soviet
Union, Great Britain, France and
the two Germanys agreed to end
Allied occupation rights in
Germany.
• On October 3, East and West
Germany united as the Federal
Republic of Germany.