Download Cold War and the Post-WWII World

Cold War
and the
Post-WWII
World
Impact after WWII
• After WWII, there were two global
superpowers: the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
• The two nations had very different ideologies:
Capitalism and Communism.
• Both groups sought to rebuild Europe
according to their ideologies.
• The U.S. offered European nations financial
support for rebuilding called the Marshall Plan,
named after Sec. of State George Marshall.
• President Truman also created the Truman
Doctrine which stated the U.S. would help out
any country fighting against Communists.
Division of Europe
• The U.S.S.R. did not allow Marshall Plan aid to
countries in Eastern Europe.
• This effectively split Europe into two parts.
• The liberal West included: Britain, France,
West Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria,
Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands,
Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland,
Greece, and Turkey.
• The Eastern Bloc included: East Germany,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia,
Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania.
Containment and China
• The U.S. did not want to fight another world
war.
• Diplomat George Kennan advocated a policy of
containment.
• This meant not directly attacking the U.S.S.R.,
but checking any possible expansion.
• The Cold War became more complicated in
1949 with the revolution in China that brought
Mao Zedong and his Communist to power.
• The U.S. became increasingly concerned with
the spread of Communism.
Hot Conflicts in the Cold War
• The Cold War was called “cold” because the
U.S. and the U.S.S.R. did not fight directly.
• Instead there were a number of “proxy wars”
where Communist and Capitalist groups
fought.
• The Korean War (1950-1953) was fought
between the Communist North and Democratic
South
• The Vietnam War (~1959-1975) was fought
between the Communist North and the
Democratic South.
• The Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) was
fought between Communist government and
the U.S.-backed Muhajideen.
Conflicts in Eastern Europe
• Under authoritarian Soviet control, many
Eastern European countries experienced
internal conflicts.
• In Berlin, many East Germans were escaping
to the West through West Berlin.
• In 1961, the Soviets built the Berlin Wall to
stop the exodus.
• In the 1950s and 1960s, Hungary and
Czechoslovakia tried to reform their
governments, but Soviet troops crushed the
attempts to reform.
The Third World
• After WWII, the non-Western world underwent
huge changes.
• Nations throughout Africa and Asia gained
independence from imperial European
governments.
• These newly independent nations felt
pressured to choose sides, either the U.S. or
the U.S.S.R.
• In 1955, these non-aligned nations met in
Bandung, Indonesia and declared they could
be a “third world” not allied with the U.S. or
the U.S.S.R.
• While many countries may have desired to be
outside of the Cold War, they had difficulty
actually doing it.
The Third World
• In addition to the “proxy wars,” there were
internal conflicts throughout the world,
especially in Latin America.
• In Chile in 1973, the U.S. helped install
dictator Augusto Pinochet and ousted Salvador
Allende.
• In 1979, Sandinista rebels led by Daniel
Ortega overthrew the U.S.-backed government
of Anastasio Somoza.
• From 1980-1992 there was a civil war in El
Salvador between the U.S.-supported
government and Communist backed rebels.
The Fall of the Soviet Union
• In 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in
the Soviet Union and began making
governmental reforms.
• Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika
(restructing) and glasnost (openness) opened
opportunities for private business and made
the government more transparent.
• In 1989, the Berlin Wall was taken down.
• In 1990, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia
declared independence from the U.S.S.R.
• In 1991,Gorbachev lost control of the
republics of the U.S.S.R. and Boris Yeltsin
came to power in Russia effectively ending the
Soviet Union.