Download Cold War

The End of World War II:
Impact on World Affairs
How did post-war conferences change the U.S.’s role in “policing
the world”?
In what ways did the use of the Atomic Bomb change diplomacy?
What characteristics define a “cold war” and does this accurately
describe the early years 1945-1950?
Europe: 1943

Things looked bleak for
most of “Allied” Europe;
Germany had taken over
most of the continent
• Active resistance to Nazi
control

The Soviet Union, Japan,
and Italy had allied with
Germany to form the “Axis
Powers”
• Hoped to achieve new
imperialist aims
• Soviet Union would later join
Allied Powers after failure to
work with Germany’s
demands, war aims
U.S. Involvement


Europeans, involved in
the war since 1939, had
forces revitalized by
U.S. troops; one factor
in the Allied victory
This was also true of the
campaign in the Pacific
against the Japanese
forces
Political negotiations

By 1943, The Big 3,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
(U.S.A.), Winston Churchill
(Great Britain) and Joseph
Stalin (Soviet Union) will
form a union and fight
together to defeat the Axis
Powers.

LOOK AT HANDOUT OF
CONFERENCES.
End of WWII: Europe

The Soviets were the first to discover the Nazi
“death camps” and reveal the atrocities of
Hitler’s “Final Solution” (the Holocaust)

April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler committed suicide
in a bunker during the Battle of Berlin.
V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) was May 7/8, 1945.
These are the two days that the unconditional surrender of the
Axis Powers in Europe were accepted and signed.
The War in Europe was officially over.
End of WWII: V-E Day
End of WWII: Pacific Front

During the war, US spies uncover
intelligence that Germany is
building an atomic weapon
• Race between Axis and Allied powers
to create (and use?) the first “A” Bomb
• US covert project named Manhattan
Project after the first meeting place of
the scientists

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Trials carried out in New Mexico
After V-E Day, significant debate
over whether to use bomb as a show
of force to end the war with Japan
End of WWII: Nuclear War

In order to bring the war to an end quickly, new President
Harry S. Truman decided that a show of extreme force
would end the fighting.
• Estimates predicted a loss of over 1 million if fighting continued.

On August 6, 1945, a B-52 fortress bomber, the Enola Gay
dropped the A-bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima
• Japan offered an ultimatum: unconditional surrender or a second
nuclear attack.

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August 9, 1945: second nuclear bomb called “Fat Man” was
dropped on Nagasaki.
Mass devastation led to surrender and on August 15, 1945,
Japan signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, ending
the war. (aka V-J Day)
Hiroshima devastation
Nagasaki devastation
End of WWII: The Rise of Superpowers
At the end of the war, two clear
“superpowers” emerge: the U.S. and the
Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.).

•

Superpower—country that has the highest level
of political influence and military power
Despite their alliance during WWII, the US
and the Soviets become enemies after the
war, largely over the issue of atomic energy
and the challenge of communism vs.
democracy
Yalta, 1945:A Divided Germany

At the end of the war it was difficult to decide
what to do with Germany:
• Accused of starting two world wars
• Britain and France feared future invasions
• Economic devastation of Europe

The (controversial) solution: divide Germany
• Eastern (Communist) and Western
(Democratic) Germany, divided by a military
zone
• Specifics were hammered out the following year at
the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference, 1946
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The Soviets lost
millions of troops in the
war and wanted power
in the war’s outcome.
U.S. feared the spread
of communism in Asia
Britain and France
wanted a say, but were
busy rebuilding
themselves

Decision to divide
Germany into parts
governed by major
powers
End of WWII: East & West Berlin

The capital of Germany was
Berlin, and once they
divided the nation, it fell on
the Soviet controlled East
Germany side.

As a compromise, the city
of Berlin was divided into
East and West Berlin.

Berlin Wall, however, was
not constructed until 1961
Cold War: Politics

Communism is an economic system and form of
government in which the government makes all of the
decisions as to what will be produced, how it will be
produced, and for whom it will be produced.

Capitalism is an economic system in which
individuals decide what to produce, how to produce,
and for whom to produce.

Democracy is a form of government in which the
people control the government by voting.
Cold War: Politics

West Germany developed
a capitalist economy,
democratic government
modeled after the US

East Germany developed
a communist economy
and government modeled
after the U.S.S.R.
• Not allowed to leave
borders of Sovietcontrolled Berlin into the
West
Beginnings of the “Cold War”

Debate over Germany is
the first of many
problems between the
Soviets and US

Following the war, the
Soviets also developed
an atomic bomb—US
and USSR in a race to
control nuclear power

The Cold War was a
time (1945-1991) when
non-cooperation
between the US and
Soviet Union caused a
fear of communism and
nuclear war (“mutual
destruction”)
• As opposed to a “hot” war
or active fighting, this was
mainly based on threats
and fear
Cold War: The World Takes Sides
The Berlin Airlift


In June 1948, the Soviets
decided to seal all land
routes into West Berlin;
Stalin believed the Western
powers were not willing to
risk war
Truman was faced with
tough choices:
• Giving up Berlin would
compromise containment
policy
• Negotiations might suggest
that the USSR could engineer
a crisis to gain power and
question American
commitment


Truman: “We are going to
stay, period.”
US and Britain began
moving massive amounts of
food and supplies into West
Berlin by air
• One supply plane landed in
Berlin at the every 3 minutes,
saving the city
• American planes flew over
4,000 tons of supplies daily in
"Operation Vittles”

Soviets end blockade in
May, 1949

With the two
superpowers clearly at
odds, the rest of the
world felt pressure to
take sides

• April 1949
• “collective security”– if
any one of the member
states were attacked, all
would retaliate together
• US, Britain, France, Italy,
Netherlands, Belgium,
Canada, Iceland,
Luxembourg, Denmark,
Norway, Portugal
• Despite issues with
alliances and militarism
during both world wars…

Clear division between
“democratic” and
“communist” nations
• Formation of political
(and economic) alliances
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)

Warsaw Pact
• May 1955
• Also based on collective
security measures
Cold War: The Berlin Wall


The Berlin Wall
became the symbol for
the “Iron Curtain”
The “Iron Curtain” is
the term for the
imaginary border
between the
communist nations
and the members of
NATO.
British cartoonist Illingworth was published in
the Daily Mail on 6 March 1946
Cold War: “Proxy Wars”

During the Cold War the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
never technically fought each other; however, there
were several “almost” events between the two:
• 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
• “proxy wars” in the Middle East; proxy war--war
instigated by a major power which does not itself become
involved

These “proxy wars” are the reason nations like Iraq,
Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan have the military
training and technology that they do today
sources
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http://www.ushistory.org/us/52d.asp
Susan Pojer’s US History PowerPoint
Palooza