Download `The Cold War

“The Cold War”
Era of high tension and
bitter rivalry between
the United States and
the Soviet Union
United States of America
and
Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics
Two most powerful nations in
post-WWI world.
• Both join the United Nations.
American Perspective
• Distrusted Communism.
• Feared its spread to the United
States.
• Mistrusted Stalin’s intentions
toward European nations and
tried to force him to hold free
elections in those nations.
Soviet Perspective
• Hated capitalism.
• Blamed the U.S. for huge Soviet
losses during WWII because of the
delayed invasion of France.
• The Soviets saw the atomic bomb
as a threat and soon began to
develop their own.
• Stalin felt he was justified in
wanting to control Eastern Europe
so he could increase security of
his nation’s eastern border.
Iron Curtain
• Imaginary line between
Western (democratic)
Europe and Eastern
(communist) Europe after
World War II.
• Stalin and the Soviets had
used whatever means
necessary to force Eastern
European nations to
“choose” communism.
American Response
• U.S. feels it must establish a
foreign policy in reaction to
Stalin’s domination of Eastern
Europe.
• Containment – the use of
military and economic aid to
prevent the spread of
communism at all costs.
• Truman Doctrine – U.S. must
support all peoples who are
resisting communism.
• Marshall Plan – A massive
American program of aid to
help Europe rebuild and get
back on its feet.
Berlin Airlift
• Germany (and its capital city of
Berlin) came to be divided into a
communist side (East Germany)
and a democratic side (West
Germany).
• June 1948 – Soviets are
displeased with a Western city
deep in their part of Germany and
blockade the city of Berlin.
• After a 2 month airlift of supplies
into the city, the Soviets dropped
NATO
• North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
• Military alliance between
western nations in the Atlantic
that declared an attack on one
would be considered an attack
on all.
• Included U.S., France, Great
Britain, etc.
1949
• Soviet Union gets the atomic
bomb.
• China becomes Communist.
Red Scare
• Another Red Scare spreads
across the U.S. as Senator
Joe McCarty and his House
Un-American Activities
Committee go on a witchhunt for suspected
communists in the U.S.
Korean War
• Korea had been temporarily
divided into North (Soviet
controlled) and South (U.S.
controlled).
• 1950 – Northern Communist
forces invade South Korea in
an attempt to reunite the
nation as a communist one
• President Truman asks the
United Nations to approve
the use of military force to
prevent the overthrow of the
democratic government in
South Korea.
• General Douglas MacArthur
would lead the U.N. forces
on the ground in Korea.
• The war ended on July 27, 1953
with Korea divided at basically
the same place it was when the
war started.
• 37,000 American soldiers died.
• 60,000 other U.N forces were
killed.
• Communist forces lost 2 million.
• 3 million North and South Korean
civilians were killed.
President Eisenhower
1952-1958
• Brinkmanship – going to the
brink of war without actually
going into war.
• Massive retaliation – Pledge
that the United States would
use overwhelming force
against the Soviets if they
attacked –including the use
of multiple nuclear
Nikita Khrushchev
Soviet Leader after Stalin’s
death
• Freed thousands of Stalin’s
political prisoners.
• Created the Warsaw Pact – a
communist military alliance that
was the counterpart to NATO.
• Met with Truman at the first
U.S.-USSR summit in 1955.
• Soviet Union
• Poland
• East Germany
• Czechoslovakia
• Bulgaria
• Hungary
• Romania
• Albania (
Cold War Hotspots
SEATO
• South East Asia Treaty Organization
• Created by the United States in 1955
in reaction the threat of a
communist takeover in Vietnam.
• Domino Theory –President
Eisenhower’s belief that if one
country in SE Asia fell to
communism, then others would
follow.
Middle East
• 1948 Israel was created by the United
Nations as a Jewish homeland.
• Arab neighbors attacked Israel and
tried to take back the territory.
• Israel defeated them and seized the
land set aside for a Palestinian
homeland.
• Eisenhower Doctrine – the U.S. had the
right to help any nation in the Middle
East who was trying to resist
communism.
The Arms Race
• Hydrogen bomb is created – much
more powerful than atomic bomb.
• Both sides began to build up their
number of nuclear weapons.
• Nuclear submarines come into
play.
• ICBMs – intercontinental ballistic
missiles – could travel thousands
of miles to deliver their nuclear
warheads.
Space Race
• Soviets add another aspect to
the arms race when they
successfully put a satellite
into orbit around the earth.
• U.S. creates its own space
program NASA in reaction.
• Civilians in both nations had
to learn to live with the threat
of nuclear war.
President John F. Kennedy
• Fidel Castro comes to power
in Cuba and signs treaties
with the Soviet Union and
seizes American businesses in
Cuba.
• President Kennedy gives the
go-ahead for an invasion of
Cuba in 1961.
• The Bay of Pigs invasion was
a dismal failure for the U.S.
and strengthened Castro’s ties
to the USSR.
• Khrushchev sees Kennedy’s
failure in Cuba as weakness and
tests him by demanding the
withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Berlin.
• Kennedy refuses and builds up
U.S. military forces in West
Berlin.
• Khrushchev responds by
forcibly closing the crossing
points within the city and
builds a wall to keep anyone
from crossing from East to
West.
• Kennedy tell West Berliners
and the world that the wall
symbolizes the failure of
communism.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Khrushchev continues to test
Kennedy by placing nuclear
weapons in Cuba.
• Kennedy blockades Cuba.
• The whole world sits on edge as
Soviet ships cruise toward Cuba
with more missiles.
• October 24, 1962 Soviet
ships turn around before
reaching blockade.
• Khrushchev offers to remove
the missiles if Kennedy will
promise never to invade
Cuba.
• One of the closest points the
two sides came to actually
using nuclear weapons against
each other.
• As a result, a hot line was
established between the
leaders of the two nations to
ease tensions
President Lyndon
Johnson
• Sends troops to the
Dominican Republic to stop
a communist revolution.
• Signs a treaty with the USSR
and others to ban nuclear
weapons in space.
Vietnam War
• 1955 President Eisenhower
sends military advisors to
South Vietnam to aid its
“democratic”, anti-communist
but corrupt leader, Diem,
remain in power as
communists from North
Vietnam and other opponents
of Diem attempt to reunite the
nation under communism.
• President Kennedy increases
the number of military
advisors and sends in special
forces – Green Berets – to aid
the non-communist forces.
• Diem is assassinated and in
1964, President Johnson asks
Congress to send in the U.S.
military after an incident
occurred in the Tonkin Gulf
off the coast of Vietnam.
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• Congress gave the President the
power to “take all necessary
measures to repel any attack
against forces of the United
States.”
• The two senators who opposed
the resolution predicted that ‘we
have made a grave mistake and
we are in effect giving the
President war-making powers
without a declaration of war.”
• The U.S. began with air
attacks on targets in North
Vietnam.
• By 1967, 486,000 U.S. troops
were on the ground in
Vietnam.
• As the war continued with
little visible progress and the
institution of the draft, the
American public opinion
turned dramatically against
involvement.
• Continued fighting and
controversial actions by the
U.S. military, led to increased
public outcry against the war.
• Johnson decided not to run for
reelection and Republican
Richard Nixon is elected in
1968.
• January 1973, peace talks
finally result in a cease fire
and an end to the war.
• April 1975, North
Vietnamese invade South
Vietnam and SV surrenders
and the nation is united
under a communist
government.
• 58,000
Americans lost
their lives in
Vietnam.
• Thousands
others were
injured or
returned home
to face lives that
would never be
the same.
President Nixon
1968-1974
• Realpolitik – basing foreign
policy on realistic views of
national interest rather than on
broad rules or principles
(containment, domino theory,
etc.)
• Nixon works to ease tensions
with both the Soviet Union and
Communist China known as
détente.
• Strategic Arms Limitations
Talks (SALT 1 and 2) –
Agreements between the
two superpowers to limit
their nuclear weapons.
• Presidents Ford, Carter and
Reagan continue to try to
avoid armed conflict with
the USSR while dealing with
a serious of issues that had
tensions ease and intensify.
• In the end, it was worsening
economic conditions in the
Soviet Union that ultimately
brought the Cold War to an
end.
• Reagan and Gorbechev, the
new Soviet leader, have a
series of meetings and sign
several treaties.
• 1989 Gorbechev begins
withdrawing Soviet troops
from Eastern European
nations and other nations
under Soviet control.
• Revolutions in other nations
lead to the fall of the Soviet
empire.
• November 9, 1989 – The gates
to the Berlin wall are thrown
open and thousands of Berliners
from both sides, immediately
begin tearing down this most
visible symbol of the Cold War.
• In late 1991, Gorbechev
resigned and the Soviet Union
dissolved.