Download Middle East: the Cold War hot spot

Global: 5/5/2014
• I/O: To examine the Middle East in a Cold War perspective.
Title Notes for today: The Middle East
• Key Question: How can we see the rise of Fundamentalist
Islam in the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet Invasion of
Afghanistan?
• Key Terms: Shah of Iran; Ayatollah Khomeini;
• CCS: 2;5
• Homework #2: I chart + Document Questions for Wed.
• Writing Lab: 3:15 – 4:00
• Global MC Review Begins this Saturday: 9:00 – 10:00;
10:00 – 11:00
• Do not be late!!!
The Fertile Crescent
World Oil Reserves
Persian Gulf Oil Exports (2003)
Why the Middle East?
• Oil Rich territory attracted both super powers
Iran: Secular vs. Religious values
• After WWII Iran’s leader Shah Mohammed
Reza Pahlavi embraced the West
Uh-Oh
• US helped restore the shah to power because
they feared Iran would turn to the Soviets for
help
Shah and the US
• United States and the Shah worked together to
westernize Iran
Iranian Revolution
• In 1978 a religious and
student led revolution,
the Shah was
overthrown and
Ayatollah Khomeini
came to power
Ayatollah Khomeini
• Leader of religious opposition against the west
Khomeini returns to Iran
• Khomeini sets up an Islamic state
• Khomeini despises the United States for
supporting the Shah and his secular ways
US Hostages
• With Ayatollah’s blessing Islamic
revolutionaries seized the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran and took 60 U.S. Hostages in 1979
Hostages
• Hostages are held for 444
days
• President Carter froze
assets to Iran, the
prisoners were freed
under Reagan 1981
Khomeini’s Goal
• Encourage Muslims to overthrow their secular
governments
• This leads to tension between Iran and Iraq
War between Iran and Iraq
• US gives weapons to Iraq
• Soviets support Iran
Afghanistan: Communist Regime
In the late 1970’s a Muslim revolt threatened the
communist rule of Afghanistan
• Soviets invade Afghanistan in 1979
Soviets thought…
• Soviets thought they would be in and out but
the United States supplied the Afghan rebels
who fought the Soviet forces.
Afghanistan cont’d
• U.S. said that the Soviet invasion threatened
Middle Eastern oil supplies
Soviets Pack Up
• Gorbachev withdraws Soviet troops in 1989
Rebel Forces
• Rebel groups begin fighting with one another
over who should gain power.
History of al-Qaeda and Terrorism
against the USA
• “Blo
What is al-Qaeda?
• Al Qaeda means “the Base.” It is a stateless
(meaning without a country) terrorist
organization.
• It is led and financed by Osama bin Laden, a
radical Sunni Muslim.
When did al-Qaeda form?
• The beginnings of al-Qaeda go back to the 1980’s
when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
Bin Laden, and the Arab Afghans, fought
the Soviet Union in Afghanistan
• The Soviet army left in
1988.
Desert Storm (Gulf War I)
• In 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded
the tiny, oil-rich country of Kuwait
Operation Desert Storm
• The United States feared Saddam would
invade Saudi Arabia too.
Iraqi tanks
US and Saudi coalition
• The United States asked the Saudis for permission to
establish military bases in their country.
Saudi’s choice
• Osama bin Laden, back home from Afghanistan,
offered the Saudis the use of his soldiers to fight the
Iraqi army because Infidel armies have no place in the
holy land of Islam.
Saudis chose the USA and snubbed bin Laden.
1991--Bin Laden leaves Saudi Arabia
for Sudan
Control of Afghanistan
Soviet Union: Not just Russia
• Eastern European
Countries are
Called
Satellite
Countries
Nixon-Ford-Carter-Reagan
• Détente: Lessen Cold War Tension
• Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative
Leonid Brezhnev
• Brezhnev Doctrine: Soviet Union had a right to
prevent satellite countries from rejecting
Communism
Summary
• What are 3 events that led to the onset of the
Cold War?
• What are three defining moments of the Cold
War?
• How did the Middle East enter the mix of the
Cold War?