Transcript File

COLD
WAR
Introduction:
• The cold war was a time of tensions between two ideologies.
• Economically speaking:
• Communism and Capitalism
• Politically speaking:
• Communism and Democracy
• This tension lasted from the end of WWII till about 1991.
Origins of the
Cold WAR
Before the end of WWII…
• Russia already had mistrust for its allies.
• These uneasy relationship dated back to the Russian
Revolution when the White Army (backed by Britain, France,
Canada and the USA) started a civil war in Russia and tried to
overthrow Lenin.
(Do you remember when we talked about this?)
Lack of trust!
• Russia didn’t trust its allies. Why would they?
• Russia originally was not going to fight for the Allies.
• In 1939 they signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact also known
as the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
• This was an agreement between Germany and Russia stating
that they wouldn’t fight each other.
• It was also an agreement that Germany would not become
allies with Japan (whom Russia was currently fighting).
The Pact Continued:
• The pact was also a secret
plan to divide up Poland and
other nations between Russia
and Germany. The Pact
remained in place until 1941
when Hitler decided he could
invade Russia. Russia then
dropped its alliance with
Germany and joined the
Allies.
Capitalists Don’t Trust
Communists
• Because of the
pact the
capitalist
countries did
not trust the
Russians.
• They also didn’t
trust
communism
since it began.
POTSDAM
• The Allies gathered
together at Potsdam
Germany to discuss
post-war measures
to take place in
Germany. What was
to be done with this
aggressive nation?
“There is not one piece
of territory or one
thing of a monetary
nature we want out
of this war. We want
peace and prosperity
for the world as a
whole”
-President Harry Truman July 20, 1945
POTSDAM
• Russia had other plans. They wanted revenge.
Russia wanted Germany to pay war reparations,
they also wanted a buffer zone between them and
the rest of Europe.
Truman’s Hammer
• Truman had an ace up
his sleeve. He had an
atomic bomb.
• The atomic bomb was
a brand new invention.
Nothing like it had ever
existed before. Truman
was going to use it to
end the war with Japan
and to intimidate
Russia.
The Manhattan Project
THE BOMB
• The Manhattan
Project took place
on the first day of
the Potsdam
conference.
• The first bomb was
dropped on
Hiroshima on August
6, 1945 , the second
on Nagasaki August
9th, 1945.
RUSSIAS REACTION
• Russia wasn’t surprised about the bomb, they had spies who
informed them about it long before.
• Russia was surprised that the United States actually used it.
This is what everyone was scared of for the next 45 years.
Duck and Cover
Marshal Plan
• In January 1947, Truman appointed General George Marshall
as Secretary of State. He came up with a plan that the
democratic allies all agreed with.
• The democratic allies felt that a prosperous German nation
would benefit all of Europe and the world. It would also lead
to lasting peace.
• Why would they think this?
The Marshall Plan
 1947-1951: The US provided $9.4 billion in economic assistance to
Western Europe to help Europe rebuild after WWII.
 This aid was provided, in part, so that western European nations
could resist the pull of communism.
Russia’s Response
• Russia disagreed. They wanted to return Germany to a
primitive state of peasant farmers, incapable of starting a war
or a rebellion.
The Division of Germany
 The Big three agreed at Potsdam on the division of Germany.
 Britain, France, the US, and the USSR each controlled one zone of
occupation.
 The western powers wanted to see the economic and political
restructuring of Germany, while the USSR wanted to maintain
Germany as a communist buffer state.
Division of Germany
Division of Berlin
Crisis in Germany
 Spring, 1948: The western powers introduced a new currency
into their zones and requested the reunification of the zones.
 Stalin refused to allow a democratic Germany and withheld his
zone from the German constitutional convention.
 The western powers decided to proceed without him and
continued to help Germany construct a new constitution.
The Berlin Blockade
 Stalin responded to western actions by blockading the city of
West Berlin.
 The allies responded to the blockade with a massive airlift
which supplied the city for 321 days.
 Stalin was forced to withdraw his blockade in 1949--a major
defeat for the Soviets.
The Berlin Blockade/Berlin Air Lift
This created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO)
Military Alliances
 The lines between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc were
formally drawn with the creation of two alliances.
 1949: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): designed to
protect W. Europe from Communist aggression
 1955: Warsaw Pact (which we will mention again) : designed to
protect E. Europe from capitalist influence.
Two Germanies
 In response to the Berlin blockade, the western powers joined
their zones into a free nation: the Federal Republic of
Germany.
 Stalin later made his zone into the German Democratic
Republic, another Soviet puppet state.
The Iron Curtain
1946: Churchill called the Soviet domination of E. Europe the “Iron
Curtain.”
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is the practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge of—or to
the brink of—disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome.
Expansionism
 Stalin held a series of unfair elections and coups to install
communist puppets in most of the E. European nations.
 Poland: 1947
 Czechoslovakia: 1948
 Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia: 1946-47
Expansionism
The People's Republic of China was
established on October 1, 1949.
This was a major blow to NATO’s
attempt at containment.
Chairman Mao Zedong became
China’s communist dictator,
replacing Chiang Kai-shek who was
friendly to the NATO countries.
The West Takes a Stand
 The USSR was supporting communist rebels in Greece & Turkey.
 President Harry S Truman told Congress the Doctrine was “the
policy of the United States to support free people who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by
outside pressures.”
 This became the Truman Doctrine, stating that the US would
provide aid to any free nation fighting off communism.
 The Truman Doctrine became the basis of the US policy of
“containment.”
Link
The Eastern European Satellites
Following WWII, the USSR set as a priority the
establishment of a system of satellite states in E.
Europe.
The USSR created the Warsaw Pact in 1955 to
establish military control of its satellites.
Economic conditions remained poor in most E.
European nations, due to a lack of capital for
economic development.
American-Soviet Tensions
 Despite a visit to the US in 1959, tension was high between
the superpowers.
 1959:
 1960:
 1961:
 1961:
 1962:
Sputnik
U-2 Incident
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Berlin Wall
Cuban Missile Crisis
Sputnik
• It was a key Cold War event that began on October 4, 1957
when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial
Earth satellite.
• This was a crisis because:
• The same rocket that launched Sputnik could send a nuclear
warhead anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes,
breaching the oceanic moat that had successfully protected
the continental United States from attack during both World
Wars.
U-2 Spy Plane Incident
• Why the U-2 was special
• Plane shot down over Soviet territory
• Russians kept quiet, let the Americans lie about the incident
• Then produced the
wreckage and pilot, Gary
Powers
• Americans publicly
humiliated, relations
deteriorated between the
two superpowers
U-2 Spy Plane Incident
• Gary Powers pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage
on 19 August and sentenced to three years imprisonment and
seven years of hard labor. He served one year and nine
months of the sentence before being exchanged for Rudolf
Abel (a Soviet spy) on 10 February 1962
The Berlin Wall
 Political and Economic conditions in E. Germany and many other
Eastern bloc nations remained so poor that millions were fleeing
through West Berlin to freedom in western nations.
 The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop the flow of refugees to the
west.
 This was seen and publicized as a barbaric move and became a visible
symbol of the cold war conflicts.
Bay of Pigs/Cuban
Missile Crisis
1962
Know that…
•USA had long considered
Central America to be within
the American sphere of
influence.
•The Americans and American
corporations had large
investments in Cuba.
Know that…
•American corporations in Cuba
and the USA gov’t had
supported an unpopular,
corrupt, military dictatorship
led by General Fulgencio
Batista. Castro and his forces
overthrew him.
Know that…
•Castro's policies and his
growing relationship with
the Soviet Union threatened
American interests in Cuba
and the region.
Map
Nationalization of America-owned
Companies
• Cuban friction with the USA developed as Castro began
nationalizing American businesses and their property in Cuba.
• Consequently the USA wouldn’t buy Cuban sugar and cut
trade with Cuba, including supplies of oil.
Nationalization of America-owned Companies
• In February 1960, Cuba signed an agreement to buy oil from
the USSR. When the U.S.-owned refineries in Cuba refused to
process the oil, they were nationalized and the United States
broke off diplomatic relations with the Castro government
afterward.
• Soon after the Cubans and Soviets established economic and
military ties.
The Bay of Pigs
• What was the Bay of Pigs invasion?
• Who was involved?
• What was their goal?
• What was the result for the invaders
and the American government?
Foreign Intervention: The Bay of Pigs
• The U.S. supplied and trained anti-Castro Cuban
exiles (former residents of Cuba).
• In 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles (emigres) launched
an invasion of Cuba (the Bay of Pigs, where they
landed) in an attempt to overthrow the
government of Fidel Castro. It turned out to be a
disaster for anti-Castro forces.
• The U.S. air force did not provide air cover (it
said it would), and the U.S. publicly denied any
direct involvement.
• clip
Cuban Missile Crisis
• The world was on edge in late 1962
when a U-2 spy plane photographed
nuclear missiles being constructed on
Cuban soil.
This is what was
photographed:
• clip
Oral Responses
• For Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the missiles were an insurance
policy against…
• an attack by the USA
• For former US president John F Kennedy, the presence of
nuclear missiles 90 miles off the coast of Florida was a direct
threat to…
• Why were the Americans threatened by the location of the
missiles?
• Most of the people living in
continental United States could
have come under attack. The Soviet
sphere of influence was now just off
the coast of Florida.
• The U.S. missiles in Turkey threatened the Soviet Union
much like the Soviet missiles in Cuba threatened the U.S.
• What deal was worked out to end the standoff between
the two superpowers?
• Withdrawal of missiles from Cuba and
withdrawal of the American missiles from
NATO bases in Turkey.
Brinkmanship
• Practice of pushing a dangerous situation to the brink of
disaster in order to achieve a desired outcome forcing the
opposition to back down and make concessions.
• During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear force was
sometimes used to take events to the brink making the other
nation “blink first” and give in.
Deterrence (MAD)
• Mutual Assured Destruction
• A military strategy under which one
power uses the threat of retaliation
effectively to prevent an attack from
an enemy power.
Discuss
• How did the MAD theory (and the
number of nuclear weapons both
superpowers processed) influence
the outcome of the Crisis?
Discuss
What lessons did the Soviets and
the Americans learn from the
Crisis?