Transcript proxy wars
C 36 continued: The Bipolar World Origins of the Cold War • US, USSR, Great Britain unnatural allies during World War II – Tensions submerged until close of war • • Yalta Conference (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt) 1945 Potsdam Conference (Stalin, Truman) (1945) – Decided on USSR declaration of war vs. Japan, setting up of International Military Tribunal – Free elections for Eastern Europe (The Atlantic Charter) • Stalin arranges pro-communist governments in Eastern European countries (By 1948: Satellite Countries: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Rumania). • In wake of two revolutions (Russia, China), collapse of five empires within last 35 years (Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German, Italian, Japanese), decline of two great imperial powers (British, French) = TWO global superpowers (US and Soviet Union) with diametrically opposed political agendas Soviet threat is different than all prior 1946: “Iron Curtain” descends forms of imperialism: they seek to impose their absolute authority over the rest of the entire world. • Occupied Germany: 1945-1949 Truman Doctrine 1947: CONTAINMENT Marshall Plan 1947-1951 Berlin Crisis/ Berlin Airlift 1948-1949 The Cold War 1949-1962 Bipolar Alliances: Whose Side?? Some Independence: France (Charles DeGaulle) Yugoslavia (Marshall Tito) Soviet Allies: Eastern European Satellite Nations China North Korea Cuba North Vietnam 1949 Truman announced that the Soviets have successfully tested a nuclear device 1950 US developed Hydrogen Bomb 1953 Soviets developed Hydrogen Bomb 1956 Khrushchev = Peaceful Coexistence 1956 Khrushchev = Peaceful Coexistence? Sputnik: October 4, 1957 1958 Peaceful Coexistence??? What Did It Look Like?? Senator Joseph McCarthy and The Red Scare PROXY WARS: Korean War 1950-1953 Vietnam War (1954)-1975 Caribbean 1980s 1954 Eisenhower’s “Domino Theory”: Used to justify US response to real or Imagined communist threats in Central and South America, Africa and Asia The Cold War: The Caribbean 1980s Peaceful Coexistence??? Hungary 1956 Prague Spring 1968 = Brezhnev Doctrine August 1961 Berlin Wall fortified Fall of the Berlin Wall: November 9, 1989 1949-1961 3.5 million East Germans Fled to the West STANDOFF: Bay of Pigs: April 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis: October 1962 Soviets agree to remove missile sites and return missiles to USSR in exchange for US promise not to invade Cuba, and to remove US missiles in Turkey (private) Ho Chi Minh Ngo Dinh Diem Vietnam War 1946-1975 Unification 1976 Kent State May 4, 1970 Johnson’s “Credibility Gap” Johnson does not run for reelection in 1968 Nixon’s Vietnamization: gradual withdrawal Negative effect for Cambodia: Pol Pot The Pentagon Papers 1971 Fall of Saigon April 30, 1975 DÉTENTE 1960s Soviets and the US agree to reduction in hostility Nuclear Arms race was too costly New spirit of cooperation : SALT Treaties 1972, 1979 Continued in spite of Vietnam War, Soviets in Africa and Soviet human rights violations ?????? Demise of Détente: 1. 1972 Nixon became first US President to visit Communist China 2. 1979 US established full diplomatic relations with China 3. 1981 US announced sale of weapons to Chinese military 4. 1979 Soviets invade Afghanistan 5. However, SUPERPOWERS are on the wane: US lose in Vietnam, Soviets lose in Afghanistan 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative: “Star Wars” Soviets are forced to spend heavily to meet this technological match November 9, 1989 The End of the Cold War Mikhail Gorbachev 1985-1991 1989 Restructuring of the Soviet Union Perestroika= “restructuring the economy Glasnost = “openness to public criticism” Boris Yeltsin demanded independence for Russian Republic Collapse of the Soviet Union = December 1991 Germany reunited 1990 Yeltsin dismantled Communist party Communism exists now only in Cuba and North Korea Decolonization of Africa 1960s South Africa: Abolition of Apartheid President Nelson Mandela 1994 Ethnic and Religious Conflicts Iranian Revolution 1979 Iran-Iraq War 1988 Democracy in China Deng Xiaoping 1981 Cultural, economic reform Political Authoritarian: 1989 Tiananmen Square