Transcript The Cold War

Chapter 31
Cold War – Big Picture
 Western & Eastern Europe were devastated by World
War II, soon divided by the iron curtain
 U.S.S.R. soon emerged as a superpower rivaling the
U.S.
 Eastern Europe was dominated by the Soviets for 45
years after the war
 Eastern Europe: advances in industrial capability were
balanced by repression from the Communist system
 Western Europe generally followed the U.S. model
 The West showed strong economic recovery in the
years following the war
 A consumer culture arose, women reached new heights
of equality, and democracy was firmly established
Cold War Timeline
After World War II
Infrastructure of Europe destroyed - bombings
 Boundary changes + forced labor = refugees
 USSR and USA size and industrial strength dwarf
European nation-states
 Soviets create an empire that dominates Eastern
Europe
 Western Europe recovers, but not dominant
 US breaks from isolationism, turns international
 the arrival of the Cold War, and decolonization set a
challenging international context for western Europe
 Parliamentary democracies gained ground
 Parts of Europe united as never before, as some old
enemies quickly became fast allies
 Rapid economic growth caused changes in society
After World War II
Europe and Its Colonies
 The British, the Dutch, and the French found a
hostile climate in colonies after World War II
 Decolonization happened more smoothly than before
 After WWII, Europe’s power significantly reduced
 Decolonization's Effect on Europe
 Returning settlers angry
 Europe's role in world affairs became minimal
 Vietnam
 French forced out, 1954- costly defeats
 Algeria
 Another French colony, independence in 1962
 Egypt
 Suez Canal crisis of 1956 - symbolic shift
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Britain, France (Israel) attack
U.S., Russia (via U.N.) force them to withdraw
The Cold War
U.S. vs U.S.S.R. and its influence
 Eastern block formed (All Eastern Europe except Turkey)
 Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East
Germany
 Marshall Plan, 1947
 Loans designed to aid western European nations rebuild from
WWIIʹs devastation
 Germany, focal point, divided into Soviet- and U.S.-influenced
parts
 allies rebuild, from 1946
 Russian blockade, 1947
 American airlift
 split, 1948
 NATO, 1949
 US led, formed to counter perceived Soviet aggression in that
continent
 Warsaw Pact
 U.S.S.R. countered with an alliance of its own In the
 1950s the Middle East and Asia, Cold War conflicts arose as well,
with war breaking out in Korea and Vietnam
 Soviet & Eastern
European
Boundaries
by 1948
 Germany
after
World
War II
Resurgence of W. Europe
 The Spread of Liberal Democracy
 Fascism was crushed
 New constitutions in several western European nations
firmly established constitutional democracies
 Christian Democrats
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Christian principles to public policy
social reform
 Federal Republic of Germany
 France
 Fifth Republic, 1958
 Portugal, Spain
 democratic, parliamentary systems
 By the 1980s, western Europe was more politically
uniform than at any point in history
 Power passed from one side to the other without major
disruption
The Welfare State
 After WWII, Conservatives did not dismantle the
welfare state and socialist parties moderated their tone
 Western Europe, United States, Canada later
 unemployment insurance, medicine, housing, & family
assistance
Resurgence of W.Europe
New Challenges to Political Stability –jolted
 Civil rights movement, 1950s-1960s MLK, Malcolm X etc…
 Major campus unrest focused on the Vietnam War and civil rights
 Early 1970s new rights for students ended intense student protests
 The flexibility of postwar Western democracy seemed triumphant
 Other political concerns emerged
 New feminism
 Environmentalist movements -Green Movement
 The Green Party traces its origins to the student protest movement
of the 1960s, the environmentalist movement of the 1970s, and the
peace movement of the early 1980s.
Economic Expansion
 Economic growth accompanied political and social change 20 years
after WWII
 High unemployment elsewhere

ʺtechnocratʺ became a new breed of bureaucrat (engineering or economics)
 Immigration of workers into Europe, U.S.
 Western civilization became an affluent, consumer-oriented society.
 1970s, the resurgence had slowed; afterwards, economic advancement
occurred, but not as thoroughly
The Diplomatic Context
 European Union
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European Economic Community, 1958. Common Market
Single currency, 2001 euro
European Community, 2002
The continent enjoyed its longest period of internal peace in history
Cold War Allies
The Former Dominions
 Similar economic, political, and social trends occurred in the “overseas West” as
they had in western Europe and the United States. The U.S. paved the way in
foreign policy with the decline of Britain
 Canada government health care & welfare policies
 separatist movement within the French community in Quebec
 1982, new constitution
 Australia, New Zealand moved toward alliances around the Pacific
 defense pact with U.S., 1951
 take part in Korean War
 Australia supports U.S. in Vietnam from 1970s, more independent
 Asian immigration into Australia was a key social development.
The "U.S. Century"?
 1950s, United States assumed the mantle of leadership of democracies and
capitalist societies against the Soviet Union
 The Truman Doctrine of containment of Communism began in Europe and spread
around the globe, to southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa
 Vietnam, 1960s
 Domestic pressure U.S. withdraws, 1975
 By the early 1990s, the U.S. emerged victorious in the cold war and the world’s
only remaining superpower
 End of the century, the U.S. found itself involved in flashpoints in the Middle
East
Culture and Society in the West
Social Structure
 Social lines were blurred by increasing social mobility
 White-collar/Middle-class people had more leisure opportunities than
the working class
 Most unskilled labor was done by immigrants
 Crime rates increased after the 1940s
 Racism, anti-immigration conflict
Culture and Society in the West
 Classic tensions of industrial society declined but gender relations
were profoundly altered by new work roles for women
 Consumerism gained ground, becoming a defining feature of
Western civilization
The Women’s Revolution
 A key facet of postwar change involved women and the family
 1950s onward the number of married working women rose steadily
in the West
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Right to vote
more education
job opportunities
access to divorce & reproductive rights
 Marriage and children came at later ages
 Maternal care replaced by day-care centers, as both parents worked
 New –feminism political agitation occurred in the 1960s and 1970s
 Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex, 1949
 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
Western Culture
One key development was the shift of focus toward the United States
 "Brain drain" to U.S.
 Genetics, nuclear, space research
 New York replaced Paris as the center of international styles
 Pop art
 Pablo Picasso
 Developments in the arts maintained earlier 20th-century themes.
Europeans especially shined in artistic films
 Economics became something of an American specialty
 Social history became increasingly important
A Lively Popular Culture
 Western society displayed more vitality in popular culture than in
 intellectual life
 American television and music were particularly effective agents of that
nation’s culture (or the perception of it).
 European music was one area that bucked this trend of
“Americanization”
 U.S. and in Europe, sexual behavior changed among young people,
with an increased acceptance of experimentation
 As the West’s political influence declined around the globe, its cultural
influence was at an all-time high.
Soviet Empire
The Soviet Union as Superpower
 After World War II, the U.S.S.R. was a superpower that
rivaled the United States,
 Status was confirmed when it developed atomic weapons
1949
 These two nations used diplomacy and military strength to
vie for influence in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin
America
Eastern Europe After World War II: A Soviet Empire
 Several major changes in eastern Europe paralleled that of
the West, including the impact of industrialization and Cold
War competition
 The Soviet Union sought independence from the world
economy and territorial expansion continued
 Expands in Pacific
 Pacific Islands, North Korea
 Influence via aid Chinese, Vietnamese communism
 Nationalists in Africa, Middle East, Asia
 Cuba
 Alliance (Cuban Missile Crisis)
Soviet Empire, E. Europe
There, opposition to Soviet rule was crushed
 Dominance of all but Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia
 Mass education & Propaganda outlets were established
 Industrialization was pushed
 Warsaw Pact causes tensions…
 East Germans protest, 1953
 suppressed
 Berlin Wall, 1961
 to stop flight to west
 After 1956, death of Stalin
 Hungary, Poland
 moderate regimes
 Hungary crushed
 Czechoslovakia
 liberal regime
 suppressed, 1968
 Poland
 Army takes control, 1970s
 Solidarity Movement, The independent labor movement in Poland that
challenged Soviet dominance was called
 By the 1980s, eastern Europe had been vastly changed by Communist rule and
cracks were beginning to appear in the Soviet-built masonry.
Soviet Culture
Soviet Culture: Promoting New Beliefs and Institutions
Rapid industrialization created new issues in eastern European society and culture.
 Freedom of religion was restricted, Orthodox Church state control
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Important literary currents showed impressive vitality, even as Soviet leaders attacked
Western culture and sought alternatives to Western-style consumerism
Party ideals dictate art literature retains vitality
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Jews restricted
Alexander Solzhenitsyn Gulag Archipelago was exiled to the West, but found life there too
materialistic
Beginning in the 1950s, the Stalinist system yielded to more flexibility but Communist
party control remained tight.
The sciences, especially those useful to the military, were strongly promoted.
By the 1970s, new diplomatic and social issues arose.
Economy and Society
 Lagged in consumer goods because governmental policy heavy industry
 Living standards improved compared to pre-WWII
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A great deal of environmental damage occurred because of the drive to produce at all
costs 
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poor consumer products throughout the Communist Era
Problems in agricultural production went unsolved as well.
Comparison to Western culture included a similar attraction to leisure sports, television,
crowded cities, and a dropping birth rate
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Soviet propaganda promoted the “equality” of women in the workplace but there were
signs that many suffered burdens from demanding jobs and home life.
Soviet Culture
De-Stalinization
 After Stalin’s death in the 1953
 Nikita Khrushchev emerged as his successor 1956
 Khrushchev triggered a partial thaw of Stalin’s vicious policies and
at times seemed to promote cooperation with the West
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But little real change was made in the Communist institution…
Khrushchev was ousted by the ruling party after Cuban missile crisis in
1962
 The U.S.S.R. held the lead in the space race with the U.S. until the
late 1960s.
 Relations with Communist China and other nations turned sour
 High rates of alcoholism plagued the male workforce
 Economic growth fluctuated through the 1980s, by which time the
entire system lay on the verge of collapse
 Muslim resistance
 20 million population
 Chechnya, 1940s, 1994-96, 1999-2000
 Invasion of Afghanistan,1979
 After 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev significantly altered
political diplomatic, & economic policies
 Eventually, end of Communism in Europe.