Transcript Chapter 28

Chapter 28
Cold War and a New Western
World
(1945-1973)
Confrontation of the Super Powers
USSR needed to feel secure on their western border
– not willing to give up advantages gained in eastern Europe
USA not willing to give up power or prestige gained after role in WWII
1945-49 a series of events led the two countries into a continuous
conflict based on mutual fear & competition
Disagreement over Eastern Europe – Stalin would not allow eastern
European countries freedom to establish democratic govts because
they would be “anti-soviet”
Truman Doctrine (1946)
– the United States would give money to any country that said it was
threatened by communism
– 1947 – Truman requested $400 million in aid for Greece & Turkey
The Marshall Plan (1947)
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Intended to rebuild stability & prosperity in Europe
$13 billion for economic recovery (excluded Soviet Union)
Underlying belief was that communism fed off of economic turmoil
Marshall Plan pushed Stalin to safeguard Soviet interests more
enthusiastically
American Containment Policy
– by end of WWII, Americans favored quick end to involvement in
European affairs
– fear of Soviet motives led to increased role in Europe
– July 1947 – George Kennan advocated a policy of containment to keep
communism from spreading
– After Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948, containment of the Soviet Union
became formal American policy
Contention over Germany
– Besides denazification and partitioning of Germany into four occupied
zones, Allies agreed on very little
– Soviet Union (hit hardest by WWII) took reparations in the form of booty
– Dismantled & moved 380 factories into USSR before giving over control
of West Berlin to Allies
– USSR started blockade of West Berlin in hopes of keeping allies from
creating separate West German govt
– Solution: Berlin Air Lift, at peak 13,000 tons of supplies flown into WB a
day
– Increases tensions, caused formation of German Federal Republic (West
Germany) & German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
– Berlin remained divided as well even though it existed in East Germany
Globalization of the Cold War
1949 - Soviets detonate 1st atomic bomb
Arms race begins, as does policy of mutual deterrence
– Belief that if one country launched its nuclear weapons, the other country
would still be able to respond & devastate the attacker
– Assumption is that neither side would risk an attack for fear of
counterattack
Uncertainty around the world led to formation of military alliances
– 1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed (Belgium, Britain,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, & United States)
– 1955: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary,
Poland, Romania & Soviet Union form the Warsaw Pact
Chinese Communists won the Chinese civil war in 1949
– increased American fear of spreading communism would make
containment more important
– Shortly thereafter, the Korean War turned the Cold War into a worldwide
struggle
liberated from Japan in 1945, split
in half
– Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea (North Korea) supported by
Soviet Union
– The Republic of Korea (South
Korea) received aid from US
6/25/50 – North Korea invades
South w/ apparent approval of
Stalin
– Seen as Communist aggression,
US gains UN support & sends
troops to turn back invasion
By Sept., Gen. Douglas MacArthur
marched across the 38th Parallel w/
intention of unifying Korea under a
non-communist govt.
Communist China sent troops into
N.Korea for support
Fighting continues until 1953, no
clear victory – 38th Parallel set as
boundary
Korean War
By 1955, the US found itself allied w/ 42 countries world-wide
1953 – hope of a peaceful future appeared when Stalin died, but new
Soviet leadership was no more flexible than Stalin had been
Aug 1957 – USSR launches first ICBM & shortly thereafter Sputnik I
(first space satellite)
– Causes fear of a “missile gap” w/ USSR; arms race escalates
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tries to use routes into Berlin
several times to bully the West into withdrawing from the city
Aug 1961 – East German workers begin construction on the Berlin
Wall to keep East Germans from escaping to West Berlin
– More than 100 miles of wall, made Berlin symbol of a divided Europe
Khrushchev, seeking a foreign policy victory, set his sights on Cuba
The Cuban Missile Crisis
1959 – left wing revolutionary, Fidel Castro overthrows the Cuban
dictator & establishes a Soviet-supported regime
1961 – Bay of Pigs fiasco – US supported attempt to invade Cuba
(utter failure)
1962 – USSR stations missiles on Cuba (90 mi. from Florida)
US blockades Cuba to prevent missiles from arriving
Eventually, Khrushchev agreed to abort the missile placement
– no one realized how close the world came to nuclear war
The Vietnam War
By the end of the Cuban crisis the US had
been pulled into another conflict in Asia
1954 – Vietnamese forces overthrow their
French colonial masters
– Ho Chi Mihn received Soviet aid in North
Vietnam, while US sponsored a pro-West
regime in South Vietnam
– US supported Ngo Dinh Diem, who was
corrupt & unable to gain support in the
south
– Undermined the ability of the govt to deal
w/ the Vietcong (N.V. supporters in the
south)
1963 – US supported a coup that overthrew
Diem, but new regime even less capable
1964 – Pres Johnson increased flow of US
troops into country to keep Communist N.V.
from uniting the country
– Seen as a “must win” by U.S., otherwise a
domino effect would occur
Massive superiority in equipment proved useless against NVA &
especially Vietcong
– Many S.V. opposed their govt & aided Vietcong
1967 - anti-war protests become common as US escalates war effort
Increasing brutalization of the war brought home on American
television every night (turned public opinion against war effort)
1973 – Richard Nixon reaches an agreement w/ N.Vietnam to allow
the US to withdraw its troops
– Nixon resigns, Gerald Ford becomes President, 1974
By 1975, Vietnam forcibly reunited under Communist North
Major reason that South Vietnam was lost because the U.S. failed to
keep promises after withdrawing
Myths of Vietnam
We didn’t “jump in” – 20 yrs, 4 presidents (Kennedy – Ford)
Public support never dropped below 50%
Poor & black did not serve in disproportionate numbers
Most college students were not activists
Despite media coverage, no one knew what was going on until Nixon
Europe and the World: Decolonization
Africa
After WWII, Europeans realized that
colonial rule in Africa would have to
end
– Colonial masters had done little to
help Africans prepare for self-rule
1922 – Egypt gained independence
– 1952 – established independent
republic
1956 - Morocco & Tunisia gained
independence from France
1962 – Algeria finally gains
independence
By late 1960’s only parts of South
Africa & Portuguese holdings in
Mozambique & Angola still held by
Europeans
Portuguese finally gave up colonies
in 1970’s
Conflict in the Middle East
By the end of WWII most of the Middle East
was independent
March 1948 – United Nations divided Palestine
into a Jewish state & and Arab state
– The state of Israel is formed 5/14/48
– 90% of Palestine was Muslim
– Several Arab countries tried to invade Israel,
failed and refused to acknowledge its existece
Arab leaders met in Jerusalem in 1964 &
formed the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO)
– Led by Yasir Arafat, began launching terrorist
attacks in Israeli territory
– Attacks led Israel to raid PLO bases in Jordan
(1966)
– 1973 – Egyptians launch air & artillery raids on
Israeli positions in Sinai
– Cease-fire ended the fighting in 1974, but
tensions remained high
Recovery and Renewal in Europe
The Soviet Union
Nikita Khrushchev emerged as chief policy maker of Soviet Union after
death of Stalin
Khrushchev publicly condemned Stalin of “violence, repression, & terror”
in 1956
– Revelations sparked a spirit of rebellion in Soviet satellites in Europe
– Ended the forced-labor camps
– began decentralizing the government that had formed under Stalin
Economically – tried to place more emphasis on light industry &
consumer goods
His personality & foreign policy failures did little to endear himself to
others
– 1964 – Khrushchev voted out by Politburo & replaced by Leonid Brezhnev
France
Charles de Gaulle became president in 1958, tried to form France into a
world power
Economic problems caused much dissatisfaction w/ his presidency,
forced to resign in 1969, died 1970
West Germany
Konrad Aenauer served as chancellor from 1949-1963
1955 – West Germany rearmed & became a member of NATO
Although West Germany had 75% of population & 52% of the territory
of pre-war Germany, the GNP was higher than that of pre-war Germany
Surviving Nazi leaders were placed on trial in Nuremberg (1945-46), by
1950, German courts began to take over war crime cases
Great Britain
Massive economic problems after WWII
Established the British welfare state
– Established a social security system, nationalized some industry, the Bank
of England, public transportation & utilities
National Health Service Act of 1946
– Nationalized medical insurance & created a system of socialized medicine
Expenses of creating a welfare state caused Britain to cut expenses
abroad
Because of a loss of prewar revenue & war debt, Britain was no longer
a world power
The United States & Canada: A New Era
FDR’s New Deal continued to influence domestic politics until 1970
Influence of the New Deal in post WWII America was bolstered by the
election of three Democratic presidents (1948, 60, & 64)
– The election of Eisenhower in 1952 didn’t change the direction of policy
because he supported social security
Shortage of consumer goods during WWII left people w/ money &
desire to spend it in 1950’s
After communist advances in Asia, fear that communism had spread
to the United States
– Sen. Joseph McCarthy helped intensify the “Red Scare,” supposedly
ferreting out Communist conspirators in the government
– Censured by Congress in 1954, his crusade came to screeching halt
Civil Rights movement
1954 – Supreme Court rules on Brown vs. Board of Education, gets
the CR movement going
August 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King leads march on Washington
– Jan. 1963 – 4% said civil rights most important domestic issue, eight
months later 52% say its most important
LBJ took up the Civil Rights cause
& Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
passed by Congress
– Placed the machinery to end
segregation & discrimination
By 1965, voting rights acts made it
easier for blacks to vote in the
south
– Summer 1965, riots break out in
Los Angeles
– After King assassination in 1968,
riots in more than 100 cities
Anti-war protests also erupted after
Johnson began sending troops to
Vietnam
Many protests were peaceful like
the “sit-ins” & “love-ins”
– &%$@!n’ hippies….
As protests became more radical,
violence ensued
– 1970 Kent State, four student
protesters killed by Nat’l Guard
The Americanization of the World
United States has been the most influential force in the western world
since WWII
– movies, music, advertising, & television
1960’s – 40% of Hollywood’s income came from Europe)
By the mid-1950’s, televisions became a staple in middle class houses
– 32 million sets by 1954
1952 – White disk jockeys start playing African-American rhythm &
blues to white audiences
Rock-n-Roll appeared in the 1950’s, figures such as Chuck Berry,
Little Richard, & Elvis Presley inspired later musicians of the 1960’s
– Many of them from Great Britain, led to the British Invasion of the 60’s
– Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Cream, Black Sabbath…
1967-1973 considered the Golden Age of Rock
– much experimentation in music during this period
– Rolling Stones influenced by American blues instead of rock
– Some worked with “non-western” instruments (like synthesizers,
keyboards, sitars)
– Focused on social issues & alternatives to the “establishment”