Transcript The Cold War - Onondaga Central School District

The Cold War
SOVIET UNION
VS
THE UNITED STATES
The End of World War 2
 As the war was ending cracks in the Grand Alliance
were beginning to grow.
 USSR wanted a sphere of influence in eastern
Europe as a buffer against future aggression
 Stalin had promised Free elections in countries
USSR occupied

Communists won all of these elections
The Iron Curtain
 Churchill expressed the fears of many
 “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron
curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line
lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern
Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade,
Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the
populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet
sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to
Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases
increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
• Winston Churchill-1946
The US response
 The US wanted to set up Democratic governments in
Europe
 Most of Western Europe was in ruins
 The US saw the need to help these countries rebuild
as a way to stop Soviet expansion.
The Truman Doctrine
 “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to
support free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I
believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their
own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help
should be primarily through economic and financial aid,
which is essential to economic stability and orderly political
processes.”
• Harry S. Truman – 1947
 This became the policy of Containment
 Goal to limit Soviet Expansion
The Marshall Plan
 Congress appropriated $13.3 billion during the life of
the plan for European recovery.
 Provided much-needed capital and materials that
enabled Europeans to rebuild the European
continent’s economy.
 The Marshall Plan provided



markets for American goods,
created reliable trading partners
supported the development of stable democratic governments
in Western Europe.
Cold War Phase 1
 US has Atomic Weapons
 Soviets test an A-Bomb in 1949
 Civil Wars in Greece and Turkey
 Communism vs. Democracy
 Decolonization
 Many colonies saw WW2 as their “out”

Vietnam was no different
Fall of China
 Fall 1949
 Communists under Mao Zedong win long running Civil War
against Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai Shek
 Nationalists flee to Taiwan
 US insists the Nationalists are still the legal government of
China
Indochina
 After the war, the French seek to reestablish their
empire in Southeast Asia.

FDR had stated that the war would not be about keeping
empires
 September 2 1945, Ho Chi Minh declares
independent Vietnam
 US initially supports but back away
 Concern over France’s role in Europe leads US to
back French in regaining control
Korean War
 June 1950 North Korea invades South Korea
 UN and US come to the aid of SK
 MacArthur leads invasion that drive NK back to
Chinese Border
 China enters the war on NK side
 War continues until 1953 ends in Truce at original
borders

First proxy war
Cold War in the US
 McCarthyism
 Senator Joe McCarthy leads “witch hunt” for communists in
the US
 Accused many people of being communists often with no proof
 Eisenhower refused to support McCarthy
 Leads to end of hearing
 Many careers and lives were ruined
The Domino Theory
 Held that if one country fell under communist
influence or control, its neighboring countries would
soon follow
 Justified military action to prevent spread of
communism in Asia

Was used often throughout the cold war as an excuse to change
governments that were not allied with US