Transcript The Cold War

THE COLD WAR
Chapter 36
WHAT IS THE COLD WAR?
Cold War is the conflict between the Communist
nations led by the Soviet Union and the
democratic nations led by the United States.
 It was fought by all means - propaganda,
economic war, diplomatic haggling and occasional
military clashes.
 It was fought in all places - in neutral states, in
newly independent nations in Africa, Asia and
even in outer space.

B.A.R.E.
Causes of the Cold War
 Beliefs – communism vs. democracy
 Aims – (post war ideas) Stalin wants reparations
and a buffer zone, US was opposed to both of
these ideas
 Resentments-didn’t trust each other

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US and Britain didn’t tell Soviets about atomic bomb
until it was about to be used
Soviets still resentful about slow opening of 2nd allied
front
Soviets lost 20 million in WWII, Britain lost about
400,000 –the US about 300,000
Events- Yalta, Potsdam, Iron Curtain Speech,
Truman Doctrine…
THE RISE OF THE SUPERPOWERS
Before WW2 there were a number of countries
which could have claimed to be superpowers –
USA, USSR,GB, Japan, Germany.
 The damage caused by the war to these countries
left only two countries with the military strength
and resources to be called superpowers….USA
and USSR.

WHAT THEY BELIEVED
Don’t forget USA was capitalist and USSR was
communist
 They were complete opposites: see chart on the
next page

HOW THE DIVIDE BEGAN
 Two
conferences were held in 1945 at Yalta
and Potsdam
 What would happen to the occupied countries
after liberation, especially Eastern Europe
(Ukraine, Poland, Romania…)
USSR currently occupied these countries and
wanted to remain an influence to protect against
future invasion
 Decided that USSR would stay in these countries
until they could recover and then they would be
allowed to hold free elections
Decide to divide Germany temporarily actual lines
where drawn up in June 1945, shortly after the end of
the war in Europe.

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BERLIN DIVIDED AS WELL
POST WAR EUROPE
Divided between the East and the West tensions
grew between the Anglo-Allies
(British/Americans) and the Soviets
 A war of ideology and words began to develop –
The Cold War
 It was a Cold War of words -- a time when
nations were rallied by stirring speeches and
trembled by ominous warnings.

Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.
IRON CURTAIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvax5VUvjWQ
 1946
 Churchill delivered a speech in Fulton, Missouri
about the existing Cold War tension
TRUMAN DOCTRINE
 In
1946 George Kennan, who had been
stationed in Moscow from 1944-1946 sent
a ‘long telegram’ to the State department

Warning that the USSR emphasized a global
communist takeover
 He
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urged that
"the United States policy toward the Soviet
Union must be that of a long-term, patient but
firm and vigilant containment of Russian
expansive tendencies"
TRUMAN DOCTRINE

Kennan's ideas as well as the events of 1947 in
Greece and Turkey caused Truman to issue a
doctrine that is seen as the guiding force of
American foreign policy throughout the Cold War

The policy of containment: don’t let Soviet
influence spread beyond Eastern Europe!
TRUMAN DOCTRINE

On Friday, February 21, 1947, Great Britain
notified the United States that it could no longer
provide financial aid to the governments of
Greece and Turkey.
Civil War in Greece
 Soviets wanted to take over Dardanelles Straits
in Turkey

TRUMAN DOCTRINE

In a meeting between Congressmen and state
department officials, Undersecretary of State
Dean Acheson articulated what would later
become known as the domino theory
If Greece and Turkey fall who is next? This could
make the Middle East vulnerable.
 Frightened Congress into action
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TRUMAN DOCTRINE

March 12, 1947
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$400 million in military and economic
assistance for Greece and Turkey
established a doctrine that would guide U.S.
diplomacy for the next forty years.
 President
Truman declared, "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."
FOCUS OF CHAPTER 36

Despite Allied unity and cooperation in defeating the
Axis powers, the United States and the Soviet Union
drifted apart, thus becoming bitter enemies in 1945
and the years to follow.

Describe 4 reasons for the start of the “Cold War”
THE MARSHALL PLAN: OVERVIEW
Proposed
by U.S. Secretary of
State George Marshall On June
5, 1947
Nearly $13 billion in U.S. aid
was sent to Europe from 1948 to
1952.

Soviet bloc nations offered US aid but they didn’t
take it
THE MARSHALL PLAN
 1946-1947
Europe was struggling to
recover from the war
 didn’t want a situation akin to post WWI
Europe
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Needed to help countries get back on their feet
economically and to rebuild their
infrastructure
Seen as providing lasting peace and keeping
war torn nations from turning towards USSR
 Asked
them what they needed and
provided it
 Marshall plan for Afghanistan???
BERLIN AIRLIFT / BERLIN BLOCKADE:
OVERVIEW
BERLIN AIRLIFT/ BLOCKADE

On June 12, 1948 the Soviet Union declared the
roads leading into W. Berlin closed.

within days all rail and barge traffic was stopped as well.
Soviets announced they would not supply food to
those living in W. Berlin
 thirty-five days worth of food and forty-five days
worth of coal.
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
General Lucius D. Clay, in charge of the U.S. occupation zone in
Germany, summed up the reasons for staying in a cable to
Washington on June 13, 1948,
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"There is no practicability in maintaining our position in Berlin and it must not
be evaluated on that basis... We are convinced that our remaining in Berlin is
essential to our prestige in Germany and in Europe. Whether for good or bad, it
has become a symbol of the American intent."
BERLIN AIRLIFT/BLOCKADE
2
choices
 Send
troops to open roads and rails
to provide food
 Airlift
BERLIN AIRLIFT
Operation Vittles begins June 26, 1948
 It was expected to last 3 weeks
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Lasted over a year (ended Sept, 1949)
daily operations flew more than fifteen
hundred flights a day and delivered more
than 4,500 tons of cargo
BERLIN AIRLIFT

Calculations indicated they would need to supply seventeen
hundred calories per person per day, consisting of
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646 tons of flour and wheat
125 tons of cereal
64 tons of fat
109 tons of meat and fish
180 tons of sugar,
11 tons of coffee,
19 tons of powdered milk,
5 tons of whole milk for children,
3 tons of fresh yeast for baking
144 tons of dehydrated vegetables,
38 tons of salt
10 tons of cheese
3,475 tons of coal and gasoline
REVIEW

Despite Allied unity and cooperation in defeating the
Axis powers, the United States and the Soviet Union
drifted apart, thus becoming bitter enemies in 1945
and the years to follow.

give examples of how The United States foreign policy of
containment was put to the test between 1945 and 1960.
NATIONAL SECURITY ACT OF 1947
Merged Department of War and the Department
of Navy into the Defense Department
 Also create the National Security Council and the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

Coordinated information from the
CIA
 Dept. of Defense
 State Department
to give the President an overview of domestic, foreign,
and military policy

NATO – NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY
ORGANIZATION EST. 1949
Military alliance in which member nations agree
that an attack on one equals an attack on all –
collective security
 US, UK, Canada, France, Denmark, Iceland,
Italy, Norway, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands,
and Luxembourg.
 In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined. West
Germany was admitted in 1955
 US was the most important ‘link’ in the
alliance because of our nuclear power, location,
and economic superiority
 Formed to protect Western European nations
against attack from the USSR, as well as to keep
the peace between European rivals

NATO
 In
response to NATO the WARSAW Pact
was created in 1955
 Members included
USSR
Albania
Bulgaria
 Czechoslovakia
 Hungary
 Poland
 Romania
 East Germany
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FALL OF CHINA: FIRST FAILURE OF
CONTAINMENT
“ Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
– Mao
 The KMT (Kuomintang-Nationalists) and the
CCP(Communist Party of China) had been
fighting each other for control of China since the
mid 1920s.
 The fighting ceased from 1936-1946 during which
time the Chinese united to fight the Japanese
 Fighting continues 1946-49

FALL OF CHINA
 After
WWII fighting again erupted
 Mao Tse-tung (Zedong) led the
communists and gained support from
the peasants who had long suffered under
brutal landowners and harsh taxes.
Communists pledged to redistribute the
land and end oppression by landowners
 Women also supported Mao – “Women
hold up half the sky.”
 Got material support from USSR
FALL OF CHINA
Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek) led the
nationalists
 US gave material support: $3 billion
 Many felt they were corrupt, lost the support of
the people
 Fled to Taiwan in 1949, island off the coast of
mainland China
 US recognized Taiwan and the nationalists as
the official Chinese government until 1971 –
Republic of China
 Many conservatives felt that Truman didn’t do
enough to support the Nationalists, should have
sent troops.

RUSSIA GETS NUKES

September 23, 1949, within weeks of the fall of
China Truman announced that the USSR had
successfully tested a nuclear weapon…the arms
race was on
NSC-68 : APRIL 1950
A response to the Fall of China and Russian
nuclear capabilities
 Stated: "the cold war is in fact a real war in
which the survival of the free world is at stake."
 US should triple its defense spending
 Move from economic means of containment to
military means
 Goal: increase nuclear capability

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H-bomb
KOREAN WAR 1950-1953

Korea is divided along
the 38th parallel after
WWII.
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Taken from Japan
But as both sides
withdrew their troops,
they also set up rival
governments,
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Democratic People's
Republic of Korea


North (communist)
Republic of Korea

South (democracy)
KOREAN WAR 1950-1953

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Goal: Each wanted a
united Korea under their
control!
North Korea = Kim Il
Sung
South Korea = Syngman
Rhee
Kim was aided by Stalin,
who urged him to invade
the South
On June 25, 1950, the
North Korean army rolled
south in a surprise assault.
KOREAN WAR 1950-1953
 US
wants to help S. Korea, but now that
the Soviets have nukes we don’t want to
end up fighting them
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Call a special meeting of the UN
Soviets are boycotting UN because they wont
allow China to be on the Security council
UN, led by a US resolution, decides to defend
S. Korea
16 nations , with the largest contingent coming
from the organize under Gen. MacArthur to
defend S. Korea

They arrive by the end of the summer 1950
KOREAN WAR 1950-1953
UN Forces were
succeeding in taking
back territory.
 China was worried
that they would lose
their communist
neighbor.
 November 1950 China
joins comes the N.
Korea’s aid, they push
UN forces back below
the 38th parallel

KOREAN WAR 1950-1953
Fighting reaches a
stalemate along the
38th parallel.
 MacArthur wants to
nuke China and
publically criticizes
Truman for not doing
so…MacArthur is
fired!
 By the summer of
1951 armistice talks
began
 Fighting continues
until July 1953, when
Stalin dies

KOREAN WAR 1950-1953

Results:

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the Korean peninsula remains divided to this day along
the 38th parallel
The high cost of the war and the loss of 54,000 American
lives lead to disillusionment with Truman and the
democrats

We contain communism, but at what cost?
KOREAN WAR
AMERICAN REACTION
 Bert
the Turtle
AMERICAN REACTION
 How
to protect your
food from nuclear
attack