Transcript The Cold War

The Cold War
1945-1963
On desk: a couple of pieces of paper
And a writing utensil
Healing the Wounds of
War
Dealing with Germany
• Potsdam Conference
– Divided Germany into 4 zones (Britain,
France, U.S. and Soviet Union each in
charge of one).
– Jointly administer the city of Berlin.
– Crush Nazi party
– Rebuild German economy.
– Tension caused by Soviets control of Eastern
Europe.
• Nuremberg Trials
– Held to punish leaders who had ordered
atrocities during the war.
– Thousands of former Nazi leaders were
tried, fined, barred from public office or
executed.
– A few escaped immediate prosecution by
fleeing to Latin America.
Dealing with Japan
• U.S. occupied Japan until 1952.
• Ended Japanese militarism.
• Established a democratic
government.
• Reformed the economic system.
Trials in Tokyo
• General McArthur set up
International Military Tribunal.
• Conducted trials for suspected
war criminals from war in
Pacific
• Seven were executed, many other
imprisoned.
The United Nations
Postwar International
Organization created to
help preserve
World peace.
Founding the United Nations
• April, 1945
• General assembly made up of all 50
member nations.
• Security Council with 5 permanent
members and 10 rotating members.
• United States, Soviet Union, France,
Great Britain, and China are permanent
members.
• Headquarters established
in New York, New York.
• Eleanor Roosevelt served
as one of first U.S.
delegates to U.N.
1st test of U.N.
• Jews and Arabs both claim small
region in the Mid-east known as
Palestine.
• Problem is turned over to the U.N. to
solve.
• U.N. divides Palestine into 2 nations
– one Jewish and one Arab.1948
• Jews rejoice, Arabs reject.
• Arabs from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and
Lebanon attack Israel to reclaim the land for
Palestinians.
• Small Israeli army, loaded with U.S. weapons,
is able to hold their own until an armistice is
reached.
• Territory is re-divided but Arab nations still
refuse to acknowledge Israel as a nation.
The Cold War Begins
Democratic capitalism
Versus
Communism
Roots of the Cold War
• United States Principles: democratic
government, individual freedom and
capitalism.
• Soviet Union: State-run economy,
one-party rule, suppression of
religion, and the use of force to crush
opposition.
• Soviet expansionism fueled
American distrust.
• Satellite nations were those under
Soviet control.
• Containment (restricting the spread
of Soviet communism) became the
focus of U.S. foreign policy.
Deadlock over Atomic Weapons
• U.S. and U.S.S.R (Soviet Union) both
begin to develop nuclear weapons the
details of which they kept secret from the
other.
• Fears of nuclear war led to Congress’
passage of the Atomic Energy Act in 1946
to oversee nuclear weapons and promote
peacetime uses of that nuclear energy.
Containment Around the World
• Truman Doctrine “It must be the policy of the
United States to support the free peoples who
are resisting attempted conquest by armed
minorities or by outside pressures.”
• Marshall Plan – Put forth by Secretary of State
George Marshall, it called for a major U.S.
effort to promote European economic recovery
in order to prevent the spread of communism
into Europe.
Crisis in Berlin
• U.S., Britain and France decide to join
their 3 sections of Berlin and form West
German government.
• Soviets oppose this action so they
blockade the city of Berlin.
• Berlin Airlift – U.S and Britain fly
millions of pounds of food and drop into
the city to keep people from starving.
• Berlin Airlift 1948-1949
– U.S and Britain fly millions of pounds
of food and drop into the city to keep
people from starving.
– Soviets stop blockade.
– East (Soviet-controlled0 and West
(American influence) German
governments established and the split
last for over 40 years.
Alliances
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) formed in 1949. U.S.,
Canada, Iceland, and the western
European nations.
• Warsaw Pact formed in 1955. Soviet
Union and the communist nations of
eastern Europe.
• “Iron Curtain” now symbolically
divides Europe.
The Cold War Turns Hot
Communist Victory in China
• Communist win control of
mainland China in 1949.
• Chinese nationalists
withdraw to the island of
Taiwan.
Korean
War
Begins
A Divided Korea
• Japan had ruled Korea until 1945.
• Allies split it into two zones along the 38th
parallel with Soviets occupying the
northern zone and America the southern
one.
• United Nations condemns North Korea’s
act of invading South Korea in 1950.
Bitter Fighting
• President Truman orders U.S. troops
under Gen. McArthur to South Korea in
response to UN effort to prevent take
over.
• Korean War was mainly between U.S.
and South Korea on one side and China
and North Korea on the other.
• Fighting goes back and forth for the next
2 years.
Ending Korean War
• President Truman and Gen. McArthur
disagree over war strategy and Truman
ended up firing him.
• This makes him extremely unpopular
with the public, who is tired of the war,
and he decides not to run in 1952 for
reelection.
• Republicans choose Dwight
Eisenhower as their candidate
and he wins by a huge margin.
• Eisenhower keeps his promise to
end war by threatening North
Korea with nuclear weapons.
• Both sides agree to end war with
division between two countries at the
same place it was before the war.
• 54,000 US dead and 103,000
wounded.
• More than 1.5 million Chinese and
North Koreans died.
Fighting Communism Abroad
Brinkmanship
• President Eisenhower follows a foreign
policy known as brinkmanship “The
ability to get to the brink of war without
getting into war is the necessary art.”
• He also pursues U.S. goals through covert
means and diplomacy.
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Eisenhower Tests His Policy
• President Eisenhower uses CIA in Iran
and Guatemala.
• He uses diplomacy in Egypt and Eastern
Europe.
• In late 1959, a brief thaw in the Cold War
ends with the U2 Incident – a U.S. spy
plane is shot down over the Soviet Union.
The Cold War at Home
Cold War Fears
• Congress creates National Security
Council to advise President on strategic
matters.
• House Un-American Activities
Committee leads the fight against
suspected communists in the U.S.
• Hollywood Ten go to jail rather than
testify.
• Another Red Scare
Search for Spies
• HUAC investigated suspected spies.
Many are convicted and the
Rosenbergs are executed for giving
nuclear secrets to the Soviets.
• Internal Security Act requires all
communists to register with the
federal government.
McCarthyism
• Fear of communism.
• Senator Joe McCarthy from
Wisconsin begins Senate Hearings to
root out the communists in America.
• After a couple of years, McCarthy is
denounced as a bully and fanatic.
Nuclear Anxiety
• By 1950, both U.S. and Soviet Union have
developed more powerful Hydrogen
bomb.
• America’s nuclear fears turn many of
them toward religion. Billy Graham
• Americans are taught civil defense
strategies that are supposed to protect
them in case of nuclear attack.
• “Duck and cover” plan for kids.
• Fallout shelters for families.
Space programs
• Soviet Union launches 1st satellite into
space in October 1957. Sputnik
• Congress creates National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) to
promote U.S. space technology.
• National Defense Education Act is
approved by congress to improve
education in science, math and foreign
languages.
Kennedy and the Cold War
• John F. Kennedy defeats Republican
Richard Nixon in Presidential
election of 1960.
• Kennedy used a foreign policy
known as “flexible response” –
having a number of options in case
of an international crisis (including
nuclear weapons).
• Kennedy used the Peace Corps,
economic aid to poor nations in
Africa and Latin America to
keep them from becoming
communist.
The Kennedy Crises
• Bay of Pigs
– U.S. troops invade Cuba, ruled by
dictator Fidel Castro, to aid prodemocracy Cuban refugees. April 1961
– Invasion fails, Cuba draws closer to
Soviet Union and U.S. is embarrassed.
• Berlin Crisis
– Soviet leader Krushchev demands total
control over Berlin. June 1961
– Soviet Union builds wall between East
and West Berlin to stop flow of East
German refugees escaping to the West.
Berlin Wall
• Missile of October
– Soviets end nuclear weapons to Cuba to help
Castro defend himself against Americans.
– Oct. 22, 1961 President Kennedy demands
Soviets remove nuclear missiles and
blockades Cuba from all armed ships.
– Nuclear war seemed unavoidable until
suddenly the Soviets turned back and
removed missiles.
• Cuban Missile Crisis brought
historic turning point to relations
between U.S. and Soviets.
• Both sought o ease tension with the
Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• A “hot line” was set up connecting
the leaders of the two nations.