Transcript Unit 7: Cold War to the Present

Unit 6: Cold War to the Present
(Beginning of Cold War – Berlin
Wall)
The Start of the Cold War
• East-West Suspicions
East-West Suspicions
• The United States and the Soviet Union
emerged from World War II as the two
most powerful nations. While the two
governments had cooperated to defeat the
Axis Powers, their relationship deteriorated
after the war.
East-West Suspicions
• Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe
heightened American fears of
communism, a system in which,
instead of private individuals running
businesses, the Communist party,
representing society as a whole,
controls property and the means of
production.
• The Soviets had promised free
elections in Eastern European nations
at the end of the war. Instead, they
imposed Communist rule by holding
elections only under the supervision
of Soviet troops.
East-West Suspicions
• In 1946, former Prime Minister
Winston Churchill declared that the
Soviets had in a sense trapped the
nations of Eastern Europe behind an
“iron curtain.” The phrase “iron
curtain” would be used to describe
Soviet policy in Europe from 1945 to
1989.
East-West Suspicions
• The Strength of Communism:
– The Communists promised to abolish poverty,
privilege, and private property. They also
guaranteed work, shelter, education, health
care, and a classless society.
– Communist leaders sought to spread their form
of government by inciting revolts in other
nations where poor and oppressed populations
were attracted to their ideas.
East-West Suspicions
– President Harry S. Truman responded
with a policy of containmentpreventing the spread of communismrather than liberating satellite nations.
This policy was based on the belief that
the Soviets were interested in
conquering other nations, not simply
securing their own borders.
• The policy of containment led to what
was known as the cold war-a state of
intense hostility between the United
States and Soviet Union, but without
any actual warfare. This policy would
be continued by the presidents who
followed Truman.
Aid to Europe
• In 1947, U.S. diplomats warned that
Greece and Turkey were in danger of
falling to communists guerillas. The U.S.
and other Western nations wished to stop
communism from spreading because they
saw it as an oppressive form of rule that
quashed individual economic and personal
freedoms.
• In response, Truman proposed a plan to
provide military and economic aid to
Greece and Turkey to resist a communist
takeover. The plan, which Congress
approved, became known as the Truman
Doctrine and committed the United States
to a more active role in world affairs.
Aid to Europe
• The United States turned its attention
to helping the rest of Europe to
recover from the devastation of the
war. U.S. officials feared that
economic crises in European countries
might lead to the election of
communists governments.
• The United States implemented the
Marshall Plan-named after Secretary of
State George Marshall. It provided
massive amounts of financial aid to
provide food, fuel, and raw materials to
help the nations of Europe rebuild their
economies, industries, and transportation
systems.
• The U.S. offered the Marshall Plan to all
nations in Europe, including the Soviet
Union. The Soviets refused. Why? In
trying to promote communism, the Soviets
did not want to appear to need help from a
Western capitalist country.
Aid to Europe
• The Berlin Airlift-After the war, the
United States, Great Britain, France,
and the Soviet Union each controlled
a zone of Germany. In 1948, the
Western powers announced that they
were combining their three sections of
Germany to form an independent
nation-West Germany.
• The Soviets responded by closing off all
traffic from West Germany to Berlin, the
capital city, in the eastern part of Germany.
Truman ordered a massive airlift to supply
Berlin’s 2 million people with food and
other goods. In May 1949, the Soviets
finally lifted their blockade of the city.
Aid to Europe
• NATO-In 1949, with East-West
tensions rising, the United States
joined other Western nations to form
the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, a military alliance
against the Soviets.
• In response, the Soviet Union formed
the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance
of the Soviet-controlled countries.The
nations of NATO considered an attack
on one country as an attack on all of
them.
• The advantage of such a policy: It
provides a number of separate nations with
greater security. The disadvantage: It
increases the risk of small conflicts
becoming large wars involving many
nations.
The Occupation of Japan
• After World War II, there were 3 aims of
the United States in Asia:
– To restore peace;
– To help Asians resist foreign rule
– To restore Asian trade with the world.
The Occupation of Japan
• In 1946, the U.S. granted independence to the
Philippines, giving money to repair war damage
and making tariff concessions in American
markets. The U.S. also occupied Japan and
sought to help the nation rebuild and become
more democratic. Under the leadership of
General Douglas MacArthur, Japan’s military
was dismantled. Under American direction, a
new constitution provided for elected,
representative government and woman suffrage.
• U.S. leaders also encouraged economic
opportunity and provided Japan with
financial aid. U.S. officials in Japan made
sure to leave many aspects of Japanese
culture intact. Why? They did not want to
have the Japanese resent their presence,
which would make their work there more
difficult. In 1951, with Japan on its way to
a remarkable recovery, the country was
granted its independence.
Communist Triumph in China
• Since the early 1930s, a civil war
between the Nationalist government
of Chiang Kai-shek and the
Communists, led by Mao Zedong, had
ravaged China. The fighting ebbed
during World War II as both sides
resisted the Japanese invaders, but the
conflict flared after the war ended.
• On the advice of George Marshall, the U.S.
focused its efforts on containing
communism in Western Europe rather than
committing itself to the corrupt and
inefficient Nationalist Chinese.
Communist Triumph in China
• By the end of 1949, Mao’s victorious
forces had forced the Nationalists to flee to
the island of Taiwan. Many Americans
criticized the Truman administration for
not paying enough attention to China and
“losing” the country to the Communists.
The Korean Conflict
• In 1950, North Korea, which was ruled by a
Soviet-installed Communist government, invaded
South Korea. UN troops, led by the United
States, came to the aid of South Korea to help
push the North Koreans back. When UN forces
invaded North Korea, Chinese troops entered the
conflict to help the Communists. The Chinese
forces pushed the UN troops back into South
Korea, and the war bogged down into a bloody
stalemate.
The Korean Conflict
• General MacArthur, who commanded UN forces
in Korea, wanted to bomb China. Truman
refused, fearing a much larger war. When
MacArthur openly criticized Truman, the
President fired him. Truman’s dismissal of the
popular general caused a firestorm of protest
around the country. The Chicago Tribune even
called on Congress to impeach and convict the
President for his action.
The Korean Conflict
• The Election of 1952-When Truman
announced he would not run again,
Republican and World War II hero Dwight
D. Eisenhower (Ike) faced Democrat Adlai
Stevenson, governor of Illinois.
Eisenhower promised to end the war in
Korea and won the election decisively.
The Korean Conflict
• The fighting in Korea continued until
1953, when both sides agreed on a ceasefire that left the country divided in the
same way it had been before the war
began. Neither side claimed victory. The
struggle cost the U.S. more than 54,000
soldiers, but the U.S. resolve in Korea
caused many neutral nations to draw closer
to the United States.
The “Red Scare”
• During the cold war period, Americans’
fears of a communist conspiracy
heightened. Many began to think that
some of their fellow citizens were
communist sympathizers or spies. The
“Red Scare” swept the nation.
The “Red Scare”
• Fear of communist influence led to the rise
of Democratic Senator Joseph McCarthy of
Wisconsin, who charged that he knew of
numerous communist sympathizers within
the U.S. government, but he never
produced evidence for this claim.
Accusations and rumors promoted by
McCarthy and other officials ruined the
lives and reputations of many Americans.
• The Senate eventually determined that
McCarthy’s accusations were groundless.
In 1954, McCarthy’s underhanded tactics
were exposed in televised hearings. The
use of indiscriminate, unfounded political
accusations to destroy someone’s character
became known as McCarthyism.
Thaws in the Cold War
• During the Eisenhower administration, a slight
“thaw” in the cold war occurred. After Stalin’s
death in 1953, the Soviet Union’s new leader,
Nikita Khrushchev, allowed people a little more
freedom. In July 1955, Eisenhower met with
Soviet leaders to discuss nuclear disarmament.
The summit accomplished little, however, and in
1958, tensions between the two nations escalated
again.
Thaws in the Cold War
• In May, 1960, an American U-2
surveillance plane was shot down over the
Soviet Union while on a spying mission.
Khrushchev denounced the U.S. mission,
and relations between the two nations
worsened.
Thaws in the Cold War
• In his farewell address, the grandfatherly
president warned against the influence of
the military-industrial complex, the
defense industry that promoted the
production of weapons of mass destruction.
Cuba
• The U.S. largely ignored Latin America, where
great poverty had created a breeding ground for
political instability. In 1959, rebel forces
overthrew Cuba’s corrupt regime. The new rebel
government, led by Fidel Castro, soon aligned
with the Communists. As a result, the U.S. broke
off relations with the nation. This was troubling
to the U.S. since Cuba is only 90 miles off the
coast of the U.S.; communism was brought to the
nation’s doorstep.
Cuba
• President John Kennedy’s basic foreign
policy goal was similar to that of Truman
and Eisenhower-containment of
communism. The United States began
training Cuban exiles to overthrow the
rebel government under Castro.
Cuba
• In April, 1961, Cuban exiles invaded the
island at the Bay of Pigs. The mission
collapsed and the invaders surrendered.
The failed invasion hurt the prestige of the
Kennedy administration and strengthened
Castro’s power in the world.
• In 1962, Cuba convicted more than 1,000
Bay of Pigs invaders of treason and
sentenced them to 30 years in prison.
Soon, however, Cuban officials released
the prisoners in return for more than
$50,000,000 in food and medical supplies
from a U.S. committee of private citizens
Cuba
• In October, 1962, U.S. officials learned
that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear
weapons in Cuba. Kennedy ordered the
Soviet Union to remove the weapons.
After tense negotiations, the Cuban Missile
Crisis ended when Soviet leaders agreed to
remove the weapons.
The Peace Corps
In 1961, President Kennedy created the Peace
Corps to help developing nations fight poverty
and disease. The Peace Corps was organized to
help prevent the spread of communism by
improving the quality of life. By late 1963, there
were 11,000 Peace Corps volunteers serving in
40 countries teaching practical skills or working
to build housing and medical facilities.
The Berlin Wall
• East-West tensions rose when the Soviets
built a wall dividing the city of Berlin,
blocking free movement between the
communist section of Berlin and the rest of
the city. The structure became known as
the Berlin Wall. The wall prevented the
flight of refugees seeking to escape the
oppression of East Germany.
• The Berlin Wall became a symbol of cold
war divisions between East and West.
Throughout the early 1960s, the U.S. and
the Soviet Union worked to negotiate
treaties limiting the testing of nuclear
weapons. In August, 1963, they reached
an agreement that banned nuclear testing in
the atmosphere and underwater, but not
underground.