Transcript HG Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

COLD WAR
First Stages
America was the only
country with Nuclear
capability in 1945.
There was mounting
tension between the
United States and Russia
but America clearly had
the upper hand militarily.
The United States had a
military presence in much of
Asia and Europe.
Russia felt threatened by this
as well as by Americas
possession of Nuclear
weapons.
They responded by moving to
develop a weapon of their own
and by threatening areas in the
eastern Mediterranean.
America responded by developing
the Truman Doctrine which laid
out a plan to contain the spread of
communism wherever possible.
They committed to helping
countries around the world who
were being threatened by the Soviet
Union.
The Marshall plan was put in
place giving massive amounts of
money to European countries to
stabilize their economies and
governments.
The Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) was formed as
well as the National Security
Council (NSC).
The purpose of both agencies
was to monitor the actions of
the Soviet Union and to keep
the president informed of any
external threats.
In 1949 American spy planes flying over Russia detected high
levels of radiation.
This was evidence that the Russians had detonated a nuclear
bomb.
This signaled the start of the Arms Race where each country
sought to outdo the other in its production of Nuclear Weapons.
...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world
that night were strange even to the men who used them.
H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914
I know not with what weapons World War III will be
fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and
stones.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has
exceeded our humanity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war
fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the
people of the earth will be killed.
Albert Einstein
-America had gone from the controlling force to the
opponent in a matter of days.
- Americans went from excitement over the Atomic
bomb to anxiety, an anxiety that would only fester in
the next few decades. Propaganda would feed on
this anxiety.
Fear of the spread of
communism and
nuclear weapons was
fuelled by propaganda
programs.
Interesting Add
These talks resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty,
created by Lester B. Pearson, which was signed in
Washington, DC on 4 April 1949. It included the five
Treaty of Brussels states, as well as the United States,
Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Three years later, Greece and Turkey also joined. Because
of geography, Australia and New Zealand missed out on
membership. In place of this, the ANZUS agreement was
made by the U.S. with these nations. In 1954 the Soviet
Union suggested that it should join NATO to preserve
peace in Europe. The NATO countries rejected this, seeing
it as an attempt to subvert NATO from within.
And so the lines were drawn!
The Pact allowed
Russia to station her
troops in eastern
European countries.
This meant that Russia
could attack western
Europe at any moment
and could suppress any
sign of rebellion in her
satellite countries.
One of its immediate
results was the
creation of the
Warsaw Pact, signed
on May 1955 by the
Soviet Union and its
satellite states as a
formal response to
this event, firmly
establishing the two
opposing sides of the
Cold War.
At the heart of the Red Scare panic, was
senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy
claimed at one point that he had a list that
revealed 205 names of known Americans
who were communist. Many believed
they were fighting the cold war in the
United States, although they caused panic
among many citizens in their race to
weed out communist supporters.
The image of the nuclear mushroom cloud hovered above
the thoughts of American citizens throughout the fifties,
and in to the early sixties. Propagandists would capitalize
on this, by creating an immediate need in the consumer
mind for a bomb shelter. The idea was planted that a bomb
shelter would protect you from the horrible effects of a
nuclear attack, shelter. Though the idea seems ludicrous
now, since the effects of a
nuclear
attack are fully known.
By 1960, The Office of Civil and Defense
Mobilization, estimated that a million families had
constructed their own private bomb shelters. Shelters
ranged in price from $1,795-$3,895, and of course
many came in kits that make
assembly much easier.
Advertisements were found in
magazines country; many
companies were capitalizing on
Americans fear. Life Magazine
in 1955, included a feature ad for
a H-Bomb Hideaway, the sale
price was only $3000.
A Michigan Sheriff at the time, remarked that "To build a
home today without a shelter, would be like leaving out a
bathroom twenty years ago." The amount of shelters that
were built in that era, show how well propaganda had
penetrated the American mind.
The Berlin Wall
After the end of World War II in
Europe, what territorially
remained of pre-1945 Germany
had been divided into four
occupation zones (thanks to the
Yalta Conference), each one
controlled by one of the four
occupying Allied powers: the
Americans, British, French and
Soviets. The old capital of
Berlin, as the seat of the Allied
Control Council, was itself
similarly subdivided into four
zones.
Although the intent was for the occupying powers to
govern Germany together, the advent of Cold War
tension caused the French, British and American zones
to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany
(and West Berlin), excluding the Soviet zone which
then formed the German Democratic Republic
(including East Berlin)
the same year.
The conviction of Alger Hiss, only proved that there
was truly a communist threat in the United States,
though the threat was often over exaggerated. People
became obsessed with searching out Soviet spies, and
anyone who might be a supporter of communism.
The fear of communist infiltration became know as the
Red Scare.
Alger Hiss was a U.S. State Department
official and Secretary General to the United
Nations. Following accusations that he spied
on behalf of the Soviet Union, Hiss was
convicted of perjury.
From 1948, West Germany developed into a western
capitalist country and a democratic government.
Prolonged economic growth starting in the 1950s
fuelled a 30-year "economic miracle". Across the
inner-German border, East Germany established an
authoritarian government with a Soviet-style command
economy.
While East Germany became one of
the richest, most advanced
countries in the Eastern bloc, many
of its citizens still looked to the
West for political freedoms and
economic prosperity. The flight of
growing numbers of East Germans
via West Berlin led to Germany
erecting the GDR border system (of
which the Berlin Wall was a part) in
1961 to prevent any further exodus.
From 1949 through to 1961, huge numbers of
professionals and skilled workers migrated daily from
East to West Berlin frequently because of lucrative
opportunities connected with rebuilding Western Europe
funded by the Marshall Plan (one day the entire
Mathematics Department of the University of Leipzig
defected). Furthermore, many West Berliners traveled
into East Berlin to do their shopping at
state-subsidized stores, where prices were
much lower than in West Berlin.
This drain of labor and economic output threatened East
Germany with economic collapse. This had
ramifications for the whole Communist bloc, because
East Germany's economy was being subsidized by the
Soviet government, and simultaneously, the nowthreatened East German production was responsible for
all war reparations to Poland and the Soviet Union.
In June 1948, the Soviet Union
attempted to control all of
Berlin by cutting surface
traffic to and from the city of
West Berlin. Starving out the
population and cutting off their
business was their method of
gaining control. The Truman
administration reacted with a
continual daily airlift which
brought much needed food and
supplies into the city of West
Berlin.
The massive effort to supply the 2 million West
Berliners with food and fuel for heating began in June,
1948 and lasted until Sept., 1949, although the Russians
lifted the blockade in May of that year. During the
around-the-clock airlift some 277,000 flights were
made, many at 3-min intervals. By spring, 1949, an
average of 8,000 tons was being flown in daily. More
than 2 million tons of goods-of which coal accounted
for about two thirdswere delivered.
Hundreds of aircraft, nicknamed Rosinenbomber ("raisin
bombers") by the local population, were used to fly in a
wide variety of cargo, ranging from large containers to
small packets of candy with tiny individual parachutes
intended for the children of Berlin. Sick children were
evacuated on return flights. The aircraft were supplied
and flown by the United States, United Kingdom and
France, but pilots and crew also came from Australia,
Canada, South Africa and New Zealand in order to assist
the supply of Berlin. Several pilots died in the operation.
The partners of the Treaty believed that Russian
Communism had posed a new threat to the
democratic world. Thus they stated that "an armed
attack against one or more of them shall be
considered an attack against them all." In the event
of such an attack, for the preservation of peace and
their civilized way of life, they promised to take
whatever action deemed necessary, including the
use of armed force.