Transcript Cold War A state of political tension and military rivalry between

Cold War
• A state of political
tension and military
rivalry between
nations that stops
short of full-scale
war
I. Origins of the Cold War
The Cold War was a time after WWII
when the USA and the Soviet Union
were rivals for world influence.
American Aims / Soviet Aims
• The United States emerged from World War
II more powerful than any other nation and it
sought to use that power to build a world
order based on the ideals of democracy
• Soviet aims included spreading communist
ideals and creating a “buffer” around the
Motherland for national security
The seeds of the Cold War were sown at
YALTA (in the USSR) Date: Feb 1945
Present: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
Potsdam Conference July 17 to Aug 2, 1945
Churchill, Truman, and Stalin
By the time of the
Potsdam Conference,
Stalin had already
installed communist
governments in the
central European
countries under his
influence
II.
Containing communism in
Europe
An “Iron Curtain”:
In a speech at Fulton
College in 1946, Winston Churchill coined the
phrase “iron curtain” to describe how the Soviets
had come to control Eastern Europe
President Truman at the podium with Winston
Churchill in Fulton, Missouri where Churchill
delivered his Iron Curtain speech
George Kennan and Containment
• Kennan was a Soviet expert in the State
Department
• In the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs he
wrote an article under the pen name “Mr. X”
titled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”
• He described the USSR as being driven by an
aggressive and uncompromising ideology that
would stop “only when it meets some
unanswerable force.”
George Kennan and Containment
• Kennan wrote that the US
must adopt a “policy of
firm containment designed
to confront the Russians
with unalterable
counterforce at every point
where they threaten the
interests of a peaceful and
stable world.”
Greece & the Truman Doctrine
• Greece was in the midst of a civil war in
which the Greek Communist Party might
take control of the Greek gov’t.
• On March 12, 1947 President Truman
announced 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.”
• The US gave $400 million to Greece to
fend off communism
Harry Truman
The Marshall Plan
USA’s plan to send food,
blankets, fuel to re-build
European nations ravaged by
WWII to keep them from turning
to the USSR for aid.
Berlin Airlift
• In June 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to control all
of Berlin by cutting surface traffic to and from West
Berlin.
• The Truman Administration initiated a daily airlift which
brought much needed food and supplies into West
Berlin.
• The airlift lasted until the end of September
NATO: 1949
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization created
in 1949
• Defensive alliance of 14 nations of the
Atlantic community
–An attack on one member nation is
considered an attack on all…
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Soviets respond to NATO with
the Warsaw Pact (1955)
• Warsaw Pact: Soviet dominated alliance
formed to counter-balance NATO
• USSR & the Soviet controlled nations of
Eastern Europe
NATO v. the Warsaw Pact
China falls to communism
• For decades, China had endured a civil
war in which the communists, led by Mao
Tse-Tung (aka Mao Zedong) tried to
seize control from the Nationalists, led by
Chiang Kai-Shek)
• Since FDR in the 1930s, the US had
backed the Nationalists
Mao Zedong
Chiang, FDR, and Churchill
meet during WWII
• In 1949, the Communists won out…the
Nationalists fled to the island of Formosa
(today: Taiwan)
• China’s fall to communism took the Cold
War to new heights of tension and fear
Soviets explode their own
Atomic Bomb: 1949
Cold War turns Hot: Korea
At the end of WWII,
Korea was divided at
the 38th Parallel
North Korea was
communist…South
Korea was free
Korean Conflict (con’t.)
• 1950: Communist N. Korean troops
invaded the South, crossing the 38th
Parallel
• The United Nations condemned the
attack as an act of aggression…the UN
called upon member nations to support S.
Korea
• Pres. Truman appointed Gen. Douglas
MacArthur to command UN troops
Korean Conflict (con’t.)
• Communist Chinese troops joined with
the N. Koreans, threatening to win the
war for the communists
• The war dragged on for months, neither
side gaining a decisive victory.
• Truce was reached in 1953…the 38th
Parallel continued to separate the 2
nations…as it exists today
The Rosenbergs
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• were American
communists
• executed in 1953 for
passing atomic bomb
secrets to the Soviets
• 1st execution of civilians
for espionage in U.S.
history