Transcript The Cold War

The Cold War
SOL WHII.12
Competition between the United
States and the U.S.S.R. laid the
foundation for the Cold War.
The Cold War set the framework
for global politics for 45 years
after the end of World War II. It
lasted until the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1989.
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met
at Yalta when an Allied victory was
in sight. The three leaders agreed
to divide Austria and Germany into
zones of military occupation.
The Yalta Conference and the Soviet
control of Eastern Europe marked
the beginning of the Cold War as
the different ideologies squared off.
The Soviet Union was determined
to protect itself from any future
attack from the West. The West
viewed the Soviet demands as
evidence that the Soviets hoped to
expand and one day dominate all of
Europe.
One conflict that existed had its roots
in democracy and the free
enterprise system v. dictatorship
and communism.
When the Soviets installed a proSoviet government in Poland, this
seemed to violate the agreement
made at Yalta regarding free
elections.
Both the United States and the
Soviet Union emerged from WWII
as world super powers. There
existed a rivalry between these two
countries.
The United States felt communism
was a threat to world peace.
President Truman declared in the
Policy of Containment that the United
States would take what actions
necessary to prevent the further
spread of communism.
The Truman Doctrine, which was the
Policy of Containment, stated the
United States would consider the
spread of communism to be a threat
to democracy.
As the West put their policy of
containment into place, the Soviets
tightened their grip on Eastern and
Central Europe. Several Soviet
satellite nations in Eastern Europe
installed communist governments.
The "Iron Curtain" is a Western
term made famous by Winston
Churchill referring to the
boundary which symbolically,
ideologically, and physically divided
Europe into two separate areas
from the end of World War II until
the end of the Cold War.
Because of the East-West split, new
political and military alliances
formed. Twelve western nations
signed the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization pledging a united
action if any of their members were
attacked.
The Eastern bloc responded with a
mutual defense agreement called
the Warsaw Pact.
The Korean Conflict was a
product of the Cold War.
Communist North Korea invaded
South Korea. The United Nations
condemned the attack. This
conflict eventually ended in a
stalemate with South Korea free of
communist occupation.
The Vietnam War was another
conflict that was a product of the
Cold War. North Vietnam was
communist while South Vietnam
was not. The communist
government of North Vietnam
attempted to install through force a
communist government in South
Vietnam.
American leaders did not want
Vietnam to fall to communism.
They felt that if that happened all of
Southeast Asia would follow. This
resulted American involvement in the
war to prevent a North Vietnamese
communist takeover.
The division of Berlin was also a
product of the Cold War. East Berlin
was communist and West Berlin was
a democracy. The Berlin Wall was
built between these two sections to
physically divide communism from
democracy!
Cuba was also a site of Cold War
confrontations. Fidel Castro led a
communist revolution that took over
Cuba in the late 1950s.
In 1962, the Soviet Union stationed
missiles in Cuba, instigating the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
President Kennedy ordered the
Soviets to remove their missiles and
for several days the world was on the
brink of nuclear war. Eventually, the
Soviet leadership “blinked” and
removed their missiles.
Nuclear weapons, in theory, became
a deterrent in the Cold War. Both
the United States and the Soviet
Union built a stockpile of nuclear
weapons to hold each other in
check. The presence of these
weapons supposedly was to deter
either side from acting aggressively.
The collapse of the Soviet
economy was a major cause of the
fall of communism. Most Soviets
experienced a decline in their
standard of living and reform was
needed.
A spirit of nationalism caused some
Soviet republics to demand
independence. Latvia, Lithuania, and
Estonia tried to secede from the
Soviet Union. Countries in the
Warsaw Pact likewise began to break
away from Soviet rule.
The tearing down of the Berlin
Wall became a major symbol of
the end of communism.
By 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to
exist. The breakup of the Soviet
Union created about 15 independent
republics.
NATO expanded its influence into
Eastern Europe following the
collapse of the Soviet Union. This
action was opposed by Russia.