Transcript The Cold War

• Focus Question
• To what extent can ideological conflict influence international relations?
• Key Terms and Concepts
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Brinkmanship
Cold War
Collective Security
Containment
Detente
Deterrence
Expansionism
Ideological Conflict
Liberation Movements
Sphere of Influence
• In this unit, we will examine
ideological conflicts during the
Cold War.
• During the Second World War, the
USA and the Soviet Union put aside
their differences to defeat their
common enemy, Nazi Germany.
• When the war ended, however, they
returned to their ideological conflict.
• Capitalist liberal democracy vs.
Communism.
• In 1927, Joseph Stalin predicted the following:
...there will emerge two centers of
world significance: a socialist
center... and a capitalist center...
Battle between these two centers for
command of the world economy will
decide the fate of capitalism and
communism in the entire world.
• As we go through this unit, think about Stalin’s
prediction and ask yourself to what it extent he
was correct.
• The Cold War is defined as:
• The political, economic, and military rivalry between the U.S. and the
Soviet Union.
• The conflict was expressed
through military coalitions,
espionage (spies), weapons
development, invasions,
propaganda, and
competitive technological
development, which
included the space race.
• The conflict included costly defense spending, a massive
conventional and nuclear arms race, and numerous proxy wars.
• An Ideological Struggle
• Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc Nations
• Goal: Spread worldwide communism.
• USA and Western Democracies
• Goal: Containment of communism.
• Methodologies
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Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
Arms Race [Nuclear Escalation]
Proxy Wars [Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, etc.]
Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
• Following World War Two
• Although the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France were
allied against the Axis powers during the last four years of World War II,
disagreements existed both during and after the conflict on many topics,
particularly over the shape of the post-war world.
• At the war's conclusion, the relations between the Soviet Union and the
U.S. were marked by conflicts where the two super powers supported
opposing sides, but never directly confronted each other, a period of
tension associated with fear of war between the two countries, and the
creation of international organizations in an effort to maintain peace.
• The Soviet Union created
an Eastern Bloc of
countries that it occupied,
annexing some as Soviet
Socialist Republics and
maintaining others as
Satellite states that
would later form the
Warsaw Pact.
From Stettin in the
Balkans, to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain
has descended across the
Continent. Behind that
line lies the ancient
capitals of Central and
Eastern Europe.
• The West
• The United States and various western European countries began a policy
of "containment" of communism and forged alliances to this end, including
later NATO.
• The US foreign policy during the Cold War period was containment.
• Containment
• The attempt to thwart another country’s expansionism through means other
than direct warfare.
< Senator McCarthy used
fabrications to accuse Americans of
Communist association.
Senator McCarthy made national
news in Feb. 1950 by accusing
thousands of Americans of having
Communist beliefs.
The term “McCarthyism” refers to him
accusing Americans of Communist
association without any evidence to
back it up.
• How did we get here?
• During their joint war effort, which
began thereafter in 1941, the Soviets
strongly suspected that the British and
the Americans had conspired to allow
the Russians to bear the brunt of the
battle against Nazi Germany.
• According to this view, the Western
Allies had deliberately delayed
opening a second anti-German front in
order to step in at the last moment and
shape the peace settlement.
• Thus, Soviet perceptions of the West
and vice versa left a strong
undercurrent of tension and hostility
between the Allied powers.
• Yalta Conference
• The wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among
the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and
the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, and Premier Josef Stalin, respectively—for the purpose of
discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. Mainly, it was intended to
discuss the re-establishment of the nations conquered by Germany.
• Yalta Conference
• Initially, the atmosphere at Yalta was hopeful.
• It was clear that the war in Europe was ending and that the time had
come to plan for the future of the region.
• The agreements made at the Yalta Conference included:
• Dividing Germany into four zones of occupation.
• British, American, French, and Soviet.
• Having free elections in the newly liberated countries of Europe, in
keeping with “the right of all people to choose the form of
government under which they will live.”
To what extent did the hope reflected in the agreements from
Yalta represent a feeling that countries could overcome the
ideological differences between the superpowers?
When the “Big Three” (Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin) met at
Yalta, Soviet troops occupied territory in much of central and eastern Europe. What
impact might that have had on negotiations?
• Potsdam Conference
• At the Potsdam Conference, which started in late July after Germany's
surrender, serious differences emerged over the future development of
Germany and Eastern Europe. Moreover, the participants' language
served to confirm their suspicions about each other's hostile intentions and
entrench their positions.
• The Western Allies had
experienced changes at home
since the Yalta Conference.
• In April 1945, Roosevelt had died,
leaving Harry S. Truman as the
new American President.
• The Americans and British were
expressing openly anticommunist views, while Stalin
maintained control of captured
territory.
• Both sides did not trust each other.
• Many historians see the Potsdam
Conference as the beginning of the
Cold War.
• Potsdam Conference
• At this conference Truman informed
Stalin that the United States
possessed a powerful new weapon.
Stalin was aware that the Americans
were working on the atomic bomb
and, given that the Soviets' own
rival program was in place, he
reacted to the news calmly. The
Soviet leader said he was pleased
by the news and expressed the
hope that the weapon would be
used against Japan.
• One week after the end of
the Potsdam Conference, the
US bombed Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Shortly after the
attacks, Stalin protested to US
officials when Truman offered
the Soviets little real influence
in occupied Japan.
• Spheres of Influence
• Following WW2, the Soviet Union and the United States began to
establish their spheres of influence in Europe and ultimately around the
world.
• Expansionism
• The attempt to enlarge territorial and ideological influence beyond a
countries borders and allies.
• Both the Soviet Union and United States would practice it until the end
of the Cold War.
• Stalin saw postwar Soviet expansionism not only as a way to
“command the world economy” but also for specific historical
and geographical reasons.
• Expansionism
• Stalin wanted to keep
Germany divided.
• Stalin wanted to expand
Soviet influence to surrounding
countries for safety.
• USA Expansionism
• The United States framed its expansionism in terms of providing other
countries with the freedom to choose sides, of defending their freedom to
choose a governing ideology.
• Remember?
• Containment
• The attempt to thwart another country’s expansionism through means
other than direct warfare.
...nearly every nation
must choose between
alternative ways of
life...
• In postwar Europe – and around the world – countries were
making exactly the choices that Truman described, but not
without difficulty.
• Truman wanted to stop Soviet expansionism in order to contain
the spread of communism.
• Instead of resulting to a “hot war” the USA created alliances and
provided aid, among other methods.
• In 1947, US President Harry S. Truman developed a foreign
policy to support anti-communist forces in Greece and Turkey.
This policy reflected the idea of containment through a $400million economic and military aid package to countries who
supported defeating communism within their countries.
The U. S. should support free
peoples throughout the world
who were resisting takeovers by
armed minorities or outside
pressures…We must assist free
peoples to work out their own
destinies in their own way.
• Truman Doctrine
• By 1947, US president Harry S. Truman's advisors urged him to take
immediate steps to counter the Soviet Union's influence, citing Stalin's
efforts (amid post-war confusion and collapse) to undermine the US by
encouraging rivalries among capitalists that could precipitate another war.
• Marshall Plan
• In 1947, US secretary of state George Marshall announced a $13 Billion
plan to help rebuild the Europeans countries devastated by war.
• The Marshall Plan
• A pledge of economic assistance for all
European countries willing to participate,
including the Soviet Union. The plan's aim
was to rebuild the democratic and economic
systems of Europe and to counter perceived
threats to Europe's balance of power, such
as communist parties seizing control through
elections or popular revolutions in countries
like France or Italy. The plan stressed
instead that European prosperity was
contingent upon German economic recovery.
• Stalin saw the Marshall Plan as a
significant threat to Soviet
control of Eastern Europe. He
believed that economic
integration with the West would
allow Eastern Bloc countries to
escape Soviet guidance, and that
the US was trying to buy a proUS re-alignment of Europe. Stalin
therefore prevented Eastern Bloc
nations from receiving Marshall
Plan aid.
Analyze the cartoon. What
is it’s central message.
• As part of the economic rebuilding of Germany, in early
1948, representatives of a number of Western European
governments and the United States announced an agreement
for a merger of western German areas into a federal
governmental system. In addition, in accordance with the
Marshall Plan, they began to re-industrialize and rebuild the
German economy.
• One of the first major international crises of the Cold
War.
• During the multinational occupation of post-World
War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the
Western force's railway and road access to the
western sectors of Berlin that they had been
controlling. Their aim was to force the western powers
to allow the Soviet controlled regions to start
supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving
them nominal control over the entire city.
• In response, the Western Allies
formed the Berlin Airlift to bring
supplies to the people of Berlin.
• The Berlin effort would require at least
4,000 tons a day.
• The success of the Airlift was
humiliating to the Soviets, who had
repeatedly claimed it could never
possibly work. When it became
clear that it did work, the blockade
was lifted.
• Because Berlin was divided it became a hotbed of Cold
War tensions.
• August 12, 1961 – East German troops locked down the
border and installed barbed wire and fences.
• In the interest of
security, some
countries aligned
themselves with one
superpower or the
other. For example,
Canada and Great
Britain were aligned
with the United States.
• Rather than following the
ideologies of the superpowers,
some countries chose their own
entirely different ideologies.
• Many countries that had a long
history European imperialism
wanted to step away from the
influence of the superpowers.
• Held in Java, Indonesia in April 1955 it was a direct result
of the ideological differences between the superpowers.
• Pgs. 250 to 251.
• What legacies exist today from the non-alignment
movement of the 1950’s?
• A method of cold war rather than hot
war. It involves building up one’s
capacity to fight such that neither
opponent will fight because of the
expected outcomes.
• Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)
• The attempt to push a dangerous situation as far as possible
without conceding anything to your opponent.
• A reduction of tensions through the signing of treaties.
• Conflicts in which one superpower might fight in another country
or provide support to a group which opposes the rival
superpower.
• Occurs when a country rebels against the country that colonized
it or otherwise oppressed it.