Transcript 2014 American History The Cold War

The Cold War
Soviet Way of Life
• Communism—economic and political
where the government controlled all
property and economic activity.
• Totalitarian government; meaning there was
no opposition to the Communist Party in
USSR (they controlled everything)
American Way of Life
• Capitalism—private citizens control almost all the
economic activity. People have a choice.
• In America there are elections and multiple parties
have a say in what is done in the government.
• At the end of WWII, we were upset at USSR
because they were different than us.
• The USSR was upset at America because we had
not acted fast enough to help during WWII and we
kept the Atomic Bomb a secret.
United Nations
• Was created after WWII in hopes that we
would never have another “world war.”
• 50 nations were at a meeting in San
Francisco, all of them were trying to figure
out a way to create a lasting peace.
• Joseph Stalin—leader of the USSR did not
like the UN and would not be apart of it.
Yalta Conference
• USSR, GB, and USA met to decide what
would happen after WWII.
• Stalin had promised that he would allow
free elections in all of the countries east of
Russia (Poland, etc..). Stalin did not follow
through with this, all of those countries
would create communist governments.
After the Yalta Conference
• Harry Truman (American President) and others
decided to split Germany into Occupational
Zones.
• Both the USA and USSR emerged from WWII as
the most powerful economic countries in the
world.
• The Soviet Union felt that they should be able to
claim many of the Eastern European lands as
payment for the huge death toll during WWII.
Iron Curtain
• Stalin installed communist governments in the following
countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Romania and Poland.
• These countries would become known as Satellite
Nations—nations that were controlled by the USSR.
• Containment—US policy in which we would do anything
in our power to prevent the extension of communism. This
would define most of US foreign policy during the Cold
War
• Iron Curtain—the division between Eastern and Western
Europe
Cold War
• The USA and the USSR never fought each
other during this conflict, which is why it is
called the “cold war.”
• This conflict lasted from 1945-1991.
Truman Doctrine
• The United States was very concerned about Turkey and
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Greece falling to USSR.
Truman gave around 400 million dollars to those countries
to fight off communism.
Truman Doctrine—US would support free people
throughout the world against communism.
Marshall Plan—US gave 13 billion dollars in aid to
European Countries to help them rebuild after WWII. This
was done to help ensure that communism would not occur
within Western Europe.
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Issues with Germany
• The United States wanted to reunify Germany (get rid of the
Occupational Zones)..the Soviet Union wanted none of this.
• Stalin closed all access to Berlin (half of Berlin was controlled
by USA/GB). Berlin was located within USSR Zone of
Germany.
• Berlin Airlift—American and British troops dropped supplies
to West Berlin (2.3 million tons of supplies) over a years
span.
• Eventually, the USSR lifted its blockade of Berlin, however,
Germany was still divided (East Germany and West
Germany)
Military Alliances
• NATO—military alliance between all of the
countries of Western Europe (Belgium, Denmark,
France, GB, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, USA and Canada.
These countries pledged to come together if one
was threatened by Communism.
• The USSR would do the same thing with the
Warsaw Pact.
China
• Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Nationalist
Government within China. He had been fighting a
communist movement led by Mao Zedong.
• As time went on, the Communist Party was able to
take control of China (except Taiwan).
• This made many people in America very afraid of
communism spreading throughout the world, even
into America.
The Korean War
• In 1948, Korea was divided into 2 areas
(South Korea—controlled by the US and
North Korea—Controlled by the USSR)
• In 1949, the USSR decided to try to take
over all of Korea.
• 38th Parallel—Line that divided North and
South Korea.
The Korean War
• Truman ordered American troops to go to South
Korea and push back the communists.
• 520,000 troops went to Korea and were placed
under the command of Douglas McArthur.
• The North Korean’s were able to invade into much
of South Korea. Over time, McArthur was able to
drive them back into North Korea.
• McArthur was able to drive the North Korean
troops all the way to the border of Korea and
China. It appeared as though they would
surrender.
The Korean War
• The Chinese (who were communist)
decided to help the North Koreans and were
able to help drive the American troops out
of North Korea. For 2 years both sides
fought to about a stalemate.
• McArthur really wanted to attack China,
Truman did not like this idea because he
thought it would start WWIII.
The Korean War
• Truman eventually fired McArthur (who was still very
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popular in America).
June 23rd, 1951, the USSR offered a cease fire agreement
that would end the fighting.
The compromise created 2 countries in Korea (North and
South).
54,000 American Soldiers died in the Korean War and it
cost 67 billion dollars
Truman was not re-elected President in 1952…Dwight
Eisenhower (Rep) won
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America during the Cold War
• Many Americans became suspicious that there were
communist within the American Government.
• Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were Americans who were
accused of being Russian spies (giving secrets to the USSR
about the Atomic Bomb). They were found guilty and
sentenced to death.
• Joseph McCarthy—Senator from Wisconsin accused many
people in Congress of being “secretly communist.”
• Millions of Americans had to take loyalty oaths, labor
unions started to decline, people were afraid to speak out
against the government
Race for the H-Bomb
• H-Bomb—Hydrogen Bomb, it would have
the force of 1 million tons of TNT (67 times
more powerful then the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima). Scientist argued about the
moral issues.
• USA made the first H-Bomb in November
of 1952, USSR responded by Sept. of 1953
Brinkmanship
• Brinkmanship—the idea that the United
States would use whatever force necessary
to stop the spread of communism
(Eisenhower and Dulles).
• The United States began to trim the army
and navy while making the air force
stronger.
• Great fear within America
Spread of the Cold War
• CIA—Central Intelligence Agency, used
spies to gather as much information on
other countries as possible.
• CIA also began to do many secret
operations designed to protect America.
• Guatemala and Iran
Tensions in the Middle East
• Suez War—Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser wanted
help building a dam on the Suez Canal. He
wanted to get help from both America and the
USSR.
• Once American leaders found out about this, the
withdrew their loan. Nasser responded by taking
control of the whole canal.
• This also really hurt Israel because Nasser would
not allow ships for Israel to pass through….war
Tensions in the Middle East
• The Soviet Union had a lot of interest in actions
within the Middle East (Egypt, Iran)
• Eisenhower Doctrine—said that the United States
would defend the Middle East from any attack by
a communist country.
• Hungary wanted a democratic government, the
USA would not help them in their revolt because
it was a Satellite Nation of the Soviet Union.
Other venues of the Cold War
• Nikita Khrushchev—Soviet leader after
Stalin died. He favored a peaceful
competition between the two countries
(science and economically)
• Space Race—competition to see who could
get into space and the moon the quickest.
• Sputnik—first satellite into space; launched
by the Soviets.
Spying Issues
• The CIA was making secret high altitude flights over the
Soviet Union using a plane called the U-2 (no radar
detection).
• This was a very controversial program that had a lot of
opposition within the American and Soviet Governments.
• The Soviet Union shot down one of these planes (both
sides had promised not to do these missions).
• This significantly increased the tension between the 2 sides
heading into the 1960s.
JFK
• John F Kennedy was elected President in 1961. This
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was a very influential time because many Americans
thought we were losing the Cold War (Sputnik, U-2,
bad economy, Cuba and the USSR were
aligning)…beat Nixon (one of the closest ever)
Kennedy used television to gain many supporters
(overcame doubts of him)
African American vote helped Kennedy
Kennedy was very much in the “public eye”
He surrounded himself with the “ best and brightest”
JFK’s military policy
• Kennedy saw how communism was popular to
poorer countries (Republicans didn’t)
• Flexible Response—main military strategy in
which nuclear weapons would not be the
answer/threat to every situation
• Increased dollars spend on other factions of the military
• Allowed the US to fight limited wars while keeping pace with
USSR’s nuclear capability
• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper comparing
and contrasting Kennedy to Barack Obama
Cuba
• Fidel Castro—leader of a Cuban revolutionary force
had taken control of the country and declared the
country communist.
• This caused the US to cut off ties with Cuba
• Hundreds of thousands of Cubans left the country for
America, Castro and the United States were at odds,
USSR would help.
• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper detailing the
main event of Castro’s life. You will also need to
include the direction that Cuba is going in after
Castro’s resignation.
Extra Credit
• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper comparing
and contrasting Kennedy to Barack Obama
• Extra Credit—Write a two page paper detailing
the main event of Castro’s life. You will also
need to include the direction that Cuba is going in
after Castro’s resignation.
• These will be due next Friday. If you do both
papers, you will not have to take the exam. If you
do one, it will go as extra credit. (up to 15 points)
Bay of Pigs
• CIA began to train Cuban’s who had left the
country because they were opposed to Castro.
The plan was to have the Cuban exiles go into
Cuba and start a revolution.
• This plan was a complete failure, the invading
group met around 25,000 Cuban soldiers. Most of
the invading forces were either killed or jailed.
• Kennedy took a lot of heat, America was
embarrassed, and we had to give Cuba 50 million
dollars to get our prisoners back.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Khrushchev sent all sorts of weapons to Cuba to
help them defend themselves (including nuclear
weapons).
• Kennedy responded by saying that America would
not let this happen.
• In October of 1962, American planes revealed that
the Soviets had missiles ready to launch that could
strike any American city within minutes.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Kennedy demanded that the missiles be removed
from Cuba.
• He said that any missile attack from Cuba would
send an all-out nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.
• For 6 days the world waited for something to
happen…meanwhile, American ships were not
allowing Soviet ships access to Cuba.
• Finally, Khrushchev announced that the Soviet
Union would remove missiles if the US would
promise not to invade Cuba. (US would removed
missiles from Turkey as well)
Results of the Cuban Missile
Crisis
• Both Kennedy (brinkmanship, not invading)
and Khrushchev (being too weak) took a lot
of criticism for what happened with Cuba.
• Cuban exiles blamed the Democrats for
“losing Cuba” and voted Republican.
• Many Cubans left Cuba, Cuban population
in Miami increased to around 300,000
Berlin
• Berlin Wall—concrete wall that split Berlin
in two. This was done to prevent people
from East Germany from escaping to West
Germany. (3 million had fled)
• Soviets decided to do this after Kennedy
had threatened to attack if the Soviets cut
off all access to Berlin.
• Became an ugly symbol of the Cold War
Things get better
• Neither the Soviet Union or America
wanted to go to nuclear war.
• Hot Line—direct phone connection between
the Soviets and Americans.
• Limited Test Ban Treaty—agreed on by
both countries, barred nuclear testing in the
atmosphere.