THE COLD WAR THE COLD WAR. THE COLD WAR What was it & why did it happen? Part I

THE COLD WARTHE COLD WAR

THE COLD WAR

What was it & why did it happen?

Part I

What was the COLD WAR?

• Who was it between?– The US (and their allies) vs. USSR (and their

allies)• What were they doing?

– State of conflict, tension and competition • When did this occur?

– 1940s-early 1990s• Why were they fighting?

– Each country wanted to spread and promote its goals and influence around the world

What was the COLD WAR?

• How did they “fight” a cold war?– Military coalitions– Espionage– Weapons development– Technological development– Space Race– Also included “proxy” wars – Nuclear arms race– And of course….PROPAGANDA

Cold War Propaganda – Pop Culture

Nikolai VolkoffHulk Hogan

1980 US Hockey

Cold War Propaganda –

Movies

An Iron Curtain

• Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech marks the start of the Cold War

– Speech given in Missouri– Symbolized the ideological

boundary separating Europe post WWII

– Expressed the vast philosophical ideologies

Soviet Expansion

• Stalin expresses desire to create “buffer zone” of “friendly nations”– Satellite nations

• Actually under the control of the Soviet Union

How did the U.S. view Stalin and his Communist regime?

The Soviet Union point-of-view

“All communist parties must take the lead in resisting the plans of American imperialist expansion and aggression in all spheres…its basic aim is the establishment of the world domination of American imperialism and the smashing of our freedom (1947).”

The Cold War – The 1940s

The Early Stages

Part II

Important Events of 1946

• Greece– Civil war– Communists attempting to overthrow the gov’t

• Turkey– Soviet Union makes territorial demands

• Canada– Soviet spy ring is exposed

Early US Response

• Containment (1946)– Established by George Kennan– Goal was to restrict Soviet expansion

Early US Cold War Policies

• Marshall Plan (1947)– European Recovery Program– $17 Billion in aid

– Aid is offered to USSR (refused)– No aid is given to communist

governments of Eastern Europe

How do the Russians interpret

the Marshall Plan?

Soviet Response to the Marshall Plan

They believed the U.S. was trying to bribe European countries to accept capitalism and democracy

The Soviet Union in Eastern Europe

• Soviet Union troops crush uprisings in – Hungary (1956)

– Poland (1956)

NATO & Warsaw

What is NATO?• Official Name

– North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Purpose– Military Alliance– Attack on one of them is an

attack on all

• Membership –

• Formed in 1949– US, France, United

Kingdom, Canada, West Germany, and others

What is the Warsaw Pact?

• Official Name– The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation

and Mutual Assistance – Also known as the Warsaw Treaty

Organization• Purpose

– Military alliance– The Soviet Union’s response to NATO

• Membership – – Established in 1955– Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary,

East Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Czechoslovak Republic

Crisis in Berlin• USSR opposes Allied plan to

create West German govt.• (6/1948) USSR blocks traffic

to and from W. Berlin• Berlin Airlift – Allies drop 2

tons of food over 10 month period

• 1949 – German division = West Germany and East Germany (USSR)

• 1955 West Germany granted full independence

Communism in China

• Mao Zedong led communists

• US attempted to aid the Chinese who fought Communism

• 1949 – The People’s Republic of China– Communist government

The Cold War – The 1950s

The Arms & Space Race

Part IV

“The Bomb”

• The Nuclear Arms Race Begins• USSR test “atomic bomb” in August 1949

– US gov’t educates public on how to respond to a nuclear attack

• “Duck and Cover” and “fall-out” shelters

• US tests Hydrogen bomb in 1952• USSR tests their own H-Bomb in 1953

“Duck and Cover” and

Fall-out Shelters

Eisenhower and a New Philosophy

• President Eisenhower– Vowed to liberate all countries that fell to USSR

control since 1954– CIA used to gather strategic info and pursue Cold

War goals

• Brinkmanship – “The ability to get to the verge [brink] w/o getting

into war is a necessary art”

The CIA & The Cold War

• CIA used military power and influence to install pro-US governments – The Shah in Iran in 1951– Guatemala in 1954

• US U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia in 1960 – Pilot Gary Powers served almost 2 yrs and

was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel

Nikita Khrushchev 1953 - 1964

The Space Race

• Nikita Khrushchev new USSR leader

– Beginning of the Space Race

• Sputnik – 1957– First satellite in space

• Sputnik II – 1957– Dog on board

• US responds– Explorer I (1958)– Man on the Moon (1969)

The Cold War Turns HOT!

War in Korea (1950-1953)

• Japanese control Korea 1910-1945• Post WWII

– Soviet controlled North (Kim Il Sung)– Allied controlled South (Syngman Rhee)– Divided at the 38th Parallel @ Potsdam Conference

• 6/25/1950 North invades the South– Truman and the UN pledge support to South

Korea

Fighting in Korea• General MacArthur led US

forces in Korea– U.S. 350,000– Total Forces

• ~800,000

• North Koreans forces– Aid from USSR– Aid from China

• Enters the war in November

Fighting in Korea• Fighting turns to

stalemate – Near the 38th parallel

• Peace talks began in 1951– Agreement finally on

6/27/1953

• Results of the war– 54,000 US deaths– Stalemate – little land was

won/lost on both sides– North and South Korea

remained divided

The Cold War in the 1960s

Crisis and More WarPart V

The Cold War under President Kennedy

• Continued a nuclear arms buildup

• Increased US participation in Vietnam

• Created aid programs for developing countries

The Cuban Missile Crisis

• Soviet Missiles could not reach US from Soviet Union

– Began constructing missile launching pads in Cuba

– US could hit USSR via missile bases in Turkey

Results of the Soviet bases gave USSR range to attack the US

The Cuban Missile Crisis

• United States U-2 spy plane captures the building of the pads on 10/14/1962,

– JFK institutes a blockade of Cuba on 10/22

– Soviet Union sent ships to deliver more materials to Cuba

– Two days of tension as nuclear war looms

The Cuban Missile Crisis

• Soviet ships turn away before reaching the blockade on 10/24

• US removed missiles from Turkey

• USSR removed missiles from Cuba

Crisis in Germany

The Berlin Wall

• Built 1961 – stood until 1989• Built to surround the Western half of the capital

city of Berlin– Barred travel for all East Germans to the West– Could only travel to West with gov’t pass

• Most were denied

• Initially a wire fence, concrete wall starting 1965• 5,000 people successfully defected, 100 – 200

deaths trying to escape

THE BERLIN WALL

The Soviet Union

• Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia (1968) – Crush a “liberalization” movement

• The "Brezhnev Doctrine“– Established by Leonid Brezhnev

• Head of the Politburo 1964-1982

– USSR can intervene in other communist states if communism is threatened in any way

The Vietnam War (1959-1975)

• Why does the US get involved?– The Domino Theory

• If North took South it would trigger the further spread of communism

The Vietnam War

• Sides of the war– North Vietnam

• Communist leader Ho Chi Minh

• Aid from USSR

• Also had allies in the South– Known as the Vietcong

– South Vietnam • Dictator Ngo Dinh Diem

• Aid from the US

Vietnam War Information

• Important Events– First Major Battle

• Battle of the Ia Drang Valley (1965)

• US troops got hammered— “We Were Soldiers”

– Tet Offensive of 1968• North guerillas launch massive surprise attack

• Turning point of the war

• Anti-war sentiment in US increased

• Bloodiest year of the war (15,000 American troops died)

Vietnam War Information• “Vietnamization” Policy

in 1968– Gradually pulled troops

from the war

• President Nixon arranged a cease fire – Paris Peace Accords

(1973)

– Two years later the North captured the South

Vietnam War Results

• For Vietnam– Unified country

– 2 million killed

– 3 million wounded

• For the United States– 57,685 killed

– 153,303 wounded

– 587 POW were released from POW camps

– 2,000+ personnel are still unaccounted for

The Cold War in the 1970s

Revolution and War

Part VI

War in Afghanistan 1979-1988

• USSR invades Afghanistan– To install a pro-Soviet

leader– Would become the

USSR’s “Vietnam” – led the downfall of the USSR

• Unpopular war, drains military resources, very expensive

War in Afghanistan 1979-1988

• Results of the war– Over 14,000 Soviet

troops dead– Afghan losses are well

over 100,000– Afghan civil war

continued• Until Taliban took control

in 1996

– Increased tension with the US

Anti-US Sentiment Grows

• Revolution in Iran– “Islamic Revolution” of 1979– Ousted pro-US regime (monarchy)– Replaced with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah

Ruhollah Khomeini

• Revolution in Nicaragua (1979)– Ousted pro-US regime (dictatorship)– Replaced by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación

(FSLN)

The Cold War of the 1980s• US view of the USSR

– USSR = the “Evil Empire”– Strong anti-communist feelings– Increased military spending

• The Invasion of Grenada (1983)– 7,000 troops b/c of Cuban

military buildup on the island – 800 US medical students on the

island

The Cold War of the 1980s

Fall of the Soviet Union

Part VII

Cold War of the 1980s

• US begins the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)– Space based missile defense system- “Star Wars”

• USSR shoots down Korean commercial jet (1983)– Killed some Americans– US places missiles in Great Britain & Germany

• USSR boycotts 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles

Cold War Tensions Ease• USSR Economy of the 1980s

– Saw a rapid decline since the 1970s

• The New Soviet General Secretary – Mikhail Gorbachev (1985)

• His new political ideas– Glasnost

» Openness and freedom for Soviet people

– Perestroika» Restructure the economic

system

The INF Treaty (1988)

• Intermediate Range Nuclear forces Treaty– Reagan & Gorbachev both signed– Eliminated intermediate range nuclear and cruise

missiles – Over 2,500 weapons were destroyed by 6/1/1991– Both nations were allowed to inspect each other's

military installations

The End of the Cold War

• USSR announces a “nonintervention policy”

– July 1988 – No longer able to bear costs of

other communist nations

• East Germany opens the Berlin Wall on 11/9/1989

– Free election united Germany in 1990

End of “The Wall”

The End of the Cold War

• 6/1/1991 – Warsaw Pact Nations disband their alliance

• Gorbachev resigns on 12/25/1991– Boris Yeltsin elected

Russian President– The USSR “ceases to exist”

THE THE ENDEND