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+ An overview of the Cold War
How can a war be ‘cold’?What were the Hotspots of the Cold War?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir2/causes_coldwaract.shtml
+Cold War -The tension and rivalry between the USA and
the USSR was described as the Cold War (1945-1990).
There was never a real war between the two sides between 1945 and 1990, but they were often very close to war (Hotspots). Both sides got involved in other conflicts in the world to either stop the spread of communism (USA) or help it spread (USSR).
+Background:
Who: The definition above says it all (almost). Many smaller countries in Asia, South America and Africa became involved.
What: Intense economic, political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of military conflictWhere: Covered by above.
When: Approximately 1945-1989
+How:
Beginnings: US, USSR, Great Britain unnatural allies during World War II
Tensions submerged until close of war Yalta and Potsdam Conferences (1945)
Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt Decided on USSR declaration of war vs. Japan, setting up
of International Military Tribunal Free elections for Eastern Europe Truman drops A-Bomb hint to Stalin…
Stalin arranges pro-communist governments in Eastern European countries 1946: “Iron Curtain” descends.
+Soviet and U.S. troops celebrating victory over the Germans
+“Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin working together to save the world”
+The Big Three Disagreed…
But in fact the Allies had disagreed openly about:
The details of how to divide Germany.
The size of reparations Germany ought to pay.
Soviet influence over the countries of eastern Europe.
+The Yalta Conference – held during the war in 1945
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+ Western Reactions to Soviet Threat
+Berlin
Germany and Berlin split between East and West
(4 ways, but West merges) Soviets Blockade Berlin
East and West struggling for control of Capital West Berlin government overwhelmingly elects democratic leaders…
Berlin Airlift 11 months of air shipments to Berlin, beginning June 1948 Cold war did not go “hot” Retribution: British/U.S. embargo on Soviet imports Soviets lift blockade in summer 1949
Berlin Wall (1961) Built to stop escaping East Germans Becomes symbol of the Cold War
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Focus on BerlinAfter World War II,
Germany was divided into four zones, occupied by French, British, American, and Soviet troops.
Occupation zones after 1945. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone.
· In June of 1948, the French, British and American zones were joined into the nation of West Germany after the Soviets refused to end their occupation of Germany.
Soviet blockade:
West Germany
East Germany
West Berlin
East Berlin
· In response, the Soviets cut off West Berlin from the rest of the world with a blockade.
Eventual site of the Berlin Wall
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STOP
· President Truman decided to avoid the blockade by flying in food and other supplies to the needy people of West Berlin.
A huge airlift:
· At times, over 5,000 tons of supplies arrived daily.
+ The Berlin Airlift, 1948
Stalin blockaded the city and the U.S. came to the rescue with “Operation Vittles”
· The Soviet zone of Germany, including East Berlin, became known as the nation of East Germany.
Germany remains divided:
· In May of 1949, Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union ended the blockade.
October, 1949
+The Berlin Wall 1961
•Between 1949-1961 3.5 million East Germans fled •1961: Barrier built, barbed wire, watchtowers, guards, “shoot to kill”
The Cold War: Roots of the Conflict
Soviet Expansion:
· The Soviet Union occupied most of Eastern Europe by the end of World War II.
• In 1946, Winston Churchill correctly warned that the Soviets were creating an “iron curtain” in Eastern Europe.
Winston Churchill giving the “Iron Curtain” address at Westminster College on March 5, 1946
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow….Whatever conclusions may be drawn from these facts - and facts they are - this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace….
Winston Churchill - “The Sinews of Peace”March 5, 1946 - Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri
What is needed is a settlement, and the longer this is delayed, the more difficult it will be and the greater our dangers will become.
From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness.
Peep under the Iron curtain
March 6, 1946
· By 1948, every Eastern European country was under communist control.
American Response:
· Truman Doctrine – statement of President Truman that promised military and economic support to nations threatened by communism… CONTAINMENT!
· Secretary of State George Marshall toured Western Europe and witnessed widespread homelessness and famine.
Aid for Europe:
Children in a London suburb, waiting outside the wreckage of what was their home. September 1940.
Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942
Nuremberg, Germany, April 20, 1945
· Marshall, fearing that communist revolts could occur in such an atmosphere, proposed that the U.S. help to rebuild the European economy in what became known as the Marshall Plan.
* The U.S. gave over $17 billion in aid to European countries between 1948 and 1952, helping to improve their economies and lessen the chance of communist revolutions.
+The Arms Race
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1949
Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact), 1955
Nuclear proliferation
End of 60s: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
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+US Test Hydrogen Bomb-1952
1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb
Set off on Bikini Island in the Marshall Islands
+Massive Retaliation Mutually Assured Destruction
+Hot Spots and Proxy Wars:
Korea
Vietnam
Berlin Wall
Afghanistan
Chinese Communist Revolution
Cuban Missile Crisis
+The Korean War 1950-1953
+The Chinese Communist Revolution… 1945 -
+The Berlin Wall 1961
+The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
+ The Vietnam War 1963-1975
+Cuba
Fidel Castro Rus (1926-), 1959 revolution
Cancels promised elections, expropriates foreign properties, kills or exiles political enemies
US imposes trade embargo
Soviets step in with massive aid, gain foothold off US shores
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+The Bay of Pigs
Castro declares undying allegiance to Soviet foreign policy, 1960
Kennedy and CIA send 1,500 Cubans into Bay of Pigs to spur revolution
American Air support does not appear, force destroyed in 3 days
US embarrassment
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+Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs
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+Cuban Missile Crisis
October 1962 Soviets begin assembling missiles in Cuba
Kennedy publicly challenges USSR
Quarantines CUBA
Soviets concede, but US guarantees non-interference with Castro regime
US Secretary of State Dean Rusk: “Eyeball to eyball, they blinked first”
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+The Cold War, 1949-1962 45
+The Space Race
Nonviolent aspect of cold war rivalry
Initial Soviet successes: 1957: Sputnik, first satellite 1961: Yuri Gagarin orbits space
US sets up NASA, lands Apollo XI on the moon, July 1969
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+Challenges to Soviet Power
Rebellions quashed: Yugoslavia expelled from Soviet bloc, 1948 Hungary, 1956 Prague Spring, 1968
Brezhnev Doctrine: right to invade any socialist country threatened by elements “hostile to socialism”
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The Cold War: 1945-1960
The Cold War: 1960-1991
The Cold War in Africa and Asia
Examples:
- In Africa, the U.S. supported Somalia while the Soviets supported Ethiopia.
· The United States and Soviet Union supported their allies worldwide, turning small conflicts into international wars.
- In Asia, Pakistan became an ally of the U.S., while India accepted assistance from both the U.S. and the Soviets. Also, the U.S. supported democratic forces in Indochina while the Soviets supported the communists.
- (Note: today, Indochina consists of the nations of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.)
+End of the Cold War
President Ronald Reagan (in office 1981-1989) deeply opposes USSR The “evil empire”
Promotes massive military spending, beyond Soviet economy to keep up Strategic Defense Initiative (“star wars”)
Forces Soviet Mikhail S. Gorbachev (1931- ) to implement reforms, ultimately brings down the USSR
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+Revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe Polish trade union Solidarity movement opposes Polish
Communist Party rule, forces multiparty elections, 1989
Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania follow
The “Velvet Revolution” Bloodless revolutions
East Germany decides to open the Berlin Wall East and West Germany reunite (1990)
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+Collapse of the Soviet Union
Reforms under Gorbachev Economic Social
Perestroika: “restructuring”
Glasnost: “openness”
Nationalist sentiments, long suppressed, come to the surface
Several non-Russian republics secede, August 1991
Attempted hardliner takeover in Moscow fails, Soviet Union collapses by end of the year
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+The collapse of the Soviet Union and European communist regimes
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