After WWII – US Goals:

1. Encourage Democracy & halt spread of communism

2. Gain access to materials & markets to fuel US industry

3. Rebuild Euro gov’ts to promote stability & create markets for US goods

4. Reunite Germany to stabilize it and increase security in Europe

Truman Doctrine - US policy intended to prevent the spread of Communism

Marshall Plan, 1947 - US aid program for European nations damaged by WWII

- USSR rejected the aid & refused to let satellites participate in the program

#1

The European Recovery Act (Marshal Plan)

- by 1952, production levels in Europe exceeded

pre-war levels

After WWII – Soviet Union’s Goals:

1. Install communist gov’ts in Eastern Europe, promote world wide worker’s revolution

2. Rebuild its economy using E. Europe’s resources

3. Control E. Euro borders to set up a buffer between Soviet Union & the West

4. Keep Germany divided & weak so it could never again invade Russian territory

Superpowers

Western Europe - no longer the most powerful - replaced by US & USSR

Cold War - the period of hostility between US & USSR

Why?

USSR - suffered most losses in WWII (over 20 million) - over 10 million in WWI - millions more

to Napoleon’s invasion in 1812

- Stalin was determined to defend USSR from future western invasions

#2

- puppet gov’ts set up in lands liberated by USSR during WWII

Satellites - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria - countries that became

communist & were controlled by USSR

Iron Curtain - Stalin prevented contact between satellites and Western Europe

Albania & Yugoslavia - became communist states - allied with, but not controlled by USSR

Soviet Bloc - all of the above nations

#3

New Military Alliances

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization - US, GB, FR and their allies

Warsaw Pact - USSR and their allies

#4

The Berlin Airlift- Berlin lay deep w/in Soviet-held territory

- The city was divided between the 4 major allied

powers

- 1948 - Soviets blockaded the other

zones of the cityBritish & American planes supplied the 2 million West Berlin pop. with supplies

for almost a full year before Stalin ended the blockade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d7eOF8-4gw

UN - The United Nations

Goal - Save the world from war

General Assembly & Security Council - The 2 most important of the 6 main bodies of the UN

Security Council - 5 permanent members were WWII Allies - US, UK, FR, USSR, China

- each of the 5 has veto power over security council decisions

Divided Germany - 2 separate nations

West Germany - democracy allied w/ US

East Germany - communist state controlled by USSR

The Arms & Space Race

1949 - Soviets successfully test nuclear weapon

Deterrence - each built so many weapons that the other would not dare to attack due to

“mutual assured destruction”

ICBM’s - intercontinental ballistic missles - missles that could reach any part of the planet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aHpqqhaHJ0

Cuban Missile Crisis1959 - Communist revolution in Cuba

October 1962 - USSR secretly shipped nuclear weapons to Cuba -

90 miles from USJFK orchestrated an end to the confrontation,

USSR removed missiles, world saved from destruction

The Gorbachev Reforms

-1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev chosen as Soviet leader - he was not one of the “old guard” who

joined the party under Stalin

- He knew that USSR was backward and falling

behind- He instituted drastic

changes to help the failing empire - changes that led

to its collapse

Gorbachev’s Reforms

- worked to reduce nuclear stockpile

- withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan

- gave up direct control of satellite states

- permitted reunification of Germany

- Perestroika - “restructuring” - Gorbachev’s policy of bringing about democracy in the USSR

Glasnost - “openness” - G. parted with the secrecy of former leaders to reveal the

corruption, brutality, & inefficiency of the Soviet system

USSR

Commonwealth of Independent States