An overview of the Cold War

After World War 2 the Cold War began and caused tension

throughout the world.• The USA and the USSR were

the two world Superpowers.• The USA was a capitalist

society with a democracy.• The USSR was a communist

country with a dictatorship.• Both wanted to be the most

powerful nation in the world.

Nuclear tensions• The USA had shown its atomic power

when it exploded the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War 2.

• The USSR was also developing atomic weapons/bombs.

• The USA and the USSR were in competition with each other to have the best, most powerful weapons in the world – this was called the Arms Race.

After World War 2, the world changed!

• Many countries became communist after World War 2 including:

- Czechoslovakia (1948)- Poland (1947)- Hungary (1947)- China (1949)- Cuba (1959)- North Korea (1945)

The ‘Truman Doctrine’• Truman had been horrified at the pre-

war Allied policy of appeasement and was determined to stand up to any Soviet intimidation.

The Truman Doctrine in March 1947 promised that the USA “would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”.

• Triggered by British inability to hold the line in Greece, it was followed by aid to Greece and Turkey, and also money to help capitalists to stop communists in Italy and France.

It signalled the end of “isolationst” policies.

The ‘Marshall Plan’

• The Marshall Plan offered huge sums to enable the economies of Europe to rebuild after World War II, and, by generating prosperity, to reject the appeal of Communism.

The Soviet Union (USSR) prevented Eastern European countries from receiving American money.

Germany - divided• Germany, which had been

ruled by the Hitler and the Nazis until their defeat in 1945 was split in two.

• The western side became West Germany and the eastern side became East Germany.

• West Germany was Democratic, while East Germany became another Communist country.

Focus on Berlin

• After 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

The Berlin Wall 1961

Opposing Alliances

· In 1949, the U.S. formed an alliance with friendly European countries called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

· The members of NATO would defend each other against any Soviet aggression.

· In 1955, the Soviet Union formed its own military alliance called the Warsaw Pact.

· The Warsaw Pact was made up of Eastern European countries dominated by Soviet control. Purpose: to support the spread of communism.

• The USSR had a lot of influence over many of the new communist countries (especially those in Europe).

• The USA was very worried that the USSR’s influence over these countries was making the USSR and communism more powerful.

• The USA did not want communism to spread any further – they were worried about the domino effect (one country becomes communist, then another, then another etc)

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 the spread of communism (USSR).

The Korean War 1950-1953

Fighting in Korea:

• Korea was divided at the 38th parallel of latitude.

• North Korea was communist and supported by the Soviets, and South Korea was democratic and supported by the U.S.

• In June of 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea.

• The U.N. sent an international force to Korea in order to push the North Koreans out of South Korea.

United Nations forces fighting to recapture Seoul, South Korea, from communist invaders, September 1950.

• In July of 1953, the Korean War ended, in which over 54,000 Americans died.

South Korean troops patrol along the DMZ.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• By the 1960’s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers.

Crisis Over Cuba

• In 1959, Fidel Castro led a communist revolution in Cuba, causing thousands of Cubans to flee to the United States.

Fidel Castro, 1950’s Fidel Castro, 2006

Bay of Pigs Invasion

· The U.S. became worried as Cuba received increased amounts of aid from the Soviet Union.

· In 1961, President John F. Kennedy approved of a plan to overthrow Castro’s government with the help of Cuban exiles.

· The exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Southern Cuba where they were easily defeated by Cuban forces, strengthening Fidel Castro and embarrassing the United States.

Fidel Castro, parading through the streets of Havana after his victory against Cuban expatriates in the Bay of Pigs invasion. (1961)

The Cuban Missile Crisis

• The Soviet Union began to build missile bases in Cuba, worrying Americans that we were vulnerable to attack.

· Pres. Kennedy announced that American warships would stop any Soviet ship carrying missiles.

"That Tuesday the first of thirteen days of decision unlike any other in the Kennedy years or, indeed, inasmuch as this was the first direct nuclear confrontation, unlike any other in the history of our planet." - Theodore Sorensen, aide to Pres. Kennedy

• Upon approaching Cuba, the Soviets turned back.

• Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba, and the U.S. agreed not to invade Cuba.

"I found myself in the difficult position of having to decide on a course of action which would answer the American threat but which would also avoid war.  Any fool can start a war, and once he's done so, even the wisest of men are helpless to stop it-- especially if its a nuclear war.”

- Nikita Khrushchev

The Vietnam War c.1963-1975

The Two Vietnams

· Vietnam, a former French colony, was divided into two sections in 1954.

· South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem, was democratic and backed by the U.S.

· North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, was communist and backed by the Soviet Union.

Many South Vietnamese distrusted Diem and joined the Vietcong, a communist guerilla group supported by North Vietnam.

In August 1964, U.S. military officials believed that the North Vietnamese had torpedoed an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin.

In response, the U.S. passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed the U.S. to begin bombing enemy targets within North and South Vietnam.

· In addition, it was very difficult to identify which South Vietnamese were our allies and which were supporting the Vietcong.

· Jungle warfare was difficult, and it was hard to locate the enemy.

The Uncertain Enemy

Ex Vietcong showing secret tunnels, November 7, 2004

· However, the U.S. continued to send billions of dollars in support of the South Vietnamese.

Peace Without Victory

· In January 1973, the U.S. reached a cease-fire agreement with North Vietnam and brought their troops home.

· In April of 1975, the communists captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, renamed it Ho Chi Minh City, and reunited Vietnam under one communist flag.

· Between 1961 and 1973 over 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War.

Vietnam Balance Sheet

· During the same time period, over 1,500,000 Vietnamese died as well.

Vietnam War Memorial, Washington, D.C.

· Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev began a policy called glasnost, in which he allowed more freedom of speech and the press.

· Gorbachev also signed an arms control treaty, called the INF Treaty, with Pres. Reagan in 1987. The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles.

· Eventually, however, Gorbachev was forced to resign in 1991, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

· As a result, fifteen Soviet republics gained their independence.

Post-Soviet states in alphabetical order: 1. Armenia; 2. Azerbaijan; 3. Belarus; 4. Estonia; 5. Georgia; 6. Kazakhstan; 7. Kyrgyzstan; 8. Latvia; 9. Lithuania; 10. Moldova; 11. Russia; 12. Tajikistan; 13. Turkmenistan; 14. Ukraine; 15. Uzbekistan

November 9, 1989: The Fall of The Berlin Wall