Cold War

• A state of political tension and military rivalry between nations that stops short of full-scale war

I. Origins of the Cold War

The Cold War was a time after WWII when the USA and the Soviet Union were rivals for world influence.

American Aims / Soviet Aims

• The United States emerged from World War II more powerful than any other nation and it sought to use that power to build a world order based on the ideals of democracy

• Soviet aims included spreading communist ideals and creating a “buffer” around the Motherland for national security

The seeds of the Cold War were sown at The seeds of the Cold War were sown at YALTA (in the USSR) Date: Feb 1945YALTA (in the USSR) Date: Feb 1945Present: Churchill, Roosevelt and StalinPresent: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

Potsdam Conference July 17 to Aug 2, 1945

Churchill, Truman, and Stalin

By the time of the Potsdam Conference, Stalin had already installed communist governments in the central European countries under his influence

II. Containing communism in Europe

An “Iron Curtain”: In a speech at Fulton College in 1946, Winston Churchill coined the phrase “iron curtain” to describe how the Soviets had come to control Eastern Europe

President Truman at the podium with Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri where Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech

George Kennan and Containment• Kennan was a Soviet expert in the State

Department• In the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs he

wrote an article under the pen name “Mr. X” titled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”

• He described the USSR as being driven by an aggressive and uncompromising ideology that would stop “only when it meets some unanswerable force.”

George Kennan and Containment

• Kennan wrote that the US must adopt a “policy of firm containment designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce at every point where they threaten the interests of a peaceful and stable world.”

Greece & the Truman Doctrine• Greece was in the midst of a civil war in

which the Greek Communist Party might take control of the Greek gov’t.

• On March 12, 1947 President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine:

• “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

• The US gave $400 million to Greece to fend off communism

Harry Truman

The Marshall Plan

USA’s plan to send food, blankets, fuel to re-build

European nations ravaged by WWII to keep them from turning

to the USSR for aid.

Berlin Airlift

• In June 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to control all of Berlin by cutting surface traffic to and from West Berlin.

• The Truman Administration initiated a daily airlift which brought much needed food and supplies into West Berlin.

• The airlift lasted until the end of September

NATO: 1949

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization created in 1949

• Defensive alliance of 14 nations of the Atlantic community

–An attack on one member nation is considered an attack on all…

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Soviets respond to NATO with the Warsaw Pact (1955)

• Warsaw Pact: Soviet dominated alliance formed to counter-balance NATO

• USSR & the Soviet controlled nations of Eastern Europe

NATO v. the Warsaw Pact

China falls to communism

• For decades, China had endured a civil war in which the communists, led by Mao Tse-Tung (aka Mao Zedong) tried to seize control from the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-Shek)

• Since FDR in the 1930s, the US had backed the Nationalists

Mao Zedong

Chiang, FDR, and Churchill meet during WWII

• In 1949, the Communists won out…the Nationalists fled to the island of Formosa (today: Taiwan)

• China’s fall to communism took the Cold War to new heights of tension and fear

Soviets explode their own Atomic Bomb: 1949

Cold War turns Hot: Korea

At the end of WWII, Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel

North Korea was communist…South Korea was free

Korean Conflict (con’t.)

• 1950: Communist N. Korean troops invaded the South, crossing the 38th Parallel

• The United Nations condemned the attack as an act of aggression…the UN called upon member nations to support S. Korea

• Pres. Truman appointed Gen. Douglas MacArthur to command UN troops

Korean Conflict (con’t.)

• Communist Chinese troops joined with the N. Koreans, threatening to win the war for the communists

• The war dragged on for months, neither side gaining a decisive victory.

• Truce was reached in 1953…the 38th Parallel continued to separate the 2 nations…as it exists today

The RosenbergsJulius and Ethel Rosenberg

•were American communists

•executed in 1953 for passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets

•1st execution of civilians for espionage in U.S. history