The Cold War: 1945-1991Name: ___________________________________

2

STANDARD: The student will demonstrate knowledge of major events in the 2nd half of the 20th century by: a) explaining key events

of the Cold War, including the competition between the American and Soviet economic and political systems and the

causes of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; b) assessing the impact of nuclear

weaponry on patterns of conflict and cooperation since 1945.

CONCEPTUAL UNIT QUESTION: Did the polarization of the world by the two superpowers

benefit or harm global development?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: The Cold War led to the creation of global alliances that

continue to impact the world today.

3

Background of the Soviet UnionIn 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution eliminated rule by the czar’s family and established rule by the Communist Party in Russia. The leader of the Bolsheviks was Vladimir Lenin. Russia renamed the territory it controlled the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Upon his unexpected death in 1924, the Russian Communist Party was taken over by Joseph Stalin. “Uncle Joe,” as he was called in the U.S. as our ally during WWII, remained the leader of the USSR until his death in 1953.

4

Review

Capitalism: An economic system in which citizens own private property and are entitled to profit from it. In a capitalist country, almost all the natural resources, factories, mines and land are owned by individuals.

VS.

Communism: An economic system in which the people as a whole own all the natural resources, factories, mines and land of their country. In theory, all citizens profit from the resources of a country. In practice, the government owns everything, sets all prices, employs everyone and distributes all profits.

5

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 1948

Adopted by the United Nations, this was the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled…

6

The Cold War was a global competition b/w two ideologies: the Democratic/Capitalist world led by the United States (WEST) & the Communist world led by the Soviet Union (EAST)

1945-1991

What?

Greatest Danger?

When?

Nuclear proliferation (the spread of nuclear technology) and the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

7

U.S. & U.S.S.R. were allied in WWII against Fascism; however, the common enemy had been defeated & the need for cooperation was gone

Why?

8

1945: End of WWII; Space Race begins; United Nations formed; Potsdam Conference; Germany & Berlin divided; Cold War begins 1946: Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech

1947: U.S.’s Policy of Containment; Truman Doctrine

1948: Marshall Plan; Soviets blockade Berlin; US launches Airlift

1949: NATO formed

1950: Korean War begins (1950-53)

1953: Stalin dies

1955: Warsaw Pact formed 1957: Space Race begins when the Soviet Union launches Sputnik

1959: Vietnam War begins (1959-1975)

1961: Berlin Wall goes up (torn down in 1989); Bay of Pigs Invasion

1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

Cold War Time Line

9

An extremely powerful nation with greater political, economic, or military power than most other nations.

Two superpowers emerged after WWII: • United States• Soviet Union

What is a Superpower?

10

Beginning of the Cold War 1945-1948

YaltaChurchill, Roosevelt, Stalin

PotsdamStalin, Truman, Churchill

At the Yalta & Potsdam Conferences, before WWII was over, basic philosophical differences became glaring…

United States & Western Allies Soviet Union & Eastern European Satellite Nations

Political Ideology

Democracy Dictatorship

Economic Ideology

Capitalism Communism

Goal Containment of Communism & the eventual collapse of the Communist world

Spread world-wide Communism

11

Potsdam Conference (1945)

The victorious powers of WWII – Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union & the U.S. – decided to divide Germany & Berlin into four zones of occupation.

What to do with Germany?

http://www.dhm.de/ENGLISH/ausstellungen/breakthrough/S1.htm

12

After WWII: U.S. & Great Britain wanted the Eastern European nations to determine their own governments (self-determination: determination of one’s own fate or course of action w/out compulsion; free will)…

Stalin’s Fears: the Eastern European nations would be anti-Soviet if they were allowed free elections… so, he exerted his control & turned these ‘buffer’ states into Soviet Satellite nations (satellite: formally independent, but under heavy political & economic influence or control by another country)

Soviet satellite nations included: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Ukraine, and more…

Seeds of Fear & Distrust The Soviet Union feared the Democratic West &

the U.S. feared Communism

13

“Iron Curtain”The "Iron Curtain" was the symbolic, ideological & physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of WWII until the end of the Cold War (r. 1945-1991)

“From Stettin in the Balkans, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron

curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lies the

ancient capitals of Central and Eastern Europe.”

-- Sir Winston Churchill, 1946

East – Communist

VS.

West – Capitalist

14

Iron Curtain Cartoon

15

In 1947, the U.S. adopted the policy of containment: keep communism within its existing boundaries and prevent

further Soviet aggressive moves

Policy of Containment: 1947

UNITED STATES VS USSR

16

Truman Doctrine: 1947

Totalitarianism threatened democracy… so, the U.S. put forth a policy that would support Greece & Turkey w/ economic & military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere

Truman Doctrine: “it is the policy of the U.S. to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

Effectively reoriented U.S. foreign policy from isolation to possible intervention in far away conflicts…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmQD_W8Pcxg&feature=PlayList&p=2287E59C541E7692&index=5

17

“The U.S. should provide aid to all European nations that need it. This move is not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”

~ Sec. of State, George Marshall

Marshall Plan 1948: Rebuild War-Torn Europe

Another attempt at

preventing the spread of

Communism in Europe…

18

The U.S., Great Britain & France united the three western sections of Germany & Berlin

Stalin responded by attempting to force the western allies out of Berlin altogether: he cut off rail & road access to West Berlin

Berlin Blockade & Airlift: 1948-1949

The U.S. & Great Britain mounted a massive airlift to keep the western sectors supplied w/ the food & fuel that the city needed (10 months; 277, 264 flights; 1.5 million tons of aid)

The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989

CheckpointCharlie

On August 13, 1961 construction began on the Berlin Wall by the Soviet Union in an attempt to keep citizens of

communist East Berlin from escaping into democratic West Berlin

The Nuclear Arms Race

Goal: To stockpile nuclear weapons in preparation for any potential attack from the other side

United States

Soviet Union

Atomic Bomb

1945 1949

Hydrogen Bomb

1952 1953

21

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)

Whoever shoots first, dies second

Theory of Deterrence: each side knew that the other would also be destroyed if it launched its nuclear weapons, which discouraged nuclear war… (“balance of terror”)

Space Race: Sputnik I (1957)

•Space Race: The race to put satellites, rockets & man into space

•Began When: Soviet Union launched Satellite, Sputnik in 1957

•Caused panic in U.S.: No formal space program

•NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) was immediately formed to help the U.S. catch up & compete with the Soviet Union’s space program

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The Berlin blockade & the Soviet Union’s launch of an atomic bomb provided compelling evidence that in order to deter the Soviets from further aggression, an alliance was necessary b/w nations of Western Europe & the U.S.

MILITARY ALLIANCE

S

VS.

Warsaw Pact

1949

1955

Stalin’s Response

Nikita Khruschev Embraces Cuban Dictator, Fidel Castro: 1961

Bay of Pigs Debacle: April 1961

1950s: Fidel Castro led the Cuban Revolution & with the support of the Soviet Union, transformed Cuba into a Communist nation

Bay of Pigs: •The U.S. sent CIA-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuban in an attempt to overthrow the Communist regime

•The Cuban armed forces, trained & equipped by Eastern European Communist nations, defeated the invading combatants w/in 3 days

•The failed invasion severely embarrassed the JFK administration & made Castro wary of future U.S. intervention in Cuba

Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962

We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Russians, and the other man

blinked!

26

Cuban Missile Crisis: October 19621) 1958: The U.S. deployed more than 100 missiles to the UK, Italy &

Turkey, all of which had the capability to strike Moscow

2) 1961: Unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion led the Cuban & Soviet governments to secretly begin building bases in Cuba for nuclear missiles that had the ability to strike most of the continental U.S.

3) Soviet Union sent nuclear missiles to Cuba

4) U.S. President, JFK, set up a military blockade & demanded that the Soviet Union remove the missiles from Cuba

5) For 13 tense days, the world faced a risk of nuclear war over the issue

6) October 28, 1962: Confrontation ended when JFK & Khrushchev reached a public & secret agreement

1) Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba & return them to the Soviet Union in exchange for a U.S. public declaration & agreement never to invade Cuba

2) Secretly, the U.S. agreed that it would dismantle all U.S.-built missiles deployed in Italy & Turkey

RESULT: NUCLEAR WAR WAS AVERTED!!

27

Brezhnev Doctrine: Whenever a nation had a civil war in which one side was communist, the U.S.S.R. would give military aid, training & equipment to the communist side in hopes that they would win & communism would spread

Truman Doctrine: The U.S. would side with whoever was fighting against the communist party, giving military aid, training & equipment to the political or military groups opposing communism.

___________________________________________________________

Mindful that a full-scale nuclear war would be a disaster for both sides, the superpowers fought each other through a variety of proxy wars in

Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan & dozens of other places

Proxy warfare: A war that results when opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly

The “HOT” Wars Within the “COLD WAR”

28

-Communist Mao Zedong was victorious over Chiang Kai-shek (leader of the anti-Communist Nationalists, supported by the U.S.)

-Establishment of the People's Republic of China (Maoist Phase 1949 – 1976)

Spread of Communism: Mao’s Revolution in China (1949)

毛泽东 Chairman

Maoand his

Little Red Book

29

People have come together to support the Communist Party

Spread of Communism: China

30

-Gained independence from Japan in 1945 (after Japan’s defeat in WWII)

-Korea split in ½ at the 38th parallel (Soviets occupied the North & the U.S. occupied the South)

-The Communist government of North Korea tried to take over the Capitalist South Korea

-The United Nations sent troops from its member states to keep peace

-The U.S. was the most important & richest country in the U.N. so it sent the most troops & supplied most of the weapons

North Korea: Kim Il Sung (Communist)

South Korea: Syngman Rhee (Capitalist)

Spread of Communism: The Korean War (1950-1953)

31

Korean War: Who Wins?

Casualties in the Korean War

780,000500,000

70,000

30,000

4,500

NK & Chinese soldiersand civilians

SK civilians

SK soldiers

USA soldiers

Other UN soldiers

RESULT: South Korea remained free of communism… containment worked!!

U.S. maintained presence along the DMZ: Demilitarized Zone

July 27, 1953: Armistice signed between U.S. & North Korea

North Korea & South Korea never officially signed a peace pact; it is only considered a truce… technically, the Korean War is still going on today

Korea is still two separate nations today: Kim Jong Il (1994-2011) & now his son, Kim Jong Un, lead an impoverished & backward country where people are starving & freezing to death

32

North Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh & Viet Cong) attempting to unify the country under a Communist government

VS. South Vietnam (U.S. w/ the aid of the South Vietnamese govt) attempting to prevent the

spread of communism

Spread of the Cold War: Vietnam War (1959-1975)

33

Vietnam War•Background: Vietnam was a French colony (“French Indochina”) prior to WWII

•Communist & Vietnamese nationalist revolutionary, Ho Chi Minh, formed the Viet Minh, the League for the independence of Vietnam

•Ho Chi Minh defeated France & Vietnam was divided along the 17th Parallel

• North: Ho Chi Minh & Communists (+ supported the Viet Cong guerillas fighting the southern government)

• South: Ngo Dinh Diem (President) & Western democracies

•Ho Chi Minh wanted to unite all of Vietnam under Communism

•United States organized the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) to protect the independence of South Vietnam and to maintain its policy of containment

•Domino Theory: The U.S. was afraid that if one country fell to Communism, the rest would also fall

34

Major Events of the Vietnam WarAmerican Military Advisors were sent to Vietnam to support France: Early 1950s

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: August 1964• U.S. President Johnson claimed that North Vietnam attacked U.S. ships in Gulf of Tonkin• Congress passed the resolution & sent combat troops to Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder: 1965-68 – The U.S.’s bombing campaign against North Vietnam

Tet Offensive: 1968 – Communists attacked 30 South Vietnamese cities (turning point)

U.S. leaders lose the American public’s support for the war• Concerns: huge casualties, length of war, cost of war (approximately $140 billion)• Protests: Kent State, dodging the mandatory draft

U.S. Withdrawals: January 1973 (cease fire b/w the U.S. & North Vietnam)

Fall of Saigon: April 1975 – South Vietnamese troops continued fighting after the U.S. withdrew; however, the war ended when North Vietnam swept through the South & captured Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City)

Results:• Vietnam was united as a Communist country• The Vietnam War became a benchmark for what not to do in all future U.S. foreign

conflicts

35

U.S. Presidents during WWII & the Cold War Era

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)• Led the U.S. out of the Great Depression (New Deal)• Led the U.S. to victory in WWII

Harry S. Truman (1945-53)• Made decision to drop atomic bomb• Led the U.S. during the Korean War (1950-53)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61)• WWII General & Hero• Helped end Korean War• Steered a moderate course during the Cold War

John F. Kennedy (1961-63)• President during the construction of the Berlin Wall• Cuban Missile Crisis

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69)• Passed anti-poverty and civil rights programs• Involved the U.S. in the unpopular Vietnam War

Richard Nixon (1969-74)• Improved relations with the Soviet Union and China• Wound down the Vietnam War• Watergate Scandal

36

37

38

The End of the Cold War:December 1991

VS.

39

Mikhail GorbachevLast leader of the Soviet Union (1988-1991)

•Glasnost = political openness (ended censorship & encouraged people to discuss the country’s problems – freedom of speech & of the press)

•Perestroika = economic restructuring (citizens can own their own business)

The Cold War started to thaw in 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet Premier & urged major political & economic reforms…

40

Tearing Down the Berlin Wall: 1989

http://www.history.com/topics/berlin-airlift/videos#history-rocks-the-berlin-wall

http://www.history.com/topics/berlin-airlift/videos#cold-war

Protestors motivated the Politburo to create a proposal that would allow refugees & travelers to exit East Germany & East Berlin. A misinterpretation of the regulations led to the opening of the gates b/w East & West & the eventual demolition of the Berlin Wall.

At least 916 people were killed b/w 1949 & 1989 while trying to flee from East Germany across razor wire & minefields bristling w/ machine-guns on tripwire.

41

Collapse of the Soviet Union: 1991

•The collapse of the Soviet Union began when the Communist Party lost a majority in the June 1991 elections

•Boris Yeltsin became Head of State in the newly renamed “Russian Federation”

•By December 1991, all 15 republics of the former Soviet Union were independent

•On December 26, 1991, the USSR was officially dissolved and…THE COLD WAR WAS OVER!!

42

The Soviet Union (1922-1991)http://www.history.com/topics/face-to-face-moments-that-changed-the-world/videos#the-fall-of-the-soviet-union

43

44

Final Reflection Question:

Because we live as free people in a democratic system in the United States, is it our responsibility and duty to ensure the

rest of the world becomes like us?

45

http://www.history.com/topics/face-to-face-moments-that-changed-the-world/videos#berlin-wall-deconstructed

http://www.history.com/videos/russia-withdraws-cuban-missiles#kennedy-responds-to-berlin-wall

Cuban Missile Crisis (Showdown: Cuban M. Crisis)

http://www.history.com/videos/russia-withdraws-cuban-missiles#castro-urges-nuclear-attack-on-america

Nuclear weapons and the theory of deterrence

The Policy of Containment

Massive military buildup

The Space Race

http://www.history.com/topics/face-to-face-moments-that-changed-the-world/videos#the-space-race

Soviet Satellite nations

Espionage

http://www.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters/videos/the-u2-program#the-u2-program

Korean and Vietnam Wars