THE COLD WAR

BEGINS

Essential QuestionsEssential Questions:What led to the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union?What were the major events between the USA and the USSR during the early years of the Cold War?

The end of World War II led to important changes in the world:

The United Nations was created, which replaced the League of Nations

Member Nations

United Nations Headquarters is in

New York City

General Assembly

Executive Council

The UN created a Jewish nation called Israel; this set off a series of wars between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East

The United States occupied and helped rebuild Japan

The end of World War II inspired independence movements throughout Africa and Asia; these

movements were called decolonization

After WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union entered an era

of distrust and hostility

One of the most important changes after World War II was the beginning of the

Cold War

From 1945 to 1991, the Cold War was a struggle for global influence and power between the

Soviet Union and the United States

The U.S. and the USSR were superpowers and rivals who dominated world politics

After World War II, no other countries could match the United States or the Soviet Union in terms of political influence or military might

WHAT IS “IDEOLOGY”?An IDEOLOGY is a

philosophy, or a way of thinking

Ideologies of nations can be based on politics, economics, or religion

What were the major ideologies of the USA and the USSR?

This was an era of competing

ideologies: the USA promoted democracy and capitalism while the USSR tried

to spread communism

The different ideologies

between the USA and USSR and

their desires to spread these ideas led to

distrust, hostility, proxy battles,

and nearly nuclear war

between them

Capitalism Socialism • Private ownership of industry,

freedom of competition, gov’t keeps hands off (laissez-faire)

• Leads to different economic classes (rich and poor)

• Gov’t owns industries and farms; the goal of the gov’t is to bring equality to people

• The goal is to have a classless society with no rich or poor

Democracy Totalitarianism • Government of the people

• People elect their leaders

• Government led by a dictator

• Total control over many aspects of peoples’ lives

Freedom Equality

• Valuing freedoms of speech, press, and business

• Valuing basic needs (food, homes, education, jobs) for all people

Individualism Collectivism • Emphasizes the need for

people to do things on their own

• Competition is a good thing; The best individuals have more power, status, money

• Emphasizes the need for people to work together to benefit everyone

• Everyone works the same amount and every gains the same benefits

WHAT IS A “COLD” WAR?A “hot” war is a war fought

the usual way: with weapons and soldiers. This struggle

wasn’t fought in the usual way. Why?

Both the Americans and the Soviets were aware that if they fought for real, nuclear weapons

would be used

Mutually Assured Destruction: If nuclear war happened, it would be likely that both sides would be

destroyed, along with the rest of the world

Instead, the USA and USSR engaged in a “cold” war, doing everything to hurt

the other side just short of fighting

So instead of a “hot” war,

like two heavyweights fighting it out

and doing terrible

damage to each other…

…this was a “cold” war, which is like two master chess players who manipulate their

pieces and use their wits to defeat the enemy

THE WEAPONS OF A COLD WAR■Threatening to use force■Use of propaganda (this is

spreading information and stories, which aren’t always true, to make your enemy look bad and yourself look good; mixing fact and emotion)

■Economic and military aid to other nations that are opposed to your enemy and their allies

WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?

In 1917, Vladimir Lenin

led the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution

and created the world’s first communist government

WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?

Distrust began when the USA

sent Americans troops to fight against Lenin’s

Communist “Red Army” during the

Russian Civil War

WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?

After Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin

became dictator of the Soviet Union;

Stalin was even more ruthless and iron-fisted

than Lenin

WHAT CAUSED THE COLD WAR?

During World War II, the

Americans and Soviet Russians

worked together to defeat Nazi Germany,

but…American and Russian soldiers meet for the first time in Germany

…events of World War II increased tensions between the USA and USSR

The ultra-paranoid Stalin never trusted Britain nor the USA during the war; he often

disagreed with FDR and Churchill over strategy

The Manhattan Project gave the USA a monopoly

on nuclear weapon technology, which made

Stalin even more paranoid of the Americans

At the Yalta Conference, Stalin had agreed to allow self-determination in Eastern European countries formerly occupied by the Nazis (and

now occupied by Soviet forces)

In reality, Stalin wanted a “buffer zone” between his Soviet Union and the democratic

nations in Western Europe

Breaking his promise to allow voting in Soviet-

occupied countries, Stalin used his military

to install communist

governments in Eastern

European nations

As a result, Eastern European nations turned communist and became Soviet satellites: nations that were influenced and controlled by

the USSR like puppets

In the years after World War II, the USA began to view Stalin as a new Hitler: a dangerous

dictator who wanted to take over the world

THE “IRON CURTAIN”■ In 1946, Winston Churchill

warned against Soviet expansion into Europe

■He called the area of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe the Iron Curtain

■The “Iron Curtain” divided Soviet-run Eastern Europe from the democratic governments of Western Europe

Capitalism and Democracy

Communism and Totalitarianism

By 1946, Europe was divided by the figurative “iron curtain” that separated

democratic/capitalist Western Europe from communist/totalitarian Eastern Europe

President Truman created a foreign policy

called containment to

stop Soviet influence and

stop the spread of communism

When the USSR began to pressure Greece and Turkey to turn communist, the U.S. created the

Truman Doctrine, promising economic and military help to any nation threatened by communism

T =

The Truman Doctrine worked:

neither Greece nor Turkey fell to communism

Devastated European nations had difficulty recovering after WWII, which led to fears of

communism taking hold in all of Europe

Army Chief of Staff George

Marshall thought that

offering monetary aid

to Europe would stop

communism from spreading

there

The Marshall Plan offered 13 billion dollars to help rebuild the economies of post-war Europe

M =

By 1952, Western Europe

recovered and

Communism never took

root

In 1948, the USSR used military force to turn Czechoslovakia to communism; this led to fears that

Stalin would use similar tactics in Western Europe

In 1948, the USSR used military force to turn Czechoslovakia to communism; this led to fears that

Stalin would use similar tactics in Western Europe

In 1949, the United States formed the

North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO): a bloc

(military alliance) among

democratic countries in

Western Europe and North America

In response to NATO, the USSR and its Eastern European Communist satellites formed a bloc

(military alliance) called the Warsaw Pact

At the end of WWII, Germany was divided into

four zones occupied by the

USA, Britain, France, and the

USSRBerlin, the German

capital city, was also divided into

four parts, but was located inside the

Soviet zoneIn 1948, Stalin wanted to turn all of the city of Berlin

communist and ordered a blockade, shutting down all ground transportation into and out of West Berlin

BERLIN: A DIVIDED CITY IN HOSTILE TERRITORY

West Berlin was an island of democracy in a sea of communism; Stalin hoped the blockade would starve

the West Berliners into giving in to communism

Communist East Berlin

Democratic West Berlin

In response, the U.S. began the Berlin Airlift, guessing that Stalin would not shoot down NATO planes and risk starting a nuclear war; NATO guessed correctly

For 11 months, U.S. and British

planes landed in West Berlin to

bring food, fuel, and supplies

The NATO planes flew over the blockade and were never

shot at by Soviet forces

Stalin’s blockade cost a lot of money to keep up, and it was not working; Stalin finally admitted

defeat and lifted the blockade in 1949The United States successfully kept West Berlin from

turning communist

THE ARMS RACEimproving armies and nuclear weapons

LEGACY OF THE COLD WAR

But over the next 40 years, the Cold War intensified as communism spread to Asia,

Africa, and Latin America

From 1945 to 1949, NATO successfully

contained communism to Eastern Europe only

The Cold War intensified as newer and more powerful nuclear weapons were introduced

(arms race), espionage (spying) increased, and several wars broke out in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan between American-backed forces

and Soviet-backed forces (proxy wars)