The Cold War Begins

The Cold War Begins

• What is the Cold War? Draw an icon that represents it in your mind

• Nuclear weapons, MAD or Mutually assured destruction means can’t fight directly, so…

• Ideological Contest fought with: Arms Race, Economic Competition, Propaganda, Alliance Systems, Espionage, Proxy Wars

• Assumption: Monolithic Soviet Communism is a threat to American/World civilization!

• Lesson: Don’t be too ideological – it gives you myopia

The Origins of the Cold War

Western Intervention in the Russian Civil War

• Haymarket Square, 4 May 1886, Really? In notes be sure and explain the significance here

• 1919 Russian Civil War: Westerners supported the White army in the Russian Civil War including 10k US Soldiers: in notes draw cartoon and explain maybe talk about how 9/11 impacted us

• 1919 a big year in this country too. Palmer Raids:

– Soviet Arc– Sacco and Vanzetti– ACLU!

An Uneasy Alliance between the USSR & the West

An Uneasy Alliance between the USSR & the West

• Stalin tries to appease Hitler, Hitler invades Russia in 1941

• Stalin turns to West for help

• Who won the war?• Soviets feel they bore the

brunt of WWII • At the end of war, Soviet

and American soldiers meet in middle of Germany-and don’t leave! Cue Iron Curtain/Cold War

Iron Curtain Video Clip

Conflicts in Post-War Europe

Conflicts in Post-War Europe• The US and USSR emerge

from WWII as the two “Superpowers”

• Europe is divided between pro-US West and Soviet occupied Eastern Europe

• Truman Doctrine – Containment – Long Tel. – Greece & Turkey

• Explain “Containment” Strategy in your notes

• Vietnam? Oh yes!Big Three at Yalta in Feb. 45: Each pursuing different goals serving different interests and values

The Cold War Escalates in Germany

The Cold War Escalates in Germany

• Allies divide Germany into 4 sections

• Superpowers can not agree on the future of Germany

• US & Allies unilaterally establish West Germany in face of USSR’s opposition

• Soviets impose a blockade of W. Berlin to stop transport from west

• Berlin Airlift keeps Berlin from Soviet Control (Aug. 48-May 49)

• So What?

The Arms Race Begins

The Arms Race Begins• America develops the Atom bomb during WWII

(And tests it twice!)• USSR detonates a bomb in 1949 so the US

develops the “Super” or H-Bomb• USSR does too• Nuclear Diplomacy becomes a key tactic in the

Cold War • Rivalry shifts to competing for the allegiance of

other states around the world• By the Early 50’s Europe in cleaved into a

democratic free market West protected by the United States by the NATO Alliance and a system of Soviet Satellite States in the so-called the “Warsaw Pact”

• Nuclear War has a special logic: MAD • What is war? What kind of war does the military

train to fight? What is on the officer’s minds when they train? What does this have to do with Vietnam?

Who Lost China?• If the Russian Bomb were not

enough…

• 1949 Mao & Communists overthrow U.S. Backed “Nationalists”

• Domino’s are falling & Democrats are letting them? Where is the containment in that

• Then in June of 1950: Korea – Russian Communists seem to be on the offensive everywhere

• Key Word: Domino Theory

NSC 68

NSC 68 and Korea lay a course for the future cold war

•NSC 68 and Stalin’s behavior in Korea emphasis the monolithic and expansionist nature of Soviet Communism

•NSC 68 claims that America can support limitless militarization of our foreign policy without domestic sacrifices

•NSC 68 is written by Dean Acheson in deliberately exaggerated tones to win the political battle Wilson lost (explain)

•Consequences of that exaggeration would be dire, legitimates a myopic view of the world and plays into McCarthyism at home

McCarthy & the Cold War

You’re a Dirty Stinking Low Down Red

1. When you get your card look carefully and place in a pocket

2. You may not show your card to anyone!3. Join other citizens in an all American group of

non-communists4. Biggest group with no commie Red wins 3 pts.

Per member5. Any commie B******s who infiltrate win 5pts if

they are the only commie in their group

Lowdown Red: Follow Up

• How did you like the game

• If you imagine a wich hunt going on in the 50’s, How would that make us get into a war in Vietnam?

Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R. Wis

• 1950 over 50% of Americans believed communists should be jailed, 68% thought the party should be illegal, 80% thought party members should loss citizenship

• 1953 Rosenberg’s are executed for espionage

• HUAAC investigates Hollywood celebrities, those who refuse to testify are jailed for contempt or/and blackmailed(47)

• 1950 McCarthy proclaims he has a list of 205 commies in the State dept.

Rise and Fall of Joe McCarthy• Drew immense attention to himself by

claiming there was a vast communist conspiracy I the US government

• Any who criticized his which hunt were accused of being a communist

• For a short time he held enormous political power through intimidation and publicity

• When his allegations turned out to be empty he was abandoned by his party and supporters

• He over stepped himself during the “Army McCarthy Hearings” when he accused the Army of harboring commies

• Censured by Senate in 1954• Democrats in particularly were cowed by

“Red Baiting” and over compensated with rhetoric which became too often prophecy*

• Purge of Asia experts would help us stumble into Vietnam

JFK’s Inaugural Address

“Let EVERY nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay ANY price, bear ANY burden, meet ANY hardship, support ANY friend, oppose ANY foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

President Kennedy, January, 1961

Summary

• Write a summary of your lecture notes that explains what the Cold War was and how it set the stage for our commitment of our military to a civil war in Vietnam?