Overview of the Cold War

The Cold War

• “Cold War:” political tension and military rivalry between USA and USSR that stopped short of full-scale direct conflict

• 1945-1989 (End of WW2 to fall of Berlin Wall)

• USA, USSR (and PRC) each controlled “sphere of influence” and tried to expand that sphere

• With end of colonialism, post-colonial countries became ideological battlefields, and sometimes actual military battlefields

• Both USSR and USA provided funds, weapons, training, and sometimes troops to post-colonial countries

Major Wars: Greece, Turkey, Korea, Vietnam,Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, Cambodia,Nicaragua, Cuba. Most other countries felt tension

Truman Doctrine

• First years: Truman vs. Stalin• Civil War in Greece

immediately after WW2: Communists v. Nationalists

• Truman: U.S. would give Greek and Turkish nationalists economic and military aid to stop them falling into the Soviet “sphere”

• “Truman Doctrine:” US would support free peoples resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures

• Nationalists in both Greece and Turkey defeated Communist opposition

• US focused on “containment” of Soviet and Chinese threat

Containment and Aid: Marshall Plan

• Aid and cooperation: recognized interconnections between modern economies

• 1947: to rebuild Europe, US’s Marshall Plan gave $13 Billion in aid

• Offered to USSR and eastern bloc, but refused

• After plan, all participating economies produced above pre-war levels

• Cooperation became the basis for European Union, as it erased many tax barriers between countries

Containment: Berlin Airlift• 1948-49 Berlin Airlift• USSR closed ground access to

West Berlin• US/UK transport planes flew food

and supplies June ’48 - May ‘49• US stationed B29 bomber planes

UK, suggesting atomic strike• USSR relented, opening land

access• Lesson learned:

– USSR would seize opportunities to take land

– Berlin would be a symbol of east-west struggle

– US would be involved in struggle in Europe (and probably elsewhere)

– Age of atomic fears would continue

Containment: NATO

• Western European nations, USA, Canada agree to defensive pact: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• 4 April 1949: Brussels headquarters

• ANZUS linked Australia, NZ to US

• 1952: Greece, Turkey joined• 1954: USSR suggested it

should join; rejected• 1955: West Germany joined;

east responded with formation of Warsaw Pact