THE COLD WAR1945-1990

CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR

“Causes” Debated

• Consistent US, British, & French hostility towards Soviets since 1917 revolution

• Stalin’s aggressive policies & seizure of Poland made West fear Soviet expansionism

• Suspicions throughout WWII• Truman ended aid to Stalin’s troops

immediately in 1945• Stalin thought Soviet Union needed a “buffer”

zone in Europe– Truman viewed it as communist takeover– US officials portrayed Stalin as a tyrant

END OF WWII• During and before WWII, there was a

mistrust between the western Allies and the Soviet Union– Stalin’s crimes were known– Feared communism

• End of the war = 2 superpowers emerged– United States – democracy; capitalist– Soviet Union – communist

• Quickly began spreading influence in respective spheres

Different GoalsUnited States

• Encourage democracy• Prevent spread of

Communist governments• Gain access to markets &

raw materials to fuel industry

• Rebuild European governments for stability & trade

• Reunite Germany to stabilize it & increase security of Europe

Soviet Union• Encourage communism &

global workers’ revolution• Rebuild war-ravaged

economy using Eastern Europe’s industrial equipment & raw materials

• Control Eastern Europe to protect borders & balance US influence

• Keep Germany divided to prevent its waging war again

The Iron Curtain• US allied with other

democratic/capitalist nations & spread its influence to others emerging from WWII– Major Allies = Great Britain & France– Additionally = Spain, W. Germany,

Italy, Turkey, Norway, Greece

• Soviet Union occupied much of Eastern Europe– Red Army had liberated area from

Nazi control– Nations became satellite states of

the USSR– Installed communist governments– Poland, E. Germany,

Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria

• Churchill nicknamed the division in Europe “the Iron Curtain”

Division of Germany• Agreements at Yalta & Potsdam Peace

Conferences split Germany into 4 occupied zones– Each controlled by Allied victor – Great Britain,

France, US, and Soviet Union– Berlin (capital) also split – East & West

• Disagreement on how to treat Germany– US – reprogram German attitude through

censorship & confronting Nazi past– USSR – crush Nazism (extreme capitalism) with

communism & redistribute land

• Western Allies merged individual zones into West Germany in 1948– Escalated Cold War tensions– US also began economic buildup of W. Germany

through Marshall Plan aid– Notions of permanently weakened Germany ended

by ‘48

• Stalin retaliated by blockading Berlin– Berlin surrounded by USSR occupied zone – cut off

railways to bring in supplies– Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift 1948-1949

• Dropped food, supplies, & even coal to Berliners• Stalin ended blockade May 1949

COLD WAR CHARACTERISTICS

Cold War Leaders

Soviet Union• Led by leader of the

Communist Party• Joseph Stalin [1920s-1953]• Georgy Malenkov [1953-1955]• Nikita Krushchev [1955-

1964]• Leonid Brezhnev [1964-

1982]• Yuri Andropov [1982-1984]• Constantin Cherenko [1984-

1985]• Mikhail Gorbachev [1985-

1991]

United States• Led by democratically elected

President• Dwight D. Eisenhower

[1953]1961]• John F. Kennedy [1961-1963]• Lyndon B. Johnson [1963-

1969]• Richard Nixon [1969-1974]• Gerald Ford [1974-1977]• Jimmy Carter [1977-1981]• Ronald Reagan [1981-1989]• George H.W. Bush [1989-

1993]

US Foreign Policy Concepts• Truman Doctrine, 1947

– US provides political, military, & economic aid to democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces

– Justified intervention in countries at risk of falling to communism• Example = aided Greek government against communists in its civil war in 1940s• Example = aided Turkey, which had lost British aid

– Reoriented foreign policy away from isolation to one of intervention in far away conflicts

• Marshall Plan [European Recovery Program] 1948– US initiative to aid Europe & Asia in postwar recovery named for Sect. of State George C.

Marshall– Rebuild European economies to be stable for trade– Gave $13 Billion [$120B today] – most to Great Britain, France, and West Germany– Fanned by fear of communist expansion & rapid deterioration of European economies in

the winter of 1946-47– Generated resurgence of European industrialization & increased investment– Very suspicious to Moscow

• Containment, 1947-1989– Foreign policy developed by George F. Kennan– Basic strategy for the Cold War – keep communism & Russian domination from spreading– Counter “Soviet pressure against free institutions of the Western world” through

“counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points”– Very controversial – required US to intervene wherever Soviets had eyes

Opposing Alliances• North Atlantic Treaty

Organization, 1949 [NATO]– Military alliance of

Western European & North American states

– Against USSR & its Eastern European allies

– Attack on any one member armed force by all member nations

• Warsaw Pact, 1955– Treaty binding the

Soviet Union and countries of Eastern Europe

– Formed in response to NATO

Nuclear Arms Race & MAD• World saw US use nuclear bombs at end of WWII• Prompted race to build up nuclear capabilities

among developed nations– USSR wanted parity with US– Other Western Allies also developed nuclear weapons

• Harsh words heightened tension & threat of using atomic weapons– Eisenhower: US would reduce USSR to “a smoking,

radiating ruin at the end of two hours”– Khrushchev: “We will bury you.”– Brinkmanship – tactic of appearing to be on the

verge of war to persuade the opposition to retreat

• Tensions almost erupted in war in 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis– Soviet Union deployed missiles to Cuba in response to

US attempts to overthrow Cuban government– Soviets supported Castro– Chose diplomacy over war in the end

• Nuclear weapons never used though due to theory of mutually assured destruction– Use of bomb on one side would cause use by the

other– Nuclear holocaust– End of mankind?

Nuclear Arms Limits • Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963

– US, USSR, & Great Britain

• Johnson called for strategic arms limitation talks [SALT] in 1967– USSR had been building an Anti-Ballistic Missile defense around Moscow, enabling them to launch a missile &

then shoot down incoming ones…– Believed limiting development of offensive & defensive systems would stabilize USSR-US relations– Continued by Nixon

• 1968 – US & USSR proposed world treaty against further proliferation, leading to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed by 137 countries

• Negotiated weapons limits 1972• Helsinki Accords

– Affirmed boundaries & called for economic, social, & governmental contacts and cooperation in humanitarian fields between two alliances

• SALT II – built upon SALT in 1972-1979– SALT I didn’t prevent each side from enlarging their forces– SALT II focused on limiting & ultimately reducing Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicles [MIRVs]– Ford & Brezhnev agreed on basic framework in Nov. 1974– Still didn’t have # cap on strategic bombers or total # warheads– Carter & Brezhnev signed SALT II Treaty in Vienna 1979

• Limited nuclear forces to 2,250 delivery vehicles• Variety of other restrictions, including MIRVs

• Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty pursued by Reagan after SALT II’s expiration 1985– Argued that research in the Strategic Defense Initiative adhered to 1972 treaty…

• Détente – permanetn relaxation in international affairs in the Cold War– Vietnam shocked people– Growing fear of nuclear holocaust– Increased talks & visitation of leaders

Space Race• Coincided with nuclear arms race• Battling science & technology for

greatness• Contest to launch space satellites

– Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957

– US launched own satellite 3 months later

• US placed first men on the moon – Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin – in 1969

Proxy Wars• US & USSR didn’t directly battle each other, rather they supported

opposing sides in other conflicts• Cuba, 1950s---

– USSR supported Castro regime– US assisted former dictator Batista– CIA even trained anti-Castro Cuban exiles in 1960, invading (and failing

miserably) in April 1961 at Bay of Pigs– Augmented by Cuban Missile Crisis

• Nicaragua, 1970s– Dictator Somoza funded by the US, but both US and USSR aided the rebel

Sandinistas and their leader Daniel Ortega– Sandinistas toppled leader in 1979, then gave assistance to other Marxist

Rebels in El Salvador– US supported anti-Communist forces – Contras – to help El Salvador fight

rebels– Civil War lasted more than a decade & weakened Nicaraguan economy– Ortega did hold free elections in 1990, when he was beaten, but later reelected

in 2006

• Iran, 1950s– Oil-rich lands attracted both superpowers– US supported the Shah in westernization & suppressing conservative Muslim

leaders, including Ayatollah Rubolla Khomeini– Khomeini returned from exile & established an Islamic state, requiring strict

adherence to Islam• Hatred of US at heart of foreign policy• Encouraged Muslims everywhere to overthrow secular governments• War erupted with Iraq in 1980 – US secretly aided both sides; USSR aided Iraq 1M

died before UN negotiated ceasefire in 1988

THE COLD WAR THAWS

Khrushchev Thaw• Came to power in 1953 after Stalin’s death• Embarked on de-Stalinization, denouncing

his jailing & killing of loyal Soviets• Called for peaceful competition with capitalist

states• Did not change life in satellite countries

– Resentment turned to active protest• Hungary 1956 – Imre Nagy formed new government

& demanded end of Soviet troops’ occupation Soviet tanks & infantry entered Budapest

• Thousands of freedom fighters armed, but overwhelmed

• Nagy executed• Pro-Soviet government installed by Moscow

• Lost prestige after Cuban Missile Crisis• Party leaders removed him in 1963

Détente • Nixon moved toward détente –

lessening tensions of the 1970s• First president to visit communist

country [China] in 1972• Began Strategic Arms Limitation

Talks [SALT] in 1972• Visited Moscow in 1972• Brezhnev visited Washington DC in

1973• Helsinki Accords signed 1975 – US,

USSR, & major Western powers accepted European frontiers established after WWII– Recognized West & East Germany– Agreed to provide for human rights, incl.

freedom of speech

Brezhnev Repression• Succeeded Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Soviet

Communist Party Oct. 15, 1964• Adopted repressive domestic policies

– Laws limited freedom of speech & worship– Government censorship– Clamped down on protestors– Secret police arrested many, expelled from USSR, or executed

• Foreign Policy = “Brezhnev Doctrine,” 1968– Use of Warsaw Pact forces to intervene in any Eastern Bloc nation which

was seen to compromise communist rule & Soviet domination• Moderating policies…• Leaving Soviet sphere of influence…• “Each Communist Party is responsible not only to its own people, but also to all

socialist countries, to the entire Communist movement.”

– Evident prominently in the Prague Spring, 1968 Czechoslovakia– Note – term used by the Western media, not necessarily Brezhnev or the

USSR itself

• Equipped Arab states with weapons in the Six Day War [Middle East, 1960s]

• By the time of his death in Nov. 1982, a thaw was detected in Cold War tensions– Had met with Richard Nixon– USSR didn’t have economic base to cope with cost of the Cold War [unlike

US]

Gorbachev – Final Impetus • Entered office in 1985

– 54 years old = younger than predecessors– New outlook on challenges facing USSR

• USSR losing ground & hold on territory– Had been engaged in unsuccessful war in Afghanistan people pressuring for an

exit• Gorbachev exited war in 1989

– Uprisings & calls for looser controls on satellite nations in Eastern Europe– Economy struggling– Citizens chafing under poor standard of living & lack of freedom

• Installed major reforms to avoid total collapse– Glasnost – “political openness”

• Sought to ease strict controls imposed on citizens• Greater freedom to the media & religious groups• Included democratization by 1988

– Perestroika - “restructuring” of economic problems; moving away from state planning

– Determined to end nuclear rivalry with US, pursuing negotiations with Reagan 1985-1988

• Swept communist governments in E. Europe from power & ended Cold War within 5 years– Decided to abandon Soviet control of E. European nations– 1988 – declared all nations should be free to choose their own course without

outside interference

Ending the Cold War • Gorbachev hoped reforms would modernize &

revitalize Soviet Union• Unleashed social forces that dissolved the USSR• 1989 – Communist regimes fell in Poland, Hungary,

E. Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, & Romania– Berlin Wall fell

• 1990 – Discussions for reunification of Germany• Meanwhile, Gorbachev adopted more conservative

policies in Soviet Union, remaining committed to socialism– Angry Communists attempted to remove Gorbachev

from power 1991 by staging a coup• Failed due to efforts of Boris Yeltsin, president of Russian

Republic – most powerful political figure

– But, by end of the year Yeltsin & other reformers completely undid the old order

– Soviet Union dissolved into 15 individual republics– Gorbachev resigned from presidency (of a non-existent

nation at that point) on Dec. 25, 1991

EFFECTS OF THE COLD WAR

End of the Bloc • 15 new independent states emerged

– Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, & Uzbekistan

• Allied under the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS] in 1991– Also called the Russian Commonwealth– Loose association of states

• Belarus, Russian Federation, Ukraine originally• Then Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,

Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, & Uzbekistan• Today = 9 member states [Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan,

Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, & Uzbekistan] + Ukraine [participating state] & Turkmenistan [associate state]

– Few supranational powers; more symbolic• Coordinates trade, finance, lawmaking, and security• Cooperation on cross-border crime prevention

End of the Bipolar World• During Cold War, world was bipolar with the US and USSR

as superpowers• After the war, the international system was unipolar

– United States sole world superpower– By 1989, had military alliances with 50 countries & 1.5M troops

in 117 countries

• New terminology– Before:

• First World – US & Western Allies• Second World – USSR & Allies• Third World – nonaligned nations; developing states in Africa, Asia, &

South America

– Now:• Developed – US, Canada, Western Europe, Russia, Japan, & other

industrialized states• Developing – non-industrial or industrializing nations of Asia, Africa,

South America, and eastern Europe

Russia Under Yeltsin• Most powerful figure in the Commonwealth of

Independent States = President of Russia• Problems – ailing economy, political opposition, &

unpopular war in Chechnya– Military spending cut dramatically, leaving many

unemployed– Suffered recession worse than the Great Depression– Standard of living worsened overall in Russia

• Goal to reform economy with shock therapy – shift to free-market economies– Lowered trade barriers– Removed price controls– Ended subsidies to state-owned industries– Initially, prices & inflation soared at 800% [normal is 2%]

• Thousands out of work• Fueled political crisis

– Yeltsin ordered troops to bombard building of legislators who opposed him

– Opponents accused Yeltsin of acting like a dictator

• Resigned in 1999 – Vladimir Putin took over

War in Chechnya• Largely Muslim area in

Southwestern Russia• Declared its independence in 1991

– Yeltsin denied its right to secede

• Ordered 40,000 troops to the area in 1994

• Reduced capital of Grozny to rubble– Sparked anger throughout Russia

• Yeltsin sought to end war because an election was coming [needed popularity]– Signed ceasefire– Was reelected

• War broke again between Russia & Chechnya, lasting through the decade

Russia Under Putin • Took office 1999• Forcefully dealt with rebellion in

Chechnya, but violence continues in the region– War drew terrorism into Moscow 2002

– seized a theater & killed 150 people– Popular support for war faded– Putin moved to suppress critics– Chechen elections helped restore order in 2005– Rebels largely quieted by 2010, but rebellion simmers

• Economic, social, & political problems to address– Growth in homelessness, domestic violence, unemployment,

decreased life expectancy– Moved to greater participation in world trade, modernizing

banking, insurance, and tax codes– Attacks on free press – unpopular worldwide

Crimea & Ukraine• Russia began sending military equipment & troops into Ukraine

following Feb. 2014 Ukrainian Revolution– Soldiers began taking control of strategic positions in Crimea– Russia then annexed Crimea

• Demonstrations by pro-Russian groups in Donbass area escalated into armed conflict between separatist forces & Ukrainian government

– Intensive troop movement continued & fought in eastern Ukraine according to human rights groups [Russia denies claims]

• Annexation met harsh resistance from international community– Largely ethnic Russian population with historic ties to Russia– Was part of Ukraine, but was annexed during turbulent time in

Ukrainian government– Economic sanctions from US and UN

• Annexation illegal?• Use of military force elsewhere in Europe?• Western world largely denounced war as part of foreign policy likely to

only see economic sanctions

– US pledged $1B to Ukraine on Mar. 4, 2014– NATO deployed ships & air force monitoring in the Baltics & Poland

Other Cold War Legacies • Loss of life in proxy wars, incl. Korea & Vietnam

– Plus interstate, ethnic, and revolutionary wars in post-Soviet nations

• Economic & social tensions– Newly founded states inherited expenses, commitments, &

resources they weren’t prepared for– National security burdens– Environmental contamination legacies

• Increased # liberal democracies, esp. Eastern Europe• New technology for nuclear power & energy + radiation

for medical treatments • Military development & spending has continued, esp. with

nuclear-armed ballistic missiles & defense systems– No formal treaty ending war– Still have disincentives to developing new nuclear facilities– US & Russia inherited responsibilities & costs of maintaining

nuclear arsenals• US – 7,315 warheads• Russia – 8,000 warheads• France – 300• China - 250• Great Britain – 225• Pakistan, Israel, India, & North Korea too (<150 each)

ANALYSIS ESSAY

Explain how & why differences in

ideologies and policies between the United

States and the USSR resulted in a cold

war, the formation of new alliances, and

periodic military clashes.

What were they?

What were they in the

postwar period?

What does this

mean?

When did this happen? Cuban Missile Crisis & Bay of Pigs…

Who was allied together in the West? The East?How is this diff.

from before?