The Cold War

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The Cold War
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Post WWII

• Big Three leaders
• Truman leads U.S. at end of WWII
• Stalin leads U.S.S.R.
• Churchill leads Great Britain
• Not very involved afterward

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The Costs of War

• America
• 1945 Recovery from great depression
• Cities basically untouched by effects of war
• Baby Economy boom
• 300,000 soldiers dead

• U.S.S.R.
• 1945 In Shambles
• Everything shut down depletion of manpower
• Bombed out/Leveled
• Babies Economy shot
• 27 million dead, including civilians!
• 90 times more dead than U.S.

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Goals of U.S.S.R. (Stalin, Red Army, U.S.S.R.)

• 1) Security
• a) Stalin wants to remain in Power
• b) Wants U.S.S.R. to remain as it is
• c) His ideology (communism) to remain in place
• 2) Territory He thought they had devoted/lost
  the most to the war effort, and so they should
  gain more than anyone else from the war
• 3) Peace so that he could do what he wanted
  without disturbance
• 4) Domination of Europe He thought he could
  learn form Hitlers mistakes instead of war, he
  would try to force the spread of communism
  wanted to create a sphere of influence

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U.S.A.s Goal

• 1) Security
• Sphere of influence
• Their situation was stable enough that all they
  had to worry about was world peace. (Free,
  westernized, capitalistic democracy.)
• Maintained by a collective security organization
  a.k.a. the United Nations (U.N.)

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The Atomic Bomb

• How did the atomic bomb play a role in the cold
  war?
• 1) Since the U.S. had it and the U.S.S.R. didnt,
  it was a source of distrust
• 2) Delay in Soviet knowledge of atomic bomb
  caused resentment
• 3) Stalin saw the a-bomb as a potential method of
  blackmail by the Americans.

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McCarthy, Espionage,and the Red Scare

• Soviets gained the knowledge for the a-bomb in
  1949, through espionage (spying)
• McCarthy, an obscure senator from Wisconsin,
  tried to root out the perceived infiltration of
  the U.S. by reds (communists)
• George Orwell writes 1984, talking about big
  brother, the idea that the government is
  watching you

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Global Superpowers USSR and USA

• Intense Rivalry
• Space Race (math and science)
• Athletics (Olympic Competition)
• Nuclear Arms Race
• Fear of global destruction w/ balance of terror
• Huge sums of money spent on Nuclear buildup
  programsrequired support of the general
  populations

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Gaining Support for the Nuclear Arms race

• Through FEAR, the public would be convinced this
  was necessary
• McCarthyism (root out the supposed
  infestation of communist sympathizers in the
  US)
• Iron Curtain (if the US does not stop communism,
  it will spread across Europe and into THIS
  continent)

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What is the Role of a Global Superpower

• Keep Peace
• Mediate between countries in conflict
• Send economic, humanitarian aid
• Military peacekeeping efforts
• Prevent War

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