The Cold War

1
The Cold War
2
What is the Cold War?

• Period of no war between major powers 1945-1989
• Intense hostility between the two super powers
  US and USSR

3
Post-WWII Order

• Spheres of influence
• Solve the German Problem
• Occupation zones
• Nuremberg trials
• Assistance
• European integration
• The United Nations
• UN Security Council

4
The Beginning Cold War Escalation

• Stalin consolidates power over Poland and
  Czechoslovakia
• US gains influence over Turkey and Greece
• Marshall Plan (1947)
• Unification of Western Germany begins
• Berlin Blockade (1948-1949)
• NATO (1949)
• Nuclear arms race

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Berlin

• vv

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War of Ideologies

• Communism and Soviet Policy
• X The Sources of Soviet Conduct
• Containment
• Soviet pressure against the free institutions
  of the Western world is something that can be
  contained by the adroit and vigilant application
  of counter-force at a series of constantly
  shifting geographical and political points.
  (Kennan 1947).
• Truman Doctrine (1947)
• Protect freedom against Soviet communism
• Policies to implement containment
• Economic assistance
• Support of anti-communist groups
• Limited war

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Iron Curtain
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Soviet Sphere of Influence

• Military assistance and economic subsidies
• The Warsaw Pact
• Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA)
• Ideology
• Support communist governments
• Power and control
• Hungary 1956
• Czechoslovakia 1968

9
US Sphere of Influence

• Assistance
• Marshall Plan
• Western Hemisphere
• Middle East and Africa
• Ideology containment, liberty
• Use of force
• Bay of Pigs, Cuba (1961)
• Korean War, Vietnam war
• Chile, Guatemala, etc.

10
War Averted The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

• Shots of Soviet missile sites in Cuba taken by US
  reconnaissance plains
• Khrushchev and Kennedy face-off in the UN
• USs options
• Surgical strikes
• Blockade of Cuba
• Appeasement
• Kennedy Administration chooses blockade
• Soviets back off
• Hotline White House-Kremlin

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Nuclear Weapons

• 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• 1949 Soviet AB explosion
• Today 1 missile100 Hiroshima bombs
• Nuclear deterrence

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Nuclear Cooperation

• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (1969-1972) SALT
  II (1972-1979)
• Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), 1972
• Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
• US walked out in 2002 Strategic Defense
  Initiative

13
Why No WWIII?

• Nuclear deterrence
• Anticipate catastrophic consequences
• Stigma against using nuclear weapons
• No second strike capability (ABM treaty 1972)
• Prevent escalation of conflict at every point
• Strong anti-war sentiment in both USSR and US
• Bipolar structure plus reconnaissance revolution
  relatively simple to manage

14
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
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The End of the Cold War

• Failure of structural theories?
• Perestroika and the Velvet Revolutions
• Gorbachev in power
• Domestic reforms perestroika and glasnost
• Semi free elections in Poland
• Velvet revolutions across Easter Europe
• Berlin wall opened 1989