The Cold War

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The Cold War
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Origins of the Cold War

• THE KEY ISSUE the future of Eastern Europe
• Soviets occupied Eastern European states that
  they freed from Nazi rule
• After WWll ended, Stalin installed pro-Soviet
  governments throughout Eastern Europe
• How do you think the United States felt about
  this?

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Tensions increase

• The United States suspected the Soviet Union of
  trying to dominate world affairs
• The Soviet Union suspected the United States of
  trying to dominate world affairs

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AHH! A COLD WAR!

• The Cold War set the United States and Soviet
  Union against each other
• The two nations never met in battle
• There was still the threat of deadly conflict

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The Berlin Airlift

• The Cold War almost turned hot in Germany
• Why do you think so?
• The Allies agreed to temporarily divide Germany
  into four zones controlled by
• Soviet Union, U.S., Great Britain, and France
• Western powers wanted to unite their zones into
  West Germany
• Stalin was not happy about this and decided to
  take action
• He feared a united Germany would threaten the
  Soviet Union

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Dividing Berlin/The Berlin Airlift

• Germanys former capital city (Berlin) was in the
  boundaries of East Germany
• The city was divided into four zones so each of
  the four nations controlled one
• 1948- Stalin blocked access to Berlin
• During the blockade, Truman ordered food, fuel,
  and supplies to be airlifted
• In nearly one year, 270,000 U.S. and British
  flights carried supplies in
• 1949-Stalin gave up blockade
• Germany was divided into East Germany (communist)
  and West Germany (democratic)

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Berlin, 1945
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Containment

• Definition policy to stop the spread of
  communism through military and non-military ways
• The Truman Doctrine- promised aid to people
  fighting to maintain democracy
• Marshall Plan- one of Trumans actions that would
  prevent communism through the revival of
  economies in Europe that were damaged during WWII
• The plan offered 13 billion in aid and helped
  western and southern European countries rebuild

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The Cold War on the Homefront

• How did the fear of communism affect people in
  the U.S.?
• Many people feared it would spread in the U.S.
• Americans suspected of communism were put on
  trial
• Alger Hiss former State Department official was
  accused of passing military information to the
  Soviet Union
• He was jailed in 1950 for lying under oath

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The Cold War on the Homefront

• Americans on trial
• Ethel and Julius Rosenberg members of the
  American Communist Party
• Were accused of passing atomic secrets to the
  Russians
• They were executed in 1953

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Un-American Activities

• Truman ordered 4 million government workers to
  undergo loyalty checks
• They would go before a board that decided whether
  or not they could remain in their current
  position
• Many were forced to resign
• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
• Targeted people in the movie industry
• Blacklisted people unofficial lists of suspected
  Communists

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McCarthyism

• Joseph McCarthy- member of the Republican Party
• When he began speaking out and crusading against
  communism, fellow party members began speaking
  out against HIM.
• In 1950, McCarthy said he had a list of 205 State
  Department officials who were members of the
  Communist Party

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Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954)

• Senate held nationally televised hearings
• McCarthy accused the U.S. Army of coddling
  Communists
• The Senate condemned McCarthy for his actions and
  eventually he faded from the public eye

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The Cold War Around the World

• Like President Truman, President Eisenhower
  continued the Cold War, but had a more aggressive
  stand against communism.
• Policy known as brinkmanship
• Going to the brink of war to combat communism

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Arms Race

• 1945 The United States developed and dropped
  the first atomic bombs on Japan
• 1949- Americans learned the Soviet Union had
  produced an atomic bomb
• used information stolen by Soviet spies
• Arms race- competition between the United States
  and the Soviet Union to develop weapons with more
  destructive power
• 1952- the U.S. built an H-Bomb
• 1955- the Soviets tested their first H-Bomb
• Fear from both sides led to the stockpiling of
  nuclear weapons

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What does this cartoon mean?
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Space Race

• 1957- the two superpowers began a space race
• Soviet Union launched Sputnik
• The worlds first space satellite
• American scientists were scrambling to catch up
• The U.S. Congress set aside billions of dollars
  for space research

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• Sputnik being launched into space

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The U-2 Incident

• Eisenhower suggested easing the Cold War tensions
  by face-to-face talks with the Soviet Union
• Two weeks before a scheduled meeting with Soviet
  Premier Nikita Krushchev, the Soviets shot down
  an American U-2 spy plane
• Eisenhower denied that the plane was spying,
  until he learned that the pilot had been
  captured.
• Krushchev demanded an apology, and Eisenhower
  refused. The talks collapsed.

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Cold War and Kennedy

• Bay of Pigs Invasion April 1961
• Responding to perceived communist threats, JFK
  ordered the invasion
• An army of Cuban exiles, trained by the U.S.
  invaded Cuba
• They planned to overthrow Fidel Castro, Cubas
  Communist leader
• Cuban troops easily crushed the U.S. invasion

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Cuban Missile Crisis

• October 1962
• Fidel Castro and Nikita Krushchev believed the
  U.S. was planning another attack on Cuba
• The U.S. learned that the Soviets were attempting
  to land nuclear missiles in Cuba
• The missiles could reach U.S. cities within
  minutes
• The Soviets agreed to remove the missiles and the
  U.S. promised not to invade Cuba

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Cold War leads into Vietnam

• With the fear and suspicion that came with the
  Cold War, the U.S. made greater efforts to
  contain communism in Asia
• This was done by sending more money and military
  advisers into Vietnam

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The American Dream

• During the 1950s the American population grew by
  almost 30 million people the babyboomers!