The Cold War 1945-1989

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The Cold War1945-1989
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What is the Cold War

• It was an intense rivalry between the United
  States and Russia between West and East and
  between capitalism and communism that dominated
  the years following WW II.

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The Ideological Struggle
Soviet Eastern Bloc NationsIron Curtain
US the Western Democracies
GOAL ? spread world-wide Communism
GOAL ? Containment of Communism the eventual
collapse of the Communist world.George Kennan

• METHODOLOGIES
• Espionage KGB vs. CIA
• Arms Race nuclear escalation
• Bi-Polarization of Europe NATO vs. Warsaw Pact

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Words of Wisdom

• Winston Churchill
• Germany is finished. The real problem is Russia.
  I cant get Americans to see it.
• -- 1945

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Cold vs. Hot

• It is called the Cold War because there was
  never any direct attacks made by the U.S. or
  Soviet Union on each other.

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The United Nations

• The Big Three all agreed on establishing this
  international peace keeping organization.
• Goal to promote justice and cooperation
• First official meeting held in London in 1946
• Permanent headquarters established in New York in
  1953.

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FDR dies Truman Takes Command

• Roosevelt never saw his dream of the UN come to
  life
• FDR died on April 12, 1945
• Truman, his Vice President for only a few months,
  became the leader of our country

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Conflicting Postwar Goals

• Americans wanted democracy and economic
  opportunities for the countries of Europe and
  Asia
• Soviets Wanted to rebuild their nation in order
  to protect their own interests. They wanted to
  establish satellite nations, countries controlled
  by the Soviets along the western boundaries of
  the Soviet Union. Following Communist doctrine,
  Stalin wanted to overthrow capitalism around the
  world and install Communist governments.

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Satellite Nations

• Like dominoes, one by one countries in Eastern
  Europe fell to Stalin and communism
• Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany,
  Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albania.

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The Iron Curtain

• A phrase coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 it
  refers to the division between Communist and
  non-Communist nations
• Became symbol of division between East and West

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The Iron Curtain
From Stettin in the Balkans, to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across
the Continent. Behind that line lies the ancient
capitals of Central and Eastern Europe.
-- Sir Winston Churchill, 1946
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Containment

• This became the dominant U.S. policy during the
  Cold War
• Developed by George Kennan, it stated that the
  U.S. could not do anything in Eastern Europe
  where Russia already took over, but that it
  should attempt to stop the formation of Communist
  governments any where else in the world.

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The Truman Doctrine

• I believe that it must be the policy of the U.S.
  to support free peoples who are resisting
  (conquest) by armed minorities or by outside
  pressures. President Truman, 1947
• We will support any nation threatened by
  Communism.

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Marshall Plan 1948

1. European Recovery Program.
2. Secretary of State, George Marshall
3. The U. S. should provide aid to all European
   nations that need it. This move is not against
   any country or doctrine, but against hunger,
   poverty, desperation, and chaos.
4. 12.5 billion of US aid to Western Europe
   extended to Eastern Europe USSR, but this was
   rejected.

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Germany A Land Divided

• By 1949 there were two Germanys in Europe
• West Germany democratic
• East Germany communist
• The capital of Berlin was also divided by a
  wall!

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Post-War Germany
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Berlin Airlift

• Many Eastern Europeans who did not like living
  under Soviet communist rule fled their homes and
  escaped to West Berlin.
• Stalin wanted to stop this escape route by
  forcing the Western Powers to abandon West
  Berlin.
• Stalin blockaded all Allied shipments to West
  Berlin through East Germany.
• This threatened severe shortages of food and
  other needed supplies in West Berlin.

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• Truman did not a war with the Soviets, nor did he
  want to give up West Berlin.
• During the next 15 months both British and U.S.
  aircraft delivered food, fuel, etc. by plane to
  the city.
• The Soviets finally gave up in 1949 and ended the
  blockade.

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Berlin Airlift Map
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Berlin Blockade Airlift (1948-49)
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NATO- North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• Because the Soviet Union used its veto power to
  block any action that stopped communism in the
  United Nations, the West needed another way to
  deal with Soviet aggression.
• In 1949 12 nations formed NATO. The guiding
  principle of NATO is an armed attack against
  one or moreshall be considered an attack against
  them all.
• This is an example of collective security- mutual
  military assistance among nations.

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North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)

• United States
• Belgium
• Britain
• Canada
• Denmark
• France
• Iceland
• Italy

• Luxemburg
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Portugal
• 1952 Greece Turkey
• 1955 West Germany
• 1983 Spain

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China Falls To Communism

• A civil war had existed between the Nationalists
  and Communists in China since the 1920s.
• In 1949, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the
  Communists won and established the Peoples
  Republic of China.
• The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and claimed to be
  the legitimate government of China, establishing
  the Republic of China. The U.S. and UN recognized
  this Republic as the true government of China.
• Many Americans wanted Truman and the government
  to focus not only on Europe but also on Asia in
  their policy of containment.

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Maos Revolution 1949
Who lost China?
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Chairman Mao Zedong
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Chinese Revolution Poster 1949
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The Arms Race

• The greatest area where the Soviet Union and the
  U.S. competed for world domination was in the
  arms race - the struggle to gain weapons
  superiority.

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The Arms RaceA Missile Gap?

• The Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb in
  1949.
• Now there were two nuclear superpowers!

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Modern Day Arms Race Pakistan and India
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Korean War

• After WW II Japan was forced to give up control
  of Korea.
• The Soviets accepted the surrender above the 38th
  parallel and the U.S. accepted it below that
  line.
• Division was never the goal but became a reality
  a communist controlled north and a democratically
  controlled south.

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The Korean War A Police Action (1950-1953)
Kim Il-Sung
Syngman Rhee
Domino Theory
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Conflict in Korea

• Citizens on both sides of the parallel wanted to
  reunite their country.

• War breaks out when North Korean troops came
  across the 38th parallel to try to unite the
  country by force.

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The Forgotten War

• The UN (mostly American) sent troops to Korea
• The UN troops do well initially but are driven
  back close to the original 38th parallel.
• The war becomes a stalemate and in 1953 an
  armistice is signed agreeing to keep Korea
  divided.

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Map of Korea
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Warsaw Pact

• Eastern Europes response to NATO
• Formed in 1955, its function was collective
  self-defense against external aggression (attack
  on one is attack on all)
• All Eastern/Communist nations join initially,
  except Yugoslavia
• Ended in 1991 with fall of communism

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Warsaw Pact (1955)

• U. S. S. R.
• Albania
• Bulgaria
• Czechoslovakia

• East Germany
• Hungary
• Poland
• Rumania

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Yugoslavia the Rebel

• Leader Josip Tito (part Croat and part Slovene)
  was unique in the East since he broke away from
  Stalin and kept Yugoslavia independent of
  U.S.S.R. interference.
• Although communist, Yugoslavia ( provinces of
  Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia,
  Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia), received special
  privileges from the West
• Citizens were far more free than in the
  Soviet-bloc countries
• Success of Yugoslavia was based in illusion
  (western loans)

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Yugoslavia, cont.

• When Tito finally died in 1980, a void was left
• He had spent his time emphasizing unity over
  ethnic differences
• Nationalist feelings arose when sense of unity
  died with Tito
• The evil Slobodan Milosevic took power wanting
  to create Serbian dominance

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Cold War and Space

• In 1957 the Soviet Union proved that they were
  ahead of the U.S. in the technology war when they
  launched Sputnik into space.
• Sputnik was the first artificial satellite to
  orbit the earth.
• Problem The rocket used to launch Sputnik could
  just as easily carry a nuclear bomb to Americas
  shores!
• In response the U.S. created NASA in 1958 and
  increased spending on science and math in
  Americas school.

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Sputnik
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Sputnik I (1957)
The Russians have beaten America in spacethey
have the technological edge!
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Paris, 1961
Khrushchev JFK meet to discuss Berlin and
nuclear proliferation. Khrushchev thinks that
JFK is young, inexperienced, and can be rolled.
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The Berlin Wall Goes Up (1961)
CheckpointCharlie
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Ich bin ein Berliner! (1963)
President Kennedy tells Berliners that the West
is with them!
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Cold War and Cuba

• In October of 1962 U.S. spy photography revealed
  that the Soviet Union was building missile bases
  on Cuba.
• What followed, the Cuban Missile Crisis, is the
  closest the world ever came to nuclear war.

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Khruschev Embraces Castro,1961
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Bay of Pigs Debacle (1961)
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Cuban Missile Crisis

• The Soviets placed these missiles in Cuba, 90
  miles from the U.S., to counter the missiles the
  U.S. had in Turkey very close to the U.S.S.R.

• These missiles in Turkey were old and probably
  wouldnt work but the U.S.S.R., under Nikita
  Khruschev, did not care about that detail.

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Kennedy Decides

• After much deliberation, president Kennedy
  decided to use a U.S. naval quarantine of Cuba to
  prevent any Soviet ships carrying weapons into
  Cuba

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Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Russians, and
the other man blinked!
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Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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Disaster Avoided

• After some secret negotiations, in the final
  hour, the U.S. agreed to remove its missiles from
  Turkey while Russia would remove their missiles
  from Cuba.
• It appeared that if Russia either broke the
  quarantine or refused to remove their missiles,
  Kennedy would have used nuclear weapons on Cuba
  and maybe the Soviet Union directly!!!

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Chernobyl

• Nuclear chemistry not only used in weapons, but
  also as a power source
• April 26, 1986 Ukraine worst nuclear accident
  in history
• Disaster released 300 times more fallout than the
  bomb dropped on Hiroshima
• Contamination numbers uncertain, but parts of
  Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are still
  experiencing health problems

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Chernobyl, cont.

• Belarus was the hardest hit
• Some scientists say this area will experience
  fallout for many 24,000 years
• It has created a new race of people in that area

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Communism Falls

• Root 1980 Poland/ Solidarity movement, a
  democratic-based political and economic party,
  challenges communist leadership
• 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev abandons old Soviet
  policy of using military force to keep communist
  rulers in power and rather encourages individual
  nations to adopt reforms, not threats, to keep
  people loyal to communism
• These reforms often allowed free elections all
  across Europe the vote was anti-communist
• Poland 1989- first country to install a
  non-communist regime Solidarity (Lech Walesa
  leader)
• Revolutions erupted in the East in 1989 by
  1991, communism collapsed and the Cold War ended

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Conclusion

• The Cold War was a tense time and a time of great
  uncertainty and fear
• No one knew if the Soviets or the U.S. would use
  one of their many weapons of mass destruction --
  they came close but never did!
• The Cold War ended when the U.S.S.R. collapsed
  and communism failed to make the people happy or
  meet their basic needs.