CHAPTER 33 Restructuring the Postwar World 1945-Present

33:1 Cold War: Superpowers Face Off

Allies Become Enemies Yalta Conference: A Postwar Plan – February, 1945: FDR, Churchill, Stalin meet at Soviet Black Sea resort in Yalta – Agree to divide Germany into zones of occupation controlled by Allied military forces – Germany will pay Soviet Union to compensate for loss of life and property

– Stalin agrees to join war against Japan – Stalin promises that Eastern Europeans will have free elections – Churchill skeptical; predicts Stalin would keep promise only if Eastern Europeans follow “policy friendly to Russia”

Creation of the United Nations: – United Nations: international peacekeeping organization founded in 1945 to provide security to the nations of the world – U.S., U.S.S.R. join UN with 48 other nations – General Assembly formed; members cast votes on broad range of issues – Security Council: 11 member body; investigates & settles disputes

– 5 permanent members of Security Council: Great Britain, China, France, United States, Soviet Union – Each has power to veto any Security Council action – Provision intended to prevent any members from voting as a bloc to override others

Differing U.S. and Soviet Goals: – Major political & economic differences (democracy vs. communism, capitalism vs. command economy) – Situational differences: Soviet Union suffered far greater during WWII; 20 million deaths (USSR) vs. 400,000 deaths (US), destruction of Soviet cities, industrial areas

Eastern Europe’s Iron Curtain Major Soviet goal: shield itself from another invasion from the West Centuries of Western invaders: Poland (1600s), Sweden (1700s), France (1800s), Germany (1900s)

Soviets Build a Buffer: – Stalin ignores Yalta agreement; occupies Eastern European nations with Soviet military – Installs Communist governments in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia; nations become buffer zone, or wall of protection

– FDR dies on April 12 th ; successor, Harry S. Truman, sees Stalin’s reluctance to hold free elections as violation of nations’ rights – Truman, Stalin, Churchill meet at Potsdam, Germany in July 1945 – Truman, Churchill press Stalin to hold free elections in Eastern Europe; Stalin refuses – 1946: Stalin declares communism & capitalism cannot exist in same world

An Iron Curtain Divides East & West: – Germany split into 2 sections – Soviets control East Germany (communist) and ½ of capital, Berlin; nation called German Democratic Republic – Western zones become West Germany or Federal Republic of Germany (democratic) – Iron curtain: Cold War boundary separating Communist nations of Eastern Europe from democratic Western European nations

United States Tries to Contain Soviets Containment: U.S. foreign policy adopted by President Truman in the late 1940s, in which the U.S. tried to stop the spread of communism by creating alliances and helping weak countries to resist Soviet advances

The Truman Doctrine: – 1947 U.S. policy of giving economic and military aid to free nations threatened by internal or external opponents – Opponents object to American interference in other nations’ affairs – Others argue U.S. cannot afford to carry on global crusade against communism – Congress authorizes $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece

The Marshall Plan: – U.S. program of economic aid to European nations to help them rebuild after WWII – Much of Western Europe in ruins; food, jobs scarce – Plan provides food, machinery, other materials – 1948: Congress approves $12.5 billion program as Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia

The Berlin Airlift: – U.S.S.R. clashes with West over Germany – Soviets want to keep former enemy weak, divided – 1948: France, Britain, U.S. withdraw forces from Germany; allow occupation zones to form one nation – Soviets respond by holding West Berlin hostage

– Berlin located within Soviet occupation zone, but city itself is divided into 4 zones – Soviet Union cuts off highway, water, rail traffic into Berlin’s western zones; city faces starvation – Stalin gambles Allies will surrender West Berlin or give up idea of reunifying Germany – American, British officials fly food, supplies into West Berlin for 11 months – 1949: U.S.S.R. lifts blockade

The Cold War Divides the World Cold War: state of diplomatic hostility between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in the decades following WWII – Struggle over political differences carried on by means short of military action or war – Nations use spying, propaganda, diplomacy, secret operations to deal with each other

Superpowers Form Rival Alliances: – NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization; defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by 10 Western European nations, the United States, & Canada – Warsaw Pact: military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and 7 Eastern European nations

– 1961: East Germany builds wall to separate East and West Berlin – Berlin Wall symbolizes world divided into rival camps – Democratic India and Communist China remain neutral

The Threat of Nuclear War: – U.S. already has atomic weapons – 1949: U.S.S.R. explodes own atomic weapon – 1950: Truman authorizes creation of thermonuclear weapon – Hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) thousands of times more powerful than A-bomb – Power comes from fusion of atoms, rather than splitting of atoms

– 1952: U.S. tests first H-bomb – 1953: U.S.S.R. explodes their own H-bomb – Dwight Eisenhower elected president in 1952; appoints firmly anti-communist John Foster Dulles secretary of state – Brinkmanship: policy of threatening to go to war in response to any enemy aggression – Policy requires reliable source of nuclear weapons and airplanes to deliver weapons

– United States strengthens its Air Force and begins producing stockpiles of nuclear weapons – Soviet Union responds with its own military buildup – U.S., U.S.S.R. begin arms race that will last for 4 decades

The Cold War in the Skies: – 1957: Soviets announce development of rocket that can travel great distances: ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) – Soviets use ICBM to push Sputnik (1 st unmanned satellite) above Earth’s atmosphere – 1958: U.S. launches its own satellite

– 1955: Eisenhower had proposed that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. should be able to fly over each other’s territory to guard against nuclear attacks – Soviets said no to deal – U.S. CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) starts secret high-altitude spy flights over Soviet territory in U-2 planes – May 1960: Soviets shoot down U-2 plane; pilot Francis Gary Powers captured; incident heightens Cold War tensions