SWBAT: Describe how the United States and the international community responded to Soviet expansion after World War II Do Now: Birth of the United Nations
Competing Ideologies Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market Communism: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
Competing Ideologies CAPITALISM- United States COMMUNISM- Soviet Union CAPITALISM- United States COMMUNISM- Soviet Union Political Structure Economic System Individual Rights
Competing Ideologies CAPITALISM- United States COMMUNISM- Soviet Union CAPITALISM- United States COMMUNISM- Soviet Union Political Structure Citizens elect representatives and national leaders. People have the right to form their own political parties. There is only one political party and the country is controlled by a dictator. Economic System Private individuals and corporations own businesses and make economic decisions in order to try to make a profit Private property was abolished. The government owns all businesses and control production levels. Private farms became communal. Individual Rights Citizens have basic human rights such as freedom of speech, press, and religion. People have few rights. The government censors all media outlets: radio, television, and newspapers. Secret police arrest and imprison dissenters and religion is “discouraged.”
A Cold War Begins Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated the following in a speech on March 5, 1946: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow…I do not believe that the Soviet Union desires war. What it desires is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of its power and doctrine…”
The Cold War [1945-1991]: An Ideological Struggle United States & the Western Democracies Soviet Union & Eastern Bloc Nations [“Iron Curtain”] Goal: Containment of communism and the eventual collapse of the Communist world. Goal: Spread world-wide communism Methodologies: 1. Espionage [KGB vs. CIA] 2. Arms Race [ Nuclear Escalation] 3. Space Race [Soviets Launch Sputnik - first satellite launched into space ] 4. Ideological Competition for the hearts and minds of Third World Nations [Communist Government and Command Economy vs. Democratic Governments and Capitalism] 5. The Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
The Bipolarization of Europe North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - a defensive military alliance formed in 1949 by ten Western European nations, the United States, and Canada. Warsaw Pact – a military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite nations. Apply your knowledge: Do you think the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact prevented the Soviet Union and United States from going to war? Why or Why not?