COLD WAR
Three types of war Hot War : The term for actual warfare. All talks have failed and the armies are fighting. Warm War : Talks are still going on and there will always be a chance of a peaceful outcome but Armies, Navies etc. are being fully mobilized and war plans are being put into operation ready for the command to fight. Cold War : This term is used to describe the relationship between America and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1980. Neither side ever fought the other - the consequences would be too appalling - but they did ‘fight’ for their beliefs using client states who fought for their beliefs on their behalf e.g.
U.S.A. Vs U.S.S.R. U.S.A. Soviet Union Free elections Democratic Capitalist ‘Survival of the fittest’ Richest world power Personal freedom Freedom of the media Soviet Union No elections or fixed Autocratic / Dictatorship Communist Everybody helps everybody Poor economic base Society controlled by the NKVD (secret police)
Cold War Begins This lack of mutually understanding an alien culture, would lead the world down a very dangerous path - Berlin, Korea, Hungary, Cuba, Vietnam and the Arms Race. It also lead to the development of weapons of awesome destructive capability and the creation of some intriguing policies such as MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction.
Germany - Divided Germany, which had been ruled by the Hitler and the Nazis until their defeat in 1945 was split in two. The western side became West Germany and the eastern side became East Germany. East Germany became another communist country.
Winston Churchill - “The Sinews of Peace” March 5, 1946 - Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri 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….Whatever conclusions may be drawn from these facts - and facts they are - this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace…. What is needed is a settlement, and the longer this is delayed, the more difficult it will be and the greater our dangers will become. From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness.
· By 1948, every Eastern European country was under communist control American Response: · Truman Doctrine – statement of President Truman that promised military and economic support to nations threatened by communism In 1947, the U.S. gave $400 million to Greece and Turkey in order to help them put down communist revolts.
Aid for Europe: · Secretary of State George Marshall toured Western Europe and witnessed widespread homelessness and famine. Children in a London suburb, waiting outside the wreckage of what was their home. September 1940.
Opposing Alliances · In 1949, the U.S. formed an alliance with friendly European countries called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). · The members of NATO would defend each other against any Soviet aggression.
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
· In 1955, the Soviet Union formed its own military alliance called the Warsaw Pact. · The Warsaw Pact was made up of Eastern European countries dominated by Soviet control.
Warsaw Pact (1955) U. S. S. R. East Germany Albania Hungary Bulgaria Czechoslovakia East Germany Hungary Poland Rumania
The Korean War 1950-1953
The Berlin Wall 1961
The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
The Vietnam War c.1963-1975