Cold War Beginings Cold War Beginings
Main Themes Soviet Union & Communism US & Western Democracies/ Capitalism Main Themes: 1.Global Bi-Polarization [i.e. NATO vs. Warsaw Pact, Berlin Wall] 2.Containment (“proxy wars,” Economic Aid, military and political intervention, Economic Aid, Propaganda, political freedom) 3.Arms Race [nuclear escalation] 4.Space Race
Do Now: How did the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences contributed to the emergence of a “Cold War”?
Truman Doctrine [1947] 1.The 1.The U. S. should support free peoples throughout the world who were resisting takeovers by armed minorities or outside pressures…We must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. 2.The 2.The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey $400 million in aid. Containment
Bipolarization 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
Containment 1.Marshall Plan 1948 “European Recovery Program.” 1.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. 2.$12.5 billion of US aid to Western Europe extended to Eastern Europe & USSR, [but this was rejected].
Berlin Blockade & Airlift ( )
1949: Year of Fear Nationalists lose the Civil War in China. Soviets explode their first atomic bomb.
1949- The Soviet Union explodes its own nuclear weapon.
United States Belgium Britain Canada Denmark France Iceland Italy Luxemburg Netherlands Norway Portugal 1952: Greece & Turkey 1955: West Germany 1983: Spain Bipolarization
Warsaw Pact (1955) }U. S. S. R. }Albania }Bulgaria }Czechoslovakia }East Germany }Hungary }Poland }Rumania Bipolarization
Premier Nikita Khrushchev About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether we (Soviet Union) exist. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it our not, history is on our side. We will bury you. you De-Stalinization Program
Korean War
The Korean War: and the Domino Theory ( ) Syngman Rhee Kim Il-Sung Containment + Bi-Polarization
Key Events June, 1950—North Korea (communist) invades South Korea (non-communist) UN supports a police action to protect South Korea Douglas MacArthur, UN commander, makes a brilliant landing at Inchon and pushes the North Koreans back
Key Events (continued) MacArthur continues to push North, provoking China’s entry into the war. A bloody stalemate develops Truman wants a negotiated peace, MacArthur says “there is no substitute for victory” and begins to openly criticize Truman. Truman fires MacArthur.
Key Events (continued) A cease-fire is agreed to in 1953 which places the border near the 38 th parallel (as it was before the war). 40,000+ Americans and hundreds of thousands of Koreans and Chinese are killed.
Sputnik I (1957) The Russians have beaten America in space—they have the technological edge! Space Race
The Suez Crisis:
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Hungarian Uprising: 1956 Imre Nagy, Hungarian Prime Minister }Promised free elections. }This could lead to the end of communist rule in Hungary.
U-2 Spy Incident (1960) Col. Francis Gary Powers’ plane was shot down over Soviet airspace.
Paris, 1961 Khrushchev & JFK meet to discuss Berlin and nuclear proliferation. Khrushchev thinks that JFK is young, inexperienced, and can be rolled.
The Berlin Wall Goes Up (1961) Checkpoint Charlie
Ich bin ein Berliner! (1963) President Kennedy tells Berliners that the West is with them!
Khruschev Embraces Castro, 1961
Bay of Pigs Debacle (1961)
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
We went eyeball-to-eyeball with the Russians, and the other man blinked!
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Vietnam War:
“Prague Spring” (1968) Former Czech President, Alexander Dubček Communism with a human face!
“Prague Spring” Dashed! Dissidents/playwrights arrested [like Vaclav Havel—future president of a free Czech Republic ].