Top Ten Topics from Chapter 30
“What is Europe now? A rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate.” -- Winston Churchill
1. Most of the world divides up between the US (tend to be democracies) and the USSR (dictatorships)
Inner German Border
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 1949 Warsaw Pact (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance – COMECON) 1955
U.S. Philosophy of Containment “Like apples in a barrel infected by disease, the corruption of Greece would infect Iran and all the east... likewise Africa... Italy... France....Not since Rome and Carthage had there been such a polarization of power on this earth” -- U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson
“I won the Nobel prize for literature, what was your crime?
Back to Purging in the USSR and now Eastern Europe too Forced labor camps Hungary 199 Czechoslovakia 124 Bulgaria 99 Romania 97 Poland 47
2. Allies of the US do much better economically, esp. in the 1950s & 1960s
3. Western Europe takes major steps towards economic unity
European Economic Community members members members members
4. Decolonization (politically, but not so much economically and culturally)
5. Domestic policies in the USSR fluctuate...
Nikita Khrushchev ( )
Leonid Brezhnev ( )
6....but the USSR retains tight control over its satellite states
Czechoslovakia, 1948
Hungary, 1956
August 31, 1961
Prague Spring, 1968 Brezhnev Doctrine
Detante
Conservative Alliance: Thatcher, Reagan, Kohl
7. Science oriented toward war and space (“Big Science”)
8. Class structure becomes less divided Greater accessibility of college gives more people educational opportunities Service industry greatly expanded (more white collar than blue collar) Government programs redistributed wealth: welfare, pensions Most people could afford appliances and cars Most people could afford vacations
9. Women demand more rights, students demand respect More women in the workforce, where they faced discrimination Demanding equal pay, maternity leave, day care, right to divorce, legalized abortion, protection from and prosecution of rape Students living a very different lifestyle (sex, drugs and rock n’ roll) but demanding respect as adults (there are a lot of people in the generation, it is the baby boom)
s bring economic difficulties US spent too much (Marshall Plan, welfare programs, Korean and Vietnam wars) OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) embargoed oil sales to the US when the US supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war of 1973 Austerity measures