1. Post World War II

2. Superpowers
The USA/Soviet Union alliance began to unravel even before the end of the WWII.
*Outcome of WWII; emergence of the two superpowers contributes to more conflict and the rise of the Cold War.

3. Cartoon Interpretation

4. Cartoon Questions
1. This cartoon was published in 1945, what major world event ended that same year?
2. Describe the scene in the cartoon.
3. Identify the nations the two figures represent.
4. Why do you think the artist titled this cartoon, “Bridge the Gulch”?
5. Why was it referred to as the “Cold War”?
6. Based on this cartoon, what was the source of conflict between the two nations?
7. Does the cartoonist seem hopeful? Why or why not?

5. Yalta Conference Feb. 1945: WWII not over yet
Allied nations – USA, USSR, and Great Britain
Leaders met at Yalta
Agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation controlled by Allied military forces.

6. United Nations
June 1945
International organization intended to protect members from aggression
Based in New York
50 Nation members

7. The Ideological Struggle
Soviet & Eastern Bloc Nations [“Iron Curtain”]
US & the Western Democracies
GOAL  spread world-wide Communism
GOAL  “Containment” of Communism & the eventual collapse of the Communist world. [George Kennan]
METHODOLOGIES:
Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts of Third World peoples [Communist govt. & command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist economy]  “proxy wars”
Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]

8. Stalin shows his true colors
Stalin ignores his promise at Yalta to allow free elections in Eastern Europe (occupied by the Soviets as a result of Yalta occupation zones).
*He put Communist governments in place in several Eastern European countries
*These moves by Stalin increase the conflict between the Soviet Union and the Allied Nations

9. Truman Doctrine [1947] Civil War in Greece.
Turkey under pressure from the USSR for concessions in the Dardanelles.
Truman believed that the U. S. should support free peoples throughout the world who were resisting takeovers …We must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey $400 million in aid.

10. Marshall Plan [1948] “European Recovery Program.”
Secretary of State, George Marshall
*In order to make a quick recovery and keep political stability, $12.5 billion of US aid to Western Europe
*The US intended to encourage capitalism in Europe.

11. East and West
Stalin controls East Germany, including East Berlin (capital)
The capital city of Berlin is literally divided between east and west

12. *The “Iron Curtain”*
Churchill’s phrase for the imaginary line that separated Communist Europe from democratic Western Europe.

13. The Arms Race: A “Missile Gap?”
The Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb in 1949.
Now there were two nuclear superpowers!

14. *Military Technology*
*Advancement of military technologies intensifies the “arms race” between the US and Soviets.
Both nations begin stock piling weapons.
Included nuclear weapons (especially), satellites, and biological weapons.

15. Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
*The purpose for building it was to keep the East German people from leaving (an exodus) to West Germany
*Because of this partitioning of Germany, the Berlin airlift will take place.

16. Post-War Germany

17. Clash with Soviets
France, Britain and the US decide to remove forces from Germany allowing them to form one nation
Berlin had already been divided into 4 zones.
Soviet Union refuses to allow east Berlin to join.

18. Berlin Airlift
Soviet Union cut off highway, water, and rail traffic into western zones; attempting to frighten western counties by starving West Berlin
*Truman organized an airlift of supplies to Berlin

19. Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-49)

20. 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
Promised to meet any attack against a NATO member with military force

21. *Warsaw Pact (1955) The Soviet answer to NATO:
U. S. S. R.
Albania
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
The Soviet answer to NATO:
*The Soviet Union had control of many Eastern European nations because they were communist.
*The “Eastern Bloc” countries were members of the Warsaw Pact
East Germany
Hungary
Poland
Romania

22. Premier Nikita Khrushchev De-Stalinization Program
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
De-Stalinization Program

23. An Historic Irony: Sergei Khrushchev, American Citizen
Who buried who?

24. Nixon-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate” (1959)
Cold War ---> Tensions
<--- Technology & Affluence

25. Sputnik I (1957)
*The Russians have beaten America in space—they have the technological edge!

26. Col. Francis Gary Powers’ plane was shot down over Soviet airspace.
U-2 Spy Incident (1960)
Col. Francis Gary Powers’ plane was shot down over Soviet airspace.