1. Chapter 31
The Cold War

2. The United Nations Yalta Conference – Feb 1945 June 1945
Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
Decided on dividing Germany
June 1945
Developed the U.N.
New York
Five permanent members (China, Britain, U.S., France, U.S.S.R.)

3. Eastern Europe USSR wants to shield itself
Established Communist gov’ts in E. Europe – against Yalta
Potsdam Conference
Truman pushes Stalin – Stalin refuses
Churchill declares E. Europe under an “Iron Curtain.”
Germany divided into four parts
France, U.S., Britain, USSR (Communist)

4. Containment
Truman’s policy to contain communism to its current borders
Truman Doctrine
Aid to countries that challenge communism
Marshall Plan
Food, machines, etc to countries that needed it – rebuild Europe

5. Berlin Airlift Germany divided/Berlin divided
West wants to unify three zones
Stalin cuts off supplies to W. Berlin (surrounded by Communism).
Instead of invasion – West airlifts supplies to Berlin for 11 months.
Stalin seen as evil/U.S. heroes

6. Alliances NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Warsaw Pact
Western nations – an attack on one = attack on all
Warsaw Pact
Communist Counter to NATO

7. Atomic Weapons U.S. had technology USSR gains technology in 1949
U.S. begins building Hydrogen bomb – fusion (1952)
USSR gains in 1953
Space Race
ICBM
USSR – Sputnik Oct
Open skies (U2 incident)

8. Cuban Missile Crisis Cuba has a Communist revolution in 1959
Fidel Castro comes to power
Seizes all American companies
America plans invasion
Bay of Pigs – fails
Cuba turns to USSR (Khruschev) for help
Khrushchev sends nuclear weapons to Cuba
Kennedy demands their removal
Closest we’ve been to nuclear war – ends peacefully – USSR removes weapons from Cuba – we remove weapons from Turkey (secretly).

9. China Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jeishi) fights Mao Zedong
U.S. supports Chiang
He doesn’t provide support for peasants post-war
Many turn to Communists
Chiang flees to Taiwan – Mao takes mainland China
U.S. supports Taiwan, USSR China
China invades countries around it – Tibet
Dalai Lama flees to India

10. Korea Korea divided along 38th parallel Soviet Union backs Communists
Communist North, Democratic South
Soviet Union backs Communists
Invades south – don’t think U.S. will help
UN sends troops as well
All under General Douglas MacArthur
War
Communists push all the way south, U.S./UN push all the way north, China enters – pushes back to 38th parallel.
5 million dead
North still Communist, South has dictatorship until 1987

11. Vietnam France controlled Vietnam since Imperialism
Ho Chi Minh turns to Communists to help win independence
France jails protesters
After WWII, they hoped for independence
Nationalists and Communists join to fight France

12. Vietnam The Vietnamese have peasant support
Major French defeat at Dien Bien Phu
U.S. worried about Domino Theory
Countries falling to Communism like Dominos
After defeat at Dien Bien Phu – they divided Vietnam into two halves at the 17th parallel.
South controlled by Ngo Dinh Diem – did not provide peasant support

13. Vietnam
Southern Communists start to challenge Diem – known as Vietcong
U.S. starts to aid in training of Vietnamese soldiers
U.S. declares that two U.S. ships were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin
U.S. begins to send fighting soldiers – and begin to bomb North Vietnam

14. Vietnam Vietnamese use guerilla tactics against Americans
U.S. begins to use air bombings with napalm to destroy trees – trying to find enemy soldiers on the ground
Farmland destroyed – peasants support Communists
Nixon begins to withdraw from Vietnam in 1969 – train Vietnamese to fight own war
Vietnamization
Fully withdraw in 1973
Communists gain control of Vietnam two years later
1.5 million Vietnamese dead
58,000 Americans

15. Cambodia Cambodia had been bombed during the Vietnam War
Communists set up brutal regime in 1975 – Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot
Slaughtered 2 million people
Vietnam invades and overthrows him
Democratic Constitution in 1993
Pol Pot tried for war crimes