1. The Cold War

2. The United Nations Began After World War II to keep world peace – replaced failed League of Nations - located in New York City - 51 original members – today 192 - 6 main organs: 1) General Assembly – all nations get 1 vote. Most decisions made by a majority vote. Special matters (substantive) require 2/3 vote. 2) Security Council – to maintain security & peace. Total of 15 members. 5 Permanent: U.S. China, France, Russia, Great Britain. 10 rotating members serve 2 year terms. To send troops permanent members must agree with 4 other members. Countries can vote yes, no or abstain ( abstention does not stop an action)

3. United Nations Continued 3) Other Organs – ECOSOC, Trusteeship Council, Secretariat, International Court of Justice - besides sending troops the U.N. works to overcome world hunger, coordinate disaster relief, overcome health problems etc. – Hoping to prevent the root causes of conflict - Cold War tensions limited the U.N. in its effectiveness: 1945-1955 veto (voting no) used 80 times to stop proposed actions

4. The 2 sides of the Cold War I.The West - led by the United States. Allies referred to as 1 st world nations - Military alliance was called North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - countries tended to be wealthier than the communist nations. Mostly free market economies (capitalism) - governments mainly parliamentary democracies - most countries located in North America, Western and Northern Europe - tended to have more social, political, and religious freedom

5. 2 sides Cold War continued II. The East -led by the Soviets (allies referred to as 2 nd world nations) -mostly located in Eastern Europe -Warsaw Pact was their military alliance -tended to have totalitarian governments controlled by the Soviets -they called their governments and societies communist -heavily restricted civil rights -Economies were run by central government (command economies) -tended to be less wealthy than western nations

6. What started the cold war? -During World War I Lenin & The Bolsheviks established a Communist government and renamed the country The Soviet Union -Western governments did not like the ideas of communism which talked about world wide revolution. The allies of World War I also did not like Lenin because he withdrew from the war -Western troops (including Americans) briefly fought against the Bolsheviks in 1918 - The Soviets resented western interference with their attempts to establish a government.

7. A brief alliance to defeat Hitler During World War II The Soviet Union under Stalin allied itself with the United States and its allies to defeat the Nazis During WWII the Soviets had much higher casualties than any other countries -USSR 20 million dead, U.S. ½ million dead The cooperation during WW II did not last and the World War II was followed by a cold war

8. What is a cold war? A cold war is a war of mostly words and ideas. Time period – after World War II – Early 1990’s (about 40 years) During the cold war each side attempted to be militarily stronger. They also did anything they could to weaken the other side. Sometimes the cold war would heat up and a U.S. ally would fight against a Soviet ally – Vietnam War, Korean War, Arab Israeli Wars, Bay of Pigs invasion, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – all were related to cold war The biggest fear was that the U.S. and Soviets would use atomic weapons and destroy each other along with the rest of the world. ICBM’s could carry atomic weapons to anywhere in the world. Both sides had many.

9. The Soviet Point of View The Soviet government began after World War I hoping to unite the world into a communist revolution Joseph Stalin was the first Cold war Premier of the USSR. He took over when Lenin died. - he was determined that the USSR would never again be invaded by the west - he forced many nations in eastern and central Europe to accept Communist governments controlled by Soviet Union – to do this he violated his promise to allow free elections. - The new communist states in Europe were called satellite nations (revolved around USSR) examples: Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania. Stalin kept his section of Germany after WWII renaming it East Germany. Berlin was also split between East and West by a wall. Berlin was located in East German territory. The Soviets resented a free west Berlin inside a communist satellite nation.

10. Soviet Point of View continued Throughout the cold war the Soviets encouraged communist revolutions around the world The Soviet government always argued that the western capitalistic economies were evil and would one day fall. When Stalin died Khrushchev took over as premier. He believed in peaceful co-existence – The east and the west could live in peace even though they did not like each other. - peaceful co-existence relaxed tensions a little

11. The western point of view The Western governments had been opposed to communism well before Stalin took power. They did not want a world wide revolution of workers. After World War II Truman and Churchill both mistrusted Stalin and were angry at his setting up of satellite nations - Churchill referred to Stalin’s tactics as “creating an iron curtain” Many in the west resented the lack of civil rights in the communist nations. They especially were concerned by the lack of religious freedom

12. Western view continued After World War II Truman (1 st cold war President) decided to use a policy of containment towards Communism – the west would not try to invade communist countries but would attempt to prevent it from spreading - an example was the Berlin Airlift The Marshall Plan gave U.S. money to Europe to rebuild after World War II. A main point of this plan was to help nations to become strong enough to prevent Communism from taking over their governments Some historians now believe that Truman used the atomic bomb on Japan to show the Soviets the west was stronger A few years later the Soviets developed their own atomic bombs

13. Miscellaneous During the cold war both sided spent tremendous amounts of money developing weapons - eventually both sides had enough atomic weapons to destroy the world - people lived in fear that the Soviets and Americans would go to war and civilization would quickly be destroyed Some nations stayed neutral during the cold war – neutral nations were called 3 rd world nations example: Switzerland Some Communist nations did not get along well with the Soviets – example China The cold war is over but atomic weapons still exist