The Cold War (US vs USSR)

The Cold War (US vs USSR)

Rivalry begins between US & USSR

• Only two remaining superpowers

  • Superpower: country with military power and political influence

• Different ideologies (capitalism v communism)

• Both fear each other, their motives and the spreading of their ideologies

• Different opinion on path for liberated nations after WWII

  • US – free-election/self-determination

  • USSR – communist buffer

Truman Doctrine

• President Truman is nervous about communism spreading in the Meditteranian region

  • GB is pulling out of area

  • Greece is in the middle of a civil war

• 1947 – Truman Doctrine

  • US will provide money to countries (Greece) threatened by communist expansion

Marshall Plan

• 1947 – proposed by the US Sec of State – George Marshall

• Designed to rebuild the prosperity and stability of war-torn Europe

• Will provide financial aid to European recovery

  • Believes that communism is successful when economic problems exist

Marshall Plan & the Soviet Union

• Aid is available to the USSR and its satellite states (countries economically and politically dependent on another country)

• Soviet Union refuses to participate

  • Sees it as an attempt to buy support for capitalism

• USSR starts its own economic assistance program

  • They don’t have the finances to truly aid other nations

Policy of Containment

• US policy during the Cold War

• Plan to keep communism within its existing and prevent further soviet aggressive moves

The Reign of Stalin

• Resumed the task of increasing industry in the Soviet Union

  • Military, heavy industry, space race, arms race

• The standard of living for Russian people was very low

  • All income was focused on the growth of industry

Division of Germany 

• After WWII – Allies divided Germany into 4 zones: US, USSR, France, GB

  • Berlin

    • Inside USSR zone

    • Also divided into 4 zones

• Allies cannot agree on a peace treaty 

• GB, FR, US zones are combines to create a westGermany 

  • capatalist

  • Includes a W. Berlin

Soviet Response to W. Germany

• Create a blockade around W. Berlin to prevent supplies from reaching the people

• berlin airlift is started

  • US and GB planes fly 200,000 flights in 10  months to air drop supplies into W. Berlin

• USSR finally lifts the blockade

• E. Germany is created

  • Soviet controlled

  • communist

Spread of the Cold War

• 1949 – china becomes communist

• 1949 – USSR explodes their 1st atomic bomb

• arms race begins – both countries will build up their arsenal of weapons to the point where they feel it is impossible to declare war (deterence)

New Military Alliances

• Formed to create alliances during the tense Cold War period 

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization

  • April 1949

    • United States

    • Canada

    • Great Britain

    • Belgium

    • Luxembourg

    • France

    • The Netherlands

    • Italy

    • Denmark

    • Norway

    • Portugal

    • Iceland

  • Later members

    • West Turkey

    • Turkey

    • Greece

Warsaw Pact

• Formed in responses to NATO

  • 1955

    • Soviet Union

    • Albania

    • Bulgaria

    • Czechoslovakia

    • E. Germany

    • Hungary

    • Poland

    • Romania

SEATO

• Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

  • United States

  • Great Britain

  • France

  • Pakistan

  • Thailand

  • Philippines

  • Australia

  • New Zealand

CENTO

• Central Treaty Organization

  • United States

  • Great Britain

  • Turkey

  • Iraq

  • Iran

  • Pakistan

The Khrushchev Era

• Started the policy of de0stanalization

  • Eliminating the ruthless and violence policies of Stalin

• Loosened censorship controls

• Placed more emphasis on consumer goods

• Tried to increase agricultural output

Berlin Wall

• 1955 – Nikita Khrushchev become USSR leader

• E. Germans are fleeing to W. Germany through W. Berlin

  • E. Germany is impoverished; West is successful

• Khrushchev builds a wall around W. Berlin

  • Armed and patrolled

  • Becomes the symbol of the Cold War

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Castro had come to power in Cuba

  • US had attempted to have him removed from power 

    • It failed

• USSR starts to put weapons in Cuba

• US sets up a blockade to stop them

• Creates a tense standoff between nations

  • Closest we came to nuclear war with each other

Vietnam and Domino Theory

• US is becoming involved in the Vietnamese civil war (communism v democracy)

  • Policy of containment

• Domino Theory – if communists are successful in Vietnam than other countries in Asia would fall (like dominoes) to communism as well

• Brings the US into the Vietnam War

Behind the Iron Curtain

• Eastern European countries were controlled by the USSR

  • Satellite states

• They would set up policies similar to Stalin’s throughout their countries

Revolts against Communism

• Eastern European countries resented being exploited for the Soviet Union

• Start to resist after Stalin’s death

• Reform movements and revolutions start to break out in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia

  • The Soviet Union uses force to stop all of them

Western Europe: Recovery

• The Marshall Plan helped Western European countries to recover rapidly

• They have several decades of prosperity following the war

France and de Gaulle

• Charles de Gaulle was the French president (1890 – 1970)

• Work to revise the constitution several times and to rebuild France to a prominent political role

• Helped them to become a major industrial producer and exporter

Economic Miracle: W. Germany

• Post war recovery was fast and successful

• Unemployment dropped from 8 % to .4 %

• Economic expansion – used “guest” workers

  • People on visas from other nations

• Successfully involved in Western European politics

Decline of Great Britain

• WWII destroyed their economy

• Created a modern welfare state – a state in which the government takes responsibility for providing citizens with services and a minimal standard of living

• They retreat from their empire and grant colonies independence

Western Europe: Move toward Unity

• Desired economic unity after WWII

• France, W. Germany, Belgium, Netherland, Luxembourg and Italy created the European Economic Community or the Common Market

  • No tariffs, no import charges

  • Becomes and important trading bloc (group of nations with a common purpose)

Detente

• 1970’s relaxation of tensions and improved relations between the US and USSR

Brezhnev Era

• Protected communism throughout the world 

• Lessoned control due to détente

• The economy was still hurting

• The communist party was extremely corrupt

• Reform was necessary for the people and the government

Cold War Re-intensifies

• 1979 - USSR invaded Afghanistan to restore a pro-Soviet government

  • US saw this as expansion and didn’t attend the 1980 Moscow Olympics

• 1980 – Reagan is elected US President

  • Called USSR evil empire

  • Reinstated the arms race

Gorbachev and Perestroika

• Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR in 1985

  • Worked for radical reforms

  • Called it Perestroika (restructuring)

    • Allowed for competing political parties

    • Allowed for elections

    • Created a market economy with partial private ownership of businesses

    • Created a position of President

• Stopped supporting communist governments in Eastern Europe

• Reunified Germany in 1990

End of the Cold War

• USSR had a new approach to foreign policy and worked to end the arms race to help them economically

  • USSR – national debt had tripled 

  • US – went from a creditor nation to the largest debtor nation

  • Imports more rather than exports more

End of the Soviet Union

• Gorbachev had a difficult time dealing with the nationalist movements with the empire

• Due to his reforms, conservative communists tried to overthrow him

  • Boris Yeltsin (President of Russian Republic) saved his leadership

• Many Soviet territories began to vote for independence

• 1991 – USSR “ceased to exist”; Gorbachev stepped down

  • Boris Yeltsin became Russian President

The New Russia

• Yeltsin introduced a free market economy

  • Organized crime increased

• Used force to stop Chechnya from leaving Russia

• Yeltsin stepped down in 1999

• Vladimir Putin elected in 2000

  • Wants to be more assertive internationally

  • Works to boost the economy

  • Joined the international World Trade Organization