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
  • This is a test :: Hopefully it will work.
    • 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

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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

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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

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SEATO

  • Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

    • United States
    • Great Britain
    • France
    • Pakistan
    • Thailand
    • Philippines
    • Australia
    • New Zealand

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CENTO

  • Central Treaty Organization

    • United States
    • Great Britain
    • Turkey
    • Iraq
    • Iran
    • Pakistan

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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