The Cold War: Main Idea

1. The Cold War: Main Idea Once partners in war, the Soviet Union and the other former Allies found it much more difficult to cooperate in peace. The result was an era of conflict and confrontation called the Cold War. Cold War: Period of conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States in which they do not directly attack one another.

2. COLD WAR INTRO

4. COMMUNISM VS CAPITALISM

5. Potsdam Conference • Determine post war trial: Nuremburg Trial for Holocaust Crimes • Determine the post-war governments of the Eastern European nations

6. The Iron Curtain Buffer Zone (Shield or Sponge) Soviet Bloc Iron Curtain • Democratic or Communist? • Soviet Union had been invaded by Germany in both WWI and WWII. • Wanted buffer zone of friendly governments to guard against another attack • Stalin promised to respect Eastern Europeans’ right to choose governments • More likely scenario: Stalin just wanted to spread Communism

9. President Truman announced Truman Doctrine—pledge to provide economic, military aid to oppose spread of communism Congress agreed to send aid to countries on “the fence.” Marshall Plan provided $13 billion for rebuilding Europe Containment – A pledge to prevent the spread of Communism around the world Domino Theory – Belief that if one nation “fell” to Communism, neighboring nations would soon follow. The West Resists

10. After the second world war, Germany was divided into two halves, East and West Germany. Then Berlin was divided into four zones and occupied by Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. East and West Germany

12. Early Cold War Confrontations • Early Rejection of the Marshall Plan by the Soviets leads to conflict • “Truman is trying to “buy” a pro U.S. Alignment in Europe -Stalin • The Currency Crisis: Reichsmark-Deutsche Mark-? • Soviets reject the introduction of the Deutsche Mark • Leads to a Blockade of West Berlin by the Soviet Union -Block of land, rail, and water routes • Plan: Force the West to leave Berlin for good • West response: The Berlin Airlift • Airlift successful: Soviets call off Blockade

13. To counter the blockade, the western powers organized and airlifted a total of 2,326,406 tons of food, coal, passengers, and other items into the city in a total of 278,228 flights. The mission was known as a success and nicknamed "Operation Vittles" by the United States. The Soviets did not respond to the airlift to try to stop it. Mainly because they believe that it would fail, and interfering could trigger a war. At the height of the airlift, planes flew around the clock in four hour blocks taking off and landing every 90 seconds. Berlin Airlift

14. The Soviets officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements remaining in Germany. However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection to Western Germany after WWII. THE BERLIN WALL 1961 - 1989

15. New Nations and Alliances • U.S., Canada, most Western European countries joined in military alliance—North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO —designed to counter Soviet power in Europe • 1955, Soviet Union, Communistnations of Eastern Europe formed own alliance, Warsaw Pact NATO VS WARSAW PACT

17. War in Korea • June 1950, North Koreans attacked South Korea • Eisenhower: “We’ll have a dozen Koreas soon if we don’t take a firm stand.”

18. 1 & 2) MacArthur at Inchon • UN formed military force; troops from 17 nations sent to Korea • 4 Stages to the Korean War • Inchon • Truman was concerned that such actions would draw the Soviet Union into the conflict and risk nuclear war. • MacArthur disagreed with Truman publicly. • MacArthur will issue an ultimatum to China. • MacArthur will be relieved of his duties. • "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away…” • 4) Stalemate at 38th parallel • With support from China, a stalemate is created at the 38th parallel • 3) The Push towards the Yalu River • The UN offensive greatly concerned the Chinese, who worried that the UN forces would not stop at the Yalu Riverand might extend into China.

20. The Space & Arms Race The “One Up” Game

21. The Arms Race Begins During the 1950s and early 1960s nuclear war seemed to draw ever closer as the Soviet Union and the United States raced to develop powerful new weapons. This rivalry between the world’s two superpowers became increasingly tense—and dangerous. The Nuclear Arms Race • 1945, U.S. has Atomic Bomb • 1949, Soviets successfully tested atomic bomb • 1952, U.S. has Hydrogen Bomb • Less than 1 –year later, Soviets have Hydrogen Bomb The U.S. technological advantage was short-lived. Less than one year later the Soviets tested their own hydrogen bomb.

24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=activehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

25. Growing Threat of Nuclear War • Built bomb shelters to help protect from nuclear explosion • Schools led air-raid drills to prepare for possible Soviet attack • Books, movies, comic books had plots centered on dangers of radiation, nuclear war “If we go on with this race, there won't be a winner!”

26. Soviet Union Launches Sputnik Soviet Union Launches Sputnik Sputnik, history’s first artificial satellite—object orbiting earth Soviet military technology now feared to be in the lead U.S. government established National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA Agency would eventually return United States to forefront of space research In October 1957 the arms race took another leap forward with the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik.

28. Yuri Gagarin On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He received medals from around the world for his pioneering tour in space.

30. NUGGET: Astronauts cannot burp in space.

31. Bay of Pigs Invasion • Invasion of Cuba • Leader of Cuba: Fidel Castro • Ultimately will be a dismal failure • What happens… • Castro took control of Cuba in January of 1959, and in 1960 he took over U.S. oil refineriesin Cuba. • As a result, the United States stopped buying Cuban sugar. • Castro responded by taking over all of U.S. businesses in Cuba. • This led President Kennedy to authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. • In April 1961, the United States attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow premier Fidel Castro. • “Surprise attack” goes horribly wrong • Castro defeats the invasion

32. Until President Kennedy was killed, it wasn’t a federal crime to assassinate the President.

34. Cuban Missile Crisis • 13 days of intense fear and uncertainty • Nikita Krushchev of the Soviet Union places MRBMs in Cuba for several reasons. • 1) countering an emerging lead of the U.S. in developing and deploying missiles (Arms Race) • 2) To prevent another invasion of what is now Communist Cuba • 3) To rid the U.S. of their missile base in Turkey • Kennedy is shown photos of the missile bases in Cuba • Kennedy responds on television and issues the following: 1) any attack from Cuba means the U.S. and the Soviet Union are at war! 2) U.S. Navy will blockade Cuba until missiles are removed • Kruschev suggests a removal if the U.S. does the following: 1) remove missiles in Turkey 2) U.S. assurance of never invading Cuba again 3) Cuban blockade removed • Kennedy agrees ending the Cuban Missile Crisis

36. THE VIETNAM WAR Summary of Events

37. Imperialism and Colonialism • The Vietnam War has roots in Vietnam’s centuries of domination by imperial and colonial powers—first China, which ruled ancient Vietnam, and then France, which took control of Vietnam in the late 1800s and established French Indochina. • In the early 1900s, nationalist movements emerged in Vietnam, demanding more self-governance and less French influence. • The most prominent of these was led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, who founded a militant nationalist organization called the Viet Minh. Ho Chi Minh

38. The First Indochina War • During World War II, when France was occupied by Nazi Germany, it lost its foothold in Vietnam, and Japan took control of the country. • The Viet Minh resisted these Japanese oppressors and extended its power base throughout Vietnam. (with the help of the U.S.) • When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II in 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s forces took the capital of Hanoi and declared Vietnam to be an independent country, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. • France refused to recognize Ho’s declaration and returned to Vietnam, driving Ho’s Communist forces into northern Vietnam. • Ho appealed for aid from the UnitedStates, but because the United States was embroiled in the escalating Cold War with the Communist USSR, it distrusted Ho’s Communist leanings and aided the French instead. • Fighting between Ho’s forces and the French continued in this First Indochina War until 1954, when a humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu prompted France to seek a peace settlement.

39. Divided Vietnam • The Geneva Accords of 1954 declared a cease-fire and divided Vietnam officially into North Vietnam (under Ho and his Communist forces) and South Vietnam (under a French-backed emperor). • The dividing line was set at the 17th parallel and was surrounded by a demilitarized zone, or DMZ. The Geneva Accords stipulated that the divide was temporary and that Vietnam was to be reunified under “free elections” to be held in 1956. • The Cold War and the Domino Theory • U.S. policy at the time was dominated by the domino theory, which believed that the “fall” of North Vietnam to Communism might trigger all of Southeast Asia to fall, setting off a sort of Communist chain reaction. • Within a year of the Geneva Accords, the United States therefore began to offer support to the anti-Communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem. • With “U.S. assistance”, Diem took control of the South Vietnamese government in 1955, declared the Republic of Vietnam, and promptly canceled the elections that had been scheduled for 1956. • Why cancel?

40. The Diem Regime • Diem’s regime proved corrupt, oppressive, and extremely unpopular. • Nonetheless, the United States continued support, fearful of the increasing Communist resistance activity. • This resistance against Diem’s regime was organized by the Ho Chi Minh–backed National Liberation Front, which became more commonly known as the Viet Cong or V.C. or “Victor Charlie”. • In 1962, U.S. president John F. Kennedy sent American “military advisors” to Vietnam to help train the South Vietnamese army, but quickly realized that the Diem regime was unsalvageable. • Therefore, in 1963, the United States backed a coup that “overthrew” Diem and installed a new leader. • The new U.S.-backed leaders proved just as corrupt and ineffective. Johnson and U.S. Escalation • After Kennedy’s assassination, Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, pledged to honor Kennedy’s commitments but hoped to keep U.S. involvement in Vietnam to a minimum. • After North Vietnamese forces allegedly attacked U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, however, Johnson was given carte blanche in the form of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and began to send U.S. troops to Vietnam. • Bombing campaigns such as 1965’s Operation Rolling Thunder ensued, and the conflict escalated. Johnson’s “Americanization” of the war led to a presence of nearly 400,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam by the end of 1966.

41. Quagmire and Attrition • As the United States became increasingly mired in Vietnam, it pursued a strategy of attrition, attempting to bury the Vietnamese Communist forces under an avalanche of casualties. However, the Viet Cong’s guerrilla tactics frustrated and demoralized U.S. troops, while its dispersed, largely rural presence left American bomber planes with few targets. The United States therefore used unconventional weapons such as napalm and the herbicide defoliant Agent Orange but still managed to make little headway. • The Tet Offensive (U.S. Wins…But Loses???) • In 1968, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched a massive campaign called the Tet Offensive, attacking nearly thirty U.S. targets and dozens of other cities in South Vietnam at once. Although the United States pushed back the offensive and won a tactical victory, American media coverage characterized the conflict as a defeat, and U.S. public support for the war plummeted. Morale among U.S. troops also hit an all-time low, manifesting itself tragically in the 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which frustrated U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a small village.

44. The Antiwar Movement • Meanwhile, the antiwar movement within the United States gained momentum as student protesters, countercultural hippies, and even many mainstream Americans denounced the war. Protests against the war and the military draft grew increasingly violent, resulting in police brutality outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and the deaths of four students at Kent State University in 1970 when Ohio National Guardsmen fired on a crowd. Despite the protests, Johnson’s successor, President Richard M. Nixon, declared that a “silent majority” of Americans still supported the war. • Vietnamization and U.S. Withdrawal • Nonetheless, Nixon promoted a policy of Vietnamization of the war, promising to withdraw U.S. troops gradually and hand over management of the war effort to the South Vietnamese. Although Nixon made good on his promise, he also illegally expanded the geographic scope of the war by authorizing the bombing of Viet Cong sites in the neutral nations of Cambodia and Laos, all without the knowledge or consent of the U.S. Congress. The revelation of these illegal actions, along with the publication of the secret Pentagon Papers in U.S. newspapers in 1971, caused an enormous scandal in the United States and forced Nixon to push for a peace settlement.

45. The End of the Vietnam War • The Cease-fire and the Fall of Saigon • This cease-fire was finally signed in January 1973, and the last U.S. military personnel left Vietnam in March 1973. • The U.S. government continued to fund the South Vietnamese army, but this funding quickly dwindled. Meanwhile, as President Nixon became embroiled in the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation in August 1974, North Vietnamese forces stepped up their attacks on the South and finally launched an all-out offensive in the spring of 1975. On April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, who reunited the country under Communist rule as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, ending the Vietnam War.

49. 4,000 Years of Democracy in 90 Seconds India is the largest current democracy in the world.

50. Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Perestroika: (restructuring of the Soviet political and economic systems) Glasnost: (freedom of speech or openness) 1) The Economy : The economy of the USSR was severely stunted by the continued arms buildups to stay on par with the capabilities of the United States. 2) The War in Afghanistan: United States’ “Vietnam War or “The Bear Trap” Dissatisfaction and Change The dissatisfaction and distrust of the people in the Soviet system lead to a withdrawal of support of the central government of Russia in the affairs of the Eastern Block countries. Soon many of the Soviet Block such as: Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, East Germany and Bulgaria had their communist governments removed in public elections.