The Cold War Begins

1. The Cold War Begins

2. When WWII ended in 1945, Canadians celebrated! • Why? • We had won the war. • Canada was stronger than ever. • They believed a new era of peace and prosperity was about to begin. • But... • Almost immediately, a new type of war began.

4. Why did this happen? • For the first time in history, the world was dominated by 2 superpowers: • USA • USSR (Soviet Union) • By 1949, both superpowers had the ability to build nuclear weapons and inflict mass destruction. • The two superpowers had different political and economic ideologies.

5. USA • The USA was democratic and capitalist: • Democracy: The government is elected by and responsible to the people. • Capitalism: Economy is based on private enterprise. • Individuals do whatever they want to do with their money (economic freedom).

7. USSR • The USSR was a communist dictatorship: • Dictatorship: The government is led by one man who has control of the military and the police. There are no fair elections. • Communist: The government controls owns and controls the economy. All citizens share equally (economic equality)

9. Results: • Capitalist countries were suspicious of communists. • They believed communists might try to overthrow their governments through a world revolution. • Communists in the USSR were suspicious of democracies. • They believed that western countries might try to invade the USSR through East Germany or that they might try to overthrow the Soviet government through a counter-revolution.

10. How did the USSR try to protect itself? • It took over the countries of eastern Europe near its borders. • It established communist puppet governments in these countries, and turned them into satellite states. • It supported the establishment of communist governments in other countries, such as China.

12. The USA and USSR hated each other, but • Because both sides were able to destroy each other, they never directly fought each other. • Instead, they competed for influence in other parts of the world. • This competition is what became known as the Cold War. It lasted over 40 years!

14. How did the USA try to protect itself? • The American view of the Cold War was dominated by two ideas: • Containment: Contain communism by • preventing its spread to other countries. • Domino Theory: Once a country is pulled into the communist camp, surrounding countries will follow.

16. Result: • The USA took action to stop the spread of communism in its home front and in other countries (Greece, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam...) • The USA also tried to enforce the policy of containment through: • The Truman Doctrine: • A policy to help people around the world resist communism. The help came in the form of economic and military aid. • The Marshall Plan: • The USA offered billions of dollars in aid to war-torn European economies to help them resist communism.

18. The Cold War in North America • USA • The USA was swept up by anti-communist hysteria. This hysteria, or fear, became known as “The Red Scare”. • The Committee of Un-American Activities was established to root out communists from American society. • The leader of this committee, Joseph McCarthy, terrified Americans by talking about secret lists of communists in government, universities, the entertainment industry, and even the girl scouts.

20. Results: • USA • McCarthy led a “witch hunt” against communists in the USA. • Anyone suspected of being a communist could be persecuted, blacklisted, and fired. • This “witch hunt” became known as McCarthyism.

21. The Cold War in North America • CANADA • Canadians also feared the spread of communism, but was never outlawed here. • In 1949, Canadian PM Louis St. Laurent, reminded Canadians that such tactics were undemocratic trademarks of dictatorships.

22. The Cold War in North America • CANADA • Canadians became aware of the danger of communism at home as a result of the Guzenko Affair. • In 1945, Igor Guzenko, a clerk working at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, asked the Canadian government for asylum in return for information about two Soviet spy rings that were operating on Canadian soil.

25. The Cold War in North America • Results of the Guzenko Affair: • Union leaders were under suspicion • Defence industries secretly sent lists of their workers to the government for screening • Workers suspected of having communist sympathies were dismissed without being given a reason • The RCMP has a special branch that watched those who were considered security risks: • Union leaders • Peace activists • Intellectuals • Artists

26. November 8, 2007 OTTAWA -- The RCMP spied on CBC and Radio Canada employees for years and was convinced at one point that communists had infiltrated the CBC in Montreal, according to secret documents that have just been released.Moreover, it appears that senior CBC managers knew that the Mounties routinely investigated the political views of staff members such as Rene Levesque and kept such “adverse records” in personnel reports on file long after the employees had left the broadcaster.In one heavily censored 1958 report marked “secret” and titled “CBC Montreal -- Collaboration of Officials with Known Communists” the force says conclusively that there were communists working for the public broadcaster.“If the present report serves no other purpose, it does establish beyond reasonable doubt the presence of Communists in the CBC and their active conspiracy to use its facilities for Communist purposes,” wrote the author, whose name was blacked out. “It would, therefore, give some measure of reassurance to the Minister that there is at least a proven intended threat to security on the part of such persons as (blacked out) and perhaps others as yet unknown to us.”

27. The Cold War in North America • In Quebec: • Premier Duplessis took many steps to fight the spread of communism: • Police raided homes and businesses in search of revolutionary materials. • The “Padlock Law” was used to shut down suspected organizations and businesses. • Duplessis even blamed the communists when a poorly constructed bridge collapsed in 1951.

29. International Reactions to the Cold War • In the West: • Western democracies were afraid of the spread of communism, so the USA pushed them towards the founding of a new alliance in 1949: • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

30. NATO • What was it like? • Any attack on a NATO member was considered an attack on all NATO members. • If conventional weapons were not sufficient for victory, tactical nuclear weapons would be used. • Total nuclear war would be used as a last resort.

32. NATO • Canada’s Role: • Canada kept an army brigade and several air squadrons in Europe. • Canada built and supplied several military bases overseas. • The Canadian military tracked to movement of Soviet submarines in the Pacific Ocean.

33. Warsaw Pact • USSR’s Response: • The USSR felt threatened by NATO and decided to create its own, communist alliance: The Warsaw Pact. • What was its purpose? • To protect the communist countries from an attack by NATO.

35. Consequences: • The Northern Hemisphere was divided in two: • The border between the two hostile camps became known as “The Iron Curtain”. • Armies on both sides constantly practiced for war and built more powerful weapons. • It was hoped that this new arms race would lead to peace because it would create two situations: • Nuclear parity • MAD (mutually assured destruction)