Peace with Problems: 1945-1960

1. Peace with Problems: 1945-1960 Chapter 15 Section 1

2. International Peace Efforts • Having fought in two horrible World Wars, the United States and its allies wanted to ensure that future world peace would be built on a firm foundation. • The United Nations replaced the League of Nations after World War II.

3. The United Nations is similar in purpose to the League of Nations because representatives from the member nations would meet to settle disputes and stop acts of aggression like those that had led to World War II.

4. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council were the Soviet Union (now Russia), Great Britain, France, China, and the United States.

5. The significance of the Senate vote approving U.S. membership into the United Nations is that by the vote approving U.S. membership in the United Nations marked a departure from the policy of isolationism and the assumption of a world leadership role by the United States.

6. It included civil and political rights such as freedom of speech and religion, freedom of movement and asylum (protection granted by a government to a political refugee from another country), equality before the law, the right to a fair trial, the right to participate in government, and the right not to be subjected to torture. The Declaration of Human Rights

7. The television series 24 has raised a lot of questions of our government’s role in torture.

8. The document also included such economic, social, and cultural rights as the right to have food, clothing, housing, and medical care, to receive an education, to benefit from social security and a decent standing of living, to work, to get equal pay for equal work, to form labor unions, to marry and raise a family, and to maintain one’s culture.

9. Eleanor Roosevelt in 1945 was appointed as the United States representative to the newly formed United Nations.

10. In 1946 Eleanor Roosevelt was elected as chairman of the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission.

11. Human Rights • Refugees are displaced people who fled their countries because of fear of persecution based on their ethnicity, religion, nationality, or political affiliation.

13. The UN General Assembly in 1951 created the United Nations High Commissioner for helping refugees.

14. Yalta Conference • Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were the “big three” who met in the Yalta Conference.

17. What is the message from this political cartoon?

18. Potsdam Conference • President Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were the big three” who met in the Potsdam Conference.

21. These two conferences took place so that a decisions could be made on how to treat a defeated Germany and Japan after the war.

22. Some people were upset with Franklin Roosevelt after the Yalta Conference because they accused Franklin Roosevelt of conceding too much to the Soviet Union, practically inviting the Soviets to occupy Poland and dominate the countries of Eastern Europe as “spheres of influence.”

23. Defenders of Roosevelt argued that the Soviet Union also made an important concession at Yalta. • The Soviets agreed that, after the defeat of Germany, they would begin to wage war against Japan to help the allied powers.

24. Furthermore, Soviet troops were in Eastern Europe when the Yalta Conference took place. • Roosevelt did not “give away” Eastern Europe to the Soviets; in effect, the region was already theirs.

25. The origins of the cold war can be traced back to distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II. The Soviets distrusted all capitalist countries, while the U.S. and Britain feared Soviet plans for expansion in Eastern Europe. Possession of nuclear weapons was also a sore point between the two superpowers, as each competed to develop deadlier weapons than the other possessed. The Origins of the Cold War

29. Examples of how the United States and the Soviet Union fought each other during the Cold War • They had an arms race: Attempting to build more powerful nuclear weapons than those of the enemy. • Local and regional wars: Giving military aid either to rebel forces or government forces, depending on which side in a civil war leaned toward communism.

30. Espionage: Spying on each other. • Propaganda: Creating and distributing messages that condemned the opposing nation and its way of life. • Space race: Attempting to impress world public opinion by being the first to make gains in space exploration.

33. Sputnik 2

34. Laika in her Sputnik 2 capsule

35. Russian Cosmonaut

39. Disputes in the United Nations: Using meetings of the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council to condemn actions of the rival power.

40. These Cold War tactics dominated the political arena during the years 1945 to 1989. • Satellite Nation- A nation in Eastern Europe controlled by the Soviet Union after World War II.

41. Seven Eastern Europe nations were now under control of the Soviet Union and considered satellite nations. • Germany was a satellite nation as well. • It split into two parts after World War II in which Eastern Germany was now under Soviet (Communist) control and the Western side was a freely elected democratic section.

43. The Russians used occupation troops in Eastern Europe to achieve political control of that region.

45. The term was first used in 1946 by Winston Churchill; it compared Soviet control and isolation of Eastern Europe to an “iron curtain.” Iron Curtain

46. Containment was a postwar U.S. policy that tried to limit Soviet expansion, while at the same time, avoiding armed conflict. • Can you give some examples of United States containment policies that have led to wars?

47. Truman Doctrine- U.S. military and economic aid to Eastern European nations to contain Soviet expansion in that region. • Marshall Plan- A large-scale U.S. program of economic assistance designed to strengthen Western Europe against the rise of Soviet power.

48. Common Market- An economic union of six Western European nations, designed to promote growth. Also known as the European Economic Community.

50. The Berlin Airlift- Soviets would not allow Allies to use land routes to bring supplies to the people of Berlin in the hopes that the United States would abandon West Berlin. • Truman refused to abandon the city and the United States sent food and other vital supplies by air and drop them to the people. • Eventually the Soviets ended their land blockade to the city.