The Post WWII World

1. The Post WWII World Part I Containing Communism

4. THE COLD WAR What was it & why did it happen? Part I

5. What was the COLD WAR? • Who was it between? • The US (and their allies) vs. USSR (and their allies) • What were they doing? • State of conflict, tension and competition • When did this occur? • 1940s-early 1990s • Why were they fighting? • Each country wanted to spread and promote its goals and influence around the world

6. What was the COLD WAR? • How did they “fight” a cold war? • Military coalitions • Espionage • Weapons development • Technological development • Space Race • Also included “proxy” wars • Nuclear arms race • And of course….PROPAGANDA

8. Soviet Expansion • Stalin expresses desire to create “buffer zone” of “friendly nations” • Satellite nations • Actually under the control of the Soviet Union

9. An Iron Curtain • Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech marks the start of the Cold War • Speech given in Missouri • Symbolized the ideological boundary separating Europe post WWII • Expressed the vast philosophical ideologies

10. e) Churchill’s phrase “iron curtain” came to represent Europe’s division into mostly 1) Democratic Western Europe 2) Communist Eastern Europe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvax5VUvjWQ

14. How did the U.S. view Stalin and his Communist regime?

15. Cold War Propaganda – Pop Culture Nikolai Volkoff Hulk Hogan 1980 US Hockey

16. Cold War Propaganda – Movies

17. The Soviet Union point-of-view “All communist parties must take the lead in resisting the plans of American imperialist expansion and aggression in all spheres…its basic aim is the establishment of the world domination of American imperialism and the smashing of our freedom (1947).”

18. Truman, Stalin, and Churchill met at Potsdam, Germany, in July 1945. c) Truman pressed Stalin to permit free elections in Eastern Europe. d) The Soviet leader refused.

19. In a speech in early 1946, Stalin declared that communism and capitalism could not exist in the same world.

21. Truman Doctrine [1947] • Civil War in Greece. • Turkey under pressure from the USSR for concessions in the Dardanelles. • The U. S. should support free peoples throughout the world who were resisting takeovers by armed minorities or outside pressures…We must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. • The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey $400 million in aid.

22. Marshall Plan [1948] • “European Recovery Program.” • Secretary of State, George Marshall • The U. S. should provide aid to all European nations that need it. This move is not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. • $12.5 billion of US aid to Western Europe extended to Eastern Europe & USSR, [but this was rejected].

23. NATO is going to be challenged….. • North Atlantic Treaty Organization • 1949 • 10 W. Euro. democracies and US & Canada • Defensive military alliance • standardization of allied militaries and technology: AKA adopting U.S. practices • Still exists • www.nato.int

24. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949) • United States • Belgium • Britain • Canada • Denmark • France • Iceland • Italy • Luxemburg • Netherlands • Norway • Portugal • 1952: Greece & Turkey • 1955: West Germany • 1983: Spain

25. Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (1955–1991) 8 communist states DEFENSE treaty in USSR & Eastern Europe Member states: Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Communist response to NATO 1961 Berlin Wall is built Warsaw Pact

26. Warsaw Pact (1955) • East Germany • Hungary • Poland • Rumania • U. S. S. R. • Albania • Bulgaria • Czechoslovakia

27. The Ideological Struggle Soviet & Eastern Bloc Nations[“Iron Curtain”] US & the Western Democracies GOAL “Containment”of Communism & the eventual collapse of the Communist world.[George Kennan] GOAL spread world-wide Communism • METHODOLOGIES: • Espionage [KGB vs. CIA] • Arms Race [nuclear escalation] • Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts of Third World peoples [Communist govt. & command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist economy]  “proxy wars” • Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]

31. Early US Response • Containment (1946) • Goal was to restrict Soviet expansion

32. Crisis in Berlin • USSR opposes Allied plan to create West German govt. • (6/1948) USSR blocks traffic to and from W. Berlin • Berlin Airlift – Allies drop 2 tons of food over 10 month period • 1949 – German division = West Germany and East Germany (USSR) • 1955 West Germany granted full independence

33. Berlin Airlift!1948, France, Britain & U.S. decided to withdraw forces • allow their occupation zones to form one nation. • Soviet Union responded by holding West Berlin hostage • Soviet Union cut off highway, water, and rail traffic into Berlin’s western zones. • American & British officials flew food and supplies into West Berlin for nearly 11 months.

34. Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-49)

35. Post-War Germany

36. May 1949, the Soviet Unionadmitted defeat and lifted the blockade. 31 Americans lost their lives during the Berlin Airlift

39. Stalin’s successor: Nikita Khrushchev 1953 - 1964

40. B. Soviet Policy in Eastern Europe & China • DeStalinization & Rumblings of Protest • Stalin died in 1953 • Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet leader. • 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalin for jailing and killing loyal Soviet citizens.

41. d) His speech signaled the start of a policy called Destalinization (1) purging the country of Stalin’s memory (2) Workers destroyed monuments of the former dictator e) Khrushchev called for “peaceful competition” with capitalist states.

43. The Berlin Wall! • 1961, East Germany built a WALL that separated the two cities • Massiveconcrete barrier • Topped with barbed wire & patrolled by guards

44. The Berlin Wall Goes Up (1961) CheckpointCharlie

45. 1961 - Berlin Wall • On August 15, communist authorities begin construction on the Berlin Wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin.

46. 5,000 people successfully defected, 100 – 200 deaths trying to escape

47. Another Crisis in Berlin • Crossing Over • After Communist East Germany, democratic West Germany formed in 1949, tens of thousands of East Germans crossed from East to West Berlin • Some wanted to live in free nation, other simply wanted to find work • Berlin Wall • By 1961, up to 1,000 per day made daily trip between homes in East Germany, jobs in West Berlin • To stop exodus, East Germany erected barrier between two halves of city • Communist Brutality • Barrier, Berlin Wall, heavily guarded • Anyone attempting to cross risked being shot by East German guards • Succeeded in slowing flight of East Germans, became symbol of Communist system brutality

48. The Arms Race:A “Missile Gap?” • The Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb in 1949. • Now there were two nuclear superpowers!

49. The Threat of Nuclear War • The hydrogen or H-bomb would be thousands of times more powerful than the A-bomb • In 1952, the United States tested the first H-bomb • The Soviets exploded their own in 1953.

50. The Arms Race Begins The Nuclear Arms Race Hydrogen Bomb • 1949, Soviets successfully tested atomic bomb • Great military advantage of U.S. over Soviet Union gone • U.S. sought to develop even more powerful weapons • Atomic bombs used energy created by splitting atoms • Nuclear fusion—larger explosion • 1952, U.S. tested first fusion-powered hydrogen bomb, vaporizing island on which tested 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 U.S. technological advantage was short-lived. Less than one year later the Soviets tested their own hydrogen bomb.