1945 - Present

1. 1945 - Present The Modern Era

2. 1945 – A Critical Year • Yalta Conference • The “Big Three” • Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt • Germany divided into 4 zones (US, GB, FR, USSR) • Stalin promised free elections • United Nations created 1945 (replaced League) • US – 400,000 casualties • USSR – 1 in 4 dead, country in ruins

3. Conflicting Postwar Goals • The American View • Establish democracy to open up economic opportunity • The Soviet View • Satellite nations – spread communism

4. Cold War • The Iron Curtain • Winston Churchill – division between democracy and communism • East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania • Containment Policy • Prevent spread of communism • Support any nation threatened by communism • Also known as the Truman Doctrine

6. Issues Abroad • Europe in ruins • The Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe • Strengthen democracies to stop communism • Improve economies • $13 billion in loans and grants to Western Europe

7. 3 western zones merged (US, GB, FR) USSR angry Stalin closes access to West Berlin – people were escaping Berlin Blockade US & GB send supplies through Berlin Airlift 1949 Stalin lifts ban Issues Abroad

9. Political struggle short of military action or war Spying, propaganda, diplomacy, secret operations NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)- Collective Security Former WWII allies Warsaw Pact “satellite” nations Start of Cold War

10. Threat of Nuclear War • Arms Race • 1949 – USSR develops atomic weapons • 1953 – USSR develops hydrogen bomb • Eisenhower – 1953 • US would retaliate against any aggression by the USSR • Brinkmanship – showed US was willing to go to war

11. Pictures of bombs

12. 1957 – USSR launches Sputnik Yuri Gagarin – first man in space Science, math and technology race 1961 – First American, Alan Shepherd in space 1963 – John Glenn orbits the earth The Space Race

13. Laika and Gagarin

14. Glenn & Landing at Sea

15. The Space Race • 1969 – Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11) becomes first man to walk on the moon • Setbacks for NASA • 1986 – Challenger explodes • 2003 - Columbia explodes

17. 1960 – USSR shoots down U-2 spy plane Gary F. Powers captured Later released Heightens tensions between US/USSR Tensions

18. Communism Advances • China • Civil War – Jiang Jieshi vs. Mao Zedong • Had cooperated during war against Japan • 1949 falls to Communists • People’s Republic of China (Communist) • Republic of China (Taiwan)

19. China • Mao sets up a strict communist state • Millions of landlords killed, land distributed to the peasants • Great Leap Forward • Collective farms, communes • Communal living, dining, child rearing • Cultural Revolution – Peasant society • Intellectual and artistic activity were the enemy • “Purify” those who resisted • Red Guard – militia units of young people

21. China

22. Division along 38th parallel Soviets support N. Korean invasion of South in 1950 Truman feared another “Axis” situation UN sent forces under Douglas Macarthur China also supports NK Pursued across 38th parallel Korean War 1950-1953

23. Korean War • Chinese feel threatened; also sent troops • Pushed UN forces back toward 38th parallel • MacArthur wants a nuclear attack • Fired by Truman • War continues for 2 more years • 1953 – Cease-fire • 4 million dead, line back where it started • N. Korea develops nuclear weapons; south prospers w/US help • Kim Jong Il

25. Korean War Memorial DC

26. Part of containment policy (like Korea) French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) Independence movement led by Ho Chi Minh Communists and Nationalists fought French 1954 – Defeated French at Dien Bien Phu Vietnam War

27. Domino Theory – US feared that if Vietnam fell to communists, all of Southeast Asia would Vietnam divided at 17th parallel Ngo Din Diem – S. Vietnam, anti-communist; supported by U.S. Vietnam War

28. Diem – dictator Unpopular Buddhist monks protested (self-immolation) Communist guerillas (Vietcong) grew stronger Diem assassinated in 1963 Vietnam War

29. Kennedy Assassinated 1963

31. 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Lyndon Johnson tells Congress that US destroyers were attacked by Vietnamese boats 1965 – US sends troops By 1968 – over ½ millions troops in VN Guerilla tactics Ho Chi Minh Trail brought supplies Vietnam War

35. Vietnam War “Light at the end of the tunnel” – led Americans to believe war was nearly over 1968 – Tet Offensive Nixon - Vietnamization – plan to remove US troops from Vietnam War spreads to Cambodia Unpopular at home – protests, draft card burnings, draft-dodgers Kent State killings – 4 students killed by National Guard

38. Vietnam War • 1973 – Last troops leave Vietnam • 1975 – N. Vietnamese overran Vietnam • Saigon becomes Ho Chi Minh City • 1.5 million Vietnamese dead • 58,000 Americans dead

43. Post War Southeast Asia • Cambodia – Communist rebels known as Khmer Rouge set up brutal communist government • Pol Pot slaughtered 2 million people in attempt to convert to communism • Peasants moved to the countryside • Intellectuals, educated killed • The Killing Fields • Cambodia and Laos fall to Communism

44. Cambodia

45. Other Conflicts • 1959 – Fidel Castro leads communist revolution in Cuba • 1961- Bay of Pigs – failed US CIA backed plan to overthrow Castro • Nuclear face off – The Cuban Missile Crisis • 1962 – Khrushchev (USSR) begins building missile bases in Cuba • Standoff between John F. Kennedy and Castro • Castro backed down; US missiles removed from Turkey

48. U.S. backed Shah of Iran westernizes the country 1979 – Ayatollah Khomeini urges riots against secular rule Shah flees Iran Islamic revolutionaries seize 60 American hostages for 444 days Other Conflicts