AP World The Cold War

lessons 2-4

the Cold War

• U.S. v Soviet Union
  no actual “hot” fighting against eachother directly

USSR Goals: stop capitalism and spread communism

U.S. Goals: stop communism and spread capitalism

United Nations

dedicated to cooperation in solving international conflicts

American Post-War Goals

• wanted conquered European nations to experience the democracy and economic opportunity

• wanted to develop strong capitalist economies, which would provide markets for American products

Soviet Post War Goals

• wanted to rebuild europe in ways that would help the USSR revover from the huge losses of WW2

• wanted to establish Soviet satellite nations, countries subject to Soviet domination and sympathetic to Soviet goals

• wanted to promote and spread communism worldwide

Iron Curtain Speech

• explains the divide between capitalist western Europe and communist eastern europe

• “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron curtain has descended across the continent”

People’s Republic of China

• 1949- creation of the communist part in China and signing of the Sino-Soviet treaty of Frienship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance

• communist party of china, founded by Mao Zendong

the Domino Effect

if one nation falls (becomes communism) its neighbors are sure to follow

Berlin

postwar division of Germany, the citythy of berlin located in communist east Germany was divided into west Berlin (capitalist) and east Berlin (communism)

Methods of stopping the spread of communism

• arms race

• alliances

• spending money

• conflict

• coercion/convincing

Arms Race

• building up armed forces as a detterent to your enemy. Includes the building and testing of nuclear weapons

• Nuclear destruction?

  • in September 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb

  • in response, the U.S. began developing the eve more epowerful hydrogen bomb

• space race between Russia and U.S. begins!

Alliances

• nations aligned with the U.S. or Soviet Union joined together to promote economic prosperity and common defense

• NATO

  • Soviet vetoes prevent the U.N. from resolving maily postwar problems- U.S. needs help defending against communism

  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization: non communist nations support one another against attack, a principle known as collective security.

Spending Money

• billions of dollars to rebuild Europe (providing food and jobs takes away the reasons communism might be attractive)

• Marshall Plan

  • U.S. secretary George Marshall

  • proposes a massive program to rebuild Europe from the ravages of ww2

  • successful, stopped the spread of communism

  • 13 billion dollars from U.S.

Conflict

the cold war got hot, soldiers from Russia and U.S. sent to Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.

Korean War

• WW2 ends with no plan for Korean independence from Japan

• temporarily divided at the 38th parallel

• a pro-american gov’t formed in S Korea, and communist gov’t formed in N Korea

• on June 25, 1950, N Korean communist forces cross the 38th parallel and invade S Korea

• U.N. sends fighting force, Chinese enter conflict by the year’s end

• ceasefire in 1953

Coercion/Convincing

• nationalist leaders looking for independence influenced by $ and weapons from either side

• decolonization revolved around which side a new nation would belong:

  • first world: aligned with America

  • second world: aligned with Soviets

  • third world: try to remain neutral

Nonalignment

was primarily a way of extracting money and support from one or both of the superpowers

• The ability of the Egyptian leaders Nasser and Sadal to play the two powers against each other to get assistance in hydroelectric projects, arms, and loans from both sides

Castro takes power in Cuba

• jan 1, 1959 leftist forces under Fidel castro overthrow fulgencio batista

• Castro nationalizes the sugar industry, and signs trade agreements with Soviet union

• next year, Castro seizes U.S. assets on the island

• communism now only 90 miles from American shores

Berlin Wall

• 1961

• large numbers of east Germans are fleeing to the west

• wast Germans built a wall around west Berlin to stop flow.

Cuban Missile Crisis

• 1962

• soviets secretly install missiles in Cuba

• Kennedy blockaded Cuba- bank of nuclear war

• Khrushchev removes missiles from Cuba

• Kennedy agrees not to invade Cuba, and removes U.S. missiles from Turkey

Dien Bien Phu

• in Vietnam, (1954), communist forces under Ho Chi Minn defeat French forces

• Geneva Accords splits Vietnam into North and South

• to stop spread of communism, U.S. provides anit-communist air to south vietnam.

Vietnam War

• by 1968, 500,000 U.S. troops are in Vietnam

• Soviet union and China send aid to communists

• 1968- Tet offensive launched (both a win and loss for communists)

• 1973- crease fire; U.S. begins to pull out troops

• 1975- war resumes, communists take over south vietnam, ending war.

Prague Spring

• 1968

• on January 5, reformer Alexander Dubcek came to power as general secretary of communist party in Czechoslovakia, pledging reforms and democratization.

• this movement swept across the country

• Soviet and Warsaw pact leaders sent 650,000 troops in August

  • soviet union declares it right to intervene in communist states.

SALT

• strategic arms limitation treaty

• placed limits on both submarine launched and intercontinental nuclear missiles

• 1972

Nixon Visits China

• 1972

• first U.S. President to visit china

• “normalization of relations” was in all nations best interest

• changes balance of power w/Soviets

Cambodia

• 1975

• communist Khmer Rouge take power on April 16, 1975

• educated and urban population forced into countryside as part of a state experiment in agrarian communism

Afghanistan

• December 25; 100,000 Soviet troops invaded, to help communist Babrak Karmal seize gov’t control

• U.S.- backed Muslim guerilla fighters (Taliban) and waged a costly war agaisnt the soviets for nearly 10 years before Soviet troops withdrawal in 1988

Solidarity Movement

• 1980 Poland

• on August 14th, Lech Walesa led massive strikes at he Lenin shipyard in Golansk

• the strikes spread, leading to 9 million Poles joining

• the communist government conceded to worker demands and recognized heir right to form unions and take strike

• 10 years later, Walesa becomes first democratically elected president of Poland

“Star Wars” missle defense program

• U.S. military spending increases to unprecedented levels

• Soviet forces spend heavily to match the program, causng near economic collapse.

Gorbachev comes to power in Russia

• 1985

• ushered in era of reform

• perestrokia: restructuring, economic reform, some private ownership allowed

• glasnost: openness, allowed greater free expression and criticism of Soviet policies

Berlin Wall Fades

• on September 10, Hunngary opened its border with Austria, allowing East germans to flee to the west through there

• the soviets refuse to intervene

• after massive public demonstrations in East Germany and eastern Europe, the Berlin wall fell.

German Unification

• october 3, 1990

• East and West Germany United as Federa Republic of Germany

Reverse Domino Effect

• from 1990-1991, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, E. Berlin, Czechoslovakia, and Albania all free from communism

ethnic splintering

• result/impact of the cold war

• includes Yugoslavia civil war and split of Czechoslovakia

EEC

• European economic community

  • goals were to eliminae tariffs, and to establish unified tarrif system on imports outside of EEC

• became the European Union in 1993

European Union

• council of foreign minister make decisions, headed by a president

• free movement of goods, services, and money among members

• disagree on how much power it should have ( political or economic?)

• established the use of the Euro currency in 2002.