Chapter 27

Hitler’s ideology + foreign policy & support

* **Hitler** believed the Aryans were threatened by the **Slavs in the East** who had learned to use German weapons and technology
* **Lebensraum**: a nation’s power depended on the amount and kind of land it occupied
* Hitler believed Bolshevik-led Russia was weak
* **Traditional German elite** in the German Military and Foreign office supported Hitler’s foreign policy until **1937**
* Germany = second most populous state after the SU


* France + Britain wanted to avoid war

Diplomatic Revolution, foreign reaction

* **Hitler** wanted to remove the restrictions put on Germany by the Versaille treaty
* **1933**: Withdrew Germany from the **Geneva Disarmament Conference** and the **League of Nations**
* **1935**: started **rearmament** in Germany; announced the creation of a **new air force** and introduced a **military draft**.
* France, GB, and Italy condemned Germany and warned against future aggressive steps
* Britain moved toward open acceptance of rearmament when it agreed to the **Anglo-German Naval Pact** in **1935**
* The British policy of **appeasement**
* British believed Nazis could help them take down Soviet Communism
* **1936**: Hitler sent troops into the demilitarized Rhineland
* French wouldn’t act without British support and the British didn’t disapprove
* by **1936** the Treaty of Versailles was virtually scrapped

Hitler’s Axis

* **1935**: **Benito Mussolini** invaded Ethiopia angering the French and British
* Hitler supported the Fascists
* Italy + Germany both supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War
* **1936**: Hitler and Mussolini concluded an agreement - **Rome-Berlin Axis**
* **1936**: Germany and Japan agreed on the anti-Comintern agreement against communism

Hitler plans, belief of foreign reaction

* **1937**: Hitler meets with his officers and unveils plans to expand into the east
* believed neither the French nor the British would intervene
* **Neville Chamberlain**: PM of Britain in **1936** who believed in appeasement

Austria takeover

* Hitler threatened Austria with an attack and convinced the Austrian Chancellor **Kurt Von Schuschnigg** to appoint Austrian Nazis in charge of the gov
* German troops are invited into Austria to maintain law and order
* **March 13, 1838**: Hitler formally **annexed Austria** to Germany

Czechoslovakia (policies)

* at first, Nazis asked for the autonomy of the **Sudetenland** which had Germans but also Czechoslovakia’s best defense and industrial resources
* by **September 1938** he wants full cession of the Sudetenland to Germany
* **Munich conference**: British, French, Germans, and Italians decided to give Hitler most of his demands
* German troops were allowed to occupy the Sudetenland
* Hitler occupied Bohemia and Moravia
* Slovaks declared independence from Czechoslovakia and became a puppet state
* **Non-Aggression Pact** w/ Soviet Union (**1939**)
* Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, E. Polan to USSR; Germany gets W. Poland

Poland progression

* Hitler demanded the return of **Danzig** to Germany, which had been given to Poland by the Treaty of Versailles.
* Britain told Poland it would intervene in the event of war
* France and Britain began negotiations with **Stalin** in order to be powerful enough to stop Hitler
* Hitler negotiates a **non-aggression pact** with the SU
* created SU and Hitler spheres of influence in the east
* **September 1**: Germany invades Poland
* **September 3**: Britain and France declare war on Germany
* **September 17**: SU sends troops into Poland

Blitzkrieg (Poland e.g.)

* Panzer divisions supported by airplanes
* Poland surrendered in 4 weeks
* **September 28, 1939**: Germany and the SU divided Poland between them

French preparation for war + intermission

* **1930-1935**: French built a series of concrete and steel fortifications armed with heavy artillery: **Maginot Line**
* **“Phony War”** (Twilight War or der Sitzkrieg) - people are waiting for the war to start- **Winter 1939-1940**

1940, Scandinavian, France, British, Mussolini back up

* **April 9, 1940**: attacked Denmark and Norway
* **May 10**: attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, and France
* assault through Luxembourg and the Ardennes forest
* Germany **outflanked the Maginot Line** and raced across northern Europe
* trapped the French and British troops on **Dunkirk**
* British evacuated army
* **June 5th**: Germans launched another offensive into Southern French
* **Mussolini** declared war on France and invaded from the South

Division of France (fall)

* French **surrendered** on **June 22nd**
* German armies occupied 3/5 of France
* The remaining part (**Vichy France**) was ruled by **Marshal Henri Petain** who creates an **authoritarian regime**
* French government-in-exile took up residence in Britain

Winston Churchill policy

* **1940**: **Winston Churchill** wanted a hard-line policy against the Nazis
* refused to make peace with Hitler
* Hitler prepared an invasion of Britain

Battle of Britain (strategy, advantages of each)

* **1940**: the **Luftwaffe** (German air force) launched a major offensive against British air and naval bases -


* British fight back - equipped with a **radar system + Ultra-intelligence operations** broke German military code and gave them an idea of where Germans were targeting their air attacks
* British air-force = critical losses by **August**
* Hitler changed their strategy to **mass bombing** instead of military targets
* British rebuild their airforce and inflict losses on the German Luftwaffe
* By the **end of September**, the Germans had lost the **Battle of Britain**

Commanders in the battle of britain

* Luftwaffe was lead by **Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring**
* RAF - Air Chief Marshal **Hugh Dowding**

Half-hearted attempt in the Meditteranean

* Hitler attempted to cut off Britain’s supplies of oil from the Meditteranean
* sends Italian troops to defeat the British in North Africa - failed when General Bernard Montgomery routs Italianz
* sent German troops - didn’t really put much effort into this plan
* Hungary, bulgaria, Romania ally w/ Axis

SU Invasion - delayed (balkan intermission)

* Hitler planned an invasion of the SU for **spring 1941**
* delayed due to **Mussolini’s** disastrous invasion of Greece in **October 1940** which left the Southern flank exposed to British air bases in Greece
* German troops seized **Yugoslavia and Greece** in **April 1941**

SU Invasion (3 main cities)

* **June 22, 1941**: invaded the SU
* Operation Barbarossa: German troops advanced rapidly
* ends non-aggression pact
* **November**: German army sweeps through **Ukraine** and **Leningrad** and **almost to Moscow**
* winter + soviet resistance stopped the Germans

Growth of Japanese power (pre WWII stuff)

* **1895**: the defeat of China in the **Sino-Japanese War**
* **1905**: Defeated Russia in the **Russo-Japanese War**
* By 1933: the Japanese empire included Korea, Formosa, Manchuria, and the Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana Islands in the Pacific


* Japan was experiencing internal tensions due to a growing population
* trade barriers established by the west in the **1930s** significantly cut off Japan’s food and raw material source
* Growth of political democracy with **universal male suffrage** in **1924**
* Right-wing patriotic societies allied themselves with the army and navy to push expansion at the expense of China and the Soviet Union + British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies
* **1935**: Japan began to construct a modern naval fleet
* **1936**: armed forces exercised power over the government

Japan enters the war

* **1937**: Japan invaded northern China + naval expansion brought Japan into conflict with Britain in India, Burma, and Malaya, France in Indochina, the Netherlands in the East Indies, and the US in the Pacific.
* **1941**: Japanese occupied Indochina and the Americans cut off sails of scrap iron and oil
* Japanese responded by attacking the American naval fleet in the pacific
* **December 7, 1941**: Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked the naval base at **Pearl Harbor**, Hawaii.
* launched additional units to the Philippines and toward the British colony of Malaya
* **December 8th**: the US declared war on Japan

Roosevelt + Hitler = impact of US joining

* **December 11th**: Hitler declared war on the US
* **President Roosevelt** brought the US into the conflict by joining the European powers and Nationalist China against Japan

Japan - 1942 (est.)

* Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies
* **1942**: almost all of Southeast Asia and much of the western pacific was under Japanese control: **Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere**. Wanted to liberate Southeast Asia from Western colonial control

2 sides

* **Grand Alliance**: US, GB, and the USSR
* **Axis Powers**: Germany, Italy, and Japan

Grand alliance advantages

* Grand alliance has to overcome differences before they can fight efficiently
* Hitler’s declaration of War on the US helped cause now defeating Germany was their #1 priority
* The US sent more arms and supplies to Britain and the SU
* a tacit agreement to help each other regardless of political differences
* **1943**: agreed to fight until Axis power surrendered - unconditionally

German wins in 1942 (N)

* **1942**: Reinforcements were sent to North Africa to help the Afrika Korps defeat the British in Egypt and advance towards Alexandria.
* German success in the **Battle of the North Atlantic** as their submarines attacked Allied ships carrying supplies to GB
* **1942**: Hitler captured all of Crimea

1942-1943 - Turn of the War

* **Fall 1942**: war turns against the Germans
* **Summer 1942**: British troops stopped **Rommel**’s troops at **El Alamein**
* **November 1942**: British and the US invaded French North Africa and forced the German and Italian troops to surrender in **May 1943**
* New detection tech allowed Allies to destroy German submarines
* Hitler decided to try to take Stalingrad (industrial center in the Volga): Battle of Stalingrad
* **Nov 1942** and **Feb 1943**: German troops were stopped and encircled and forced to surrender in Feb
* The entire German 6th army was lost
* **February 1943**: German forces in the SU were back to the position of the year before, Hitler knew he couldn’t defeat the SU

The Battle of the Coral Sea

May 1942: the Battle of the Coral Sea: American navy; forces stopped the Japanese advance and relieved Australia from the threat of invasion

Battle of Midway

* **Battle of Midway**: **June 4, 1942**
* four Japanese carriers were destroyed, 320 planes lost, and 3057 men lost
* USS Yorktown lost, 150 planes lost, 362 sailors
* Victory halts Japanese aggression across the Pacific - turning point

Invasion of Sicily

* Allies crossed the Mediterranean and into Italy - **1943**
* took Sicily and then invaded mainland Italy in September
* ouster and arrest of **Benito Mussolini** - the new Italian government offered to surrendered
* Mussolini was freed by the Germans and set up as the leader of a Nazi puppet state in northern Italy
* Germans send troops into Italy and established a highly effective defensive line in the hills south of Rome.
* **Rome fell** to the allies in **June 1944**

Turn of the soviets

* soviet’s had bounced back in **1943** **July 5-12**: Germans were defeated by the Soviets at the **Battle of Kursk**
* Erich von Manstein vs. Georgy Zhukov
* USSR Phyrric victory
* **end of 1943**: Soviets reoccupied Ukraine
* **1944**: lifted the siege of Leningrad

Allies invade France

* Allies plan an invasion of France in the **autumn of 1943**
* **tricked the germans** into thinking the invasion would be in the flat plains of northern France
* Under the direction of American General **Dwight D. Eisenhower:** landed five assault divisions on the Normandy beaches on **June 6**
* established a **beachhead** and broke through the German defense line
* **liberated Paris** by the end of **August**

Battle of the Bulge

* a desperate offensive attempt by the Germans that slowed the Allies
* **March 1945**: Allies had **crossed the Rhine** and advanced into Germany
* **April**: allied forces moved toward the **Elbe River** and linked up with the soviets

the end of the war in europe - 1945

* **1945: (Jan.)** Soviet troops occupied Warsaw, **(Apr.)** Soviet troops entered Berlin
* Soviet troops swept along a southern front through Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria
* January 1945: Hitler moved to an underground bunker
* **April 30**: **Hitler committed suicide** two days after **Mussolini** was **shot by partisan Italian forces**
* **May 7**: German commanders **surrendered - ending the war in Europe**

the end of the war in Asia

* **1943**: American forces went on the offensive and advanced across the Pacific
* President **Harry Truman** decided to drop an **Atomic Bomb** on **Hiroshima** and **Nagasaki**
* **August 14:** Japanese **Surrendered unconditionally** - ending WW2

Nazi Empire - Stretch across Europe

* The Nazi empire stretched from the English Channel to Moscow
* **Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, and Turkey** remained neutral
* **Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland** were German allies and kept their independence
* occupied areas were either annexed by Germany or administered by German military or civilian officials.

Germany’s occupation of territories

* Germany’s occupation was inefficient
* **Civil administration** was given to the “Aryan” people: in Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands
* **Military administration** was given to inferior Latin people such as the French
* **1943**: in light of Nazi losses occupied territories of northern and western Europe were exploited for material goods and workers for Germany’s war needs.
* Lands in the East were controlled ruthlessly

Resettlement in Poland

* **Heinrich Heimmler**: leader of the SS put in charge of the German resettlement plans in the east
* one million Poles were moved to southern Poland
* ethnic Germans were encouraged to settle in Poland

Shortages and forced labor

* Nazi policies created **shortages** of food, clothing, and shelter
* major mobilization of foreign labor to Germany
* soviet prisoners of war were used for heavy labor - 3 million died of neglect
* **1942**: a special office was created to recruit labor for German farms and industry
* Forced labor caused economic chaos, disrupted industrial production, and led to resistance to the nazi forces

Resistance movements

* In Ukraine + Baltic states: people joined guerilla forces
* Active resisters
* sabotaged German installations
* assassinated German officials
* spread anti-german newspapers
* spied for the allies
* **Free french movement** under **Charles de Gaulle** which created a government-in-exile in Britain
* **Yugoslavia**: **Josip Broz/Tito** led a band of guerillas against German occupation forces
* Communists took control of resistance movements - which caused conflict between resistance groups as well
* **women** joined resistance movements
* Norway: smuggled Jews into Sweden
* Greece: dressed husbands as women when Nazi’s tried to kill all men

White rose movement

* **White rose movement**: in Germany - students and professors at the University of Munich distributed anti-nazi pamphlets
* members were caught and executed

attempted assassination of Hitler

* military officers and conservative politicians who were appalled by **Hitler** and wanted to assassinate him
* **Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg** planted a bomb in Hitler’s east Prussian headquarters - failed to kill Hitler

Pre-holocaust plans

* **1939**: emigration policy
* **Madagascar plan**: wanted to ship Jews to Madagascar

The final solution

* **Reinhard Heydrich**: head of SS security service - given administrative solution
* **Einsatzgruppen**: special strike forces round up Polish Jews and put them into **ghettos** in Poland.
* **1941**: became mobile killing units
* followed the army advance into the SU, rounded up Jews, executed them, and then buried them in mass graves.
* created camps in Poland to send Jews from a lot of different countries
* **Auschwitz-Birkenau**: largest camp
* **T-4**: helped build camps - previously helped with **mass genocide of disabled people**
* created Gas chambers with **Zyklon B** aka hydrogen cyanide

Implementation of the Final solution

* conference held at Wannsee in **January 1942**: Heydrich outlined the Final Solution
* Jews were sent from Poland, France, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Denmark, Hungary, and the Netherlands
* 30% of people at Auschwitz were sent to labor camps and the rest were sent to gas chambers
* Germans killed 5-6 million Jews (3 million in the camps) - causing the death of 2/3 of European Jews
* Germans were also responsible for the deaths of at least 9-10 million people
* Gypsies
* Slavic people in labor camps
* gay men

Mobilization in GB

* British mobilized most thoroughly
* **1944**: 55% of British people were in the armed forces, women held almost 50% of civil service positions, # of women in agriculture doubled
* Women under forty were called to do war work
* The government encouraged people to grow their own food in order to increase food production
* created new gardens in public places
* rationed food
* **Home Guard**: founded in **1940** to fight off German invaders
* **1942**: created a **ministry for fuel and power** to control the coal industry and a **ministry for production** to oversee supplies for armed sources
* British saw substantial gains in manufacturing war materials (i.e. tanks and planes)

Mobilization in the SU

* The German-soviet war witnessed the greatest land battles in history
* Stalin created a system of **super centralization**
* all civil and military organizations were subjected to the control of the Communist Party and the Soviet police.
* siege of Leningrad causes people in the city to starve
* Factories were moved as Germans advanced
* **The Kharkov Tank Factory** was created to make tanks
* “**Battle of machines”**
* 55% of Soviet national income went towards war materiel
* **Soviet women** played a major role
* worked in industries, mines, and railroads
* used women as combatants - “Night witches”
* **Peasants** had to furnish military forces and feed the red army and Soviet people
* fall in harvest rates
* **Government propaganda** played into patriotism

Mobilization in the US

* economy and labor force were slow to mobilize
* became the **arsenal of allied power** - produced military equipment
* the economy never completely mobilized
* small factories shut down because of overproduction
* construction of new factories created **boomtowns** where people went to work but faced shortages of houses, health facilities, and schools.
* African Americans migrated from the rural South to industrial cities in the North and West which caused racial tensions
* **Japanese Americans** were put into camps and required to take loyalty oaths - executive order 9066

Mobilization in Germany

* **Hitler** **refused to convert production** from consumer goods to armaments to try to preserve morale
* planned to plunder conquered countries
* After German defeats on the Soviet front + American entry into the war, in early **1942**, Hitler ordered a massive increase in armaments production and the size of the army
* **Albert Speer** was made minister for armaments and munition
* tripled armaments between **1942** and **1943**
* **total mobilization** of the economy only came in **1944** when public institutions were closed and all remaining resources were used for the production of basic military items
* women working in industry, agriculture, commerce, and domestic services increased slightly
* labor conscriptions for women introduced in **1943;** ineffective

British vs. Germans; Bombing

* European air forces began to develop **long-range bombers** in the **1930s**
* the first civilian bombing was by the German Luftwaffe in London in **1940**
* London did not panic
* British bombed German cities
* **1942** under the direction of **Arthur Harris**
* **Cologne** was bombed first
* Bombed: **Hamburg** (**1943**) and **Dresden** (**1945**)

Americans + British Bomb

* Americans did **daytime raids** targeting transportation facilities and war industries
* British bomber command did **nighttime bombing** of German cities
* **incendiary bombs** caused firestorms and rising temperatures
* some other allied leaders criticized this bombing of civilians
* people lived in air-raid shelters
* **1943**: Nazis evacuated women and children to rural areas
* bombings didn’t hurt morale or stop industrial production

The Atomic Bomb

* The US feared the Germans would make an **atomic bomb** so they sabotaged German efforts and recruited scientists to make it for themselves
* working under the direction of **J. Robert Oppenheimer**: **Manhattan Project** in New Mexico
* **Major General Leslie Groves** - Director of the Manhattan Project
* **James Chadwick** - noble prize physicist, head of the British Mission of the Manhattan Project
* **Mark Oliphant** - Australian physicist and a key player in Manhattan Project
* built and tested the atomic bomb by **1945**

Bombing in Japan

* super fortresses: biggest bombers in the world: began in **1944**
* **1945**: Japan’s factories had been destroyed along with 1/4 of their dwellings
* Japanese government decreed mobilization of all people between 13 and 60
* Truman feared American casualties so he dropped the **atomic bombs**

Conference at Tehran

* **Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill** met in Tehran in **Nov 1943** do decide the future course of the war
* Churchill wanted British and American forces to **attack the Balkans** as an indirect attack on Germany
* Stalin and Roosevelt overrule Churchill with the argument for a British-American **invasion of the continent through France** planned for the **spring of 1944**
* Soviets would meet them in defeated Germany and liberate Soviet forces
* Agreed to a **partition of post-war Germany**

British-Soviet meeting in Moscow

* Churchill met with Stalin in **Moscow in October 1944** to more concretely decide the post-war sphere of influences
* **The Soviet Union** received **90%** influence in **Romania** and **75%** in **Bulgaria**
* **Britain** received **90%** influence in **Greece**
* **Yugoslavia** and **Hungary** were **split 50-50**

Yalta Conference

* **February 1945**: **conference at Yalta Ukraine** - Germany’s defeat was imminent
* The Soviet Union was strong - **Stalin** was suspicious of western powers and wanted a **buffer** between itself and the west
* Roosevelt wanted **self-determination**
* The Grand Alliance approved the **“Declaration on Liberated Europe”**
* pledge to help liberated European nations to create democratic governments of their own choice
* **Roosevelt** **sought Soviet military help against Japan**
* In return, Stalin asked for possession of the **Sakhalin** and **Kurile Islands** as well as ports and railroads in **Manchuria**
* Roosevelt also sought the creation of the **United Nations**
* the first meeting of the UN in SF in **April 1945**

Decisions made at Yalta

* All agreed that Germany must surrender unconditionally, that they would create **4 occupation zones**, and that the reparations would be **$20 billion**
* A provisional government was created in Poland with the **Lublin (Communist) Poles** and **London (non-communist) Poles**
* Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe as long as the leaders were pro-soviet

Potsdam Conference

* **Conference at Potsdam** in **July 1945**
* Western relations with the soviet union were deteriorating even before this
* The US did not respond to the Soviet’s request for a $6 billion loan for reconstruction - exposing the west’s **want to keep the SU weak**
* The Soviet Union **failed to uphold “the Declaration on Liberated Europe”** in **Eastern Europe**
* In **February 1945** Soviets engineered a coup in Romania to instate Communist **Petra Goza** as leader
* Soviets also **sabotaged the Polish settlement** by **arresting the London Poles** and **placing the Lublin Poles in power**
* **Truman** demanded free elections throughout Eastern Europe
* Stalin refused b/c he sought **military security** which he thought could only be achieved through a communist state

Road to the Cold War

* American Secretary of State **James Byrnes** proposed a 25-year **disarmament** of Germany; the SU rejected it
* many used this as proof of Stalin’s plans to expand into the Center East of Europe
* Byrnes announced that American troops were needed in Europe and foreshadowed a move to create an independent West Germany
* Stalin saw this as a direct threat to soviet security
* **Winston Churchill** addressed the Americans - **Stalin** saw this as a call for war….

USSR vs. US

* different historical perspectives and political ambitions
* SU didn’t want to give up the advantages gained in Eastern Europe from Germany’s defeat
* The US was not willing to give up the power and prestige it had gained throughout the world

Disagreement in Eastern Europe

* The US and Britain championed **self-determination** and democratic freedom in Eastern Europe
* **Stalin** feared that Eastern European countries would become anti-soviet union
* The red army installed pro-soviet governments in **Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Hungary**
* satisfied the USSR’s want of a buffer zone against the West

Civil War in Greece

* **1946**: **Communist People’s Liberation Army** and the **Anti-Communist Forces** supported by the British were fighting for control of Greece.
* **Truman Doctrine**: US would provide money to countries that claimed they would threaten communist expansion
* **March 1947:** Truman requested $400 million in economic and **military aid to Greece and Turkey** from the US Congress

June 1947: European Recovery Program/ Marshall Plan

* $13 billion for the economic recovery of Europe
* the belief that communist aggression was fueled by economic chaos
* Soviets see this plan as a scheme to interfere with the Soviet “Sphere of Influence”

Containment of the USSR

1948: containment of the USSR became a US policy: George Kennan - US ambassador to USSR then Yugoslavia in “Long Telegram” (1946)

Soviets in Germany

* The fate of Germany was not agreed on
* The soviets took reparations from Germany in the form of booty
* Soviets **removed** **380 factories** from the western zones of Berlin to the SU
* **German communist party** was reestablished under **Walter Ulbricht**
* in charge of the political reconstruction of the Soviet Zone of Germany

Western vs. USSR Conflict in Germany

* **British, French, and Americans** started to merge their zones economically and by **February 1948** were making plans for unification and formally creating a **West German federal government**.
* **Blockade of Berlin** (**1948-1949**) **USSR cuts off Western land access to Berlin** in order to starve the city into compliance
* Western powers engage in massive: **Berlin Airlift** successfully provides food for over 2 million Germans - USSR gives up and lifts blockade in **1949**
* **Operation Little Vittles** - spearheaded by US pilot Gail Halvorsen - US and British pilots drop candy/gifts to German kids

Separation of Germany

* Germany separated (**1949**)
* **West German Federal Republic** (**Sept**.)
* **German Democratic Republic** (**Oct**.)

New Military Alliances - pre-cold war

* The Soviet Union detonated its first **Atomic Bomb** (**August 1949**) at **Semipalatinsk Kazakh**
* **Warsaw Pact** (**1955**): military alliance between Albania, Bulgaria, GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania, USSR, Czechoslovakia

Escalation of tension against the communists

* The **victory of Chinese communists** in **1949** in the Chinese civil war
* US and USSR became embroiled in an **escalating arms race** which led to the creation of more destructive Nuclear weapons
* nuclear weapons were thought to be a war deterrent

New alliances/councils

* Creation of **NATO** in **April 1949** when Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal signed a treaty with the US and Canada
* all powers agree to give assistance if any of them were attacked
* West Germany, Turkey, and Greece joined NATO a few years later
* **Eastern Europe** created the **Council for Mutual Economic Assistance** (COMECON)
* **CENTO** (Central Treaty Organization) (**1955-1979**)
* Alliance: Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and UK Treaty w/ US Participation
* **SEATO** (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) (**1954-1977**)
* Alliance: Australia, Bangladesh, France, N. Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, UK, US, Taiwan

Division of Korea

* post WWII Korea **divided** (North and South) at the **38th parallel**
* North Korea: Democratic People’s Republic **Kim II-sung** - communist/supported by China/USSR
* South Korea: The Republic of Korea **Syngman Rhee** - democratic/supported by USA/West

Course of Korean Conflict

* North Koreans invade the south (**1950**) and succeed in pushing S.Korea/Western forces to the tip of the Korean Peninsula (**Busan Perimeter**)
* UN Security Council vote: “Police Action” in support of S. Korea (USSR was boycotting the UN so didn’t get to veto)
* American **General Douglas MacArthur** led a US/British UN Coalition to push N. Korea back across the 38th parallel
* encircles N. Korea forces: **Inchon Landing** (**Sept 1950**) forcing N/ Korean withdrawal
* **Mao Zedong** sends **Chinese intervention** when UN troops approach the border
* Faced with N. Korean and Chines armies backed by USSR, **MacArthur** suggests using Atomic Bomb on China
* he is fired by **Pres. Truman** (**1951**)
* Uneasy **Truce/Armistice** between **North and South Korea** (**1953**)

Escalation of the Cold War

* The policy of massive retaliation (Global Thermonuclear War)
* advocated for the full use of American nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union
* Mutually Assured Destruction Policy

Death of Stalin

* **Stalin** died in **1953**
* **1955**: summit conference at Geneva between **President Eisenhower** and new Soviet leader **Nikolai Bulganin**; meeting produced no benefits

USSR aggression 1956-1961

* **1956**: Soviet Union used its armed forces to **crush Hungary’s attempt at independence**
* **August 1957**: SU launched its **first intercontinental ballistic missile** and Sputnik I, the **first space satellite**
* **November 1958**: **Khrushchev** (new Soviet leader) announced that unless the West removed its forces from West Berlin within 6 months, he would turn over control of the access routes to Berlin to East Germans
* **Eisenhower** and the West stood firm
* **1961**: East German government **built a wall separating West Berlin from East Berlin**

Rise of Communism in Cuba

* **1959**: left-wing revolutionary named **Fidel Castro** overthrew the Cuban dictator **Fulgencio Batista**
* **1961**: American-supported attempt to **overthrow Castro** by invading Cuba through the Bay of Pigs

Cuban Missile Crisis

* **1962**: **SU** decided to station **nuclear missiles in Cuba**
* The US doesn’t want such close nuclear weapons - but they put nuclear weapons in Cuba
* **President Kennedy** imposes a **blockade on Cuba** to stop a Soviet fleet carrying missiles
* **Khrushchev** agreed to turn back the fleet if the US didn’t invade Cuba
* Both nations **banned nuclear tests** in the atmosphere and **improved communication** between the superpowers

Start of the Vietnam War

* Vietnam defeated French masters in **1954** - Vietnam divided
* the nationalistic regime in the north under **Ho Chi Minh**
* The US sponsored the **pro-west regime in South-Vietnam**
* provided military and financial aid to the regime of **Ngo Dinh Diem**, the autocratic ruler of South Vietnam

US action in Vietnam

* US thinks South Vietnam Diem Regime does not have enough support, especially against the **South Vietnamese Communist guerrillas** supported by the North Vietnamese
* **1963**: The American gov supported a military coup that overthrew the Diem regime.
* **1964**: **President Lyndon B. Johnson** increased the number of American troops in Vietnam to defeat the Vietcong
* The US believed in the domino effect of communism on other countries

US loss in Vietnam

* North Vietnamese guerrilla troops were extremely effective against the US troops
* South Vietnamese villagers were so opposed to their own governments that they sheltered and supported the Vietcong
* The **anti-war movement** in the US especially among college students
* **1973**: **President Richard Nixon** reached an agreement with North Vietnam that allowed the US to withdraw its forces
* **2 years later: Vietnam was forcibly united under the communists**
* rupture between the Soviet Union and Communist China ended the idea of a monolithic communism which helped to create a new era of American-Soviet relations known as the detente

end of european colonies

* b/c of policies of **self-determination** + **defeat by the Japanese** in their colonial empires the end of the colonial rule seemed near
* Europe was also economically destroyed
* GB sought to let its colonies go since it lacked the power to manage them
* Between **1947** and **1962** virtually every colony achieved independence and attained statehood

movements toward the liberation of africa

* Africa was **not prepared for self-rule**
* political organizations formed by Africans before the war became formal political parties with independence as their goal
* **Gold Coast**: **Kwame Nkrumah** formed the **Convention People’s Party**: the first African political party in black Africa
* in the **late 1940s**, **Jomo Kenyatta** founded the **Kenya African National Union**: which focused on economic issues but also sought self-rule for Kenya.
* The **Mau Mau** movement among the Kikuyu people used **terrorism** to demand freedom from the British
* **1959**: British promised **eventual independence**

liberation of Egypt

* **1918**: political party in Egypt called the **Wafd** was formed to promote Egyptian independence
* **1922**: **Egypt gained its independence** but was still under British control
* **1952**: army coup overthrew **King Farouk** and set up an **independent republic**

liberation of the French colonies

* **1956**: **French granted full independence to Morocco and Tunisia**
* retained Algeria
* group of **Algerian nationalists** organized the **National Liberation Front (FLN)**
* **1954**: **FLN initiated a guerrilla war** to liberate their homeland
* French became so divided over the war that French leader **Charles de Gaulle accepted the inevitable and granted Algerian independence** in **1962**

South Africa

* **African National Congress (ANC)** met in South Africa in **1912**
* goal was reform
* **1950s**: whites were making more **segregation laws** in South Africa
* blacks demonstrated against the apartheid laws; white government brutallt repressed them
* **1962**: After the **arrest of Nelson Mandela**, the ANC leader, members of the ANC called for **armed resistance**

liberation in africa (specifics)

* most black African nations gained independence in the late **1950s** and **1960s**
* The Gold Coast, now **Ghana**, was first in **1957** under **Kwame Nkrumah**
* **Nigeria**, the Belgian **Congo**, **Kenya**, Tanganyika/**Tanzania**, and others soon followed
* Portuguese gave up **Mozambique and Angola** in the **1970s**

Changes in the Middle East

* **fall of the Ottoman and Persian empires** led to **new modernized regimes** in **Turkey** and **Iran**
* **1932**: an **independent government** was established in **Saudi Arabia + Iraq** gained its independence
* British + French mandates in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine continued throughout WW2
* After the war, **Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria** were given independence
* **1945**: formation of the **Arab League**

Palestinian conflict

* **1948**: **Truman administration** approved the concept of an **independent Jewish state in Palestine**
* **UN divided Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state**
* Jews proclaimed the **state of Israel** in **1948**
* Outraged at the lack of Western support or Muslim interests, **several Arab countries invaded the new Jewish state**
* the invasions failed but both sides remained bitter
* meeting of Arab leader in Jerusalem in 1984
* Egyptians took the lead in forming the Palestine Liberation Organization, believed that only palestinians had the right to form a state in Palestine

Arab vs. Israeli dispute

* **al-Fatah**: movement led by PLO leader **Yasir Arafat** began to launch **terrorist attacks** on Israeli territory prompting the Israeli government to **raid PLO bases** in **1966**
* Israel adopted a policy of **immediate retaliation** against the PLO
* **1967**: Colonel **Gamal Abdel Nasser**, the ruler of Egypt, stepped up his military activities and imposed a **blockade against Israeli shipping through the Gulf of Aqaba**
* **June**: Israel launched preemptive air strikes against Egypt
* Israeli warplanes **bombed seventeen Egyptian airfields and wiped out most of the air force**
* Israeli armies then **broke the blockade** at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba and **occupied the Sinai peninsula**
* Other Israeli forces **seized Jordanian territory on the West Bank of the Jordan River,** **occupied all of Jerusalem, and attacked Syrian military positions in the Golan Heights area.**
* **Six-Day War**: Israel devastated Nasser’s forces and tripled the size of its territory

start of decolonization of Asia

* The **US** initiated the policy of **decolonization** in **1946** when it granted independence to the **Philippines**
* **1948: Britain granted independence to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar)**


* **1949**: **Indonesia** emerged as an independent nation as the Dutch failed to retake control over Indonesia

liberation and division of India

* Britain gave India independence soon after
* **End of WW2**: British negotiated with the **Indian National Congress** and the **Muslim League**
* Hindus and Muslims did not want a united Indian state
* British divided India into **Hindu India** and **Muslim Pakistan**
* **Mahatma Gandhi** objected to the division
* **August 1947**: **India and Pakistan became independent**
* flight of people across the borders led to violence
* **1948**: Hindu militant assassinated Gandhi

liberation of Indochina

* French wanted to keep control over Indochina
* led to war with **Vietminh**: guerrilla nationalists led by **Ho Chi Minh**
* **1954**: French are defeated and grant independence to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
* Vietnam was divided

governments in china

* In China, **two governments** existed side by side following WW2
* The **nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek** was based in **southern** and **central** China and **supported by the Americans**
* **Communist government under Mao Zedong** in **Northern China**

war between the two governments

* **1946**: efforts to form a coalition government failed and caused a war between the two groups
* **1948**: Mao’s **People’s Liberation Army surrounded Beijing**
* Communists **crossed the Yangtze** and **occupied Shanghai**
* Chiang’s government + followers fled to **Taiwan**
* **1949**: Mao mounted the rostrum of the **Gate of Heavenly Peace** in Beijing and proclaimed a victory for the Communists

Communist China

* **1955**: Chinese government **collectivized all private farmland** and **nationalized industry and commerce**
* **1958**: **The Great Leap Forward:** collective farms were combined into **people’s communes.** Mao hoped this would speed up economic growth to reach the final stage of communism: a classless society
* bad weather and peasant hatred of the system led to its downfall
* **1966**: Mao unleashed the **Red Guard** to cleanse Chinese society of capitalist influence
* **Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution**
* Red Guard attempted to eliminate the four olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits
* destroyed property and people that went against the revolution
* people began to turn against the government
* **1976**: Mao died and a group of **practical-minded reformers seized power** and adopted a more practical approach to China’s problems

Stalin’s post war policies

* Stalin reverted to the acquisition of development capital from Soviet labor
* Soviet workers were expected to produce goods for export with little return
* workload fell on Soviet women
* **1947**: Industrial production had reached pre-war levels
* **1950**: it had surpassed pre-war levels by 40%
* new power plants, canals, giant factories, industries, and oil fields were created
* problems: housing shortages
* Stalin exercised sole authority and pitted his subordinates against each other
* repressed literary and scientific works so it conforms with the government

USSR post-stalin

* **Khrushchev** takes over after Stalin’s death and condemned Stalin’s violence
* ended forced labor camps
* permitted some intellectual freedom
* reduced the power of the secret police
* Communists in satellite states around Eastern Europe began to resist the anti-Stalinization policies
* soviet troops crushed revolts in Hungary in **1956**
* Khrushchev put more emphasis on **light industry** and **consumer goods** + attempted to increase agricultural output - was unsuccessful
* The industrial rate declined dramatically by **1964** + he sent missiles to Cuba
* **1964**: he was voted out of office by a special meeting of the Soviet Politburo
* **Leonid Brezhnev** took power

spread of communism in eastern europe

* End of WW2 **Soviet military forces occupied all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans**, except Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia
* **1945-1947**: one-party communist governments became firmly entrenched in **East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary.**
* **1946**: Communist Party in **Czechoslovakia** became the largest party
* seized control of the government in **1948** under **Klement Gottwald**

Albania and Yugoslavia after the war

* **Albania** and **Yugoslavia** had **strong communist movements** during the war so in both countries the **Communist Party** simply **took over**
* **Josip Broz/Tito** was the **leader of the Communist resistance movement** in Yugoslavia and after the war moved toward the establishment of an **independent Communist state in Yugoslavia**
* Stalin hoped to take control of Yugoslavia but Tito refused and gained support of the people
* **1958**: **Yugoslav party congress** split from Stalinist communism more towards **Marxist-Leninist** ideals
* favored a decentralized economic and political system

Eastern European communist policies

* Other Eastern European satellite states followed policies of **Stalinization**
* collectivized agriculture
* emphasized heavy industry instead of consumer goods
* eliminated all non-communist parties + instituted repression
* After Stalin’s death, many Easter European states wanted more nationalistically oriented Soviet leaders

Poland post-stalin

* **1956**: **Khrushchev’s** denunciation of Stalin caused **protests in Poland**
* the **Polish Communist Party** adopted a series of reforms in **October** and elected **Wladyslaw Gomulka** as the first secretary
* Gomulka declared that **Poland could follow its own socialist path**
* Poles compromised with the Soviets to remain loyal to the Warsaw pact

Hungary

* **Imry Nagy** was selected to lead Hungary in **1956**
* Nagy **declared Hungary a free nation in November**
* 3 days later the **Red Army invaded Budapest**
* Soviets reestablished control with **Janos Kadar** to replace Nagy