Cold War 1945-1991

Ideologies in Conflict

  • Communism vs Capitalism

  • Communist Dictatorship/Totalitarianism vs Democracies

Leading up to and the beginning of the Cold War 1949-1949: A Major Shift in Global Power

  • Allied conferences during WWII revealed growing tensions

    • agree to temporary partition of Germany and Korea > rebuild and reunify

  • German and Japanese Empires destroyed 1945

  • Britain and France drained

    • decolonization of empires begin

  • US and USSR became “Superpowers” 1945-1949

    • nuclear weapons and other atomic weapons

    • strong industrial economies

    • compete for global influence; imperialism

      • battle over economic ideologies

  • Bi-polar world developed after WWII

    • most nations chose sides = alignment

      • choosing where to ally with: US or USSR

    • The West (First World): align with US

    • The East (Second World): align with USSR

    • non-alignment (Third World) = most new nations created by decolonization

      • play to both sides

      • ex. India

USSR as a dominant European power

  • liberated E. Euro nations from Nazis

  • dominated Eastern European nations

    • ex. Poland, Czechoslovakia

    • Eastern Bloc/Soviet Satellites: all european nations freed from Nazi rule > USSR influence and even law

  • security concerns for Western European nations

USA ends isolationism 1941 > WWII

  • led liberation W. European nations from Nazis

  • claimed pro-democracy and pro-capitalism

  • after WWII< pursued anti-communist policy

Mounting Cold War Tensions

  • Behind the “Iron Curtain”

    • Eastern Bloc nations

    • Germany partitioned 1949

      • East Germany (Soviet influence/communist)

        • Berlin divided > Berlin Wall, 1961

      • West Germany (American influence, democratic, capitalist)

  • East Asia

    • Korea divided: North Korea (communist)/South Korea (capitalistic)

      • Korean War, 1950-53

    • Mao proclaims “People’s Republic of China” 1949

  • Atomic bomb

    • USA 1945

    • USSR 1949

    • nuclear arms race > MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction

  • Marshall Plan, June 1947

    • $13 billion in US aid to rebuild war-torn Europe

    • W. European nations accept, E. European nations reject

  • US Containment Policy 1947-1991

    • prevent communism from spreading from where it already exists

    • How?

      • financial tools

      • espionage

      • proxy wars

      • nuclear proliferation

    • military alliances

      • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 1949-present

        • USA, most Western Euro nations, Canada

  • USSR responds w/ same strategies

    • Warsaw Pact 1955-91 Soviet military alliance with Eastern Bloc

  • Civil defense: preparing civilian population for a nuclear attack