Cold War

Overview

  • It was a war without violence, only threats

  • A clash of ideologies

    • Communism

      • collectivism

      • equality

      • socialism

      • totalitarianism

        • the end goal is to convert the world

    • Captitalism

      • individualism

      • freedom

      • democracy

      • limited government

        • the end goal is economic freedom

  • Nuclear Tensions

    • The USA had shown its atomic power when it exploded the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII

    • The USSR was also developing atomic weapons/bombs

    • The USA and the USSR were in competition with each other to have the best, most powerful weapons in the world

      • the arms race

  • Tension at Potsdam

    • The US, Great Britain, and USSR sat dowm before the end of the war to decide what Europe would look like

    • The Soviets viewed the lands they occupied following WWII as payback for their sacrifices

    • Stalin promised the Soviets would allow free elections in the lands they occupied

      • this only meant for the communist party

      • all the other parties were dissolved

The Truman Doctrine

  • Truman had been horrified at the pre-War allied policy of appeasement and was determined to stand up to any Soviet intimidation

  • The Truman Doctrine promised that the USA “would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures“

  • Triggered by British inability to hold the line in Greece, it was followed by aid to Greece and Turkey

  • Signals an end to isolationism

“Economic” Aid

  • the Marshall Plan offered huge sums to enable the economies of Europe to rebuild after the war by generating prosperity to reject communism

  • the USSR prevented Eastern European countried from receiving American money

    • They followed up with the Molotov Plan

      • however countries had to accept Soviet presence

Opposing Alliances

  • NATO- the US formed an alliance with friendly European countries

    • the members of NATO will come to each other’s aid against Soviet agression

  • The Warsaw pact was created in retaliation to NATO

The Domino Effect

  • the USSR had a lot of influence over many of the new communist countries

    • especially in Europe

  • The US was very worried that the USSR’s influence over these countries was making the USSR and communism more powerful

  • The US didn’t want communism to spread any further- they were worried about the Domino Effect

Tensions

  • The tension and rivalry between the USA and the USSR was described as the Cold War (1945-1990)

  • There was never a real war between the two sides, but they were close (hotspots)

    • both sides got involved in other conflicts

Korean War 1950-53

  • The air force develops after WWII

  • Korea was divided at the 38th parallel of latitude

    • North Korea was commmunist and supported by the Soviets and South Korea was democratic and backed by the US

  • The UN sent an international force to Korea to push out the North Koreans

  • In July of 1953, the Korean War ended

Cuban Missle Crisis

  • JFK’s first test as president

  • There are planes that go high up and take pictures

    • they find missle silos, not atomic

  • We blockade Cuba so no Russian ships can come in

  • We help the revolutionaries in Cuba to overthrow Castro

    • didn’t work

  • Thousands fled to America as Castro led a communist revolution

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion

    • the US became worried as Cuba got more aid from the Soviet union

    • JFK approved a plan to overthrow Castro

      • it wasn’t organized and failed

    • the exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs

    • They were easily defeated by Cuban forces and it was an embarassment

  • JFK announced that American warships will stop any ships that may be carrying missles

  • When the Soviets get to Cuba, they have to turn back

  • The leader agreed to remove missles in exchange for the US to not invade

The Two Vietnams

  • Vietnam, a former French colony, was divided into a north and south like Korea

  • In August 1964, US military officals believed that North Vietnamese had torpedoed an American ship in the Tonkin

    • in response, the US passed the Golf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed the US to begin bombing enemy targets

  • Jungle warfare was diffucult and it was hard to locate the enemy

    • there were secret tunnels everywhere for enemy soldiers to get around and disappear in

  • In addition, it was hard to distinguish which South Vietnamese soldiers were our allies and which were supporting the Vietcong

  • In January 1973, the US reached a cease-fire agreement with North Vietnam and brought their troops home

    • the US still sent billions of dollars in support of the South Vietnamese

    • the only official loss in US history

  • In April 1975, the comminists captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon and renames it the Ho Chi Minh City, after their leader, and reunited Vietnam under one communist flag

  • Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev began a policy called glasnost, in which he allowed more freedom of speech and press in Russia

    • also signed an arms control treary, INF Treaty

  • Eventually, however, Gorbachev was forced to resign in 1991 and the Societ Union ceased to exist

    • as a result, 15 Soviet republics gained independance