The Cold War: A New Global Conflict
Soviet Aggression Grows
Germany was divided into two countries after World War II: East Germany, controlled by the Soviet Union, and West Germany, which established a democratic government supported by the Western powers.
Winston Churchill declared in 1946 that an “iron curtain” divided communist Eastern Europe from democratic Western Europe.
Wartime Alliance Breaks Apart
Tensions Grow Among Allies
Following WWII, tensions arose between the West and the Soviet Union, despite their cooperation in defeating Nazi Germany.
The United States distrusted Soviet Russia and Joseph Stalin's tyrannical rule, leading to an embargo on the Soviet Union, similar to the one imposed on Germany.
The Soviets resented the United States for:
Not recognizing the newly formed Soviet government in the 1920s.
Blaming the excessive loss of Russian lives on the United States' late entry into WWII.
The Cold War Begins
Conflicting ideologies and mutual distrust led to the Cold War: a state of tension and hostility between nations aligned with the United States and the Soviet Union, without direct armed conflict.
The initial focus was on Eastern Europe, where Joseph Stalin aimed to:
Spread Communism.
Create a buffer zone of friendly governments as a defense against Germany.
The Soviet Army left occupying forces in Eastern Europe while pushing out German forces.
Stalin justified this by referencing that the United States and Britain did not consult with them about the territories lost by Japan and Italy.
The United States and Britain rejected this and demanded free elections in Eastern Europe.
By 1948, pro-Soviet governments were in place throughout Eastern Europe.
Soviet Aggression Grows
The Iron Curtain
Stalin backed communist rebels in Greece and Turkey, with Turkey controlling the vital shipping lane through the Dardanelles.
Churchill described Stalin’s stronghold on Eastern Europe as an “Iron Curtain,” a symbol of the fear of Communism.
The “Iron Curtain” represented the division of Europe into an “Eastern” and “Western” bloc.
The Truman Doctrine
Truman viewed communism as an evil force threatening countries worldwide and responded to the growing communist threat in Greece and Italy.
The Truman Doctrine, rooted in containment, aimed to limit communism to areas already under Soviet control.
Stalin viewed “containment” as “encirclement” by the capitalist world, isolating the Soviet Union.
The Truman Doctrine guided the United States for decades, resisting Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
The United States sent aid and advisors to Greece and Turkey.
Marshall Plan
Postwar poverty and hunger in Western Europe made it susceptible to communist ideas.
The United States offered the Marshall Plan, a massive economic aid package, to strengthen democratic governments.
The United States funneled food and economic assistance to Europe to help countries rebuild and reduce communist influence.
Truman offered aid to Soviet Satellites in Eastern Europe, but Stalin forbade them from accepting.
A Divided Germany
The Soviets feared a restored Germany and dismantled German factories and resources as reparations.
The West encouraged rebuilding in their occupied areas of Germany via the Marshall Plan, upsetting Stalin.
Germany was divided into West Germany (democracy) and East Germany (communist).
Soviet Aggression
Berlin Airlift
Disputes arose over Berlin, the German capital, occupied by all four victorious Allies but located in the Soviet Zone.
Stalin blockaded all entries into the capital to choke off the other allies.
The West responded by airlifting supplies and aid to West Berliners.
Stalin eventually lifted the blockade, marking a small Western victory in the Cold War.
New Alliances
In 1949, tensions grew when the United States, Canada, and ten other countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance, promising mutual protection if attacked.
In 1955, the Soviets responded with the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance including the Soviet Union and seven satellite nations in Eastern Europe.
Propaganda War
The United States promoted capitalism and democracy against communism and totalitarianism.
Two Opposing Sides in Europe
The Berlin Wall
The Cold War lasted over 40 years, with both sides on the brink of war.
Berlin exemplified the high tension, with East Berliners fleeing to West Berlin to escape poverty and hunger.
In 1961, the East German government built the Berlin Wall, dividing the two sectors with barbed wire and patrolled guards.
Revolts in Eastern Europe
Communist protests spread throughout Eastern Europe, including Germany, Poland, and Hungary.
Imre Nagy, a former communist leader in Hungary, rejected one-party rule, withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, and removed Soviet troops.
The Soviets invaded Hungary and executed Nagy in response.
In 1968, Alexander Dubcek of Czechoslovakia introduced limited democracy, known as the “Prague Spring.”
Soviets sent troops and ousted Dubcek.
The Nuclear Arms Race
Balance of Terror
One frightening aspect of the Cold War was the nuclear arms race.
After the United States dropped the atomic bomb in 1945, the Soviets began developing their own.
By 1949, both sides had atomic bombs and, later, the Hydrogen Bomb.
Both sides developed new delivery methods: missiles, bombers, and submarines.
By the 1960s, both sides agreed on Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), ensuring destruction if one side launched a nuclear attack.
Disarmament Talks
In 1963, both sides discussed disarmament, leading to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, prohibiting nuclear weapon testing in the atmosphere.
In 1969, the United States and the Soviet Union began the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to limit nuclear weapons.
Agreements were signed in 1972 and 1979, setting limits.
In 1991, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) led to the removal of many nuclear weapons.
An Era of Detente
During the 1970s, American and Soviet leaders promoted Detente, a relaxation of tensions through diplomacy.
Both sides agreed to reduce nuclear stockpiles further.
Detente ended in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
Limiting the Spread of Nuclear Weapons
By the late 1960s, Britain, France, and China developed nuclear weapons.
In 1968, dozens of nations signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), agreeing not to develop nuclear weapons and to work together for peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The Cold War Around the World
Establishing Alliances and Bases
At the end of WWII, the Soviets were helping communists forces in China, Korea, and elsewhere. The United States took action to respond to the global threat of communism
The United States sought regional alliances with friendly powers in Europe and Asia to stop the spread of communism.
It backed NATO in Europe and promoted the Southeast-Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in Asia, including the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Pakistan, Thailand, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The United States established individual alliances, such as with South Korea and Japan, often leading to military bases.
The United States had bases circling the globe from North America to Europe, Asia, and the Pacific islands.
Where the Cold War Got Hot
Both superpowers often met indirectly in local conflicts due to their global connections.
Political shifts, especially the communist victory in China in 1949, concerned the United States and its allies, who feared communism spreading across Asia and elsewhere.
Korea and Vietnam became hotbeds for brutal conflict, with the United States, China, and the Soviets involved in supplying weapons and training to both sides.
The United States and Latin America
The United States was concerned about Communism in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1962, Cuba became a chief focus, located only 90 miles from Florida.
The Cold War Around the World
The Communist Revolution in Cuba
In the 1950s, Fidel Castro organized a guerrilla army to rebel against a corrupt dictator.
By 1959, Castro transformed Cuba into a Communist State.
Castro nationalized foreign-owned businesses and put most land under government control, distributing the rest to peasant farmers.
Castro imposed harsh authoritarian conditions but initially improved conditions for the poor.
He upset many middle-class citizens, who were jailed or silenced, and many defected to the United States.
When Castro looked to the Soviets for support, the United States, under John F. Kennedy, aimed to remove him from power.
In 1961, Kennedy backed a plan by anti-Castro exiles to lead an uprising against Castro.
The invasion at the Bay of Pigs failed, making Castro a national hero and portraying the United States as imperialist thugs.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1962, the United States imposed a trade embargo on Cuba.
Castro allowed the Soviets to build nuclear missile bases in Cuba.
In October 1962, President Kennedy imposed a naval blockade on Cuba and demanded the Soviets remove the missiles.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev backed down, and Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba.
Soviet Communism
The Soviet government controlled all aspects of public life, valuing obedience, discipline, and economic security.
They wanted to spread their communist ideology around the globe.
The Soviet Union During the Cold War
Soviet Communism Cont.
The Soviets wanted to spread their command economy to other countries, where the government makes most economic decisions.
A bureaucracy, not supply and demand, decided what to produce, how much, and for whom.
Collectivized agriculture remained unproductive, and the Soviets often imported grain to feed its people.
Their Command Economy could not match the free-market economy of the west in producing consumer goods.
Workers had lifetime job security, providing little incentive to produce better-quality goods.
Stalin’s Successors
After Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the new Soviet Leader.
Khrushchev made headlines by denouncing Stalin’s abuse of power.
He still maintained tight control but closed prison camps and ended censorship. He also called for a “peaceful coexistence” with the West.
Leonid Brezhnev followed Khrushchev, holding power from the mid-1960s until his death in 1982.
Dissident’s Resist
Andrei Sakharov, a physicist, spoke out against human rights abuses and was exiled to a remote Soviet city.
Writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned for speaking out against Stalin.
He was later released by Khrushchev and wrote about his experiences, but his writings were banned, and he was deported to West Germany.
Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn inspired others to resist communist repression and demand greater freedom.
The United States in the Cold War
Free Markets
Communist countries had command economies, while capitalist countries had market economies.
In a market economy, producers and consumers make economic decisions, with prices varying based on supply and demand.
The Cold War at Home
Anti-Communist sentiment existed within the country.
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) led a campaign to identify communist sympathizers.
Senator Joseph McCarthy charged many innocent people with harboring communist sympathizers during a “Red Scare.”
Western Democracies and Japan
Postwar Prosperity in the United States
Despite the tensions of the Cold War, the United States enjoyed a period of great prosperity and growth in the postwar decades.
Its booming economy symbolized the power of capitalism and democratic freedoms.
The headquarters of the League of Nations had been symbolically located in neutral Switzerland, while the headquarters of the newly formed United Nations was built in New York City.
The United States also played a leading economic role.
Other nations needed American goods and services, and foreign trade helped the United States achieve a long postwar boom.
An Economic Boom
In 1945, the United States produced 50 percent of the world’s manufactured goods.
With the Cold War looming, government military spending increased, creating many jobs in defense industries.
The American economy was booming, with a growing population demanding homes, cars, refrigerators, and other products.
American businesses invested in Europe’s recovery and expanded into new markets.
America’s postwar economic strength impacted social systems in the United States.
Many Americans grew more affluent and moved from the cities to the suburbs, a phenomenon known as suburbanization.
Many Americans moved to the Sunbelt, with plentiful jobs in the South and Southwest.
Postwar Prosperity in the United States
A Wider Role for Government
In the postwar decades, the government’s role in the economy grew.
Under President Truman, Congress created generous benefits to help veterans attend college or buy homes.
Other Truman programs expanded FDR’s New Deal, providing greater security for the elderly and poor.
Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower, tried to reduce the government’s role in the economy.
He approved government funding to build a vast interstate highway system.
Highways and home building changed the face of the nation, with suburbanization leading to the decay of many inner-city neighborhoods.
The United States and the Global Economy
In the postwar decades, the United States profited from the growing global economy.
Interdependence—mutual dependence of countries on goods, resources, and knowledge—brought problems.
In the 1970s, a political crisis in the Middle East led to a global oil shortage and soaring oil prices.
The oil crisis and other economic issues brought periods of recession.
Competition from nations in Asia and elsewhere posed challenges for the United States during the 1980s.
The United States lost manufacturing jobs to Asia and Latin America, with some corporations moving operations overseas to take advantage of lower wages.
Still, the United States remained a rich nation and a magnet for immigrants from Latin America and Asia.
By the 1980s, some Americans were calling for stricter laws to halt illegal immigration.
The United States Responds to New Challenges
The Civil Rights Movement
Although African Americans had won freedom nearly a century before, many states, especially in the South, denied them equality.
Segregation was legal in education and housing.
African Americans faced discrimination in jobs and voting.
In 1954, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
It declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional.
President Eisenhower and his successors used federal power to uphold the order to desegregate public schools.
Martin Luther King Jr.
By 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement.
King organized boycotts and led peaceful marches to end segregation in the United States.
Many Americans of all races joined the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1963, at a civil rights rally, King delivered his “I have a dream” speech.
Progress and Problems
Congress outlawed segregation in public accommodations, protected the rights of black voters, and required equal access to housing and jobs.
Despite these victories, racial prejudice survived, and African Americans faced many economic obstacles.
Poverty and unemployment plagued African American communities in urban areas.
The United States Responds to New Challenges
The Great Society
During the 1960s, the government further expanded social programs to help the poor and disadvantaged.
President Lyndon Johnson created the Great Society program.
It funded Medicare, job training, low-cost housing, and support for education.
The Conservative Response
In the 1980s, conservatives challenged costly social programs and the growth of government.
President Ronald Reagan called for cutbacks in government spending on social programs.
Congress ended some welfare programs, reduced government regulation of the economy, and cut taxes.
At the same time, military spending increased.
Government spending and tax cuts greatly increased the national deficit.
Debate raged about how far to cut spending on programs ranging from education and welfare to environmental protection.
Communism in East Asia
How the Communist Won
Mao’s victory in China was due to:
Winning the support of China’s huge peasant population.
Gaining backing from women who rejected old inequalities of Chinese societies.
Beating Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek)’s army by using guerrilla tactics.
Remaking Chinese Life
Transition from a peasant society to an industrial society.
To build socialism, China nationalized all businesses and tried to increase steel and coal output and develop heavy industries.
With the help of the Soviet Union, the Chinese built hydroelectric plants, dams, and railroads.
Mao imposed collectivization to increase agricultural production.
Communism Takes a Huge Toll
Mao became a one-party dictator and replaced Confucian beliefs with Communist Ideology, persecuting Buddhists, Christians, and others.
Communist leaders committed politically motivated mass murders, as hundreds of thousands of landlords, middle-class property owners, and others suffered persecution, torture, and death.
Great Leap Forward Fails
From 1958-1960, Mao pursued the Great Leap Forward, designed to increase farm and industrial output and created communes.
The Great Leap Forward was a disaster, slowing down production in farming and industry, leading to 55 million Chinese starving to death from 1959 to 1961.
The Cultural Revolution
In 1966, Mao passed the Cultural Revolution to purge China of “bourgeois” (non-revolutionary) tendencies, urging young Chinese to experience revolution firsthand.
Many middle-class citizens were publicly humiliated or murdered.
Skilled workers and managers were forced out of their jobs and sent to work on rural farms or put into labor camps.
China and the Cold War
An Uneasy Alliance with the Soviet Union
Although the Soviets had helped Mao and the Chinese modernize, they differed on communist ideology.
Mao rejected Marxist Ideology.
Mao thought the peasant class was the backbone of society.
Stalin believed in a “revolutionary elite”.
By 1959, both countries broke their alliance.
China and the United States
The rift between the two deepened as a result of the Korean War
The United States wanted to isolate China. They Felt they were trying to expand across Asia.
The U.S. eventually changed its policies with China after their split with the Soviet Union. Saw an opportunity to isolate the Soviet Union and China.
In 1971, China joined the United Nations.
Nationalists in Taiwan
During the Cold War, Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) exercised authoritarian rule over Taiwan, hoping one day to regain control of China.
By the early 1990s, however, Taiwan had transitioned to democratic government.
Mao and his successors saw Taiwan as a breakaway province that must someday be reunited with China.
Tensions between Taiwan and the mainland continued throughout the Cold War.
Although few countries recognized Taiwan, it became an economic powerhouse in Asia and a center of computer technology.
The Two Koreas
In 1950, the Cold War erupted into a “shooting war” in Korea.
The Korean War pitted UN forces, largely from the Western democracies, against communist North Korea, which was supported by the Soviet Union and China.
A Nation Divided
After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Soviet and American forces agreed to divide Korea temporarily along the 38th parallel of latitude.
American forces occupied the south, while the Soviets held the north.
During the Cold War, Korea’s division seemed to become permanent.
North Korea, ruled by the dictator Kim Il Sung, became a communist ally of the Soviet Union.
In South Korea, the United States backed an authoritarian leader, Syngman Rhee.
Each leader wanted to reunite the country under his own rule.
The Korean War Begins
In June 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea and soon overran most of the peninsula.
Backed by the UN, the United States organized an international force to help South Korea.
Americans and South Koreans fell back in the face of the North Korean advance.
They took up a defensive line known as the Pusan Perimeter.
MacArthur eventually drove back the invaders past the 38th Parallel toward the Yalu River on the border of China.
China Responds
Mao Zedong sent Chinese troops to help the North Koreans.
The Chinese and North Koreans pushed the UN forces back across the 38th parallel. The Korean War then turned into a long, deadly stalemate.
Korea Remains Divided
Fighting continued until 1953, when both sides signed an armistice to end the fighting.
Almost two million North Korean and South Korean troops dug in on either side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) near the 38th parallel.
The ceasefire has held for more than 60 years, but no peace treaty has ever been negotiated.
The United States funneled aid to South Korea, while the Soviets helped communist North Korea.
South Korea Prospers
For decades, a dictatorial government backed by the military ruled South Korea.
By 1987, growing prosperity and fierce student protests forced the government to ease controls and hold direct elections.
The country faced new social pressures as more people moved to the cities, undermining traditional rural ways of life.
North Korea Isolates Itself
North Korea recovered from the war, but by the late 1960s, growth stalled.
Kim emphasized self-reliance and kept North Korea isolated from much of the world.
When the Soviet Union and China tried out economic reforms in the 1980s, North Korea clung to hardline communism and its command economy.
Propaganda glorified Kim as the “Great Leader.”
Kim’s successors continued to isolate the country and impose ruthless totalitarian control over all aspects of life.
North Koreans lived on the edge of starvation due to food shortages, natural disasters, and economic mismanagement.
North Korea poured resources into developing nuclear weapons in spite of international condemnation.
The Road to War in Southeast Asia
The Long War Begins
For over 30 years, a liberation struggle occurred in the region that was once known as French Indochina.
This struggle affected the nations of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
This struggle had two phases: 1) the battle with the French from 1946-1954, and 2) the battle with the United States from 1955-1975
The United States made claims of supporting independence for colonial people based on principal. However, the West was also anxious to stop the spread of communism. As a result, the United States helped anti-communist leaders win power, even if they had little support.
In 1946, the French attempted to reestablish their foothold in in French Indochina. This meant they would have to face the opposition forces of Ho Chi Minh. Ho, was a nationalist and a communist, who waged warfare against the occupation of the Japanese by using guerrillas, or small groups of loosely organized soldiers making surprise raids.
In 1954 Ho Chi Minh and his guerrillas won a decisive battle known as Dien Bien Phu; basically ending the French attempt to reclaim Indochina.
Cambodia and Laos had already gained independence.
Vietnam is Divided
In 1954, Vietnam became part of the Cold War. The UN made a decision along with the West and Communists to divide Vietnam.
North Vietnam - would be controlled by Ho and his communist regime. South Vietnam would be led by a staunch anti-communist in Ngo Dinh Diem, who would be supported by the United States.
An agreement was made to hold elections within a year. However, this did not happen because Diem and the United States feared a communist victory.
To further add to the discontent, Diem refused to make reforms and began to rule as a dictator in a corrupt government. By 1959, Diem not only had an enemy in the communists, but faced rising discontent from many South Vietnamese.
The United States Enters the War
American Involvement
American officials subscribed to the Domino Theory – a communist victory in Vietnam, will lead to the possibility of non-communist government to fall to communism like a row of dominos.
As a result, they vowed to support Diem to the fullest extent.
Many believed that the war could not be won until the South Vietnamese government gained the popular support of the people. One of these individuals was J.F. Kennedy.
Diem would eventually be killed by his own military. This resulted in the United States being more actively involved, and supporting the ruling generals against the communists.
Minh vs the United States
Ho supported the Viet Cong, the communist rebels trying to defeat South Vietnam’s government.
To combat this the United States initially sent aid, military supplies, and advisors. However, as the Viet Cong continued to accumulate victories, the United States was dragged into the fighting, turning a struggle into a Cold War Conflict.
In 1964, The Maddox and American warship came under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin just outside of Vietnam.
New President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) used this attack to gain the support of congress for further aggression. This is referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Although no war was ever declared, by 1969 the United States had sent over 500,000 troops to Vietnam.
China and the Soviet Union sent supplies and aid to the Communists but did not commit troops.
Guerrilla Warfare
Like the French before the Americans had to fight an unknown enemy at times. Many of the rebel forces in S.Vietnam were peasants who knew the countryside. Often times they got support from the villagers, who resented the foreigners.
The rebels were supported with supplies from the North through what was called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. These trails wound through rainforest of neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
The United States military often bombed these areas and sent troops into these countries, widening the war in SE Asia
Bad Look
The Tet Offensive
In January 1968, communist forces launched the Tet Offensive, a series of attacks by the Viet Cong on cities across the South.
The communist never won any of the attacks, in fact they had many casualties as a result of the American counterattacks. However, they won a more important war… the war of public opinion.
This was a turning point to America’s continuous role in Vietnam. Before the Tet Offensive the public opinion was the war was winnable. After the Tet Offensive, the public lost confidence in the government and its leaders.
The Vietnam War Ends
American Opposition to the War Grows
Was the war a quagmire – a swamp in which the United States was trapped without a possibility of victory?
By 1967, the antiwar sentiment was spreading across the country. Especially on college campuses, where students were protesting the draft.
A Negotiated Peace
Faced with mounting protest after widening the war, President Johnson decided to not run for a second term in 1968.
His successor President Richard Nixon negotiated a cease-fire in 1973
Under the agreement the United States would de-escalate (De-escalation) and begin withdrawing troops from South Vietnam.
In turn, the North agreed to cease-fire and not send any more troops to the south.
Lastly, the accord left South Vietnam to determine its own future.
Vietnam is Reunited
Two years after the American troops withdrew (1975), the North Vietnamese troops captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon and renamed it after its leader – Ho Chi Minh City.
Hanoi the capital of North Vietnam would be the capital of the reunited nation.
The communists imposed harsh rule on the South. As a result, thousands of Vietnamese fled on small boats. Many of these “boat people” drowned. Eventually survivors ended up in refugee camps in neighboring countries and were even accepted in the United States or other countries.
For years Vietnam struggled to prosper because of decades of war and the United States boycott of Vietnam.
By 1990, under new leadership Vietnam opened its doors to foreign investors by introducing free-market reforms.
The United States and Vietnam would mend their relationship after the Cold War
Politically Motivated Mass Murder in Cambodia (Genocide)
When the United States evacuated Vietnam, communist rebels in Cambodia referred to as the Khmer Rouge overthrew the government.
By 1975 the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot unleashed a reign of terror.
In order to destroy all Western influence, Pol Pot drove many Cambodian citizens from the cities and forced them to work the fields. They slaughtered, starved, or worked to death more than a million cambodian citizens; about a third of their entire population.
The international community failed to respond to the genocide
In 1979 Vietnam invaded Cambodia thus ending the genocide.
From 1979 to 1994, no international action was taken against the Khmer Rouge.
In 1993 the United Nations supervised elections in Cambodia. The new government began to rebuild Cambodia.
In 1997, at the request of Cambodia the UN investigated and tried the Khmer Rouge and all its leaders for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.