Chapter 29: The Cold War and Postwar Economic Recovery: 1945-1970

• Cold War
  • Period between the end of World War II and the collapse of the Soviet Union (or USSR)
  • U.S. and Soviet Union relations were tense
  • Rooted in ideological opposition between communism and capitalist democracies dominated by U.S. and Soviet Union
  • U.S. was in support of democracy and free-trade
  • Soviet Union was a communist, totalitarian country
  • An “Iron Curtain” divided Europe between a free and democratic state and a totalitarian regime
• U.S. made military alliances around the world to contain communism
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in 1949
  • Mutual defence pact
  • U.S., Canada, Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Britain, Norway, Denmark, and France
• Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was created in 1954
• Warsaw Pact was formed in 1955
• Nuclear arms race began during World War II
  • Russia, Britain, and Germany were exploring nuclear fission
  • U.S. was the first to develop and implement the atomic bomb
• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 banned such tests in the atmosphere
• A third of the world’s population was under colonial rule in 1945
• Decolonization was a direct result of World War II
• India gained independence from Britain in 1947, under the leadership of Indian nationalist, Mohandas Gandhi
• Decolonization in Africa occurred in the late 1950s and 1960s
• Europe and Asia was severely damaged by World War II
  • Cities, factories, and farmlands were part of the damage
  • Majority of Europe was faced with lack of goods and inflation
• U.S. aided with reconstruction and recovery of war-torn nations in both Europe and Japan
• Marshall Plan: U.S. economic aid program for European countries, meant to establish U.S. economic influence in European markets
• Soviet Union formed the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in 1949, in response to the Marshall Plan

\