The Cold War

The United States wanted to spread democracy and free enterprise, while the Soviet Union sought to promote communism.

1. Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union

   • Stalin established a brutal dictatorship, contradicting his promise to build a classless society that helped all workers.

   • Suspected opponents faced arrests and imprisonment in gulags in Siberia.

   • He reneged on allowing free elections in Poland, aiming to maintain control over a nation that had seen two invasions from Germany in thirty years.

2. The Beginning of the Cold War

   • The U.S. refused to share atomic bomb secrets with the Soviet Union, marking a significant rise in tensions.

   • Soviet troops occupied Eastern Europe instead of withdrawing, installing communists in all Eastern European governments.

   • An "Iron Curtain" fell over Eastern Europe, limiting contact with the West for the next 40 years, turning these nations into Soviet satellites.

3. U.S. Policy of Containment

   • Developed to prevent the spread of communism without attempting to overturn it in existing states.

   • Driven by fears of Soviet expansion in Europe and the rise of communism in China, as well as its influence in Latin America and Asia.

   • President Truman believed that aiding economically struggling nations would resist communism, leading to the Marshall Plan.

   • The Marshall Plan provided aid to Western European countries for economic recovery, fostering goodwill towards the U.S.

4. The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

   • In 1948, France, Britain, and the U.S. merged their occupation zones into West Germany, prompting the Soviet blockade of West Berlin.

   • The Allies conducted a massive airlift, delivering 2.3 million tons of supplies over 15 months, saving over 2.5 million Berliners.

   • Within a year, Stalin lifted the blockade, showing Allied resolve against Soviet aggression.

5. Formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact

   • In response to the Cold War, the U.S., Canada, and 10 Western European countries formed NATO in 1949, based on collective security.

   • The Soviet Union countered with the Warsaw Pact in 1955, though it was established six years after NATO.

6. Soviet Actions in Eastern Europe

   • Despite American condemnation of Soviet actions, the U.S. did not intervene in uprisings behind the Iron Curtain.

   • Soviets suppressed an anti-communist revolution in Hungary in 1956, erected the Berlin Wall in 1961, and invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.

   • These events occurred without active interference from the U.S. or its allies, illustrating the complexities of the Cold War.

Vietnam War

US involvement in vietnam did not occur suddenly but evolved over time and through several presidencies

President kennedy sent military and economic aid to resist the vietcong

close relations betweent the us and its ally israel jeopardized tie with many of the arab oil states