Chapter 21

Pg 785-795

The Emergence of the Cold War

  • Tense relationship between US & Soviet Union began in closing months of WWII
  • Soviet Union was communist autocracy that long proclaimed its intention to bring its economic, social, & political system to rest of world
  • US also eager to spread democratic, capitalistic world order, & free enterprise, to especially prevent Soviet Union from dominating Europe
  • Churchill declared an “Iron Curtain” had descended on Europe,

Containment in American Foreign Policy

  • American policy became known as one of containment– resist extension of Soviet expansion
  • Containment marked major departure in American foreign policy & transformed international situation

The Truman Doctrine

  • Truman Doctrine– policy of support for “free people who resisting attempted control”

The Marshall Plan

  • Marshall Plan– European Recovery plan
  • Soviets forbade its satellite states to take part of plan
  • Marshall Plan restored prosperity to Western Europe & set stage for Europe's postwar economic growth

Soviet Domination of Eastern Europe

  • Soviet leaders saught to use Eastern Euro satellites as buffer against future invasions
  • (Cominform) a revival of old Comintern
  • Czechoslovakia brought under full Soviet control
  • Catalyst for harsh tightening of satellite states as success of Marshal Josip (Broz) Tito
  • Stalin want prevent other Eastern Euro states from following Yugoslav example

Berlin Blockade

  • All 4 powers governed Berlin, though it was well in Soviet zone
  • Soviets chose seal off city by closing all railroads/highways that led from Berlin to West Germany
    • The purpose was to drive out Western powers from Berlin
  • West airlifts supplies

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — mutual assistance if anybody was attacked, it transformed West a bloc
  • Council of Mutual Assistance (COMECON) — East Euro states combine economies
  • The Warsaw Pact— Europe divided into 2 unfriendly blocs
  • Cold War now taken shape

British Balfour Declaration

  • Modern state of Israel was achievement of Zionist movement — by Theodor Herzl
  • Arthur Balfour— British foreign secretary, declared Britain favored stab national home for Jews in Palestine

The UN Resolution

  • British turned over to United Nations the problem of relationship between Arabs & Jews in Palestine
  • UN divide Palestine into 2 states, 1 Jewish, 1 Arab

Israel Declares Independence

  • British officially withdrew from Palestine, independence of new Jewish state called Israel
  • Existence of Israel become 1 major points of contention between US & gov of various Arab states

Pg 796-803

The Khrushchev Era in the Soviet Union

  • Power & Influence began to devolve on Nikita Krushchev

Khrushchev’s Domestic Policies

  • Khrushchev era– retreat from Stalinism, but not authoritarianism
  • Modest efforts to meet demand for more consumer goods & decentralize economic planning
  • Soviet Union had to import grain from US each year from the US & Other countries

The Secret Speech of 1956

  • Khrushchev gave secret speech where he denounced Stalin & his crimes against socialist justice during purges of 1930’s
  • All of Stalin’s former supporters were gone, & none had been executed
  • Communist leaders in Eastern Euro took as signal that they could govern with greater leeway & retreat from Stalinist policies

The Three Crises of 1956

  • President Gamal Abdel Nasser— Of Egypt he nationalized Suez Canal
  • War between Egypt & Israel, the British & French seized opportunity to intervene militarily, the US refused to support them tho– so Anglo-French forces had be withdrawn, & Egypt retained control of the canal
  • without support of US, the West Europe states can’t impose their will on rest of world

The Hungarian Uprising

  • Hungarian communists installed new ministry headed by former premier Imre Nagy
  • Nagy called for removal Soviet troops & ultimate neutralization of Hungary
  • These demands wholly unacceptable to Soviet Union, so Soviet troops invaded Hungary
    • Nagy deposed & later executed

Later Cold War Confrontations

  • launch of Sputnik
  • Soviet Union appeared to achieved an enormous technological superiority
  • Soviet Union shot down American U-2 aircraft that was flying reconnaissance over Soviet territory

The Berlin Wall

  • 1000s refugees from East Germany crossed border to West Berlin
  • Soviet Union created concrete wall along border between East & West Berlin

The Cuban Missile Crisis

  • The most dangerous days of the Cold War occurred during Cuban missile crisis
  • Fidel Castro– made Cuba Communist & ally of Soviet Union
  • Soviet Union secretly began place nuclear missiles in Cuba
  • America blockaded Cuba
  • After tense week, where nuclear war seemed like possibility, but Soviets backed down & crisis end
  • The US & Soviet Union concluded a nuclear test ban treaty

The Brezhnev Era

  • Leonid Brezhnev – party secretary

1968: The Invasion of Czechoslovakia

  • Prague Spring– Czechoslovakia, under Alexander Dubeek– expanded freedom of discussion
  • Warsaw Pact sent troops into Czechoslovakia & replaced Dubeek with communist leaders more to its own liking
  • Brezhnev Doctrine– declared right of Soviet Union interfere in domestic politics of other communist countries

THe United States & Détente

  • Détente– concluded agreements on trade & reducing strategic arms
  • Helsinki Accords– recognized human rights of signer’s citizens, which every gov, including Soviet Union agreed to protect
  • Soviet Union possessed largest armed force in world, & achieved virtual nuclear parity with US

The Invasion of Afghanistan

  • Soviet Union determined to send troops to ensure its influence in central Asia & install a puppet in Afghan gov
  • The US also embargoed grain shipments to Soviet Union, boycotted 1990 Olympic Games in Moscow, & sent aid to Afghan rebels through 3rd parties
  • Morale & prestige of Soviet Army plummeted

Communism & Solidarity in Poland

  • in 1978 cardinal archbishop of Krakow, as Pope John Paul II
  • Polish gov raised meat prices, leading to 100s protests/strikes across country
  • Workers occupied Lenin shipyard at Gdansk on Baltic Coast
  • Lech Walesa– led Strikers, they refused to negotiate through any gov-controlled unions
  • Independent union called Solidarity
    • Leaders of Solidarity were arrested

Relations with Reagan Administration

  • Reagan intensified Cold War rhetoric, famously describing Soviet Union as “evil empire”
  • Defensive Initiative dubbed “Star Wars” by press, involving high-tech space-based defense against nuclear attack

Pg 803-812

Decolonization: The European Retreat from Empire

  • At founding of United Nations in 1945, ab 1.3 of population was subject to government of colonial powers
  • Since then, 80 of those states have joined UN as independent states
  • The founding of UN also ensured presence of international body opposed to colonialism

Major Areas of COlonial Withdrawal

  • 2 largest colonial empires: British and French
  • Their retreat from empire produced most far-reaching consequences in former colonial nations, & in Europe and US too

India

  • Mohandas Gandhi– leader of Indian anticolonial movement
  • The British administration required Indians themselves to pay for British rule
  • Indian National Congress and Muslims create Muslim League
    • but Muslim wanted independent Muslim nation
  • Gandhi believed in passive resistance–inspired growing movement of passive resistance to British rule in India
  • He led a famous march to break the British salt monopoly by collecting salt from the sea
  • The British left India
  • His career demonstrates how such a leader could use ideas from West against colonial regimes
  • Gandhi's passive resistance became a model for Martin Luther King Jr
  • British left India was a partition of the country into states of India and Pakistan
  • Many colonial regions, retreat of colonial powers opened way for new or renewed conflicts among different ethnic & religious groups within former colonial empires

Further British Retreat from Empire

  • The British surrender India marked long, steady retreat from empire
  • Political instability & poverty characterized history of independent states Africa
  • Asia has been area of political stability & remarkable economic growth

The Turmoil of French Decolonization

  • Nazi attempt maintain colonial empire in Algeria & Vietnam

France and Algeria

  • Algeria Muslims vs French settler clash brokeout– robbed French of administration of legitimacy & marked the beginning of conscious Algerian nationalism
  • insurrections & soon open civil war broke out in Algeria
  • War divided France & many French citizens, often of left-wing pol. opinion, objecting to the war, & French military, still smarting from WWII & Indochina, determined to fight on
  • Charles de Gaulle– his condition for taking office was end of Fourth Republic & promulgation of new constitution
    • He then undertook long strategic retreat from Algeria
  • Emigration of French Muslims, marked beginning of largely unwelcome, Muslim population in France

France and Vietnam

  • France occupied Indochina (contained Laos, Cambodia, & Vietnam)
  • Ho Chi Minh– turned nationalist movement against French colonial rule into Indochina Communist Party
  • full-fledged Civil war erupted in Vietnam
  • US now saw French colonial war against Ho Chi Minh as integral part of Cold War conflict

Vietnam Drawn into the Cold War

  • Bc US been publicly & deeply committed to French, Vietnamese nationalists view any government it supported with suspicion

Direct United States Involvement

  • Vietnam was finally united
  • The US intervention in Vietnam, which grew out of power vacuum left by French decolonization, affected entire Western world

Pg 812-826, 831-832

The Collapse of European Communism

  • There's no foreign invasion, no military defeat, no internal revolution. Many factors leading to Soviet collapse remain murky
  • Soviet gov did become more repressive at home

Gorbachev Attempts to Reform the Soviet Union

  • Mikhail S. Gorbachev– part of reason to Soviet collapse

Economic Perestroika

  • Perestroika– “restructuring”, they reduced size & importance of centralized economic ministries
  • clear abandonment of Marxist ideology, Gorbachev began advocate private ownership of property & liberalization economy toward free market mechanisms

Glasnost

  • Glasnost or “openess”
  • Workers permitted to criticize
  • censorship relaxed & free expression encouraged
  • Dissidents released from prison
  • Gorbachev permitted openly contested elections

1989: Revolution in Eastern Europe

  • Poland’s gov relaxed martial law, & eventually released all Solidarity prisoners
  • Union between gov & Solidarity was legalized
  • Lech Walesa– Leader of Solidarity group
  • Communist lost overwhelmingly to Solidarity candidates
  • Parliament turned to Solidarity & appointed 1st noncommunist prime minister of Poland

Toward Hungarian Independence

  • Hungarian gov opened border w Austria, permitting free travel between both countries.
  • This breach in Iron Curtain immediately led 1000s East Germans to move through Hungary & Austria to West Germany

German Reunification

  • Gorbachev told leaders of East German Communist Party that Soviet Union wouldn’t use force to support them
  • East Germany ordered opening of Berlin Wall
  • Helmut Kohl– Leading force in moving toward full unification of Germany

The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia

  • Velvet Revolution– in Czechoslovakia rapidly followed the breach of Berlin Wall
  • Vaclav Havel– elected President of of Czechoslovakia

Violent Revolution in Romania

  • Nicolae Ceaușescu– President of Romania
  • Ceaușescu & his wife attempted to flee, but were captured, secretly tried, and shot

The Soviet Stance on Revolutionary Developments

  • Gorbachev formalled abandoned Brezhnev Doctrine
  • Peaceful character of the Revolutions bc of worlds shock to violent repression of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square by Peoples Republic of China

Renunciation of Communist Political Monopoly

  • Gorbachev proposed that Central Committee of Soviet Communist party abandon its monopoly of power

New Political Forces

  • Boris Yeltsin– wanted market economy & more democratic government
    • He elected president of Russian Republic
  • The greatest unrest came from 3 Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania, which had been independent
  • Gorbachev sought to negotiate new constitutional arrangements between republics & the central government

The August 1991 Coup

  • Conservative forces that Gorbachev brought into gov attempted a coup
  • Gorbachev placed under house arrest
  • Boris Yeltsin climbed on tank in front of Russian parliament building to denounce the coup & ask world for help to maintain Soviet Unions movement toward democracy
  • Yeltsin became dominant political figure in the nation
  • in Dec 1991, Soviet Union ceased to exist, Gorbachev left office, & Commonwealth of Independent States came into being

The Yeltsin Decade

  • Russian central gov war Islamic province of Chechnya
  • 1 result of privatization was creation of small group of wealthy ppl called “The oligarchs”
  • But general Russian economy remained stagnant
  • Yeltsin's handpicked successor was Vladimir Putin– relatively unknown at the time

The Collapse of Yugoslavia and Civil War

  • After Tito’s death, economic difficulties undermined authority of central government, & Yugoslavia gradually dissolved into civil war
  • Slobodan Milosevic– Nationalist leader
  • Ethnic tension & violence started in Yugoslavia
  • Muslims in Bosnia– who lived alongside Serbs & Croats for generations– son became crushed between opposing forces.
  • Serbs pursuing policy called “ethnic cleansing” similar to WWII, it killed or forcibly removed many Bosnian Muslims
  • A revolution overthrew Slobodan Molsevic. New Yugoslav gov turned former leader over to International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague

Putin and the Resurgence of Russia

  • Vladimir Putin– moved to establish his position as national & nationalistic leader of the federation
    • he renewed the war against rebels in Chechnya
  • Putin imprisoned political critics & opponents & moved against independent newspapers & TV stations
  • Russian ruble regarded as serious currency, many more consumer goods available
  • Putin assumed office of PM & clearly remained chief political figure of country
  • Putin sharply critical of ongoing expansion of NATO, which embraced nations directly bordering Russian Federation