Time line:

1945:

• Yalta and Potsdam Conference

• End of WW2

• Founding of the UN

1946:

• Long Telegram by John Kennan

• Churchill's iron curtain speech

1947:

• Greek Civil War ( Monarchy V.S. Communism)

• Truman Doctrine

• Marshall Plan (not passed yet)

• Cominform

• Communism took over Romania, Bulgaria and Poland

1948:

• Marshall plan was passed

• Communism took over Hungary and Czechoslovakia

1949:

• Berlin Blockade ends (318 days)

1950:

• NATO was established

• USSR tests successfully their first atomic bomb

• Korean War begins

1951:

• Truman fires MacArthur for using the “roll back” tactic in the Korean War

1953:

• Korean War ends

1954:

• Vietnam split at 17th parallel

1955:

• Warsaw Pact between USSR and communist countries (NATO 2.0)

• Start of Vietnam conflict/war

1956:

• Hungarian uprising

1958:

• Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin

1959:

• Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro

1962:

• Cuban missile crisis ends

1968:

• Prague spring (4 months)

1975:

• Korean war ends

How did USSR take over Eastern Europe:

R- Red Army (to threaten the people)

O- Opponents removal (persecuted and purged)

M- Monarchy abolishment (get rid of competition)

E- Elections: were unfair

Yalta V.S. Potsdam

USA policy of containment:

• What is containment?

  • Us policy to stop communism from spreading

• Reasons for developing this strategy

  1. Iron curtain speech

  2. Soviet expansion

  3. Greek civil war

• Truman Doctrine

  • the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces

• Marshall aid

  • a plan to help Europe recover, which had allocated $17 billion after Czechoslovakia was taken over by communism (1948)

  • this was introduced to help countries from turning to communism

  • would provide a market for USA

  • Stalin saw this as a way to bribe countries

Berlin blockade and the Berlin Airlift

• Background:

  • Germany divided in 4 zones (French, USA, USSR, UK)

  • Weren’t allowed to join together more then 2 zones or to change currency

  • In 1948 the USA, UK and France combined their zones creating the ‘Trizonia’ (illegal)

  • In Western Berlin they implemented the Deutschmark (illegal)

• USSR response:

  • Stalin set a blockade stopping access to supplies since Berlin was fully in the Soviet zone of Germany

• USA response:

  • From 1948-1949 the allies sent aircrafts (illegal) every 3 minutes into their zone of Berlin, supplying the people with food, fuel, etc

  • Stalin couldn’t shoot them down since it would make him look bad

• Stats:

  • 11 months

  • 300,000 flights

  • 65 dead pilots

  • 2.3 million tonnes of cargo

• USSR response:

  • Stalin liften the blockade

• Consequences:

  • Germany was divided into capitalist and communist zones (until 1991)

  • USA and USSR increased their military spending

  • Now there was a wedge between the east and the west

Greek Civil War (1947)

• Monarchy (supported by UK and USA) V.S. Communism

• USA funded everything

• The Monarchy won

• This showed to the USA that they could throw money at the problem and fix it

Korean war (1950-1953)

• referred to as the ‘forgotten war’ since it was between WW2 and the Vietnam war

• 2-3 million civilians are killed

• Background:

  • During WW2, the Koreans managed to kick out the Japanese

• After WW2

  • Korea was divided by the 38th parallel into North Korea (controlled by USSR) and South Korea (controlled by USA)

  • This is believed to have happened to prevent the spread of communism into the whole country

  • The leaders of the countries:

    • North Korea: Kim II Sung

      • unelected

    • South Korea: Syngman Rhee

      • unelected

      • corrupt

      • unpopular

  • Many Koreans wanted to reunite the country under the control of Kim II Sung

    • The North wanted this so they can take over the whole country

    • The South wanted this since they were poor, their leader was corrupt and they were too tired to fight

• Why did the USA get involved?

• After USA got involved

  • The USA put pressure on the UN to help in this conflict since

    1. The USSR was boycotting (ignoring) the UN

    2. USA contributed the most to the UN funds and threatened to reduce its contribution

  • In September in 1950, UN troops (with members from 18 different UN member states) helped with the invasion of North Korea after they invaded South Korea. This army was under the control of McArthur (US commander of troop involving Japan during WW2 and basically the person controlling Japan at the time)

• Events of the Korean war

• Consequences of the Korean war

Cuba Missile Crisis (1959-1962)

• Background

  • USA relied on Cuba’s sugar and tobacco export

    • the US controlled Cuba’s sugar trade

    • the US also owned all of Cuba’s electricity, railway and oil factories

  • America tried to take political power in Cuba

    • In 1933, the US government supported a military coup by Fulgencio Batista who later became the president of Cuba

  • Who was Barista?

    • he was corrupt

    • stopped elections

    • refused to follow Cuba’s Constitution

    • allowed the US and rich Cubans to thrive while letting the poor suffer

    • allowed American criminals to continue their illegal activity

• The Cuban revolution

  • In 1956, an uprising against Barista was launched by Fidel Castro (he wanted Cuba to be for the Cubans)

    • He began to use guerrilla warfare against the Cuban government

  • In 1958, after international support for the Cuban revolution, the US stopped providing money and soldiers for Barista

  • On 1st of January 1959, Castro reached the capital city Havana and defeated Barista

  • Castro created a new government and the US did not like it

• When Kennedy came to power

  • When Kennedy became president, the CIA already had a plan from Eisenhower to overthrow Castro using the people who were exiled from Cuba so it looked like a counter revolution and not like an act of war from the US on Cuba

  • Kennedy was pressured a bit to continue this plan

  • The CIA's plan:

    • Cuban exiles land in the Bay of Pigs → this would attract people to rise against Castro and remove him from power → and by helping the ‘rebels’ they would establish a pro-American government in Cuba

  • The Bay of Pigs (what happened)

    • On 17th of April 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles were sent by the American government

    • In less then 24 hours, they were forced to surrender by Castro’s government

  • Reasons why the invasion failed

  • The impact of the Bay of Pigs on the Cold War:

    • It made the tensions between the US and USSR increased

    • It damaged America’s reputation

      • This was seen as America being hypocritical since they blamed the USSR for invading Eastern Europe and forcing them to communism and now they are doing the same to Cuba

    • It broke any relations that remained between Cuba and the US

    • Khrushchev thought that this incident meant that Kennedy was inexperienced and weak so he could take advantage of that

    • This failed invasion was seen as a success for communism

    • The Cubans were happy under the control of Castro and they showed the world that communism wasn’t all bad

    • This incident brought Khrushchev and Castro closer, and in September of 1961 the USSR publicly announced that they will give Cuba weapons

• The thirteen days (16-28 October 1962)

  • These days were the closest we have ever been to nuclear war

  • JFK was under time pressure since he knew that there were missiles being sent to Cuba

  • Kennedy’s options on how to react to the threat of nuclear missiles:

    1. Bomb the missile sites in Cuba

    2. Attack the Soviet ships bringing the missiles

    3. Plan an invasion of Cuba

  • Kennedy’s concerns when taking the decision:

    1. How the public would react

       • He didn’t want to scare the public by not doing anything or by doing too much

       • He wanted to show that he was committed to policy of containment

    2. How this would affect the elections

       • Elections for the US congress were a month later

       • If he failed, this could affect the democrats

    3. How his decision would affect other Cold War conflicts

       • He feared that having a strong reaction would encourage Khrushchev to act aggressively in Berlin

  • Kennedy couldn’t bomb Cuba because they already did that during the Bay of Pigs and this would look like America being aggressive towards Cuba, damaging their reputation

• Events of the Cuban Missile Crisis:

• Why did the crisis happen?

  • Since 1945, there was a lot of tension between USSR and the US, so each country wanted to place nuclear weapons close to the other country to threaten them (MAD- mutual assured distraction)

  • After the Bay of Pigs incident (an US attempt to invade Cuba), the leader of Cuba (Castro) publicly announced that he is now a communist, which was very scary for Americans since Cuba was known as ‘America’s back yard’. Until now, communism was mostly only seen in Europe and Asia but now that it is so close to the US (90 miles away), Americans are scared

  • American spy planes took pictures of Cuba where they saw that Cuba now has missile launch pads and that they were imported from Russia

  

  • By October 1960, the US banned any trade with Cuba because of this conflict

  • A year later, America broke any diplomatic relationship with Cuba

• Consequences from this conflict

  1. Positive:

     • Victory for the policy of containment

     • Kennedy was no longer seen as a weak leader

  2. Negative:

     • USA had to remove missiles in Turkey (which were old)

     • Some USA politicians saw this as Kennedy being weal for negotiating with the Soviets

     • Cuba did remains communist (until present day) and kept its alliance with the USSR

Vietnam (1955–75)

• Background:

  • Before WW2, France owned Vietnam, it was known as Indochina

  • During WW2, Japan took over but were kicked out in 1941 by the Viet Minh (communist armed force which was led by Ho Chi Minh)

  • In 1945, Vietnam declared independence

• Why did the US get involved in this conflict?

  • France wanted Vietnam back and since America was fearing that Vietnam would become communist, they helped the French

• The battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954) was where the Viet Minh kicked out the French

• Geneva Peace Accords:

  • Split Vietnam into two parts, divided by the 17th parallel

    • North (controlled by Ho Chi Minh with the Viet Minh as their army)

    • South (controlled by Ngo Dihn Diem)

• The two leaders:

  1. Ho Chi Minh

     • Respected

     • Supported by the USSR and China

  2. Ngo Dihn Diem

     • Unpopular

       • Would take land from the poor and give it to the rich or the US army

       • Gave key government positions to family

     • Corrupt

     • Catholic (most people in the region were Buddhists but he persecuted them)

     • Supported by the US

• Reasons why the US got involved:

• The development of the war

  • In 1957 the Viet Minh started to attack the South

    • They developed the Ho Chi Minh Trails which were trails in the jungle to help them navigate better and distribute arms. These trails were in Laos and Cambodia

  • In 1959 Ho Chi Minh declared war on the South, making his intentions very clear that he wanted to overthrow Ngo Dihn Diem

  • In 1960, Ho Chi Minh created the Viet Cong which were the guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam

    • They would disguise themselves as regular citizens or local farmers so that Americans wouldn’t know who to kill.

    • This led to mass the My Lai massacre (1968) where Americans killed between 347 and 504 civilians because they couldn’t tell if they were part of the Viet Cong or not.

  • In 1962, the Strategic Hamlets Programme was started by Ngo Dihn Diem where they would kick out civilians out of their homes to create safe places for the South Army to stay.

    • This made Diem even more unpopular

  • Because of how corrupt Diem was, the US could no longer support him → a coup overthrew Diem’s government in 1963, killing him

• Events of the Vietnam war

• Importance of the Gulf of Tonkin incident

  • President Lyndon Johnson needed the support of the Congress to declare war on North Vietnam

  • He claimed that two US ships were attacked since this looked like an act of war from the North towards the US

  • This was he managed to gain support of the congress to declare war and send troops in Vietnam

  • Because of this incident, Operation Rolling Thunder began

    • Operation Rolling Thunder was a mass bombing campaign on North Vietnam by the USA

    • Operation Rolling Thunder happened for 3 main reasons:

      • US bases in South Vietnam had suffered a number of attacks from the Vietcong, who were growing stronger thanks to supplies and support from North Vietnam

      • The trigger for the operation was the Vietcong attack on the US base, Camp Holloway, which killed 8 American soldiers and injured hundreds more

      • A bombing campaign was chosen because the US thought it would cost fewer lives than ground warfare.

    • The Americans used chemical weapons

      • Napalm (a weaponized mixture of chemicals designed to create a highly flammable and gelatinous liquid)

      • Agent Orange (herbicide and defoliant that could cause cancer, congenital (birth) disorders and life-threatening health complications)

• Vietcong tactics

  1. Guerilla tactics

     • Why was it successful?

       • The Vietnamese knew that in open warfare the US would win but they took advantage of the land and used the tactics they used to kick out the Japanese and French to also kick out the Americans

     • The tactics:

       • Set traps

       • Ambushed soldiers

       • Used the forests to attack and then quickly hide

       • They had underground tunnels

  2. The civilians:

     • The Vietcong was very supported by the South Vietnamese so they helped the Vietcong attack government officials.

     • The Vietcong didn’t wear uniforms so Americans couldn’t tell who was a normal civilian and who was part of the army.

  3. Ho Chi Minh Trail

     • Even with the US bombing, the trail helped supply the Vietcong and the Viet Minh with supplies and since the trail passed through other countries, the US couldn’t really bomb it

• American tactics:

  1. Bombing

     • The US bombed with large scale bombs key military points, the capital and the Ho Chi Minh Trail

     • They used three million tones of bombs in total in the Vietnam war

  2. Chemical warfare

     • The USA used Napalm and Agent Orange to try to get rid of the dense forest but it led to many causalities

  3. Conscription

     • In 1967, America reintroduced ‘the draft’

     • Most of the people conscripted were young and black Americans. The only way to avoid the draft was by going to university so most people fighting were poor US citizens

     • Since they were forced into this war, the US army had a very low morale, a lot of the times missing on purpose because they didn’t want to kill the Vietnamese

  4. Search and destroy

     • The US used helicopters to find Vietcong bases and attack them

     • This method caused many casualties

     • This made the US even more unpopular among the Vietnamese

• Why did the public opinion change about the Vietnam War?

• The US public turned against the Vietnam War because:

• Conscription was unpopular

  • Around 2.8 million US soldiers fought in Vietnam

  • The draft affected black Americans disproportionately

  • The police prosecuted over 9,000 young men for 'draft dodging'

• The Tet Offensive (1968) caused the media to question if the war was worthwhile

• It was the first televised war

  • The US public saw photographs and news reports of the Vietnam War in graphic detail

  • Scandals like the My Lai Massacre were uncovered, changing the public's perception of the US Army

• Anti-war protests peaked 1968-70

  • Students were the key opposition group to the war

  • In November 1969, 700,000 anti-war protesters marched in Washington

  • In May 1970, the National Guard shot dead four student protestors at Kent State University

  • The media coverage of the shootings caused 2 million students in 400 schools to go on strike

• The Consequences of the End of the Vietnam War

  • President Nixon won the 1968 presidential election on the promise to end the Vietnam War

    • Nixon and his National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, wanted to pull out of the war with dignity

  • After the unsuccessful bombing campaigns of Laos and Cambodia, Nixon began the process of US withdrawal

    • In January 1973, the US and the North Vietnamese government signed the Paris Peace Accords

    • This officially ended US involvement in Vietnam

    • Nixon declared the US withdrawal was 'peace with honor'

    • By 1973, only 30,000 US troops remained in Vietnam

  • The conflict between North and South Vietnam continued

    • On 30th April 1975, the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, fell to North Vietnamese forces

  • As a result of this war Nixon tried to improve the relationship with the USSR, abandoning the policy of containment

Hungarian uprising 1956

• Background:

  • Hungary was very poor

    • living standards were horrible

    • lack of food

    • lack of clothes

  • The AVO’s terror

    • secret police that would take people prisoners during the night and torture them

    • 1.3 million people were prosecuted and half jailed

  • Russification

    • kids were forced to learn Russian in schools

    • names of streets were changed to Russian names

    • Hungarian soldiers had to wear Russian uniforms

  • The persecution of the Church

    • Stalin wanted to get rid of the Church so that the people would focus on being communist rather than Catholic

    • the head of the catholic church was arrested 1948, arrested and tortured until he confessed to plotting with the US against the USSR and was imprisoned

    • in 1949, the most beautiful church in Hungary, the Regnum Marianum, was taken down and replaced with a statue of Stalin

• Events:

  • 22 October, a meeting of students, intellectuals and factory workers was held. They demanded:

    • the removal of Soviet troops from Hungary

    • multi-party elections

    • freedom of press/speech

    • a ‘re-examination’ of Hungary’s relationship with the Soviet Union.

  • 23 October, spontaneous demonstrations broke out across the city.

    • a group of iron workers managed to cut through the massive metal legs of the statue of Stalin. An angry crowd destroyed and vandalized the hated statue

  • In response, still on October 23, Gerő went on the radio and denounced the ‘class enemies’ on the streets and secretly requested Soviet troops to restore order. People tried to break in the radio station, but the Hungarian security police fired into the unarmed crowd

  • On 25 October, with the city engulfed in flames, the USSR replaced Gerő with the popular communist Imre Nagy

  • On 30 October, Nagy announced the end of the one-party state in Hungary, and the return of multi-party democracy.

  • 31 October, Nagy says that Hungary is leaving the Warsaw Pact

  • 4.00 am On 4 November, the day after a false Soviet retreat from Budapest, the city’s residents woke up to the sound of artillery shells being launched into the city center

    • 60,000 Soviet troops invaded the city.

• Outcome: Hungary lost

  • at least 2,000 were killed

    • as well as 640 Soviet soldiers

  • roughly 300 leading revolutionaries were executed

  • 22,000 imprisoned

  • thousands fled Hungary to Austria, Germany, Britain the USA and Canada.

  • Nagy was replaced and executed in 1958

• Importance:

  • Khrushchev had shown that despite his attempts to ‘destalinize’ the USSR (a process which had encouraged the Hungarians to challenge communist rule in the first place), he was happy to use Stalinist methods to crush resistance

Prague spring 1968:

• Background:

  • Czechoslovakia was in a very similar place as Hungary before the revolution

  • the president: Alexander Dubček

    • Took over in 1968

    • He was a Communist reformer who wanted to liberalize the regime, by creating “socialism with a human face”

      • Greater freedom of expression

      • Political tolerance (multi-party elections)

      • Non-Communist organizations (businesses owned by people and not the government)

    • He tried to control growing reforms while stopping Soviet intervention through negotiations

• Events:

  • April 1969, Dubček’s government announced an action plan, called the Prague Spring. This lasted 4 months

    • increased living standards

    • less power for secret police

    • freedom of speech

    • free elections

    • freedom to travel

    • plans to trade with the West

    • stay in the Warsaw pact (different from the Hungarian revolution)

  • Brezhnev hated this plan so he planned an invasion

    • he did not want to lose control over Czechoslovakia

      • it had important resources

      • other countries would start doing the same

  • August 3rd 1968, communist Czech’s sent a concerned letter to Brezhnev

  • Brezhnev Doctrine was implemented (not allowing Eastern Europe to be anything but communist)

  • 20 August, 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia

    • the invasion was non-violent since the Czech’s were being peaceful

  • Dubček and other 3 leaders were sent to Moscow

  • Dubček retained his post as the party's first secretary until April 1969. The

    achievements of the Prague Spring were not reversed immediately but over

    a period of several months.

    • Forced to resign as First Secretary. Sent to Turkey as ambassador. Later expelled from the Communist Party. Photos showing him as leader were ‘censored’

Key terms:

• Rollback: strategy to push back communism (MacArthur came up with it)

• Containment: a strategy used by the USA since 1940s to stop the spread of communism

• Domino theory: the idea that if one country falls to communism, the countries around it are very likely to fall to communism as well. Becomes popular in the 1950s

  • China → Korea → Vietnam → Laos → Cambodia → Thailand → etc.

• Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Aid) was set up to coordinate the production and trade of the eastern European communist countries. They were expected to trade with each other and not the West. However, it favored the USSR more than any of its other members.

• Coup: violent, illegal overthrown of a government

• Guerrilla warfare: a way to fight when a smaller amount of people take advantage of the environment and use ambushes, booby traps and other tactics against an army