the cold war 1945-1991

The Cold War 1945-1991The Cold War 1945-1991

Cold War

• The Cold War was a time after WWII when the USA and the Soviet Union were rivals for world influence.

YALTA (in the USSR)YALTA (in the USSR)Date: Feb 1945Date: Feb 1945

Present: Churchill, Present: Churchill, Roosevelt and StalinRoosevelt and Stalin

Yalta Conference: Start of United Nations

What is the United Nations?

United Nations

• International Organization where countries try to find peaceful solutions

United Nations

• It has no army but uses troops from other countries.

Then FDR Died• FDR died on April 14, 1945

In GB… a change in leadership• Churchill will be

replaced by Clement Atlee who will become the British Prime Minister in early 1945

POTSDAM (Germany)POTSDAM (Germany)Date: July 1945Date: July 1945

Present: Churchill, Present: Churchill, Truman and StalinTruman and Stalin

Potsdam Conference• Held in Germany in July of 1945. It is here

that the USA (Truman) will introduce to Stalin that the United States has a weapon that will end the war. We seek Russian assistance against the Japanese in the Pacific.

• At Potsdam, Stalin will announce that he will be seeking reparations from the Germans from within his section of Germany

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• The Russians took very high casualties to capture Berlin in May 1945. They spent the early occupation trying to take over all zones of the city but were stopped by German democrats such as Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer. Reluctantly the Russians had to admit the Americans, French and British to their respective zones.

Truman DoctrineThe Truman Doctrine in

March 1947 promised that the USA “would support free peoples who are resisting” communism.

This led to containment – policy of containing communism where it is.

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• The nuclear bomb gave America a lead which was expected to last at least 5 years. The rapid Russian development of nuclear technology, helped by the work of the “atom spies” was a shock.

Significantly, Russia hurriedly declared war against Japan at the beginning of August 1945 and rushed to advance into Asia to stake out a position for the post-war settlement. This helped make both the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts more likely.

Marshall Plan

USA’s plan to send food, blankets, fuel to Europe to help them. AND to keep

them from turning communist.

This American cartoon (1947) shows Marshall (on the left) telling 'Uncle Sam' - i.e. the American nation - 'Come on Sam! It's up to us again.' The idea is that the rich Americans, having won the Second World War, are now going to prop up the crumbling edifice of European freedom again – seeing as the prop labelled 'self help' is not stopping it from collapsing.

This American cartoon of 1949 about the Marshall Plan represents America as a generous 'dad', teaching his clumsy son 'Europe' to support himself economically.   The caption says: 'he's finally getting the hang of it'.

Through the Marshall Plan, the U.S. poured money into rebuilding Western Europe after the ravages of war. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin refused to allow the Eastern European nations to join the Marshall Plan and announced in its place a Council for Economic Mutual Assistance. The Soviet Union had no intention of underwriting the costs of recovery, and the plan existed primarily as a propaganda device.

ADivided Germany and Berlin

Berlin blockade led to Berlin Airlift

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

1949: Canada, USA, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy,

Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal

Soviet Union’s response to NATO:

• Warsaw Pact: military alliance between Soviet Union and it’s Eastern European satellite nations

Two sides of Cold War

• NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• USA, France, Great Britain, West Germany

• CAPITALISMCAPITALISM

• Warsaw Pact – pro Soviet countries – USSR, and all countries controlled by the USSR.

• COMMUNISM

The Red Scare

• It took place in the United States primarily from 1948 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively engaged in suppression of the American Communist Party, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. ...

• In 1947 the HUAC began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry.

• The HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named nineteen people who they accused of holding left-wing views.

• One of those named, an emigrant playwright, gave evidence and then left for East Germany. Ten others refused to answer any questions.

• Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this.

• The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of congress and each was sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison.

Hollywood Ten

• Does this look like a spy?

• Yes or No

• In 1945 Elizabeth Bentley, a former member of the American Communist Party, walked into the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and offered to provide information about a Soviet spy ring. Over the next couple of weeks Bentley identified more than 80 people she claimed were spies.

Bentley before the House of Un-American Activities Committee

• Does she look like a spy?

• Yes or No

• What about this man? Does he look like a spy?

• Yes or No

• The Rosenbergs both denied they had been involved in spying for the Soviet Union

• They were convicted by a jury of their peers and executed by the USA government on June 19, 1953

1. At the time of World War II, how did the vision of the postwar world held by the United States differ from that of the Soviets and the British?

2. How did the Yalta Conference deal with the Polish and German questions?

3. Explain the basic structure of the United Nations, and contrast its reception in the United States with that of the League of Nations.

4. Contrast the attitudes of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman toward Stalin and the Russians.  How did this difference play out at the Potsdam Conference?

5. What were Stalin's aims after the war? 6. How did the US attempt to control global reorganization

following World War II? 7. What was the policy of "containment?"  What were

President Truman's goals in establishing this foreign policy?

8. Identify the main objectives of the Truman Doctrine. 9. In what ways was the Marshall Plan the economic component of

containment?  How well did it work? 10. Why did the US initiate the Berlin Airlift in 1948?  What were the effects of

this move? 11. List the original members of N. A. T. O.  What was the purpose of this

alliance? 12. Why was HUAC created?  13. Who were the "Hollywood 10?"  Why was Hollywood a target of anti-

communist investigations by Congress in the 1950s? 14. What factors combined to create the anti-communist paranoia that led to the

national mood that allowed the rise to prominence of Senator Joseph McCarthy?

15. How did McCarthy exploit the existing mood of hysteria?  What sorts of tactics did he use in his attacks on alleged subversion?