cold war:. bipolar world: no longer 5 or six superpowers only the usa and soviet union soviet union...
TRANSCRIPT
Cold War:
Bipolar World:
• No longer 5 or six superpowers• Only the USA and Soviet Union• Soviet Union = Stalin’s 5 Year Plans & military
size• USA = economic superpower & WWII ended
her isolation
USA’s position:
• An exaggerated 1919 except for military strength:
-12.5 million men in uniform-1,200 warships, dozens of aircraft carriers-fleet was larger than British now-Air Force had 2,000 heavy bombers, 1,000 ultra
long range bombers (B-29’s)-monopoly on nuclear bombs
What would the USA do with this power?
“All this combined to make the United States committed to the creation of a new world order beneficial to the needs of western capitalism, and of course, to the most flourishing of the western capitalist states…”
• American ideals = self-help, entrepreneurship, free trade, & democracy
• Belief that America was invincible and morally superior
What would the Soviets do with this power?
• Although a military giant at wars’ end…• The nation was poor, deprived, and
unbalanced• Main task was to restore production to pre-
war levels, entered a decade of restoration
Stalin’s Communism after 1945:
1. Internal discipline & absolute conformity2. Anyone with foreign connections was a
suspect3. Loyalty of Russian Jews questioned4. Army reduced in size5. Censorship increased6. Rival groups eliminated in satellite states
What does “Cold War” mean?
Struggle between the East and West powers to gain influence and extend their ideologies of the rest of the world through:
• Economic aid• Military aid• Alliances• Propaganda• Conquests
Causes of Cold War:
1. Nationalism - but more so “Self-Interestism”2. Imperialism:-Soviet bloc countries were dominated by
Moscow (not as colonies but more so as clients)
-more economic in that economies of third world countries were dominated so that the political scene could also be dominated
Ideological Differences:
1. Fear and Suspicion – authoritarian state vs. democratic one, Communist vs. free enterprise/Capitalism
2. West feared Communism was aimed at world revolution
3. Soviets feared Capitalist Imperialism posed a threat to Communism
Strategic Concerns and Suspicions:
1. USA feared that since Stalin liberated Eastern European countries from fascism and installed his Communism there would be a domino effect
2. The creation of these satellite states brought about Churchill’s term of the “Iron Curtain, that had fallen across Eastern Europe dividing Communist and non-Communist states” and that the balance of power would be upset in Europe (threat of Communism to France and Italy)
What were the dominoes?
1. Bulgarian referendum in 1945 led to creation of Communist regime
2. Yugoslavia, Marshall Tito created a Communist state (but not under Stalin’s control)
3. Communists seized power in Hungary and Romania
4. 1947 Poland became Communist
More Dominoes:
5. 1948 Czechoslovakia leaders Benes and Masaryk were killed and independence lost
6. Greece (British control) and Finland (neutral) outside Iron Curtain but watched closely by Stalin
USA Response:
1. Department of Defence reorganized into a single unit
2. The National Security Council was formed to advise the President on security matters
3. The CIA – Central Intelligence Agency was formed as the new espionage agency designed to spy and report on anyone deemed to be a threat to the USA