Cold War Climate

Allies Set Postwar Goals

Yalta Conference Feb 1945• Roosevelt, Stalin, and

Churchill • Agreed Poland, Bulgaria, &

Romania would hold free elections (Stalin would renege on this promise)

• Red Army already occupied much of Eastern Europe-couldn’t press Stalin "Yalta Conference." Image. Library of Congress. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011.

Web. 8 Dec. 2011.

Potsdam Conference

Truman, Stalin, Clement Atlee (UK Prime Minister)

Decide to divide Germany into four zones of occupation: Soviet, American, British, and French.

New borders and free elections for Poland

Recognized Soviet’s right to reparations

Soviet Union would enter war

against Japan

Truman believed USSR is a threat.

"Potsdam Conference." Image. Harry S. Truman Library. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2011.

Cold War

The Cold War was a period of East West competition, tension, ‐and conflict short of full‐scale war

There were real wars, sometimes called "proxy wars" because they were fought by Soviet allies rather than the USSR itself ‐‐along with competition for influence in the Third World, and a major superpower arms race.

http://multimedialearningllc.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/kennedy-versus-khrushchev-cold-war-political-cartoon/

The Cold War

• Began in 1945, with disagreements over the future of post-WWII Europe. -Yalta Conference and Potsdam

• Ended in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Berlin Wall." Image. AP/Wide World Photos. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

US v. Soviet Union

United States and Allies

• Capitalist, market-based economy

• Democratic republic• Open society

USSR and Allies

• Communist, state controlled economy

• Dictatorship• Closed society

The Soviets Split from the Allies

Stalin wanted conquered land to protect the Soviet Union from future invasion.

Allies insisted on free elections in Soviet-occupied Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, & Hungary

Stalin refused and by 1948 all of these states had communist governments (Latvia, Lithuania, & Estonia became part of the Soviet Union itself)

The Iron Curtain

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe … and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.” - Winston Churchill, 1946

Term “iron curtain” was meant to describe the ideological division that had risen between Communist Eastern Europe and Democratic Western Europe

http://apus-06-07.wikispaces.com/pw+foreign+political+cartoons

"Eastern Europe after World War II." Map. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

The Cold War in Europe

Berlin Airlift (1948-1949)• Soviet Union prohibited ground access to West Berlin.

• UK and US providedessential supplies into Germany

• A new plane touched down every 3 minutes, was unloaded in 17, and then took off to receive another load.

• Airlift was successful that the Soviet Union lifted the blockade.

"Berlin airlift." Image. U.S. Air Force. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.

Crisis in BerlinBerlin was a key focus of Cold War tensions.

The city was split into democratic West Berlin and communist East Berlin.

East Germany built the Berlin wall in 1961 that sealed off West Berlin.

The wall fell in 1989.

Germany approved reunification in 1990.

"Berlin Wall." Image. AP/Wide World Photos. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.

Containment Policy

US had little choice but to accept communism in Eastern Europe or enter into an unpopular war with the Soviets

US instead focused on preventing communism from spreading into new areas and pledged to “contain” communism to the areas where it already existed

First Test of Containment was in Greece and Turkey

The Truman Doctrine

Mar. 12, 1947: Truman declared that US foreign policy would be to “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”

Truman essentially declared war on the spread of communism

After Truman’s speech, Congress approved $400 million in economic aid to Greece and Turkey, enough to defeat the communist threat in that region

"Truman Doctrine." Image. Library of Congress. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

The Marshall Plan

A plan to provide US financial aid to war-torn Europe, to help with rebuilding both physically and economically

The economic prosperity in Western Europe that followed minimized the potential for any further spread of communism in that region

Stalin Blocks Marshall PlanStalin would not allow any communist state to accept US assistance.

"Marshall Plan." Image. National Archives. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

NATO

• Formed as a defense alliance against the Soviet Union• If one member is attacked, all the others are expected to

respond.• The Soviet Union responded with the Warsaw Pact• Additional countries were added to NATO in 1952, 1955, 1982

https://sites.google.com/site/gmsebbe/NATO_vs_Warsaw_1949-1990.png

Arms Race

An arms race began right after WWII.

By 1949, the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons.

By 1953, both US and USSR had hydrogen bombs = more destructive than atomic bombs.

Both sides engaged in a race to match each other’s new weapons.

MAD- Mutually Assured Destruction- each side knew that the other side would itself be destroyed if it launched its weapons

Eisenhower Introduces New Policies

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles- introduces idea of “Massive Retaliation”- the policy that the US would respond to communist threats to its allies by threatening to use crushing, overwhelming force, perhaps even nuclear weapons.

• Focused stockpiling nuclear weapons, planes, missiles, and submarines

• Conservatives thought it was downgrading conventional forces-weakening American defense

• Liberals feared nuclear war

Brinkmanship- “You have to take some chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war.”

Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the new head of the Soviet Union when Stalin died in 1953.

Khrushchev was not as suspicious or as cruel as Stalin.

He condemned the excesses of the Stalin regime and inched towards more peaceful relations with the democratic West.-move towards “peaceful co-existence” of the two powers

-But the Hungarian Revolution showed otherwise

Eisenhower Doctrine

US would use force to help any Middle East nation threatened by Communism.

Use doctrine in 1958- sent troops to Lebanon to put down a revolt against its pro-American government.

How did the Cold War culture create conflicts over what it meant to be a “true American”?

Red Scare: the fear that communists both outside and inside America were working to destroy American life and capitalism.

(Communist) “are everywhere- in factories, offices, butcher stores, on street corners, and private businesses. And each carries in himself the death of our society.”

-Attorney General J. Howard McGrath

Smith Act- unlawful to teach or advocate overthrow of the US government

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)- investigate possible subversive activities

-conducted highly publicized hearings on communist activities

-Movie Industry (1947)- HUAC uncovered the Hollywood Ten ( a group of left-wing writers, directors, and producers). They refused to answer questions, asserting the 5th Amendment

rights against self-incrimination. - Watkins v. United States (1957)- witnesses before HUAC

couldn’t be forced to name radicals they knew.-The HUAC had a powerful impact on filmmaking- avoided

sensitive social issues-feared being put on a Hollywood Blacklist.

Joseph R. McCarthy, senator from Wisconsin

McCarthyism- extreme, reckless charges

By making irresponsible allegations, McCarthy did more to discredit legitimate concerns about domestic communism than any other American. McCarthy vs. Welch

Merely being accused by McCarthy destroyed reputations and jobs.

McCarthyism

Alger Hiss- -found guilty and sentence to five years in prison-raised serious concerns when someone as influential as Hiss (government official) was a communist agent

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg- charged with passing secret information about nuclear science to Soviet agents. Sentenced to death.

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/01/a-look-back-at-alger-hiss-espionage-case.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/8894256/Infamous-spies-in-history.html?image=5

Space Race

Sputnik-(57) The Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, into Space, some Americans feared that the Soviet Union had more advanced technology.

This launched the idea that the USneed to catch up to Soviet achievement.

President Eisenhower would increaseWeapons spending, sponsor NASA, and create National Defense EducationAct.

"Apollo 11 launch." Image. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.

Duck and Cover 1951

Duck and Cover 1. Why do you think that “Duck and Cover” was developed by

the Federal Government?

2. How did the film attempt to calm the fears of young Americans about the atomic bomb?

3. Do you think that the film would have been successful in teaching about ways of protecting students against the dangers of an atomic bomb?

4. Would a similar film be successful in today’s schools in teaching about terrorist activities? Explain why or why not.

Suburbia: 1950s

Baby BoomIncrease in births between 1945 – 1964 after the end of WWII

Is the image of the happy 1950s housewife accurate?