THE COLD WAR:USA VS. USSR

(AND OTHER COUNTRIES TOO)

Post World War

Europe - Marshall Plan(1948-51; $13 Billion spent on

rebuilding Europe) U.S. – Baby boom

(1946-64, 78.3 million babies born)

Germany – Nuremberg Trials (Nov 1945-Oct 46; 24 Nazi leaders tried for various crimes)

NurembergTrials

Charges at the trial

The indictments were for: Participation in a common plan or

conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace

Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace

War crimes Crimes against humanity

Alfred Jodl -

Americans, British, French and Soviet soldiers did not face any sort of charges like Nazi leaders did for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity

Post War Europe

Human Toll

Russian losses: 20,000,000 soldiers dead 25,000,000 homeless, jobless,

wandering

US 405,000 soldiers dead

Berlin and Germany divided into four sections in order to rebuild it following the war and De-nazify it.

Other nations are retained by the Soviet Union (Poland, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia)

Vocab

Containment = restricting Communism to its current borders

Truman Doctrine = Help anyone (with $$$ or forces) to repel communist advances

USSR = Soviet Union (aka Russia; aka Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

Berlin Airlifts

June 1948 – May 1949

Berlin Airlifts

Disagreements led the USSR shutting access to West Berlin from the West in hopes of taking it.

11 months of pilots flying in thousands of pounds supplies, food and medicine united the world against the Soviet Union

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

An attack on one country will be considered an attack on all.

-Harry Truman

Warsaw Pact

Formed in 1955 in response to West Germany being admitted to NATO

Adds military support to economic comradely

Members:Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East German, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union

Communist revolution in China (1949)

Identity Crisis

Mao Zedong (or Chairman Mao) united his people after a long civil war + WWII time out.

Nationalist gov’t was seen as weak and corrupt; yet the U.S. involved itself to enforce Truman Doctrine

Since Stalin and Mao didn’t trust each other, Truman may had allied with China, if not for backing a loser. (Jiang Jieshi)

Jiang Jieshi = Chiang Kai-shek (they’re the same… don’t ask me how.)

Military leader Political leader Dictator of Taiwan after

exile

Korea

Territory of Japan until post-WWII Divided in half [at the 38 parallel] for

the US and USSR to rebuild and later reunify

North made a communist gov’t; South made a democratic/capitalistic one

N. Korea will invade the South and provoke war

1950-51 UN Supreme Commander for Korea Questioned the strategy of the

president Was fired in 1951 Died in 1964, with full state honors

Letter of complaint

It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest, and that we have joined the issue thus raised on the battlefield; that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words; that if we lose the war to communism in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom. As you pointed out, we must win. There is no substitute for victory.

General Stanley McChrystal

Resigned in 2010 for criticizing the Administration (Biden, others) in Rolling Stone Magazine “The Runaway General”

McCarthyism

Following the embarrassment with China, Americans are fearing communism.

The use of tactics involving personal attacks on individuals by means of widely

publicized indiscriminate allegations especially on the basis of unsubstantiated

charges. - http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mccarthyism

Joseph McCarthy

McCarthyism: the Red Scare

Many people lost their jobs, comparable to witch hunts

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Hearings

The Rosenbergs Soviet spies, traitors Gave secrets of the Atomic

bombs to the USSR Executed June 1953

Harry Truman

Atomic Bomb Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine United Nations Fair Deal Israel Korea

Dwight “IKE” Eisenhower

End Korean War Domino Theory CIA Operation to help

French in Vietnam

ELECTION OF 1960: KENNEDY VS. NIXON

First Televised Debates

Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis Space Race Peace Corps

Berlin Crisis, 1961 (4 June – 9 November 1961)

In November 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev issued an ultimatum giving the Western powers six months to agree to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free, demilitarized city.

West refuses

• August 12-13, 1961 East Berlin’s boarders are sealed

• 97 miles of barbed wire• Improved wire fence (1962–1965)• Concrete wall (1965–1975)• Grenzmauer 75 (Border Wall 75) (1975–

1989)• 32,000 combat engineers build The Wall• Sealing in East German citizens

1989

•DOMESTIC POLICY: KENNEDY’S NEW FRONTIER (1961-1963)

Emphasis on Technology, Science, and Social Relations

Space Exploration

April 12 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

First man in space U.S.S.R. Americans feared the USSR was

ahead of the US in the production of missiles

First AmericanAlan Shepard May 5, 1961

July 20, 1969

But just ten years later

First man on Moon Neil Armstrong Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin JFK will not live to see his dream

succeed

U.S.A.

FOREIGN POLICY

Bay of Pigs (1961) Cuban exiles return to overthrow

Castro With the backing of Kennedy Kennedy promises US air support

Kennedy abandons Cubans on the beach Will not send airstrikes

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) October 14–28, 1962 For thirteen days the world stood at

the brink of nuclear war. Castro afraid US would invade again USSR wanted to counter American

lead in ballistic missiles (US 298 ICBM vs USSR estimate 75.

USSR did have 700 medium range missles)

Khrushchev and Castro agreed to place strategic nuclear missiles secretly in Cuba.

The first consignment of R-12 missiles arrived on the night of September 8, followed by a second on September 16

Unconfirmed rumors started coming to US

Oct 14 U-2 airplane photographs missile sites

US imposes blockade around Cuba 2 countries play chicken

USSR blinks

Kennedy Assassination

Dallas, TX – Nov 22, 1963 On the way to a meeting, group took

a parade route for maximum exposure to the public

Wife Jackie and others are in the car when he is shot dead

Warren Commission Conspiracy Theories