The Cold War

What is the Cold War?

• Period of no war between major powers 1945-1989

• Intense hostility between the two super powers: US and USSR

Post-WWII Order

Spheres of influence Solve the “German Problem”

–Occupation zones

–Nuremberg trials

–Assistance

–European integration The United Nations

–UN Security Council

The Beginning: Cold War Escalation

Stalin consolidates power over Poland and Czechoslovakia

US gains influence over Turkey and Greece

Marshall Plan (1947)

Unification of Western Germany begins

Berlin Blockade (1948-1949)

NATO (1949)

Nuclear arms race

Berlin

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War of Ideologies Communism and Soviet Policy

– “X” “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”

Containment: “…Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the Western world is something

that can be contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points.” (Kennan 1947).

Truman Doctrine (1947)– Protect freedom against Soviet communism

Policies to implement containment– Economic assistance– Support of anti-communist groups– Limited war

Iron Curtain

Soviet Sphere of Influence

Military assistance and economic subsidies– The Warsaw Pact– Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA)

Ideology

Support communist governments

Power and control – Hungary 1956– Czechoslovakia 1968

US Sphere of Influence

Assistance

– Marshall Plan

– Western Hemisphere

– Middle East and Africa

Ideology – containment, liberty

Use of force

– Bay of Pigs, Cuba (1961)

– Korean War, Vietnam war

– Chile, Guatemala, etc.

War Averted: The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

Shots of Soviet missile sites in Cuba taken by US reconnaissance plains

Khrushchev and Kennedy face-off in the UN

US’s options– “Surgical strikes”– Blockade of Cuba– Appeasement

Kennedy Administration chooses blockade

Soviets back off

Hotline White House-Kremlin

Nuclear Weapons

1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1949: Soviet AB explosion

Today: 1 missile=100 Hiroshima bombs

Nuclear deterrence

Nuclear Cooperation

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (1969-1972); SALT II (1972-1979)

Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), 1972– Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

– US walked out in 2002: Strategic Defense Initiative

Why No WWIII?

Nuclear deterrence– Anticipate catastrophic consequences– Stigma against using nuclear weapons– No second strike capability (ABM treaty 1972)

Prevent escalation of conflict at every point

Strong anti-war sentiment in both USSR and US

Bipolar structure plus reconnaissance revolution – relatively simple to manage

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The End of the Cold War

Failure of structural theories?

Perestroika and the Velvet Revolutions– Gorbachev in power

– Domestic reforms – perestroika and glasnost

– Semi free elections in Poland

– Velvet revolutions across Easter Europe

– Berlin wall opened: 1989