the coming of a bipolar world mw
TRANSCRIPT
THE COMING OF A BIPOLAR WORLD AND THE DAWN OF THE NUCLEAR AGE
Sicily and the End of Mussolini
The Air War
Operation Overlord
Russian Revenge
The End of the Thousand Year Reich
Yalta Conference• Post War issues• Germany – denazification,
demilitarization, war criminals
• U.S. – wants Russia to help in Pacific
• USSR – wants sphere of influence in E. Europe– Poland
• U.K. wants free elections in East Europe– Poland
• U.S. Sells out?Feb 4-11 1945
A new Atomic Age
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
Potsdam Conference
*Division of Germany into occupation zones*Changing Germany’s borders*Removing German Threat to Russia*Dismantling of German Military-Industrial Complex*Churchill, Truman, Kai-Sheik agree how to end war in Pacific
A United Nations?
• Idea originating with FDR and Churchill
• 1945 – founded SF• Later based in NY• Security council
– 10 nation council with 5 permanent members
– Allies in WWII– USSR, UK, France,
China, USA– Veto power
Division of Europe
Berlin Airlift Soviets blockade
Western Berlin from June of 1948-May of 1949
Britain and US respond by airlifting supplies in 13k tons per day
Push back against the “Eastern Bloc”
Iron Curtain
Marshall Plan
Containment
From 1946 on, the U.S. engages in a policy of “Containment” of the spread of communism, funding anti-Communist troops in Greece and Turkey, as well as the development of NATO.
Warsaw Pact Vs Nato
1956: Hungarian Revolution
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was erected in late 1961, closing an emigration loophole between East and West Germany. In the West it symbolized the Iron Curtain, in the Eastern Bloc it was seen as a protective barrier from the vices of capitalism
MADness
How I learned to quit worrying…
absurdity In the face of death
Prague Spring
Aleksander Dubcek – 1968 Soviet Invasion A Czech Way of
Resistance Jan Palach Temporarily Crushing
the Revolution
