Monday: Cold War notes
Tuesday: Cold War notes
Wednesday: Cold War notes
Thursday: Work day
Friday: Work day
Cold War (1945-1990)
U.S. vs. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Definition: A political, strategic, and ideological struggle between the US and Soviet Union from 1945-1990, spread throughout the world (Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America).
Goal: To stop the spread of communism
Communism vs. Democracy
*Theory of communism
- Calls for class warfare, poor people would rise up and overthrow the rich where everyone was equal and were paid for their abilities
*Communist countries in the world:
- China
- Cuba
- Vietnam
- Laos
- North Korea
*Practice of communism
- Promoting equality (in poverty), not many rights, dictatorship
Socialism vs. Capitalism
*Capitalism
- The more you work, the more you make
- You work for what you earn
- People owned businesses
- Problem - leads to major income inequality, a wide gap between the rich and the poor
*Socialism
- No matter how hard you work, you get paid the same
- Government owned businesses
- Strength - Provides everybody a fixed income
- Problem - No motivation to work hard, everything is provided for you
History of the Soviet Union
*Bolshevik Revolution
- Dropped out of WWI
- They start fighting the Civil War
- Change from Russia - many republics
*Lenin
- First leader
- Marxist
- Believed in the theory of communism
- Lenin at some point would have dissolved the government and turned it over to the people
- Dies
*Stalin
- Comes into power
- Concerned about people coming for him, killed anyone he didn't trust
- Killed millions in purges
- Five Year Plans
- Every 5 years our industrial power will go up
- Put out products and make more money than everyone
- Nationalization & Collectivization
- Took businesses and farms away from the people
- Were like factory workers now for the government
*Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
- Took over countries
*War with Germany
- Germany attacked Soviet Union
- Caused a lot of damage
- Battle of Berlin, Soviet Union comes back
Causes of the Cold War
*Different political systems
- US is based on democracy, capitalism, and freedom
- USSR is based on dictatorship, communism, and control
*The Red Scare - 1919
- Did many things to stop the spread of communism
- Stopped immigration, Palmer raids
- Fear of communism started before WWI
*Both thought their system was better and distrusted the others intentions
- Lack of communication
*Stalin despised capitalism
- Drove him to defeat it
- Thought war was inevitable
- Thought the top 1% rich caused all the problems in the world
*Distrust during WWII
- We worked together reluctantly
- Stalin was very frustrated with us because he was losing millions of people
- Stalin was allies with Germany at one point - concerned us how he could make a deal with the devil
*Stalin breaking his promise to allow free elections at the Yalta Conference
- Stalin did not allow this and forced Eastern Europe to become communist
*Fear of attacks
- Stalin always said war was inevitable, assumed it would happen at some point
- USSR and US were both scared of attacks from other side
- USSR's fear of the atomic bomb - we could always hang it over his head
*USSR's actions in their German zone
*Soviet Union wanted to spread communism around the world
- Our goal was to stop the spread of communism
Yalta Conference - Feb. 1945
*Before the end of WW2, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met at Yalta to plan what should happen when the war ended, they agreed on many points
- The establishment of the United Nations
- Germany to be divided into 4 zones
- Free elections allowed in the state of Eastern Europe
- Russia promised to join the war against Japan
The "West", The "East"
*The West was the democratic world
- Great Britain, western Europe, Western Germany, France, Italy
- Superpower was United States
- NATO
- North Atlantic treaty organization
- United States, Canada, Western Europe
*The East was the communist power
- East Berlin, East Europe
- Russia was the super power
- Warsaw Pact
- Military alliance of Eastern Europe led by Soviet Union
- Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania
Post WWII/Cold War Goals for US & USSR
UNITED STATES
*Wanted to promote open markets for US goods to prevent another depression
*Promote democracy throughout the world, especially in Asia and Africa
- Did not invade other countries
- We have troops in many countries - only country that does that
*Stop the spread of communism
- Policy of containment
SOVIET UNION
*Wanted to create greater security for itself
- Lost tens of millions of people in WWII and Stalin's purges
- Feared a strong Germany
*Establish defensive borders
*Encourage friendly governments on its borders
- Buffers surrounding them so an invasion isn't as easy
*Spread communism around the world
Key Terms
- Winston Churchill Speech
- Missouri, US
- Talked about how Europe is split after WWII into communists and non communists
- Iron curtain
- Domino Effect - Eisenhower 1954
- One country becomes communist, many follow
- Policy of Containment - 1946
- We knew we had to stop the spread of communism
- Truman doctrine
- In 1947 the British were helping the Greek government fight against communist guerrillas
- They appealed to America for aid and we responded with the Truman Doctrine
- Greece received large amounts of arms and supplies, and by 1949 had defeated the communists
- Marshall Plan
- In 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall announced the Marshall Plan
- This was a massive economic aid plan for Europe to help it recover from the damage caused by the war
- There were two motives for this:
- Helping Europe to recover economically would provide markets for American goods, benefiting American industry
- A prosperous Europe would be better to resist the spread of communism
- Brinkmanship - 1950's - 1960's
- Going all the way to the end before actually going to war
- Going to the "brink"
- Massive Retaliation / Mutual Deference / Mutual Assured Destruction
- Massive retaliation - If one side attacks the other side will retaliate and attack back
- Mutual deference - Both agree not to attack because they know we will attack back, no ones going to use them
- Mutual assured destruction - Assurance that if we both attack the world with suffer and go into destruction
- NATO
- North Atlantic Treaty Organizaiton
- United State's alliance with western Europe
- Defensive alliance
- The first peacetime alliance in US History
- Consists of:
- America, Canada, Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Denmark, Norway and Italy
- CIA vs. KGB
- Central Intelligence Agency - 1947-present
- Gathers information by spying on other countries
- Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti
- Committee for State Security
- 1954-1991
- Central Intelligence Agency - 1947-present
- Peaceful Co-existence - After 1953
- We don't have to like each other or have the same ideas, but we can at least not go to war
- We can peacefully exist in the world
- De-Stalinization - After 1953
- Take down ideas and propaganda from Stalin
- Started realizing that we don't have to scare people constantly
- The government still controlled things, but the fear started going away
- Détente - 1970's
- Richard Nixon went to communist China in 1972 and our relationship got better
- Richard Nixon also went to the Soviet Union
- Détente - an easing of tensions
- Things were looking better in the 70's
- Started having peace deals
- Ronald Reagan was against this
- Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power in USSR - 1985
- He and Ronald Reagan met on several occasions
- First Soviet leader willing to bring change
- Perestroika - 1985
- Restructuring of the Soviet economy and political system
- More democracy, free elections
- Glasnost - 1985
- More openness of the Soviet government and for it's people
- Free speech and press
- United Nations - 1945 - present
- A world-wide peace keeping organization
- Has a military force
Nuclear Bombs
*USSR's First Atomic Test - 1949
- Had spies at Los Alamo - developed it earlier than we thought
- Caused people panic
- Thought that WW3 was inevitable
*Nuclear Powers of the World
- United States - 1945
- Russia - 1949
- United Kingdom - 1952
- France - 1960
- China - 1964
- India - 1974
- Pakistan - 1998
- North Korea - 2006
- Israel - ??
- Iran - Developing?
*Nuclear Power Treaties/Organizations
Reduce the amount of nuclear weapons in the world
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - 1963
- Banned nuclear testing (above ground)
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - 1968 - 1970
- "Prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology"
- "promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy"
- "Further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament"
- SALT I Treaty - 1972 (US/USSR)
- SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels
- Limited new submarine-launched ballistic Missile (SLBM)
- Salt II was signed but never ratified by Congress
- Due to Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
- Anti-Ballistic Missile - 1972 (US/USSR)
- Limited weapons that would seek out and destroy nuclear weapons once launched
- In the 1980's, President Ronald Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
- US withdraws in 2002 under George W. Bush
- Withdrew due to missile defense system
- Ballistic Missile Defense System - Missile defense Agency
- Program is designed to counter any nuclear missile attack on the US or allies
- Comprehensive Nuclear Test ban Treaty - 1996
- Signed by President Bill Clinton
- Not ratified by the Senate
- Why? Senate reasoning:
- "A ban on testing would damage the safety and reliability of America's existing nuclear arsenal, and it would be impossible to guarantee treaty
- compliance by all countries."
- International Atomic Energy Agency - 1957 (IAEA)
- Make sure countries are following the treaties
- INF Treaty - 1987
- Eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 300-3,400 miles
- USSR and US
- START Treaties
- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
- Resulted in the removal of about 80% of all strategic nuclear weapons in existence
- Expired in 2009
- SORT - 2003
- Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty
- Between US and Russia
- Stockpile of both deployed and reserve nuclear weapons was to be cut in half by 2012
- The goal was achieved in 2007 for US
- New START - 2011
- Signed by President Obama and former Russian president Medvedev
- The number of strategic nuclear missile launchers will be reduced by half
- A new inspection and verification system will be established
- Lasts until 2021
The First Berlin Crisis - (June 1948-May 1949)
*Story
- In 1948, the three western controlled zones of Germany's (US, France, UK) were united, and grew in prosperity due to the Marshal Plan
- The West wanted the East to rejoin, but Stalin feared it would hurt Soviet security
- In June 1948, Stalin decided to try to gain control of West Berlin which was deep inside the Eastern sector
- Stalin cut trail links with West Berlin, hoping to starve it into submission
- The West responded with airlifting supplies
- Stalin didn't stop them, war did not start
- Made a bath from West Germany into West Berlin
Nikita Khrushchev - 1953-1964
*Takes over for Stalin
*Ruled Soviet Union for just over a decade
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