The Beginning End of World War II Toward the end of World War II, it was becoming clear that Britain and the USA had different world goals from the USSR. The USSR had liberated Eastern European nations from the Nazis, but it appeared they were going to stay and impose communist governments there. FDR & Churchill wanted Stalin s promise that there would be free elections in these nations after the war. Stalin readily agreed to hold free elections which to him meant that people would be free to vote for the one communist candidate on the ballot. Stalin offered to help the United States end the war with Japan in the Pacific. He suggested the Red Army would aid the U.S. in the invasion of the Japanese home islands. The U.S. did not want the Soviets to set up a communist state in Japan like they had in Eastern Europe. The U.S. decided to use atomic weapons to end the war quickly. Military Split As Europe took on a new shape, new military alliances were created. NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a defensive military alliance between the USA, Canada & 10 Western European nations. Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact was a defensive military alliance between the USSR & 7 Eastern European nations. The world was now divided into three camps: Countries led by the USA, countries led by the USSR, and those who tried to negotiate a neutral path between the two. The Iron Curtain After the post-wwii conferences were over, Churchill made the observation that an iron curtain had descended across Europe. There was a significant division between Eastern & Western European countries. People could not travel freely back and forth. Politically, most Western European nations were democratic. Most Eastern European nations were communist. The USSR was using Eastern European nations as a buffer zone from the west. These nations had puppet governments set up by the Soviet Union, and were often referred to as Soviet satellites. U.S. Policy of Containment The United States became firmly committed to the policy of containment. Quite simply, the goal of the policy was to contain the spread of communism. The U.S. would use political, economic and even military tools to contain communism. The Marshall Plan (1948-52) offered free financial aid to any European nation rebuilding after World War II. This offered insight into the U.S. containment plan. Therefore, the aid was considered an investment in stable economies and permanent democracies. The Truman Doctrine (1947) offered aid to countries fighting outside pressures. This was less subtle than the Marshall Plan, as the U.S. suggested it would send direct economic and/or military aid to any free nation fighting against a communist forces.
The United Nations Concept: A better League of Nations The League of Nations had been a spectacular failure at maintaining world peace. Toward the end of World War II, FDR & Winston Churchill began to craft a new and better League. They called it the United Nations. It met for the first time in San Francisco right before the end of the War. The United Nations had more power than the League, and people hoped it would do what the League didn t maintain peace. The Security Council There are only 15 members of the Security Council. Five members have permanent status, and ten are appointed by the General Assembly to serve 2 year terms. Permanent Members: USA, Britain, France, China & Russia these members have a permanent seat on the Council. Non Non-permanent Members: Appointed by the General Assembly, these nations serve 2 year terms on the Council. The General Assembly attempts to appoint nations that will represent areas from around the globe. In order to authorize the use of military force, all permanent members must vote to do so. Any one of the permanent members can veto an action. The jobs of the Security Council may include: Maintaining peace & security Establishing sanctions against an offending country Authorizing military actions Peacekeeping forces are usually mulitnational (many nations contribute troops). The General Assembly The General Assembly is the main assembly, the International Senate, so to speak. Every nation that is a member of the UN has a seat in the Assembly. The General Assembly has many duties: It appoints the non-permanent members of the Security Council (more on this later) It oversees the budget of the UN It discusses important world events, and offers potential resolutions to these events or problems There are 193 members of the UN. Nearly every sovereign nation is a member. The only significant non-members are: Vatican City, Taiwan, Kosovo, Western Sahara & Palestine. The Secretariat The Secretariat serves as a sort-of Executive Branch, a president of sorts, of the United Nations. The duty of the Secretary General is to: Help resolve international disputes Administer Peacekeeping Operations Organize International Conferences Consult with various nations regarding UN initiatives The Secretary General is appointed by the General Assembly after being recommended by the Security Council. The council tries to select Secretaries from around the world. The Secretary General serves a 5 year term, and most serve 2 terms. The current Secretary General is Ban Ki-Moon, of the Republic of Korea (S. Korea).
Hot Spots in the Cold War Berlin Airlift 1948 After World War II, Germany was divided into 2 parts an eastern Soviet sphere and a western democratic sphere. Berlin, the capital, was also divided in this way. As the Cold War grew up around this arrangement, it became very awkward since Berlin was located far inside the communist sphere, yet half of Berlin was western. The Soviets decided this was an intolerable situation and they blocked Western access to Berlin. They thought West Berlin would suffer from a lack of supplies and eventually would be absorbed into the Soviet sphere. Western nations created a plan to airlift supplies to West Berlin. This was dangerous because in order to get to Berlin, British & US planes had to fly through Soviet airspace. The Soviet planes would be within their right to shoot down these planes. Over the course of 11 months (nearly a year!), the US & Britain made nearly 278,000 flights, airlifting 2.3 million tons of supplies. Berlin Wall 1961 On August 13, 1961 the East German government constructed a wall in Berlin almost overnight. At first the wall was simply comprised of barbed wire, but later that was replaced with concrete slabs (nearly 12 tall & 4 thick). The reason for the construction of the wall was to keep East German citizens from defecting (deserting, or leaving a country). The West Germans were angry, but the Western nations elected NOT to take action. H-Bombs! The United States successfully detonated its first Hydrogen Bomb in 1952. This bomb was 500 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. A Hydrogen bomb is a fusion bomb (as opposed to the fission bombs used on Japan). It fused together atoms of hydrogen and generated the same amount of energy as about 10,000,000 tons of TNT. The U.S. was out in front. The Soviets detonated their own H-bomb in 1953, and the people of the U.S. were stunned. Many wondered how the Soviets could have developed the technology for the Hydrogen bomb so quickly. Accusations of espionage swirled in the 1950s hysteria of the McCarthy era. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets and were executed for treason. Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 In October 1962, the U.S. found evidence that the Soviets were constructing nuclear missiles in Cuba 90 miles off the border of the USA. (From there a nuclear missile could hit Washington D.C.) Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro had invited Soviet Premiere Khrushchev to bring nuclear missiles to Cuba. President Kennedy made it clear that this situation was intolerable & the missiles had to be removed. He sent a naval blockade to stop Soviet ships from arriving in Cuba. The world held its breath as the ships met the Soviets backed down, and the crisis ended.
Korea & Vietnam Korean War 1950-53 53 The origins of the Korean War actually date to the end of World War II. The Russians were anxious to help the Americans secure victory over Japan in the Pacific. Truman doubted Stalin s motives, and sought to end the war quickly. One day after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Russia declared war on Japan and sent troops to help liberate Korea from the Japanese. As the Cold War began, the Russian troops stayed and helped set up a communist government in North Korea, while the U.S. helped set up a republic in South Korea. Early in the morning of June 25, 1950, the North Koreans (aided by Russian tanks, airplanes and weaponry) crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the South. Caught completely by surprise, the South Koreans were in full retreat. Had nations not come to their aid, they almost certainly would have had to surrender to the North Koreans. On June 27th, the Security Council of the United Nations voted to send troops to aid the South Koreans (The USSR was absent on the day of the vote thus the unanimous decision to send the troops.) Although the U.N. peacekeeping force was made up of many nations, the U.S. provided more than 50% of the troops. The UN forces pushed the North Koreans back beyond the 38th parallel, and nearly into China. The Chinese became involved in the fighting, and a stalemate ensued. In July 1953, an armistice was signed by both sides, and the boundary was reestablished at the 38th parallel. Vietnam War Ho Chi Minh fought to achieve Vietnamese independence from the French. Ho Chi Minh means he who enlightens, and he embraced communism and received aid from the USSR and China in his struggle. In 1954, the Vietnamese nationalists won a huge victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu liberating French Vietnam. The peace treaty divided the nation of Vietnam into two parts a communist government in the North (led by Ho Chi Minh), and a more democratic government in the South. Ho continued to fight to try to unify his country into a communist state. The United States did NOT want to see Vietnam become a communist state. During the Cold War, the U.S. policy was one of containment attempting to contain the spread of communism. The U.S. was also concerned about the so-called Domino Theory. They feared that if Vietnam became a communist state, then so would Laos, Cambodia & other Southeast Asian nations falling to communism just like a bunch of dominoes. President Kennedy made the initial decision to send military advisors to help prop up the S. Vietnamese government. President Johnson sent American troops. As American casualties mounted, the war became more and more unpopular at home. Soldiers struggled to fight a guerrilla war in unfamiliar territory. Finally, in 1969, the U.S. government began to withdraw troops. By 1973, the Americans were gone. In 1975, the governemnt of S. Vietnam fell to the communists.
Competition in the Cold War Super Power Competition The United States and the Soviet Union rarely competed with each other on the battlefield during the Cold War, because with nuclear weapons, a battlefield war might turn into global destruction. So how did the two nations compete? What was the battlefield of the Cold War? Arms Race The nuclear arms race was the centerpiece of the superpower Cold War competition. Both the United States and the USSR began stockpiling nuclear weapons, and used type and quantity as points of comparison. The United States tested the first H-bomb (Hydrogen bomb) in 1952, and the Soviets did likewise nine months later. The space race provided the cover for sophisticated weapons development specifically the development of rocket boosters that would be used to power missiles. Thus the panic created in the United States over the Soviet launch of Sputnik was really about the fact that the Soviets had created rocket boosters that would power missiles anywhere in the world. These missiles were called ICBMs, or Inter-Continental Bal- listic Missiles, and they were equipped with a nuclear warhead. Other nations like Britain, France & China developed nuclear weapons during the 1950s & 60s, but not to the scale of the two superpowers. In the 1970s, the superpowers began to back away from weapons production, and actually signed Arms Limitation Treaties. Space Race The Space Race, or the race to put satellites, rockets and eventually men, into space, was one nonconfrontational and non-military way the United States competed with the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. The race officially began with the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik on October 4, 1957. This event was greeted with panic, because the U.S. had no formal space program, and therefore was way behind. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was immediately formed to help the United States catch up and compete with the Soviet Union s space program. In April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, after orbiting the earth for about two hours. In 1962, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to successfully orbit the earth. On July 21, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. Athletic Competitions Another interesting platform for competition was International Athletic competitions, such as World Championships and the Olympics. Both superpowers attempted to prove their superiority on the playing field. Medal counts at the Olympics became important to national morale and to justify their position as the supreme superpower. One of the most exciting and important Olympic moments was in the 1980 winter games when a collegiate U.S. hockey team defeated a largely professional Soviet team.
Détente Détente Détente is a French word meaning lessening, or easing. It was applied to the time period of the 1970s when the United States and the Soviet Union attempted a thaw in the Cold War. Both nations decided to move away from the policies of Brinksmanship (or taking incidents to the brink of war) and toward a safer, less hostile relationship. Part of the reason for this reversal of course was economic in nature. The world experienced an economic slump in the 70s because of high oil prices, and the nuclear arms race was a considerable economic burden. Nixon Visits China In the 1960s, the USSR and the People s Republic of China, although both communist, had developed different ideologies. In 1961, China angrily denounced the USSR, and a split developed between the nations. President Nixon began to make subtle overtures to China in the early 1970s. He hoped that the U.S. could develop relations with China, and perhaps swing the balance of power of the Cold War toward the West. In early 1972, President Nixon made an China or Bust! historic visit to communist China, ushering in a new era of Sino (China) -U.S. relations. This visit really forced the USSR to embrace détente, because they feared a growing Sino-American alliance. The Arms Race Both sides attempted to develop defense systems against ballistic missiles, but as the stock-piles of weapons began to grow, at some point, each side had the power to obliterate the other side. This concept was appropriately given the acronym MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. Since both superpowers realized they had the capability of Mutually Assured Destruction, not to mention total Global Annihilation, they decided to begin to limit their production of weapons and reduce their stockpiles. This also coincided with the economic downturn of the 1970s. The superpowers began to agree to a number of treaties and restrictions. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968, and focused on limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. In 1972, a SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) treaty was signed, limiting nuclear arsenals. End of Détente Several incidents combined to sour the era of détente. The USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and the U.S. reacted angrily. President Carter decided to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic games that were held in Moscow. Several other allies of the U.S. decided to boycott the games as well. This was an international embarrassment for the USSR. Finally, in November 1980, President USSR Reagan was elected to office, and he brought with him a conservative hard-line approach to relations with the USSR. Détente was over.
Gorbachev s Russia Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev was named Secretary General of the USSR in 1985, and was the youngest man appointed to the position since Josef Stalin. (He was 54 years old.) Gorbachev brought a fresh new outlook and approach to the USSR AND to its foreign policy. He instituted several new policies that had a dramatic world impact. Perestroika This policy literally meant: restructuring. It was a policy aimed at reforming the Soviet economy by incorporating some capitalism (of all things ). Perestroika was the partner policy of Glasnost, as it introduced some economic freedoms to the USSR. Change in Industry: There was a shift in emphasis away from heavy industry and toward production of consumer goods. Floor managers were given greater control, and factories were judged for their output & fulfillment of contracts. Changes in Agriculture: Peasants were able to lease their land for 99 years (a lifetime essentially they own it). Peasants were encouraged to turn a profit. They could sell their excess produce. Changes in Government: Held competitive local elections (more than one candidate was on the ballot! Although both were communist party officials) Tried to remove corrupt officials Glasnost This policy literally meant: openness. It was a policy of speaking out honestly and allowing some freedom of expression and speech. With this policy: Churches were re-opened (long closed under athiest communist rule) New publications were allowed, (authors whose books were previously banned were now published) Unleashed a wealth of criticism of the government (long repressed by totalitarian rulers) Additionally, Gorbachev pledged that the Soviet Union would be more open or less secretive when dealing with foreign nations and world opinion. This policy would have a dramatic effect. Freedom is addictive, and offering just a little bit of it created a desire for more. Chernobyl Severely testing the new Soviet policy of Glasnost was the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Chernobyl was the site of a nuclear reactor in the Ukraine, and in April 1986, the core of the reactor experienced a complete nuclear meltdown. More than 336,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled. At first, the Soviets reacted in traditional ways, and attempted to cover up the incident. But after several days when the enormity of the disaster became obvious, the Soviets made nearly full disclosure of the problem, shocking many.
An End to the Cold War Poland Opposition to communism found a voice through the labor union movement known as Solidarity. Solidarity protested shortages & called for government reforms in the 1980s, and the leader of the movement, Lech Walesa, was imprisoned. In 1988, after glasnost & perestroika were instituted, Solidarity was legalized. In 1989, Poland held truly free elections, and the communist party was voted out of power. Russia Since Gorbachev allowed the Eastern European nations to pursue an independent path, he lost the support of the hard-line communists in Russia. Gorbachev was in a difficult place. He was not liberal enough to satisfy those who wanted democracy, and he was not conservative enough to satisfy the hardline communists. In essence, he lost everyone s support. In August 1991, the liberals in the Russian parliament led by Boris Yeltsin, overthrew the government in a daring coup d etat. 83 years of communist rule came crashing down as Yeltsin organized a Russia into a democratic republic. But that was the easy part It was far more difficult to convert the economy from communism (a command economy) to capitalism (a free-market economy). Hungary Inspired by Poland and the lack of Soviet retaliation, the communist party of Hungary voted itself out of office. In 1990, a non-communist government was elected and installed. The border between Hungary and democratic Austria was then opened. East Germany Thousands of East German citizens went on vacation to Hungary, then escaped into Austria (through the open border). They then made their way into West Germany. By early 1989, so many people had migrated to the West that East Germany closed their borders. This resulted in riots and protests by the people. The East German leader Erich Honecker resigned on October 18, 1989, and the new leader, Egon Krenz, opened the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. On October 3, 1990, Germany reunited under West German leader Helmut Kohl. Czechoslovakia Maybe 25,000 students, inspired by the fall of the Berlin wall, began demonstrations in mid- November 1989. Police brutally cracked down on the student demonstrations. People reacted, and 500,000 jammed the main square in Prague (capital city) and refused to leave. On November 24, 1989, the government resigned and Czechoslovakia joined the ranks of newly freed Eastern European nations.