Intro to the Cold War

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I can identify ways in which the US responded to the unstable and uncertain post-war world.

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I can evaluate the US’s position of global leadership, as well as global and domestic consequences of that role.

I can identify ways in which the US responded to the unstable and uncertain post-war world.

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The Cold War (1946-1989)

Soviet & Eastern Bloc Nations

(“Iron Curtain”)

United States and Western Nations

GOAL: spread worldwide communism

GOAL: containment of communism and eventual collapse of the communist world

METHODOLOGIES:

1. Espionage (KGB vs. CIA)
2. Arms race (nuclear escalation)
3. Ideological competition for the hearts & minds of third world peoples (communist vs. democratic, command economy vs. capitalist economy)
4. Bipolarization of Europe (NATO vs. Warsaw Pact)

Warsaw Pact 1955

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•Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance

•In reaction to a remilitarized-West Germany joining NATO

Dissolved in June of 1991 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union

Was the Cold War inevitable?

How would the US ensure Post-War Security?

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• To maintain current level of growth, United States needed 14 billion in exports
• Needed to trade and sell with Allies
• Establish US primacy in the postwar global economy
• European economic security = US economic security

Economic Recovery

• Creation of IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank in 1944
• Help build war-torn Europe and assist developing nations, deter currency conflicts and trade wars
• US: biggest supplier of $ to IMF & World Bank so they had the most policy influence
• USSR: participated in Bretton Woods conference but did not ratify...didn’t agree with letting the US rebuild the world along capitalist lines

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Truman

Doctrine

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1947

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Marshall

Plan

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1948

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NATO

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1949

US Aid; European Recovery program

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Economic foundation in the West

Ideological basis for new foreign policy - CONTAINMENT

Organization for military enforcement

1945

• Diplomatic - UN
• US, Britain, USSR, France & nationalist China = “permanent security council” - absolute veto power
• UN led huge humanitarian efforts and dedicated itself to protection of human rights

1948

• Economic - Marshall Plan
• Plan to reduce “hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos” and to restore “the confidence of the European people” (also created better/more stable market for exports)
• Created climate for successful capitalist economy in western Europe
• USSR denounced plan

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1949

• Security - NATO
• 10 European nations, Canada, and US formed NATO as mutual defense pact
• Attack against one is attack against all
• West Germany became part of NATO and USSR responded by creating the Warsaw Pact

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Warsaw Pact 1955

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•Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance

•In reaction to a remilitarized-West Germany joining NATO

Dissolved in June of 1991 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union

US Policy: Containment

• Churchill gave Iron Curtain speech in 1946 - “An iron curtain has descended across the [European] continent”
• Truman Doctrine - committed the US to leadership in a worldwide struggle against the spread of communism
• Laid the first plank in a global campaign against communism
• Congress approved $400 million appropriation in aid for Greece and Turkey
• Helped the monarchy and right-wing military crush the rebel communist) movement
• US had declared its right to intervene to save other nations from communism

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Cold War Hot Spots

Berlin Crisis

• US/Britain/France wanted a common currency in the western zones following the Marshall Plan
• Stalin reacted by halting all traffic to West Berlin on June 24, 1948 - crisis and opportunity for Truman administration
• US airdrops: delivered nearly 2 million tons of supplies to West Berliners
• USSR lifted blockaded in May 1949
• Federal Republic of West Germany by allies
• USSR created the German Democratic Republic

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Loss of China

• China “fell” to communism in 1950, signed alliance with USSR
• Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance

Shifting Map of Korea

Price of National Security

• Increased executive power
• Nuclear arms race - defense budget grew four times, US army was six times larger, stockpile nuclear bombs and weapons
• Anti-communist propaganda

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