Cold War

Cold War

1945-1991

Table of Content1. What is it?2. Yalta and Potsdam3. From Allies to Enemies4. The Iron Curtain5. NATO6. The rise of 2 superpowers7. The Atomic Bomb8. Capitalism and Communism9. The Berlin Wall10. The Arm Race11. Canada and the Cold War

The Cold War 1947-1989… 1.What is it?

• Constant global confrontation between the Soviet Union and United States.• Avoidance of direct armed conflict between the two “Superpowers”.

from www.SchoolHistory.co.uk

The Cold War begins 1945 -1948

Key issue: • Why did the wartime alliance fall apart?• What were the major points of difference?• The importance of Yalta and Potsdam

conferences• The roles of Stalin and Truman

2. Yalta and Potsdam

YALTA (in the USSR)YALTA (in the USSR)Date: Feb 1945Date: Feb 1945

Present: Churchill, Present: Churchill, Roosevelt and StalinRoosevelt and Stalin

War Time Allies-The Big Three

Winston Churchill

Franklin Roosevelt

Joseph Stalin

POTSDAM (Germany)POTSDAM (Germany)Date: July 1945Date: July 1945

Present: Churchill, Present: Churchill, Truman and StalinTruman and Stalin

3. From Allies to Enemies3. From Allies to EnemiesFollowing victory the allies could not agree over the spoils of war. The U.S. wanted to establish democracy in war torn Europe, while the U.S.S.R. hoped for communism. They agreed to occupy Germany with the Allied Control Council. The Soviets had 2.5 million troops in Eastern Europe.

Potsdam July 1945

4. The Iron Curtain

• Winston Churchill– Speech at Westminster College in Fulton,

Missouri on March 5, 1946.

• “An iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

• Describes Soviet sphere of influence and control in eastern Europe.

An Iron CurtainAn Iron Curtain The "Iron Curtain"

speech defined postwar relations with the Soviet Union for citizens of Western democracies. Although it initially provoked intense controversy in the United States and Britain, criticism soon gave way to wide public agreement to oppose Soviet imperialism.

Winston Churchill

5. NATONorth Atlantic Treaty

Organization

Established in 1949.– Military Alliance between U.S., Canada, and western Europe with a formal command

structure.– Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (Brussels, Belgium)

• U.S. Commander in Chief, European Command– Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic (Norfolk, Virginia)

• U.S. Commander in Chief, Atlantic Command– Warsaw Pact established by the Soviet Union to counter NATO in 1955 - includes

eastern European communist states.

…KEEP THIS IN MIND

• Major point: The USSR lost around 20 million people in WW2

• Stalin was determined to make the USSR secure in the future

• By contrast GB lost around 370,000 and the USA lost 297,000 people.

5. The rise of the superpowers

• Before WW2 there were a number of countries which could have claimed to be superpowers – USA, USSR,GB, France, Japan, Germany.

• The damage caused by the war to these countries left only two countries with the military strength and resources to be called superpowers…USA and USSR.

What they believed

• Don’t forget USA was capitalist and USSR was communist

• They were complete opposites• They had allied against Fascism ….. Now

the common enemy had been defeated the reason for co-operation was gone

• Differences soon emerged

Europe at the end of WW2

• After the war, who would lead the countries and form new governments?

• The USSR favoured the communist groups, the USA favoured the non-communists

• Examples would be Greece and Yugoslavia• This was one cause of tension between the

superpowers

Harry Truman gives Japan an ultimatum to end the Pacific theatre after the first atomic bomb explodes.

6. The Atomic Bomb6. The Atomic BombHiroshima August 1945Hiroshima August 1945

The atomic bomb dropped by the U.S.to end W.W. II August 1945

Continued ExperimentationContinued ExperimentationThe Bikini Atoll-The Bikini Atoll-Marshall IslandsMarshall Islands.

A bomb test , July 1946. The U.S. relocated the residents prior to this test, but the indigenous people of this island have not been able to return since.

ExperimentationExperimentation in the Soviet Union in the Soviet Union

August 29, 1949

The Soviets called their first atomic

test “First Lightning.“

The weapons

laboratory in Russia is in

Kazakhstan.

Nov. 1, 1952, the first H-bomb Mike tested,mushroom cloud was 8 miles across and 27 miles high;the canopy was 100 miles wide, 80 million tons of earth was vaporized. H-bomb exploded Mar. 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll yielded 15 megatons and had a fireball 4 miles in diameter.USSR H-bomb yields 100 megatons.

H-bomb

7. Capitalism & Communism In other words

• United Nations established.– Security Council - Veto power for permanent members.– General Assembly.

• MacArthur commands U.S. army of occupation in Japan.• U.S., Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union divide Germany into zones

of occupation.– Federal Republic of (West) Germany - 1949.

• U.S. initially enjoys atomic bomb monopoly.– Neglect of conventional military forces begins.

• Communist control of Eastern Europe.– “Puppet” states dominated by the Soviet Union.

8. THE BERLIN WALL 1961-1989

9. The Arm Race

Missile Production 1945-1997

THE U2 CRISIS and THE SPACE RACE

U2

• In 1960, U2 was a spy plane

• Able to fly 6000km at high altitudes

• Could take photos of Soviet bomber bases and missile sites

Space Race – Arms Race!Space Race – Arms Race!

Results of the race

450 ICBMs

250 Medium range missiles

2,260 Bombers

16,000Tanks

32 Nuclear submarines

260 Conventional submarines

76 Battleships and carriers

76 IBMs

700 Medium range bombers

1,600 bombers

38,000 Tanks

12 Nuclear submarines

495 Conventional submarines

0 Battleships and cruisers

Early Dates of the nuclear arms race

1945 – USA tests and drops the first atomic (A) bombs1949 – USSR tests A bomb1952 – USA tests its first hydrogen (H) bomb1953 – USSR tests its first H bomb1957 – USSR

1. tests ICBM capable of carrying an H bomb from USSR to USA2. puts the space satellite ‘Sputnik’ into orbit.

The failure of disarmament

• Both sides hoped for arms reductions to cut defence spending

• After Stalin’s death East-West relations had improved

• USSR proposed:– reduction of armed forces– Eventual abolition of atomic weapons– International inspections to supervise this

Glossary

• ICBMs – Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles

• IRBMs – Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles

• MAD – Mutual Assured Destruction

11. Canada and the Cold War• The Igor Gouzenko Affair –September 1945

• Our political, economic and military alliance with other western nations through NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 1949

• The coordinated air protection of North America with the United States. This was called NORAD (North American Air Defence)

Canada and the Cold War• Canadians tracked Soviet submarines in the North

Atlantic from military facilities in Halifax. Beacons were placed on the ocean floor. These are now used to track the migration of whales.

• Canada also had the Distant Early Warning line (DEW) and Mid Canada Line ( radar and tracking stations located across the north and middle of the country).

• Uranium City, Saskatchewan mined weapons grade uranium for use in nuclear weapons. This site is still extremely radioactive.

• Nuclear weapons were placed here for approximately twenty years. The mid 1960’s to the mid 1980’s.

The DEW Line

• The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line began on the 15th of February 1954 when US President Eisenhower signed the bill approving the construction. It was designed and built during the Cold War as the primary line of air defence warning of "Over the Pole" invasion of the North American Continent.

• The actual construction of the 58 sites took place between 1955 and 1957. Many tons of supplies and equipment were moved to the Canadian Arctic by air, sea and river barge. The DEW Line was declared fully operational on 31 Jul 1957, and has remained in operation for more than 30 years.

The DEW at Hall Beach, NWT (photo by Sergeant Jim Smith/courtesy Canadian Forces).

A DEW Line station in northern Canada