The Cold War 1945-1990 USA vs Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The Cold War 1945-1990USA vs Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Define Cold War

• The strategic and political struggle that developed after WWII between the United States and it’s Western European allies and the Soviet Union and Eastern European allies

• Democracy vs. Communism

Causes of the Cold War

• Different political systems-US is based on democracy, capitalism and freedom-USSR is based on dictatorship, communism and control

• Both thought their system was better and distrusted the others intentions

• Stalin despised capitalism

Yalta Conference Feb 1945

Yalta Conference Feb 1945

Before the end of the World War II, 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 four zones.

• free elections allowed in the states of eastern Europe.

• Russia promised to join the war against Japan.

• Although they could not agree about what should happen to Poland, relations between the leaders were good, and the Conference was a success.

Truman Doctrine• In 1947 the British were helping the Greek

government fight against communist guerrillas.

• They appealed to America for aid, and the response was the Truman Doctrine.

• America promised it would support free countries to help fight communism.

• Greece received large amounts of arms and supplies, and by 1949 had defeated the communists.

• The Truman Doctrine was significant because it showed that America, the most powerful western country, was prepared to resist the spread of communism throughout the world.

Marshall Plan

• In 1947, US Secretary of State 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, so benefiting American industry.

– A prosperous Europe would be better able to resist the spread of communism. This was probably the main motive.

The Berlin Crisis-(June 1948-May 1949)

•

In 1948, the three western controlled zones of Germany's (US,France, UK) were united, and grew in prosperity due to Marshal Aid.

• 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.

• He cut road, rail and canal links with West Berlin, hoping to starve it into submission.

• In May 1949, Russia admitted defeat and lifted the blockade.

Berlin Airlift

The west responded to blockade by airlifting in the necessary supplies to allow west Berlin to survive.

Korean War

The conflict arose from the attempts of the two Korean powers to re-unify Korea under their respective governments. The period immediately before the war was marked by escalating border conflicts at the 38th Parallel and attempts to negotiate elections for the entirety of Korea.[23] These negotiations ended when the North Korean Army invaded the South on June 25, 1950. Under the aegis of the United Nations, nations allied with the United States intervened on behalf of South Korea. After rapid advances in a South Korean counterattack, North-allied Chinese forces intervened on behalf of North Korea, shifting the balance of the war and ultimately leading to an armistice that approximately restored the original boundaries between North and South Korea.

Alger Hiss Trial

On Aug. 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor from Time magazine and self-admitted ex-communist, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) identifying Alger Hiss and several other federal officials of having been members of a Communist cell whose purpose had been to infiltrate the U.S. government. Hiss served five years in prison.

NATO

Senator Joe McCarthy

• Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957) was a Republican Senator from Appleton, Wisconsin, who did the most to whip up anti-communism during the 1950s.

• On February 9, 1950, he gave a speech where he claimed to have a list of 205 Communists in the State Department.

• In the spring of 1954, however, the tables turned when McCarthy charged that the United States Army

• the Senator as a blustering bully and his investigations as little more than a misguided

scam

US Test Hydrogen Bomb-1952

• 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb

• Set off on Bikini Island in the Marshall Islands

Nikita Khrushchev Takes Over

• Talks of peaceful co-existence and de-stalinization.

USSR Launches Sputnik

Fidel Castro Overthrows Batista

Francis Gary Powers Shot Down in USSR

The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on May 1, 1960 (during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower) when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. At first, the United States government denied the plane's purpose and mission, but was forced to admit its role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its remains (largely intact) and surviving pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Coming just over two weeks before the scheduled opening of an East-West summit in Paris, the incident was a great embarrassment to the United States[1] and prompted a marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union.

Kennedy vs. Nixon First Televised presidential Debate

Yuri Gagarin

On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth

Berlin Wall-1961

Wall built by Soviets to keep East Germans from crossing over.

Bay of PigsThe Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Professor and the first post-revolution Prime Minister José Miró Cardona was chosen to lead the planned provisional government.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Range of Soviet Missiles Launched From Cuba

Fidel Castro and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to secretly place strategic nuclear missiles in Cuba. Like Castro, Khrushchev felt that a U.S. invasion of Cuba was imminent, and that to lose Cuba would do great harm to the spread of communism, especially in Latin America. He said that he wanted to confront the Americans "with more than words...the logical answer was missiles

JFK Killed, Johnson President

• •

Vietnam War

The Vietcong, the lightly armed South Vietnamese communist insurgency, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The North Vietnamese Army engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large-sized units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search-and-destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery and air strikes.

The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. Military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s and combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. Despite a peace treaty signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued. In April 1975, North Vietnam captured Saigon. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was two separate occurrences involving naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin that prompted the first large-scale involvement of U.S. armed forces in Southeast Asia. Granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression," including the commitment of U.S. forces without a declaration of war

Kent State University protest Massacre

Abruptly, the troops marched off the field and back up the shallow hill. When they reached the hill's crest, at about 12:24 P.M., about two dozen members of the guard turned around and began firing.The firing lasted for thirteen seconds, and when it was over, four students--Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer--were dead or dying, and nine others were wounded.

SALT I TREATY

SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement, also known as Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels, and provided for the addition of new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers only after the same number of older intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and SLBM launchers had been dismantled.

Nixon Resigns, Ford is President

Watergate ScandalThe scandal began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. Investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and later by the Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the press revealed that this burglary was one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon's staff. They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations. This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy the silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in. President Nixon resigns because of this scandal

Berlin Wall Comes DownNov. 9, 1989