Unit 4: A World Divided and United?

Unit 4: A World Divided and United?

How stable was the post-World War II era?

• Was the post WWII era a period of stability?• Impact of breakdown of USA-USSR alliance• Impact of communist victory in China• Impact of economic recovery, cooperation and

development• Circumstances leading up to Korean War and its

impact• Circumstances leading to the Cuban missile

crisis

Cold War?

• A cold war is often referred to as a war that involves intense competition between two rival nations who do not confront each other in an all out war that involves military confrontation. However, many historians argue that the Cold War was a specific period in history that involved the two post-war superpowers, the USSR and the USA. The Cold War is over and no other similar events or periods in history could claim the title. Think about it…

End of war in Europe

• 6 June 1944 – D-Day (Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy, France)

• August 1944 – Paris freed from Nazi rule• 30 April – Adolf Hitler commits suicide• Berlin falls – Soviet forces advance from

the East, Allied forces move in from the West

• 7 May 1945 – German forces surrender

Yalta Conference

Churchill

Roosevelt

Joseph StalinChurchill

Roosevelt

Joseph StalinChurchill

Roosevelt

Yalta Conference

• Once defeated, Germany would be divided into four zones – American, British, French, Soviet.

• Berlin, the capital, would also be divided into four zones.

• The division was supposed to be temporary.

Division of Germany

BERLIN

The Iron Curtain

‘Iron Curtain Speech’

It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.

- Winston Churchill

Truman Doctrine

• 12 March, 1947• Also known as containment policy• USA’s effort to help democratic countries

counter communism• A means to force communism to remain

within its borders• Money, weapons, fuel to help countries

threatened by communism (e.g. Greece, Turkey)

How did the Cold War affect Europe?

• Europe was divided- ‘Iron Curtain’

- USSR set up communist governments in Eastern European countries

- Soviet Satellite States

- Deployment of Soviet Troops

How did the Cold War affect Europe?

• Germany was divided

- 1948, Britain, France and the USA joined their separate zones and created a new German currency to help the German economy recover (West Germany)

- East Germany was ruled by a communist party under Soviet control

Deutsche Mark

• Official currency of West Germany and later on, united Germany

Berlin Blockade

Berlin Blockade

What does this cartoon

tell you about the Soviet reaction to the Berlin Airlift?

Berlin Blockade

• Airlift Facts • The blockade lasted 318 days (11 months). • In the winter of 1948–49 Berliners lived on dried potatoes,

powdered eggs and cans of meat. They had 4 hours of electricity a day.

• 275,000 flights carried in 1½ million tons of supplies. A plane landed every 3 mins.

• On 16 April 1949, 1400 flights brought in 13,000 tons of supplies in one day – Berlin only needed 6,000 tons a day to survive.

• Some pilots dropped chocolate and sweets. • The USA stationed B-29 bombers (which could carry an

atomic bomb) in Britain.

Marshall Plan

• Plan that offered financial help to Europe

• To help Europe recover from WWII

• To build a prosperous and successful Western bloc to resist communism

• Western Europe recovered and grew faster than Eastern Europe

• In response, USSR set up COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Cooperation)

SOURCE A

• This cartoon of 1946 shows Britain and America trying to get the 'lorry' (representing the German economy) going, while the Russian sits smugly on his motorbike, having stolen the wheels.

• What do you think is the message of this cartoonist?

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance

(Warsaw Pact)

NATO v.s. WARSAW PACT

How did the Cold War affect the rest of the world?


• Mao Zedong announced the creation of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949

• China formed communist alliance with the USSR• USA feared Sino-Soviet alliance • USA feared that USSR would give China the

technology to build nuclear weapons• USA saw communism as a single, united enemy

that was determined to control the world


• Japan becomes the USA’s main anti-communist ally

• The USA strengthened Japan’s economy and introduced democratic reforms

• US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty – USA promised to come to Japan’s defence if Japan was attacked, USA was allowed to station troops in Japan

Japan becomes the USA’s main anti-communist ally


• USA searched for other allies in Asia• Formed alliance with Kuomintang (Taiwan)• Sent troops to support anti-communist

governments in South Korea and South Vietnam

• USA competed with the USSR to search for allies in the Middle East and Africa

• In doing so they often supported cruel and corrupt regimes

Case Study 1: The Korean WarSource A

Washington got word of the invasion …….. which arrived before the official cable to the State Department. President Harry Truman and the United Nations, which had supervised the elections in South Korea, were notified. Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the U.N., declared, "This is war against the United Nations." President Truman ordered Five-Star General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Commander in the Far East, headquartered in Tokyo, to provide logistical support for the ROKs (Republic of Korea) while the U.N. called for withdrawal of North Korean troops. When this appeal was ignored, the U.N. called for its members to ". . . furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security to the area." Truman ordered U.S. naval and air forces to assist the ROKs. After a personal reconnaissance revealed the plight of the ROK troops, General MacArthur advised that only U.S. ground troops could halt the invasion. These were ordered to Korea on June 30th by the President, his most difficult decision while in office.

- Adpated from, A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE KOREAN WAR By Jack D. Walker

Case Study 1: The Korean War

Source B

The North Korean invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, in a narrow sense was only an escalation of a continuing civil war among Koreans that began with Japan’s defeat in 1945. In a larger sense, the invasion marked the eruption of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR into open hostilities because each of the Great Powers backed one of the competing Korean governments. The war that followed would devastate Korea, lead to a large expansion of the U.S. armed forces and America’s military presence around the world, and frustrate many on both sides by ending in an armistice that left the peninsula still divided.

- American Military History, Volume 2


NORTH

SOUTH


Impact of the Korean War

- Korea (2.5 million Korean deaths, 80% of factories and transport network damaged, Korea is still divided, the DMZ is the world’s most heavily armed area)



- China (Showed the world that China was a major military power that could match a powerful country like the USA, First time USA and China had fought each other, China demanded a seat in the United Nations)



- USA ( Formed a network of military alliances e.g NATO, SEATO, ANZUS, built up the size of its armed forces in the Asia Pacific, growth of US military might)



- Japan became a key partner to the US in Asia. The Korean War helped Japan’s economy to expand as it became a production and supply base for the US.



- The Korean War brought the cold war to Asia. It was now no longer just a European conflict. It was also no longer just a war between super powers.

Case Study 2: The Cuban Missile Crisis

CUBA

CUBA


• 15 October 1962 – U2 spy plane took photographs that showed several Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba

• 22 October 1962 – Kennedy orders a naval and air blockade of Cuba

• Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba (1962)MRBM Launch Site 2 San Cristobal 1 November 1962; United States Department of Defense


• 24 October 1962 – Soviet ships with submarine escorts arrive at the blockade

• 27 October 1962 - U2 spy plane shot down - Kennedy agrees to make a statement that US would not invade Cuba- Secretly, US agrees to remove its missiles from Turkey


• Impact of the Crisis- Better US-Soviet relations (Direct Hotline between Washington and Moscow)

- Led to more stable superpower relations (Mutually Assured Destruction)

- Cuba remained a communist state

- Khrushchev’s fall from power

- Tense Soviet-China relations

Source A

• Once all the missiles are in place, we will be able to attack any city in the USA. The Americans will learn just what it feels like to have enemy missiles pointing at them; we’d be doing nothing more than giving them a little of their own medicine. The missiles are meant to frighten, not to be fired.

- Soviet President Khrushchev

- What was Khrushchev’s reason for installing nuclear missiles in Cuba?

-What event / incident do you think Khrushchev was reffering to when he said, what it feels like to have enemy missiles pointing at them’.

• Once all the missiles are in place, we will be able to attack any city in the USA. The Americans will learn just what it feels like to have enemy missiles pointing at them; we’d be doing nothing more than giving them a little of their own medicine. The missiles are meant to frighten, not to be fired.

- Soviet President Khrushchev

- What was Khrushchev’s reason for installing nuclear missiles in Cuba?

-What event / incident do you think Khrushchev was referring to when he said, what it feels like to have enemy missiles pointing at them’.

Source A

• What is the cartoonist trying to say about the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Was the End of the Cold War Inevitable?

• Mikhail Gorbachev

• Leader of USSR from

1988 to 1991

• Played an influential role

in the breakup of the

USSR

USSR - 1988

Why wasn’t communism working?

Internal Reasons:

-Inefficient economy

people could not get what they want

could not get basic necessities


Internal Reasons:

-Poor decisions by central government

-Slow decisions by central government

-No quality control

-No incentives to work hard

-Excessive spending on military

-Few consumer goods


Internal Reasons:

-Farms and Factories were not improved

-Inefficient transport and distribution

-Basic needs of the people not met


Ineffective government

-Not willing to change

-Conservative and corrupt leaders

-People not interested in improving the government


External Reasons

-Arms Race / Space Race

-Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars programme


External Reasons

-Anti-Soviet feelings in the republics

-Increased spending

Unit 4: A World Divided and United?

Documents

korean war

itend of war

soviet forces

postworld war

soviet troopshow

soviet reaction

soviet sphere

soviet influence