Unit 3

Ch. 11 The Cold WarText p. 273-289

There is only one thing worse than one nation having an atomic bomb and that’s two nations having it.

- Harold C Urey1934 Nobel, Chemistry

The end of WWII

• Brought peace– temporarily

• New concern: achieving worldwide, peaceful co-existence

• BUT how?– with new war technologies ex. A-Bombs, this changed war and made it more global than ever.

• New war: Cold War 1948-1990

Canada & the Cold War

• This war divided the world into 2 groups of allied countries, or BLOCS (the East & the West)

• US + Allies- dominated WEST- DEMOCRACY

VS.

• Soviet Union + satellite states- dominated EAST- COMMUNISM

• Both nations became SUPERPOWERS

• From 1948-1990 they avoided a world wide war but the power struggle created many conflicts that brought the world close to obliteration

Canada & the Cold War

• The Cold war was not “hot” (like WWII) but had a variety of conflict:

▫ Espionage (spying)

▫ Threats and counter threats

▫ Arms race, eg. nuclear weapons

▫ Satellite nations were developing (new African countries)

▫ Proxy wars, eg. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan

Cold War Countries

Espionage

• After the war, Western countries wanted to believe the Soviets were still allies- US and FDR felt differently

• Soviets were breaking pre-war boarder rules (Ex. Yalta, Ukraine) and US turned

• Governments wanted more information about the Soviets and this lead to ESPIONAGE

• =secret intelligence gathering and this was an essential tool for all Cold War countries

Canada & Espionage

• Defense Dept. created Joint Intelligence Bureau

• Task was to create reports on topics of interest to the government, set up secret radio post in NWT to eavesdrop on the Soviets

• Most fascinating story on CDN Cold War espionage- The Gouzenko Affair

Canada’s Middle Power Status

• Middle Power status describes CAN’s military capacity- WWII contributions helped define us

• Canada earned the world’s respect, yet many Canadians were not aware of the influence that the country had – this influence would be key in the Cold War

• Canada became a global mediator when it came to Cold War conflicts

How was Canada LITERALLY in the

middle of the Cold War?• Fig 11-4 page 276 & discuss why geography

matters in this conflict…

US Response: The Marshall Plan

• A plan by the U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to rebuild Europe through massive investment

• Approximately $12.5 Billion• Goals of this investment were:

▫ Democratization▫ Capitalism▫ Tight connections with the U.S. and rest of the

West▫ Therefore would stop spread of Communism

The Nuclear Arms Race

• Sept 23, 1945- Soviet Union announced that it had exploded its first atomic bomb

• Responding defensively, Western governments began to also build up these weapons

• These weapons would achieve MUTUAL DETERRANCE

• But if one side used an atomic bomb, the other side would respond by using its atomic weapons.

• This is called, MAD

MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction

• Idea: each side was deterred from using their nuclear weapons against the other side because the other side would quickly and automatically use their nuclear weapons against them

• The paradox of MAD

▫ i.e. a massive build-up of nuclear weapons so that they won’t be used

• There were so many nuclear weapons built that both sides could have blown the world up many times over

• Lots of money was spent on defence contracts

• When the Cold War ended, the hope was that all of the money that had been going into the arms race, could now be spent on good things like helping the poor, cleaning the environment etc.

▫ these kind of things would be the benefits of peace, or the “peace dividend” in a New International Order that was supposed to be born

Gouzenko Affair & Cold War terms

• Read article on p. 275 and answer questions

#1 & 2

• Complete the key terms for Ch. 11 if not done already