IB HOA ~ Unit 3, Day 1

• Students will be able to:

1) begin to understand the origins of the Cold War.2) describe the successes and failures of President Harry Truman’s FP.

Due Wednesday: Truman PLO

- w/ 30 point quiz

 1) The Cold War (circa 1947 - 1991):

• = constant non-violent state of hostility btwn. Soviet Union (USSR) & U.S.

• began shortly after WWII due to rapid extension of Soviet influence over E. Europe & N. Korea; however, tensions/distrust → brewing since Russian Rev.(1917)!– conflict expressed via military coalitions,

espionage, weapons development, invasions, propaganda, & competitive tech. devpmnt., which included space race.

–…also: costly defense spending, massive (conventional & nuclear) arms race + numerous proxy wars around globe • 2 superpowers never fought one another directly.

• ended w/ collapse of communism in USSR in 1991.

WWII alliance between USA & USSR … the two countries were allied during WWII, so

what happened?

• Indeed, Hitler invaded USSR (its ally) in June, 1941, at which time USSR switched sides and allied itself w/ the U.S.

• However, even as allies (1941-1945), tensions and suspicion already existed – and were continually fueled during WWII - between the two countries based on suspicion & distrust due to ideological differences.

• The U.S. and U.S.S.R. had competing political objectives for post-WWII eastern Europe (communism vs. capitalism etc.)

• At the end of WWII, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. emerged as the two most powerful countries in the world, which exacerbated this competitive tension.

Origins of the CW: Ideological Differences

• capitalism vs. communism– private vs. government ownership of industry– freedom, competition, survival of the fittest vs.

equality, fairness– society w/ classes vs. classless societies

• democracy vs. totalitarianism– elected representatives vs. dictators

• freedom vs. equality– press, speech, markets, belief in god vs. fairness &

needs (health care, education, jobs), atheism

• individualism vs. collectivism– competition, individuality vs. “all for one and one for

all”

The Ideological Struggle:Soviet & Eastern

Bloc Nations[“Iron Curtain”]

U.S. & other western

democracies

MAIN CONCERN → security

GOAL spreading world-wide communism

MAIN CONCERN → economic free market principles

GOAL “Containment” of communism, the eventual collapse of the communist worldMethodologies - how?

Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]

Arms Race [nuclear escalation]

Ideological competition for minds/hearts of developing-world peoples via “proxy wars”

Bi-Polarization of Europe [Warsaw Pact vs. NATO]

Why is communism associated with red?

• The two tools (hammer & sickel) are symbols of the industrial proletariat (working class) and the peasantry (agricultural workers).

• Placing them together symbolized the unity between industrial and agricultural workers. This emblem was conceived during the Bolshevik Revolution.

• It is best known from having been incorporated into the red flag of the Soviet Union, along with the Red Star. It has also been used in other flags and emblems.

More background information:

• In the years after World War II, tensions strained international relations, national politics, economic markets, domestic workplaces, and lifestyles. Defeat of the Axis powers demanded that the United States and the Soviet Union cooperate, but this alliance did not last much beyond VE Day.

• Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union steadily eroded into a cold war of suspicion and tension. Issues of national security abroad and internal security at home increasingly dominated and narrowed the terms of a more conservative political debate.

… • The CW was characterized by a wartime

mentality, a swift military build-up, the intermingling of military and economic policies, and an emphasis on consensus and the suppression of dissent.• A series of crises heightened anti-

communist fervor & deepened the obsession w/ national security, ultimately leading to the Korean War (1950). • American foreign policy focused even

more narrowly on anti-communism and claimed to justify a global military offensive.

Soviet Union’s perspective:• After WWII Soviet leaders concerned about

security! – Germany had invaded Russia twice in less than

30 years; the Soviets did not want it to happen again.

– Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak to ensure the countries between Germany and the Soviet Union were under Soviet control

• Soviets also believed communism was superior, that it would eventually replace capitalism, and that they should encourage communism in other nations. – They accepted Lenin’s theory that capitalism

causes wars (and imperialism) and would try to destroy communism.

End of the Cold War:• U.S. under Pres. Ronald Reagan increased

diplomatic, military, & economic pressure on the Soviet Union, which was already suffering from severe economic stagnation.

• In the second half of the 1980s, newly-appointed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the perestroika and glasnost reforms.

• CW ended: 1991 (when Soviet U. collapsed), leaving the U.S. as the world’s dominant military power - even though Russia retained much of the massive Soviet nuclear arsenal….– In short: communism had failed.

Origins (beginnings) of the Cold War (1945…):

Plus (add →) Soviet Expansion

CW origins (beginnings)?• most historians

trace its origins to Spring 1945 when Soviets slowly took control of E. European countries & implemented communism.

• 1947: Truman Doctrine

3) Harry Truman, Background Information:

4) Rise in Politics:

5) Potsdam Conference (July 1945):

6) Use of the Atomic Bombs (August 1945):

7) Post WWII-Europe & the Red Army:

8) Aid for Greece & Turkey (1947):

Civil War in Greece:Strategic Control

over Turkey: Soviets demanded

military bases

9) Joseph Stalin - & how to handle him:

10) Truman Doctrine:

“I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples, who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

- HT

•= a U.S. FP, adopted by Truman admin., based on principle: communist govts will eventually fall apart IF they are prevented from expanding their influence.

•Eventually, TD morphed into general policy of containment (i.e. to contain communism)

• Cont. used to justify U.S. involvement in Korean & Vietnam Wars.

• Also, est. of NATO in 1949 → important step in cont.’s development.

Biggest concern of the Soviets???

ADD ↓ ~ Fueling the Cold War: Communist-led Rebellions in Greece &

Turkey• inspired Truman Doctrine, which justified U.S. intervention in regional conflicts in name of preventing spread of communism.– The Truman Doctrine subsequently served as

the framework for American foreign policy in this era.

• critics of Truman: charged T overreacted & “needlessly polarized the world into pro-Soviet & pro-American camps & unwisely construed the Soviet threat as primarily military in nature.”

• apologists for Truman: have argued that T’s fear of “a revived isolationism…led him to exaggerate the Soviet threat and to cat his message in the charged language of a holy global war against godless communism….”

11) Marshall Plan (1948):•a.k.a. “European Recovery Program” • =a program by which U.S. gave

large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after WWII’s devastation.

• Named after Sec. of State George Marshall

• “This move is not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”

• $12.5 billion of US aid given to W. Europe.

• U.S. ALSO offered $ to E. Europe & USSR, who rejected $ b/c they did not want to make free-market concessions).

12) Creation of the State of Israel (1948):

13) Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-1949):

Berlin Airlift:

14) Views on Defense Spending:

ADD →

1949: Soviets now had the atomic bomb, too.

15) Peoples Republic of China est. (1949):

16) Korean War (1950-1953):

17) Truman-MacArthur Feud (circa 1951):