Cold War: 1945-1991

• Cold War: State of hostility between the United States and the USSR

• Escalation and De-escalation throughout

• Characterized by US’s hatred of communism and USSR’s desire to spread communism

• Led to brink of war

Korea

The situation in Korea…

• Japan took over in 1910• End of WWII-Japanese troops North of

38th parallel surrendered to USSR, south of 38th surrendered to US

• Two nations developed– Republic of Korea (ROK)- “South Korea”-

Rhee, Seoul– Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-

“North Korea”- Kim Il Sung, Pyongyang

North Koreans cross the 38th parallel- June 25, 1950

Korean War Summary

1) June 25th, 1950- NK cross 38th parallel, SK/US limited to Pusan

2) Sept-Oct 1950- Inchon- back to 38th parallel, recaptures Seoul

3) Oct-Nov 1950- US pushes North to Yalu River

4) Nov-Dec 1950- Chinese push US back to 38th Parallel

5) 1951-53- Stalemate- 38th parallel (Armistice signed in 1953)

The Space Race-US vs. USSR

• Arms race turned into technology race and space race

• Sputnik- first unmanned artificial satellite-(Oct 1957) USSR

• US response– Jan 1958-Explorer I

• July 20, 1969-US put first men on the moon

Arms Race: Bomb Timeline

• 1945- US- atomic bomb

• 1949- USSR- atomic bomb

• Nov 1952- US- hydrogen bomb

• August 1953- USSR- hydrogen bomb

• US vs. USSR-in competition to build nuclear arsenal

• Escalation!

CUBA

Cuba

• Castro took control of Cuban gov’t in 1959 and relied heavily on Soviet aid

• Enemy of US-wants him out of power

Bay of Pigs Invasion- April 1961

• Set up by Eisenhower, JFK inherited• US hoped invasion would trigger uprising

against Castro• US covert action (trained Cuban exiles)• 1400 Cuban exiles against 20,000 Cuban troops

US Failure• ResultsUS failed and humiliated• Castro strengthened• Contributes to Khrushchev’s decision to

build Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall

• West Berlin=showcase for democracy• Khrushchev reactsstarts the night between the

12th & 13th of August 1961(completed with/in days)- surrounds entire city of West Berlin

• Wall constructedGuard towers were installed, and “no-man’s-land” between inner and outer walls was mined and booby-trapped.

• Almost impossible for E. Germans to escape to W. Berlin without being killed or captured.

• Became most famous symbol of Cold War. (Torn down in 89)

Cuban Missile Crisis Background

• Khrushchev promised to defend Cuba with nuclear arms• Nuclear bases being built in Cuba (U-2)• Oct 22, 1962- JFK announces Soviet missile sights in

Cuba- stand off begins• Neither side willing to concede• World stood on brink of all-out nuclear war for nearly 2

weeks.• Result: Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles if

the United States ended the blockade. • Kennedy quickly agreed and offered to remove from

American warheads in Turkey aimed at the USSR.• Washington and Moscow agree to install “hotline”

between capitals

Vietnam War

Ike’s Domino Theory

Geneva Accords• 17th Parallel

• Ho Chi Minh in North, capital Hanoi

• Nationalists in South: Diem, capital Saigon

• 1956 to have an election to unify the country

War in the Jungle• US thinks advanced weapons = win

• Vietcong: hit and run/ambush attacks/ knowledge of the jungle

• No frontline

• Enemy among civilian population, didn’t know who the enemy was

• Countless booby traps/land mines

• Heat, leaches, bugs

• Began assembly during war w/ Fr

• Connected villages throughout the countryside, home to guerrilla fighters

• Inside: ate, slept, stored arms, built land mines, treated wounded

Ho Chi Minh Trail• Minh supplies

arms to Vietcong

• guerrilla warfare

• S. Vietnam more unstable

Campaign “Hearts and Minds”

• To win “Hearts and Minds” of S. Vietnamese

• Ended up hurting rural population• Napalm: gasoline-based bomb set

fire to the jungle• Agent Orange: leaf-killing toxic

chemical that devastated the landscape

Napalm Attack

Agent Orange

Agent Orange Victims, 1999

1976 – Postwar • Ho Chi Minh City

(formerly Saigon)

• Comm takeover; Saigon is renamed to Ho Chi Minh City.

• Vietnam's most populous city remained unstable under Communist rule.

Khmer Rouge• US invasion of Cambodia

created civil war

• Communist grp: Khmer Rouge1975 wanted to transform country to a peasant society, executed gov’t officials/academics, believed to kill 2million Cambodians

The End of the Cold War-1980’s

• Causes:

• 1. Information Age

• 2. Global Democratization-(# of new democracies grew 5X btw 1950-2000

• 3. Travelers from the West

• 4. World Leaders

RONALD REAGAN – 40th President of U.S. (1981-89)

SDI (“Star Wars”)

• USSR=“Evil Empire”

• Increased military spending

• Strategic Defense Initiative- missiles defense system

The Reagan Doctrine

• Put pressure on USSR to give up its “evil empire”

• U.S. pledges support to any national groups interested in protecting their governments from Communist takeover

Mikhail Gorbachev – Gen. Party Secy (1985-1991)

1st SovietLeader Born afterRussianRevolution

Gorbachev’s Plan

• “perestroika” – a restructuring of the Soviet economy

• “glasnost” -openness

BOTH LEADERS-PRAGMATIC

Note the Time Background…What do you see?

And they do three times….

Making agreements to disarm over time

1) Geneva Summit (85)

2) Reykjavik Summit (86)

3) INF Treaty (87) – first arms reduction treaty

World Leaders Play a Role

• Reagan Gorbachev Margaret Thatcher (PM of GB)

• Lech Walesa Deng Xiopiang Pope John Paul II

Solidarity Mvmt.

Early Revolutions in E. EuropeIron Curtain Remains

• 56-Poland-unsuccessful

• 56-Hungary-unsuccessful

• 68-Czech-unsuccessful

Democracy Sweeps Through Eastern Europe

• POLAND

• CZECHOSLOVAKIA

• GERMANY

• ROMANIA

• BULGARIA

• HUNGARY

Why?

1) Decades of patient containment by NATO

2) Economic Burden of Arms Race

3) Glasnost and Perestroika

4) Presence of underground student movements

1989

• Soviets invade Afghanistan in 79-leave in 89

• May 89-Hungary-May 1989-Dismantled barbed wire fence along Austrian border-E. Germans fled to W. through Hungary.

• Aug. 89-Under Lech Valesa-First ever non-communist post-WWII gov’t takes charge in Poland

JUNE 12, 1987

Reagan at B. Wall:“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall……” Nov 9, 1989- the Berlin Wall fell

East Germany

1960 1970 1980

Truman Eisenhower

Stalin Khrushchev

Kennedy Johnson

Brezhnev

Nixon Ford Carter

Andropov

Chernenko

Gorbachev

ReaganBushSr.

1950-1953

TheKorean

War

Oct 1962

CubanMissileCrisis

1964 – 1973

American MilitaryInvolvementIn Vietnam

1956

HungarianUprising

1961

BerlinWallBuilt

1968

PragueSpring:

Czechoslovakia

1980-81

SolidarityIn Poland

1989

Collapse ofCommunismIn Eastern

Europe

1991 Collapse of Soviet Union

1950-1953 Korean War

1962 Cuban Missile

Crisis

1979-1990s War in Afghanistan:The Afghan gov’t supported by

Soviet Forces in fight against US-backed guerrilla fighters

1965-1973 Vietnam War

1960s-1980sIn Central & South America the USA supported anti-

Communist regimes (e.g.

General Pinochet in Chile). The USSR

supported Communist rebels

1967-1980s: Israel supported by the US gov’t in Middle East

conflict w/ Arabs. The USSR supported the Palestinians & Arab

states

1956-1989: USSR

encounters communist

protests from Eastern Bloc

countries

USSR-soon split into 15 republics-The Commonwealth of Independent States (Dec. 25, 1991)-USSR is DISSOLVED!

End of the Soviet Union

End of Communism?

Also in 1989…

Cultural Revolution

• Cultural Revolution: 1966-goal to est. a proletarian society

• Many left classrooms and formed Red Guard• No individual or institution was safe from attack• Colleges shut down• Lashed out against anyone with special

privileges-1,000’s of casualties• Factories closed, and farm production declined• Went too far-Red Guards shut down

Spring 1989

• Students began demonstration in Tiananmen Square in Beijing- demanding more freedom and rights

• Brought on by Deng Xiaoping’s economic liberalization

• Immediately caused by death of more liberal leader, Hu Yaobang

• Gorbachev visited mid-May, praised by Chinese students (foreign press)

June 1989

• Deng cracked down against protestors• Machine guns fired into crowds, tanks

charged into square• Exact number of deaths unknown• Bush response: Condemned Deng,

suspended military sales to China, cut off normal relations with China; but behind the scenes still maintained relations with China

So why was China different than Europe?

• There had long been an underground in Europe, dissidents new in China

• Europe = workers rebelling, China= elite students rebelling

• Differences in Gorbachev and Deng

With the Cold War Over

• 1945-1991-Cold War dictated Foreign Policy

• At the same time Post WWI-attention will be on the Middle East as America becomes more dependent on oil.