Cold War Ideology and Hot-SpotsGrade 9 Social Studies

Chapter 8

United States IdeologyPolitical System:

• Democratic There are free and fair elections among two or

more political parties

Citizens enjoy a great deal of personal freedom Examples being: Freedom of religion, freedom of speech

United States Ideology (con’t)

Economic System:• Capitalist

There is private ownership of business and industry

These businesses operate for profit

Owners keep this profit and personal wealth grows

Soviet Union IdeologyPolitical System:

• Totalitarian

Government is run and controlled by only one political party

System controls the media, uses widespread surveillance, does not allow many personal freedoms.

Citizens live under a constant shadow of fear

Soviet Union Ideology (con’t)

Economic System:• Communist

Government has ownership or control of business and industry

Very little personal wealth, especially for common workers

Under Communism there “should” be no class-system

Partition of Germany

Cold War Hot-SpotsBerlin Airlift 1948-1949

• After Germany’s defeat in WW2, the Allies divided the country into occupation zones

• Idea was for Germany to become self-governing at some point

• The capital city, Berlin, was also divided into separate zones, but was situated within the Soviet area of Germany

• Soviets wanted the Western nations to leave Berlin

Berlin Airlift (con’t) Soviet Union refused to allow Western

countries to transport supplies into Berlin by land.

Soviets assumed this would force the Western countries to abandon the city

In response to this the Western countries began bringing supplies into Berlin by air, in transport planes.

These planes brought all types of supplies, especially coal, gasoline, flour, sugar, milk; basically all the necessities.

These planes flew non-stop for 11 months; a constant line of planes landing in a number of airports in Berlin.

Eventually, Soviets re-opened the land routes into Berlin in May, 1949.

Hungarian Uprising, 1956 After WW2, Hungary was occupied by Soviet Union

and a Communist government was set up.

Demonstrations and protests were held in front of Hungarian Parliament, crowds were shot at by Hungarian State Police and Soviet troops.

This gunfire forced the Hungarian government to collapse. Citizens of Hungary tried to create a democratic and liberal system. More Soviet troops entered Hungary, small battles took place.

- Soviets attack and crush the uprising, with 200,000 troops and hundreds of tanks

- Western allies give verbal support to Hungarians, but no military help. As a result thousands of Hungarians escaped and emigrated to other parts of the world as Hungary remained

Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 Cuba was led by a Communist government and

leader Fidel Castro. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, where

the United States attempted to remove Castro, Cuba began to work with the Soviet Union, an ally, to build nuclear weapons sites.

In October 1962 American Spy-planes found these missile sites in Cuba, raising fears of being vulnerable to nuclear attack.

When an invasion and military air-strikes by the United States, on those missile sites in Cuba, were understood to be too risky, a compromise was put forward.

The United States began a “quarantine” of Cuba in order to stop all Soviet shipping from possibly delivering more missiles.

The Soviets ignored the quarantine and kept sailing After 5 days - during which the world waited in fear

of a nuclear war – the Soviet ships stopped. The Americans and Soviets had come to an

agreement, where the US would agree not to invade

Cuban Missile Crisis (con’t)

Vietnam War, 1963-1975

Vietnam War Background After WW2, France wanted to resume its control over

Vietnam as a colony. The Vietnamese people resisted this and eventually, in 1954, the French were defeated and left the country.

In the settlement afterwards, Vietnam was broken into 2 separate countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was a Communist country, and South Vietnam was not.

North Vietnam, wanting to re-unite the two countries, invaded South Vietnam in 1963

Vietnam War (con’t) The United States sent military advisors to South

Vietnam in 1963 to help their Armed Forces. As years passed the United States began to send

more and more troops to Vietnam, the peak number of 543,000 being reached in 1969.

Due to the length of the war, and the fact that the Americans seemed to be unable to win the war, caused the people back home to begin to protest the war and call for its end.

In 1975 the United States withdrew and South Vietnam quickly surrendered to North Vietnam; the whole country then becoming Communist.

Vietnam War

Czechoslovakia, 1968 In a situation very similar to Hungary in 1956, the

people of Czechoslovakia, who had been under Communist rule since the end of WW2, called for more liberal reforms and the creation of a democratic government.

Unlike in Hungary, the Czech’s were unable to show resistance to the 200,000 Soviet troops and 2000 tanks that invaded their country, and aside from a few minor incidents, the Soviets were not attacked.

Czechoslovakia remained Communist until 1989.

Afghanistan, 1979-1989 ***Not to be confused with the modern-day war in

Afghanistan!*** In 1979, a civil war broke out in Afghanistan

between the Communist government and Islamic (Muslim) rebels/guerillas, who were trying to turn Afghanistan into an Islamic state.

The Soviet Union sent troops to aid the Communist government of Afghanistan, and these troops fought a bloody war with the guerillas for 10 years, who were actually being funded by the United States.

In 1989 the Soviets finally withdrew. The Taliban eventually took power in Afghanistan.

Soviets & Afghan Guerillas