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Beginnings of the Cold War

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Title: Beginnings of the Cold War


1
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • The Problems of Peace
  • Potsdam Conference
  • Allies agreed to temporarily divide Germany and
    Berlin into four zones of occupation
  • Allies worked together to establish a plan to rid
    Germany of any remnants of the Nazi Party and
    Nazi beliefs through the Nuremberg trials
  • Allies worked on a plan for Germany to pay
    reparations for the destruction caused by the war

2
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • The Allies conflicted over what to do with the
    rest of Europe
  • Soviet Union believed they needed a buffer zone
    of friendly governments in Eastern Europe to
    guard against another such attack Stalin
    promised to respect the rights of people in
    Eastern Europe to choose their own governments
  • American and British leaders believed that Stalin
    planned to establish pro-Soviet Communist
    governments

3
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • The Conflict Worsens
  • Cold War an era of high tension and bitter
    rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union in
    the decades following World War II
  • struggle of power and control between two nations
    with very different forms of government, economic
    systems and ways of life
  • Cold War, in short, was a conflict between
    command ommunism and capitalist democracy
  • Winston Churchill used the image of an iron
    curtain to describe the sharp division of Europe
    that was the result of Soviet actions

4
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • Truman Doctrine a pledge to provide economic and
    military aid to oppose the spread of communism
  • US was committed to helping free peoples resist
    takeover by armed minorities or outside
    pressures
  • US launched the Marshall Plan plan for the
    economic reconstruction of Europe after WWII

5
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • Cold War Confrontations
  • containment involved resisting Soviet aggression
    in order to contain the spread of communism
  • Western leaders began to plan for the creation of
    an independent democratic German nation to be
    formed from the three western zones of occupation
  • Soviets blocked off all routes into West Berlin
    to prevent any supplies to come into the city
  • Westerners organized the Berlin Airlift a
    massive effort to supply West Berlin by air

6
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • US, Canada and most of Western Europe joined
    together to in a military alliance
  • NATO a defensive military alliance of twelve
    Western nations formed planned to establish a
    democratic government in West Berlin (Western
    military alliance)
  • Warsaw Pact a military alliance of the
    Soviet-dominated countries of Eastern Europe

7
Beginnings of the Cold War
  • Allies agreed to temporarily divide Korea in half
  • Soviets established Communist government in the
    northern half
  • US supported a non-Communist regime in the
    southern half
  • North Korea attacked South Korea in order to
    unite Korea under a Communist government
  • Chinese communists gave aid to North Korea and
    able to push UN troops back out of North Korea
  • war settled into a stalemate and then agreed to
    an armistice in 1953

8
Superpower Rivalries
  • The Arms Race Begins
  • West received news of a successful Soviet test of
    an atomic bomb
  • US tested the first fusion powered hydrogen bomb
  • US and Soviets increased their stockpiles of
    nuclear weapons

9
Superpower Rivalries
  • Both sides used the strategy of deterrence
  • the development of or maintenance of military
    power to deter, or prevent, an attack
  • US and the Soviet Union were locked in an arms
    race
  • a struggle between nations to gain an advantage
    in weapons
  • Soviet Union launched Sputnik
  • historys first artificial satellite

10
Superpower Rivalries
  • US government established the National
    Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA
  • people built bomb shelters to protect them from a
    nuclear explosion
  • Red Scare Americans feared possible Communist
    influence in the US government
  • McCarthy led the effort to expose Communists in
    the American film industry and government,
    accusing many innocent people of Communist
    activities

11
Superpower Rivalries
  • Cold War Around the War
  • Vietnam
  • France sought to reestablish its former colonial
    control over Southeast Asia
  • Communist rebels fought back forcing the French
    to give up control of Vietnam
  • Vietnam was temporarily divided into northern
    (Communist controlled) and southern
    (anti-Communist) halves
  • US supported the south and sent military aid

12
Superpower Rivalries
  • Berlin
  • Soviets began to build the Berlin Wall
  • also became a symbol of the brutality of the
    Communist system

13
Superpower Rivalries
  • Cuba
  • rebels under the leadership of Fidel Castro
    overthrew Cubas dictator and installed a
    Communist government
  • Castro established a centrally planned economy
    and forged close ties with the Soviet Union
  • Bay of Pigs invasion the failed attempt of Cuban
    exiles backed by the US to overthrow the Cuban
    socialist government of Fidel Castro
  • Cuban missile crisis confrontation between the
    US and the Soviet Union over the Soviet missiles
    in Cuba
  • Soviet leaders removed the missiles when the US
    agreed to remove US missiles from Turkey and
    promised not to attack Cuba

14
Superpower Rivalries
  • Other
  • Egypt angered the West by taking over the Suez
    Canal
  • Africa
  • Central/South America
  • nonaligned nations nations who refused to ally
    with either side in the Cold War between the US
    and the Soviet Union
  • Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan
    all worked to promote the limitation of nuclear
    weapons through various methods Open Skies
    Treaty, Test Ban Treaty, détente, SALT I/II,
    Missile Defense System (Star Wars),
    Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
  • Finally, the relationship between the Soviet
    Union and the US was beginning to improve

15
Changing Society
  • North America
  • Economic Changes
  • US citizens bought a lot of consumer goods
  • During the 1970s there was inflation and high
    unemployment along with a spike in oil prices
  • Unemployment dropped in the 1980s but the
    national debt grew sharply
  • US companies closed factories which led to a loss
    of jobs but increased jobs in the service sector

16
Changing Society
  • Social changes
  • GI Bill of Rights a law that helped millions of
    American veterans attend college and make a
    living
  • baby boom occurred
  • Truman ordered the military to desegregate
  • Brown v Board of Education a court case that
    ruled schools needed to desegregated
  • Civil Rights Movement
  • womens movement emerged
  • counterculture a rebellion of teenagers and
    young adults against mainstream American society

17
Changing Society
  • Western Europe
  • Western Europe lay in ruins but due to the
    Marshall Plan they were able to restore to some
    economic power
  • NATO helped unify many European nations in a
    strong military alliance with the US and Canada
  • Western European countries undertook broader
    efforts to develop a single regional market free
    of trade barriers and with unified economic
    policies (European Economic Community or the
    Common Market)

18
Changing Society
  • Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
  • Soviet Union had a centrally planned economy or a
    command economy
  • command economy the government controls all
    economic decisions
  • Khrushchev de-Stalinzed but continued it
  • Soviet leaders put down several revolts and
    protests throughout Eastern Europe
  • Poland used the Solidarity in order to protest
    Soviet control

19
Changing Society
  • Government planners set production goals without
    thinking about the needs of the state
  • Gorbachev proposed two concepts glasnost and
    perestroika
  • Gorbachev also pursued arms control agreements
    with the US, reduced central planning, introduced
    some free-market mechanisms and urged local
    leaders to adopt reforms to Communism

20
Changing Society
  • Eastern European countries soon began to revolt
  • Velvet Revolution a quick, peaceful revolution
    that swept the Communists from power in
    Czechoslovakia
  • Poland Solidarity movement led to free elections
  • Romania was one location where there was
    bloodshed
  • East Germans fled to Hungary in order to move
    back into West Germany, which led to the fall of
    the Berlin Wall in 1989

21
After the Cold War
  • The Breakup of the Soviet Union
  • Soviet Union had 15 separate republics, who all
    wanted their independence
  • Soviet leaders sought to end Gorbachevs reforms
    and preserve the Soviet Union by taking over the
    Soviet government in a coup detat
  • Boris Yeltsin, leader of the republic of Russia,
    opposed this idea

22
After the Cold War
  • At the end of 1991 the Soviet government had
    ceased to function
  • 12 of the republics eventually united in a loose
    confederation known as the Commonwealth of
    Independent States
  • Soviet Union no longer existed and the Cold War
    was over, communism ended in the former Soviet
    republics

23
After the Cold War
  • Yeltsin began to reform the economy and make it
    more capitalistic
  • He allowed private ownership of business and land
  • Business owners and workers received more freedom
    to take advantage of economic opportunity
  • Prices rose and most Russians could not afford to
    buy products
  • Two main issues bubbled to the top Ethnic unrest
    and the need for new governments

24
After the Cold War
  • Europe after Communism
  • Due to Communistic control, ethnic and religious
    tensions were suppressed in Yugoslavia
  • Serbs tried to prevent the break-up of Yugoslavia
    but led to a larger conflict
  • The most violent wars took place in Bosnia and
    Herzegovina because they declared independence
    from Yugoslavia
  • Serbs used ethnic cleansing to get rid of Bosnian
    Muslims
  • Ethnic cleansing the elimination of an ethnic
    group from society through killing or forced
    immigration
  • US sent a diplomat to help resolve this conflict,
    which ended in 1995

25
After the Cold War
  • Soon another conflict emerged in Kosovo
  • Serbs and ethnic Albanians fought over control of
    the area
  • Peace negotiations failed and led to NATO bombing
    the area but Kosovo still remains a province of
    Serbia
  • People started new businesses but many are not
    earning enough money to support themselves or are
    unemployed causing them to move to Western Europe
    to compete with others there for jobs
  • Europe established the European Union, which is a
    political and economic union among the nations of
    Europe

26
After the Cold War
  • The United States Today
  • Economy
  • Unemployment was low, Budget deficits shrank,
    Economic success was due to the developments in
    computer technology
  • Concerns of the new century include high energy
    costs, increased government spending and a rising
    national debt, gap between the rich and poor and
    high unemployment rate

27
After the Cold War
  • New Conflicts
  • New conflict in the Middle East
  • Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait
  • negotiations failed and the US sent troops into
    the Persian Gulf War
  • coalition troops quickly freed Kuwait
  • US took part in peacekeeping efforts around the
    world

28
After the Cold War
  • War on Terror
  • US was hit by terrorists throughout the 1990s
  • These hits were planned attacks by al Qaeda
  • led by Osama bin Laden
  • Islamist terrorist organization
  • 9/11

29
After the Cold War
  • US responded by attacking al Qaeda and Taliban
  • Taliban a group that was then governing
    Afghanistan according to a strict interpretation
    of Islamic law
  • Bush went into Iraq to find weapons in 2003 but
    werent able to find any such weapons
  • It will take some years before Iraq is able to
    stand alone without help from the US or any other
    country
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