Seeds of Tension: Cold War Origins

Seeds of Tension

• Japan surrendered and WWII ended after the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs
• The Soviet Union did not approve as the U.S. had nuclear technology
• The U.S. supported democracy and capitalism, which made it a global superpower
• The Soviet Union supported communism, which made it a global superpower
• The Soviet Union took control of many Eastern European countries and created a Soviet bloc
• An iron curtain was created to divide the west and the east
• The Cold War, or war of indirect fighting, broke out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

Cold War Foreign Policy

• After losing WWII, Germany was broken up into four zones by the Allied powers
• Great Britain, France, and the U.S. combined their zones into West Germany
• The USSR controlled East Germany
• The U.S. dropped supplies to West Berlin in the Berlin Airlift without causing military conflict, blockaded by the Soviet Union
• The Berlin Wall was built to keep Western and Eastern Germany separate
• The Marshall Plan was created by the U.S. to give money to countries to rebuild and keep them open to democratic, capitalist ideas
• The USSR created COMECON to provide money to countries to keep them open to communist ideas and help communism spread
• The U.S. created the Truman Doctrine to prevent the spread of communism
• The U.S. and its western allies created a military alliance called NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to protect the West
• The Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact in response to NATO
• Proxy wars, or wars between two nations that are sponsored by others, were fought, although the Cold War did not result in direct fighting between the U.S. and the USSR

Fall of the Qing Dynasty

• The Qing dynasty declined after the Boxer Rebellion in 1901
• Chinese Nationalists in the Guomindang Party led a revolt against the Qing and won
• Sun Yat-sen set up a democratic government based on 3 principles
• Sun Yat-sen was replaced by Jiang Jieshi
• Jiang Jieshi killed thousands of Communists in a civil war
• Other Communists fled to northern China
• Mao Zedong led these Communists in the Long March
• Japan invaded China in 1931 as part of their expansion before WWII
• The Guomindang (Nationalists) and the Communists temporarily stopped fighting and united to fight the Japanese during WWII

People's Republic of China

• After Japan was defeated in WWII, the Nationalists and the Communists continued fighting a civil war for control over China
• The Communists won
• Mao Zedong became the leader of the People's Republic of China in 1949
• Surviving Nationalist leaders fled from China to Taiwan
• Mao Zedong created the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
• Mao Zedong was supported by Stalin and the Soviet Union
• Mao Zedong's beliefs and sayings were recorded in the "Little Red Books"
• Mao Zedong believed the Chinese revolution should be led by peasants
• Stalin believed communist revolutions should be led by the proletariat, or workers

Mao's Plans

• Mao created the Great Leap Forward to build China into an industrial and agricultural state
• Mao focused more on agriculture, whereas Stalin focused more on industry and factories
• Families and farms were replaced by the community, and peasants had to meet quotas
• 16-20 million Chinese people starved to death during the Great Famine while focused on growing food for all of China
• Mao targeted intellectuals and attacked traditional Chinese beliefs in the Cultural Revolution
• Young adults led the Red Guard, destroyed ancient Chinese works, persecuted people, and changed education in schools to focus on communism

Korean War

• Korea was divided at the 38th parallel after Japan's defeat in WWII
• Communist North Korea invaded Democratic South Korea as an act of aggression
• President Harry Truman and the United Nations sent military forces to help South Korea
• These troops later pushed into North Korea with the goal of uniting Korea into a democratic country
• Communist China fought with the North Koreans and captured the South Korean capital of Seoul
• Allied forces pushed back across the 38th parallel
• The war came to a stalemate
• The conflict ended in 1953 when an armistice was signed, and boundaries were put back close to the 38th parallel

Vietnam War

• Vietnam Nationalists won independence from France in 1954
• Vietnam was split into a communist North and democratic South
• South Vietnam refused to hold elections to reunite the country, fearing unfree elections
• Ho Chi Minh led the Communist North to take over the South
• Ho Chi Minh was supported by the USSR and China
• The U.S. sent advisors, money, weapons, and troops to help South Vietnam fight the Viet Cong and northern Vietnam Communists
• Napalm and Agent Orange were used to fight against guerilla warfare and destroy places where enemies could hide
• Many U.S. citizens protested against the war after viewing media coverage
• U.S. troops left Vietnam in 1975
• South Vietnam captured North Vietnam in 1976 and unified it into one country under communist rule

Cuban Missile Crisis

• Fidel Castro led revolutionaries in Cuba in 1959 to overthrow the government and create a communist government
• Fidel Castro nationalized businesses and executed political opponents
• The U.S. government supported the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to help exiled Cubans overthrow Castro's government
• The invasion failed, and the U.S. no longer supported the rebels
• The Cuban Missile Crisis was caused by Soviet missiles in Cuba and U.S. missiles in Turkey
• The missile crisis increased Cold War tensions and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war
• The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when the U.S. and USSR talked out their disagreements through diplomacy instead of declaring war

Military Buildups

• The Cold War caused the U.S. and USSR to build up their arms, or weapons, in an arms race, as defense programs increased new technology
• Both countries stockpiled weapons such as ICBMS, or intercontinental ballistic cruise missiles, and nuclear weapons to deter the other side from attacking
• Students practiced duck and cover drills in school to know what to do if there were a nuclear attack
• The Soviets were the first to launch a satellite called Sputnik into space in 1957
• The U.S. responded by starting a space race, funding math and science education, and building the NASA program
• U.S. President Ronald Reagan created the Star Wars, or Strategic Defense Initiative, to destroy enemy missiles before they reached the U.S.

World Leaders

• Worker Lech Walesa formed a trade union in Poland and led worker strikes against the Communist government
• Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement created support for freedom in Eastern Europe from Soviet control
• Pope John Paul II supported Walesa's Solidarity movement
• Pope John Paul II worked to promote Catholicism in the world and encouraged people of all faiths to work together peacefully
• Margaret Thatcher, known as the Iron Lady for her tough politics, became the first female prime minister of Great Britain
• Margaret Thatcher supported the U.S. in its efforts to stop the growing Soviet threat and its ideas on free enterprise and capitalism

Changes in the Soviet Union

• A détente, or relaxing of relations, reduced tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
• The U.S. and China used diplomacy to make relations between both of their countries more normal
• Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced perestroika, or limited economic freedom, to improve the Soviet economy in the 1980s
• This slowly introduced capitalist ideas back into the Soviet Union
• Gorbachev introduced glasnost to allow Soviet citizens the freedom to openly speak about and voice criticism concerning their government
• Perestroika and glasnost encouraged more people to protest against communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, although Mikhail Gorbachev believed they would help stop protests

Collapse of the Soviet Union

• President Ronald Reagan used political pressure for change and outspent the Soviet Union on weapons
• Gorbachev and Reagan used diplomacy and signed treaties to reduce nuclear weapons
• The Berlin Wall fell in 1989
• Most European nations controlled by the Soviet Union broke free from communist control
• Western and Eastern Germany reunited into one country in 1990
• The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991
• Boris Yeltsin became President of Russia

Changes in Communist China

• Mao Zedong died in 1976, and Deng Xiaoping rose to power
• Deng Xiaoping knew he needed to interact with the capitalist West for trade and investment in business
• Deng Xiaoping created the Four Modernizations in agriculture, industry, national defense, and technology
• Deng Xiaoping left out reforms on democracy
• Chinese students peacefully protested at Tiananmen Square in 1989
• The Chinese government fired upon the students with weapons and tanks
• News reports showed the uprising worldwide as a major violation of human rights

Free Enterprise vs. Command Economies

• Free enterprise or capitalist economies protect worker rights, offer higher wages than communist command economies, and allow voters to elect representatives who promote free enterprise
• Free enterprise allows for economic freedom to create new products to be bought and sold at prices set by the producer instead of a communist government
• Free enterprise provides a variety of products from which to choose and options in their standards of quality
• Consumers choose the price they are willing to pay and the quality of goods
• Free enterprise allows anyone to become an entrepreneur, or business owner, and make decisions that benefit their business unlike a command or communist economy

Independence Movements

• Unfilled promises for freedom after WWI, the rise of nationalism, arbitrary country borders, and increasing numbers of Western educated colonial leaders led to a renewed desire for freedom in parts of Africa and Asia
• Decolonization, or independence movements, was occurring while the Cold War was
• Colonies and mandates gained their independence either through peaceful negotiations or through armed conflict
• Self-determination was used to decide how their new countries would be governed
• Some of the new countries chose to model their governments after the U.S., which supported democracy and capitalism
• Some chose to model the USSR and communism
• Some chose non-alignment and did not take sides

South Asia

• India was promised its independence in exchange for fighting in WWI, but India did not get it after the war was over
• British soldiers killed over 300 Indians and injured 1,200 at the Amritsar Massacre in 1919 during a Sikh religious festival
• Civil disobedience and peaceful protest was used by nationalist leaders, such as Mohandas Gandhi, to fight for India's independence
• Mohandas Gandhi led a Salt March to the Arabian Sea in 1930 to make his own salt and inspire the Indian people to break unjust British laws

Dividing India

• Over 2 million Indians fought for Great Britain in WWII
• A new British political party was in power after WWII
• The British peacefully negotiated with India for independence in 1947
• Britain and the United Nations led the Partition of India to divide India into two nations: a mostly Hindu India and a new, mostly Muslim nation of Pakistan
• Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister of India
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a Muslim League leader, became the first prime minister of Pakistan
• Approximate 1,000,000 people died in the conflicts as riots and violence broke out in the border regions between Hindus and Muslims over religious tensions
• Forced migrations and resettlement occurred

The Year of Africa

• Some historians call 1960 the "Year of Africa" because many African nations declared their independence during the 1960s
• Some nations used violence, and other nations used diplomacy
• Kwame Nkrumah peacefully protested and negotiated independence from Great Britain in 1957 in the Gold Coast
• The nation became known as Ghana and was the first black African colony that won its freedom and chose to become non-aligned in the Cold War
• Uganda peacefully negotiated its independence from Great Britain in East Africa
• Military leader Idi Amin seized control of Uganda as a military dictator in 1971 and became known as the Butcher of Uganda for his human rights abuses, political mass murder, and government corruption

South Africa

• South Africa peacefully negotiated their independence with Great Britain in 1910 but was strongly linked to Great Britain through their government and economy
• Apartheid, which allowed the minority of white South Africans to hold power and rights that were not given to black South Africans, was a policy used by white South Africans
• Africans were legally segregated, or separated from white people
• Nelson Mandela protested against apartheid and was jailed for 27 years
• Nelson Mandela was released from prison and became South Africa's first black president
• The South African government responded to international boycotts and pressure to end apartheid and reform the government in the 1990s

Other Parts of Africa

• Algeria violently rebelled against France for its independence in North Africa
• Algeria got its independence in 1962 after decades of bloody conflicts
• Angola violently rebelled against Portugal for its independence in Southern Africa
• Angola won its freedom in 1975. Sponsored by the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba as a proxy war
• Many former African colonies faced civil wars, economic problems, and political instability when they won their independence from their colonizer

Israel vs. Palestine

• The British took over Palestine in the Middle East through the mandate system following WWI
• Some Jewish immigrants moved into Palestine as part of Britain's Balfour Declaration
• Great Britain left Palestine following WWII and the Holocaust
• The United Nations set up boundaries with the partition of Palestine into a nation of Israel and West Bank and Gaza Strip into a Palestinian area
• Conflict between Arab nations and Israel resulted in war, changing boundaries in the Middle East, and the fleeing of Palestinian refugees in the following decades

Egypt

• Egypt peacefully negotiated its independence in 1922, but the new monarchy was influenced by Great Britain
• British soldiers stayed to protect their interests in the Suez Canal
• Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the King of Egypt in 1952
• Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, or took control over the vital trading waterway, in 1956
• Great Britain, France, and Israel attempted to take control, creating the Suez Canal Crisis
• The U.S. and the Soviet Union demanded that the forces withdraw from Egypt
• Nasser ended British control over the Suez Canal and British influence in the region
• Nasser helped politically unite the Arab world

Iran and Iraq

• The 1979 Revolution in Iran stopped modernization efforts and returned Iran to a traditional way of life in the Middle East
• Ayatollah Khomeini made Iran a traditional Islamic state guided by sharia law and executed followers of the former Shah's government
• Iran (Shi'a) and Iraq (Sunni) fought over religious tensions and the desire to dominate the Persian Gulf in the Middle East
• Hussein later used chemical weapons on the military and the Kurdish people in Northern Iraq
• Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait for oil in 1990, and the U.S. fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf War
• A second Gulf War was fought in 2003, and Saddam Hussein was captured, put on trial, and executed