Cold War

Task: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use evidence from all the documents to support your response. Include substantial outside information.

Historical Context: As WWII came to an end, a new conflict emerged between the United States and the Soviet Union. This conflict, known as the Cold War, affected Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Essay prompt: Discuss how the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union affected Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

• Do you agree or disagree with President Truman's handling of the Soviet Blockade of Berlin? Why or why not? Was it effective in solving the crisis?
• In what ways did President Truman's handling of the blockade lead to greater Cold War tensions?
• Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during most of World War II, once described Russia as a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." What does he mean by this? How does this statement apply to the Soviets during the Berlin blockade?
• Should the Western powers have left Berlin to appease the Soviets?
• In what ways did President Truman's airlift support the foreign policy of containment?

• Berlin Blockade: Stalin held Berlin hostage to prevent German unification
• NATO and Warsaw Pact --> defensive military alliances
• Nuclear armsrace
• Brinkmanship--> pushing a situation with the opponent to the brink by forcing the opponent to back down and make concessions

Europe at the end of WWII

• Marshall Plan --> US economic aid to impoverished European countries to repair their industrial infrastructure
• Goal: to rebuild the democratic and economic systems of Europe and to counter the threat of communism
• Major factor in fast European economic recovery after WWII
• Soviets refused Marshall Aid

Aim: Why was the Berlin Airlift a turning point?

• Which countries separated the Soviet Union from Western Europe?
• How was the iron curtain a dividing line?

• 1953: Stalin died → Nikita Khrushchev new leader → believed that USSR had to be more free, more tolerant --> 1956: secret speech denouncing crimes of Stalin
• 1953-56: destalinization --> softening of dictatorship → wave of uprisings:
• 1953: East Germany,
• 1956: Hungary,
• 1968: Prague Spring (Czechoslovakia)
• Soviets sent in tanks, crushed all uprisings brutally

Consequences of Berlin Blockade

• 1. West-Berliners very grateful that they were protected against Soviet aggression → promoted goodwill between former enemies
• 2. After 11 months Soviets lifted blockade, resigned to the creation of new West German state

FRG → Federal Republic of Germany → democratic, western-oriented

GDR → German Democratic Republic → communist dictatorship

• 3. 1949: NATO was formed --> “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

• June 1948: Western Allies announced plans to establish separate West German state → Soviets alarmed
• → Stalin cut off Berlin from Allied-occupied zones, all land traffic blockaded → cut rail lines, canals
• Air traffic could not be stopped → Allies supplied food by air for 2 million West-Berliners for almost an entire year → 2.3 million tons of food on 277,500 flights
• Berlin held hostage to prevent creation of new unified German state → danger of war

• 1946: Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in the US
• Stalin's response: war inevitable between Soviet Union and Western powers

• 1959: Cuban revolution --> Fidel Castro's forces overthrew Batista dictatorship
• Castro brought social reforms, economic equality to Cuba, but ruled as dictator --> nationalized industries, took US owned factories, businesses --> US responded with a trade embargo
• 1961: Bay of Pigs invasion
• 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

1956 Hungarian Revolution - A Turning Point

• 1956 Hungarian uprising overthrew communist government
• → Imre Nagy, prime minister of Hungary declared that Hungary dropped out from the Warsaw Pact
• → new multiparty government was established
• → free speech, free elections, open borders
• → Soviet tanks sent in to crush revolution

Feb. 1945:

The Yalta Conference: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill

• agreed to divide Germany into 4 zones of occupation
• Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe
• Germany would pay reparations to Soviets

July 1945: Potsdam Conference: Churchill, Truman, Stalin

• Soviets receive reparations only from Soviet-occupied parts of Germany
• Stalin refused free elections in Eastern Europe

Aim: Why did the Russians pull their missiles out of Cuba?

Do Now: Watch video and answer question

The Truman Doctrine

• Truman framed the conflict between Eastern Bloc and Western Bloc as a contest between free peoples and totalitarian regimes
• Truman Doctrine was the US policy of containment and deterrence --> the US would aid countries to fight the spread of communism

The Cold War (1947-1991) was a state political tension and military rivalry after WWII between the Western Bloc (US, Western Europe and their allies) and the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and their allies).

--> a state of conflict that never got to all-out war

Aim: Who was primarily responsible for the Cold War - the US or the Soviet Union?

Essential Questions:

1. What was the Truman Doctrine?

2. How did the Marshall Plan promote political stability in Europe?

3. Why were NATO and the Warsaw Pact formed?