The Cold War WHAP/Napp
“The wartime alliance between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union had been uneasy. Fear of working-class revolution, which the Nazis had played on in their rise to power, was not confined to Germany. For more than a century political and economic leaders committed to free markets and untrammeled capital investment had loathed socialism in its several forms. After World War II the iron curtain in Europe and communist insurgencies in China and elsewhere seemed to confirm the threat of worldwide revolution.
Western leaders quickly came to perceive the Soviet Union as the nerve center of world revolution and as a military power capable of launching a war as destructive and terrible as the one that had recently ended. But particularly after the United States and the countries of Western Europe established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance in 1949, Soviet leaders felt surrounded by hostile forces just when they were trying to recover from the terrible losses sustained in the war against the Axis. The distrust and suspicion between the two sides played out on a worldwide stage. The United Nations provided the venue for face-to-face debate…
The Cold War and the massive investments made in postwar economic recovery had focused public and governmental attention on technological innovations and enormous projects such as hydroelectric dams and nuclear power stations. Only a few people warned that untested technologies and all-out drives for industrial productivity were rapidly degrading the environment. The superpowers were particularly negligent of the environmental impact of pesticide and herbicide use, automobile exhaust, industrial waste disposal, and radiation.” ~The Earth and Its Peoples
1- Why was the wartime alliance between the U.S., Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. uneasy? ______
2- What had leaders committed to free markets loathed? ______
3- Describe the world after World War II. ______
4- How did Western leaders perceive the Soviet Union? ______
5- How did Soviet leaders view the West, particularly after NATO? ______
6- What had the Cold War focused governmental attention on? ______
7- What did a few people warn leaders about? ______
8- Why were the superpowers negligent? ______
9- Of course, the Cold War does not exist today. Yet what problems from the Cold War era remain? ______
10- How did the Cold War change world history? ______
Notes:I. The Cold War
A. Initial arenaàEurope, where Soviet insistence on security in Eastern Europe clashed with American and British desires for open democracies
B. What resulted were rival military alliances (NATO and the Warsaw Pact)
C. Europe was bitterly divided (“Iron Curtain”)
D. Yet extension of communism into Asia – China, Korea, and Vietnam – globalized the cold war and led to “hot wars
E. But also Afghanistanà a Marxist party had taken power in 1978
F. But radical land reforms and efforts to liberate Afghan women alienated much of this conservative Muslim country
G. Soviets intervened but were soon bogged down in a war they could not win
H. (1979-1989)àAfghan guerrillas (received U.S.A. aid) led to a Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and the rise of an Islamic Fundamentalist regime
I. Also conflict in CubaàBay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis
J. Superpowers courted third world countries just emerging from colonial rule
K. Some countries, such as India, took a posture of nonalignment (not allied)
L. When the Americans refused to assist Egypt in building Aswan Dam in mid-1950s, developed close relationship with Soviets but in 1972, Soviets expelled
M. United States spearheaded Western effort to contain communism
N. According to U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), “military-industrial complex,” a coalition of armed services, military research laboratories, and private defense industries benefited from cold war
O. As World War II ended, U.S. was world’s largest creditor, controlled two-thirds of the world’s gold, and accounted for half of its manufacturing
P. U.S. dollar replaced British pound as most trusted international currency
II. Cold War Surprises – Divisions in the Communist World
A. Joseph Stalin died in 1953 and successor, Nikita Khrushchev, stunned country when delivered a speech in 1956 presenting Stalin’s crimes
B. Soviet citizens, even more than Americans, were subject to incessant government propaganda that glorified the Soviet system and vilified U.S.
C. In Eastern Europe, Yugoslav leaders early on rejected Soviet domination of internal affairs and charted their own independent road to socialism
D. Fearing spread of reform movements, Soviet forces invaded supposed allies in Hungary (1956-1957) and Czechoslovakia (1968) to crush such groups
E. In the early 1980s, Poland was seriously threatened with a similar action
F. Soviet Union and China found themselves opposedà territorial disputes, ideological differences, rivalry for communist leadership
G. Chinese criticized Khrushchev for backing down in Cuban missile crisis, and to Soviets Mao was insanely indifferent to consequences of nuclear war
H. Enmity benefited U.S. à1970s à“triangular diplomacy,” àsigning arms control agreements with USSR and opening relationship with China
I. Communist China also went to war against a communist Vietnam in 1979, while Vietnam invaded a communist Cambodia in the late 1970s
J. Nationalism proved more powerful than communist solidarity
III. “Miracle Year” – 1989 – And Profound Changes
A. Popular movements in Eastern Europe toppled despised governments
B. But climatic act occurred in 1991 in the Soviet Union
C. Mikhail Gorbachev had come to power in 1985 intending to revive and save Soviet socialism from its accumulated dysfunction
D. Glasnost or “openness” – perestroika or “economic restructuring”
E. But exacerbated country’s many difficulties and led to its political disintegration on Christmas Day of 1991
IV. Failures of Communism
A. Economicà forced to stand in long lines for consumer goods and complained about poor quality and declining availability of those goods
B. Moralàhorrors of Stalin’s Terror and the gulag, of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and of genocide in communist Cambodia
V. Reforms
A. In China, after Mao’s death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping emerged as leader
B. Deng’sàeconomic reformsàdismantled collective farms and a return to small-scale private agriculture occurredàstunning economic growth
C. But when a democracy movement surfaced in late 1980s, Deng ordered brutal crushing of its demonstration in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square
D. Gorbachev’s perestroika (“restructuring), paralleled aspects of the Chinese approach by freeing state enterprises from the heavy hand of government
E. Gorbachev’s Glasnost (“openness”) was a policy of permitting a much wider range of cultural and intellectual freedoms in Soviet life
F. But when elections occurred in 1989, dozens of leading communists were rejected at the polls
G. Gorbachev also abandoned Brezhnev Doctrine
Complete the Review Quilt Below (Place Key Points in Each Box):
Marxism and Afghanistan: / 1989 and Afghanistan: / Nonalignment: / Nikita Khrushchev:Hungary (1956-1957): / Czechoslovakia (1968): / “Triangular Diplomacy”: / Mikhail Gorbachev:
Glasnost: / Perestroika: / Deng Xiaoping: / Gorbachev and Brezhnev Doctrine:
Failure of Communism: / Stalin’s Terror: / Cultural Revolution: / Soviets and Chinese:
Questions:
· In what different ways was the cold war expressed?
· In what ways did the United States play a global role after World War II?
· Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the communist world by the 1970s.
· What explains the rapid end of the communist era?
· How did the end of communism in the Soviet Union differ from communism's demise in China?
1. Which of the following is associated with Khrushchev’s leadership of the Soviet Union?I. The brutal suppression of the Hungarian uprising
II. Official denunciation of Stalin’s dictatorial excesses
III. A declared willingness to establish friendlier relations with the nations of the West
IV. A sudden increase in the power of the KGB
(A) I only
(B) I or II only
(C) I and IV only
(D) I, II, and III
(E) I, III, and IV
2. What made the launching of Sputnik and the flight of Yuri Gagarin MOST troubling to the United States?
(A) The blows to national prestige they represented.
(B) Triumphs in the “space race” were technologically linked to progress in the nuclear arms race.
(C) Gagarin’s landing on the moon gave rise to fears that the USSR would make territorial claims there.
(D) Both Sputnik and Gagarin’s spaceship were armed with advanced laser weaponry.
(E) Both Sputnik and Gagarin’s spaceship were used to take reconnaissance photographs of U.S. missile silos. / 3. Which communist states in Eastern Europe broke away from the Soviet bloc before the 1980s?
(A) Yugoslavia and Bulgaria
(B) Yugoslavia and Albania
(C) Yugoslavia and Romania
(D) Yugoslavia and Hungary
(E) Yugoslavia and East Germany
4. Which best characterizes weaknesses of the Soviet economy after World War II?
I. Inflexible central planning
II. Low worker morale and productivity
III. Raw-material shortages
(A) I and II
(B) II and III
(C) I and III
(D) I only
(E) II only
5. Which Soviet leader was a leading force in imposing economic, diplomatic, and political reforms after 1985 that contributed directly to the demise of Soviet socialism?
(A) Nikolay Bukharin
(B) Leonid Brezhnev
(C) Mikhail Gorbachev
(D) Nikita Khrushchev
(E) Lavrenty Beria
6. How did Deng Xiaoping’s reforms differ from Mikhail Gorbachev’s?
(A) Gorbachev allowed political and cultural liberalization, whereas Deng did not
Thesis Statement: Comparative: Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev ______