American foreign

policy in the Cold war

The world after World War II

Yalta Conference (1945)
Potsdam Conference July 1945
The US emerged as the most
powerful country and monopoly on
atomic bomb
The world entered a new era

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Question
Why did World War III not happen?

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U.S. Goals
Allow for selfdetermination in all
nations
Gain access to raw
material and markets
Rebuild European
gov. to create
stability and new
markets for U.S.
goods
Reunite Germany

Soviet Goals
Encourage communism
in other countries
Rebuild Eastern
Europe using soviet
labor and raw materials
Control Eastern
Europe to create a
buffer zone between
Germany and balance
U.S. Western European
influence
Keep Germany weak
and divided

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U.S. ESTABLISHES THE

STRATEGY OF
CONTAINMENT
Faced with the Soviet
threat, Truman decided it
was time to stop babying
the Soviets
In February 1946, George
Kennan, an American
diplomat in Moscow,
proposed a policy of
containment
Containment meant the
U.S. would prevent any
further extension of
communist rule
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Question
Why didnt the US use atomic bomb
against Soviet Union after the
WWII?

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CHURCHILL: IRON
CURTAIN ACROSS
EUROPE

Churchill, right, in Fulton,

Missouri delivering his

Europe was now divided

into two political regions;
a mostly democratic
Western Europe and a
communist Eastern
Europe
In a 1946 speech,
Churchill said, An iron
curtain has descended
across the continent
The phrase iron curtain
came to stand for the
division of Europe

iron curtain
speech,
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2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman.

Iron Curtain
cartoon, 1946

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THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE

The American policy of
containment soon
expanded into a policy
known as the Truman
Doctrine
This doctrine, first used in
Greece and Turkey in the late
1940s, vowed to provide aid
(money & military supplies)
to support free peoples who
are resisting outside
pressures
By 1950, the U.S. had given
$400 million in aid to Greece
and Turkey
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THE MARSHALL PLAN

Post-war Europe was
devastated economically
In June 1947, Secretary of
State George Marshall proposed
a U.S. aid package to European
nations
Western Europe accepted the
help, while Eastern Europe
rejected the aid
Over the next four years 16
European countries received
$13 billion in U.S. aid
By 1952 Western Europes
economy was flourishing
The Marshall Plan helped
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2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman.
Western Europe
recover

Question
Why did the US help Europe to
recover?

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SUPERPOWERS STRUGGLE
OVER GERMANY
At the end of the war,
Germany was divided among
the Allies into four zones for
the purpose of occupation
The U.S, France, and Great
Britain decided to combine
their 3 zones into one zone
West Germany, or the federal
Republic of Germany
The U.S.S.R. controlled East
Germany, or the German
Democratic Republic
Now the superpowers were
occupying an area right next to
each other problems were
bound to occur
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BERLIN AIRLIFT 1948

When the Soviets
attempted to block
the three Western
powers from access
to Berlin in 1948, the
2.1 million residents
of West Berlin had
only enough food for
five weeks, resulting
in a dire situation

Like the whole of Germany,

the city of Berlin was divided

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AMERICA & BRITAIN

AIRLIFT SUPPLIES TO
WEST BERLIN
Not wanting to invade
and start a war with the
Soviets, America and
Britain started the Berlin
airlift to fly supplies into
West Berlin
For 327 days, planes took
off and landed every few
minutes, around the clock
In 277,000 flights, they
brought in 2.3 million tons
of food, fuel and medicine
to the West Berliners
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SOVIETS LIFT
BLOCKADE
Realizing they
were beaten and
suffering a public
relations
nightmare, the
Soviets lifted their
blockade in May,
1949
On Christmas 1948, the plane crews
brought gifts to West Berlin

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NATO FORMED
The Berlin blockade
increased Western Europes
fear of Soviet aggression
As a result, West European
nations joined the U.S and
Canada on April 4, 1949 to
form a defensive alliance
known as the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization
After the fall of communism
NATO has become a political
force rather than a military
force.
The NATO flag

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Arm Race

Cold War tensions increased in the US when the

USSR exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949.

Cold War tensions increased in the USSR

when the US exploded its first hydrogen
bomb in 1952. It was 1000 times more
powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

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17

Space Race

Cold War tensions increased in the US when the USSR launched

Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite into geocentric orbit on October 4,
1957.

The race to control space was on.

April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin became first human in space and
first to orbit Earth.

US felt a loss of prestige and increased funding for

space programs and science education.

On May 25,1961, Kennedy gave a speech challenging

America to land a man on the moon and return him
safely by the end of the decade.

Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 16, 1969.

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18

The U-2 Incident

USSR was aware of American U-2 spy missions but lacked
technology to launch countermeasures until 1960.
May 1, 1960: CIA agent Francis Gary Powers U-2, was
shot down by Soviet missile.
Powers was unable to activate plane's self-destruct
mechanism before he parachuted to the ground, right into the
hands of the KGB.
When US learned of Powers' disappearance over USSR, it
issued a cover statement claiming that a "weather plane"
crashed after its pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen
equipment." US officials did not realize:
Plane crashed intact,
Soviets recovered its photography equipment
Captured Powers, whom they interrogated extensively
for months before he made a "voluntary confession" and
public apology for his part in US espionage

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19

The
Bay
of
Pigs
Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an

unsuccessful attempt by US-backed

Cuban exiles to overthrow the
government of the Cuban dictator
Fidel Castro.
Increasing friction between the US
and Castro's communist regime led
President Eisenhower to break off
diplomatic relations with Cuba in
January 1961.
Even before that, however, the CIA
had been training anti-revolutionary
Cuban exiles for a possible invasion
of the island.
The invasion plan was approved by
Eisenhower's successor, John F.
Kennedy.

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20

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

On April 17, 1961 about 1300 exiles, armed with US weapons,
landed at the Baha de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the southern
coast of Cuba hoping for support from locals.
From the start, the exiles were likely to lose. Kennedy had
the option of using the Air Force against the Cubans but
decided against it.
Consequently, the invasion was stopped by Castro's army.
The failure of the invasion seriously embarrassed the Kennedy
administration.
Some critics blamed Kennedy for not giving it adequate
support
Others blamed Kennedy for allowing it to take place at all.
Additionally, the invasion made Castro wary of the US He
was convinced that the Americans would try to take over the
Cuba again.
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21

Berlin Wall

In the dark on August 13, 1961, a low, barbed-wire barrier rose

between East and West Berlin. Within days, workers cemented
concrete blocks into a low wall, dividing neighborhoods and
families, workers and employers, the free from the repressed.
The USSR called the wall a barrier to Western imperialism,
but it also was meant to keep its people from going to the West
where the standard of living was much higher and freedoms
greater.
The West Germans called it Schandmaur, the "Wall of Shame."
Over the years, it was rebuilt three times. Each version of the
wall was higher, stronger, more repressive, and impregnable.
Towers and guards with machine guns and dogs stood watch
over a barren no man's land. Forbidden zones, miles wide, were
created behind the wall. No one was allowed to enter the zones.
Anyone trying to escape was shot on sight.

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22

Cuban Missile Crisis

CIA map showing range of Soviet supplied intermediate and medium range
missiles if launched from Cuba

This was the closest the world ever came to

nuclear war. The US armed forces were at their highest
state of readiness ever, and Soviets in Cuba were
prepared to launch nuclear weapons to defend the
island if it were invaded.
In 1962, the USSR lagged far behind the US in
the arms race. Soviet missiles were only
powerful enough to be launched against
Europe but US missiles were capable of
striking the entire Soviet Union.
In April 1962, Soviet Premier Khrushchev
deployed missiles in Cuba to provide a deterrent to a
potential US attack against the
USSR.
Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was looking for a way
to defend his island nation from an attack by the
US. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs
invasion in
1961, Castro felt a second attack was inevitable.
Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev's plan to
place missiles on the island. In the summer of 1962 the
USSR secretly installed the missiles.

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23

Cuban Missile Crisis

The crisis began on October 15, 1962 when

reconnaissance revealed Soviet missiles under construction
in Cuba.
After seven days of intense debate within the White
House, Kennedy imposed a blockade around Cuba to stop
the arrival of more Soviet missiles.
On October 22, Kennedy announced the discovery of the
missiles and his decision to blockade Cuba and that any
attack launched from Cuba would be regarded as an attack
on the US by the USSR and demanded that the Soviets
remove all of their offensive weapons from Cuba.
October 27 was the worst day of the crisis. A U-2 spy
plane was shot down over Cuba.
Tensions finally began to ease on October 28 when
Khrushchev announced that he would dismantle the
installations and remove the missiles, expressing his trust
that the US would not invade Cuba.
Further negotiations were held to implement the
October 28 agreement, including a US demand that Soviet
bombers be removed from Cuba, and specifying the exact
form and conditions of US assurances not to invade Cuba.

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24

The Thaw
Better relations
between communists
countries and the US
began with one of the
most hard-lined anticommunist presidents,
Richard Nixon. In his
only Nixon could go to
China trip, Nixon was
the first US president to
visit that communist
country.

Richard and Pat Nixon (in an

appropriately red coat) at the Great
A magazine cover about ping pong

Wall of China

diplomacy, so called because better

relations between the US and China
came after the two countries ping
pong teams played each other.

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25

Question
Why did Nixon visit China in 1972?
What was his intention behind the
visit?

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The Thaw
In 1969 Nixon began negotiations with USSR on SALT I,
common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talk.
SALT I froze the number of ballistic missile launchers at
existing levels, and provided for the addition of submarinelaunched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers only after the same
number of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and SLBM
launchers had been dismantled.
It was the first effort between US/USSR to stop increase
nuclear weapons.
SALT II was a second round of US/USSR talks (1972-1979),
which sought to reduce manufacture of nuclear weapons. SALT
II was the first nuclear treaty seeking real reductions in
strategic forces to 2,250 of all categories on both sides.
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Nixon and Brezhnev toast the SALT I treaty.

Carter and Brezhnev sign the SALT II treaty.

27

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Interrupts Thaw

In 1978, the USSR invaded Afghanistan and tried to set up a friendly
government.
It became the USSRs Vietnam, a long war with no clear victory
possible and many casualties and high costs.
The US supported the Afghani rebels known as the mujahideen.

In 1989 the Soviets finally withdrew. Islamic extremists used the

opportunity to take over the country.
The defeat weakened the Soviets economy and morale.

Muhahideen celebrate the downing of

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Inc. Publishing
as Longman.
a Soviet
helicopter

28

Reagans Star Wars Interrupts Thaw

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
was a proposal by President Reagan on
in 1983 to use ground and space-based
systems to protect the US from attack by
nuclear ballistic missiles. It focused on
strategic defense rather than doctrine of
mutual assured destruction (MAD).
It was quickly nicknamed Star Wars.
It starts a new arms race with the
Soviets.
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29

Question
Why did Reagan step up the arm
race with Soviet Union in 1983?

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Cold War Thaw Continues

Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev becomes Soviet premier

and understands that the Soviet
economy cannot compete with the
West, partly because of Afghanistan
and partly because of the costs of
keeping up militarily.
Gorbachev recognizes there is
increasing unrest in the country.
He tries to reform the USSR with
glasnost (= openness: think glass
because you can see through it) and
perestroika (=restructuring: think
structure/stroika).
Gorbachev is further pressured to
reform the USSR when Reagan gives
his speech in Germany challenging
Gorbachev to tear down this wall.
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31

The end of the Cold war

America- the last man stand
The end of history: Capitalist
liberalism

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Question for discussion

How did the world war II end? How
were the US-USSR relations at the
end of the WW II?
What is the Cold war? What were
the origins of the Cold war?
What was the grand strategy of the
US during the Cold war?

Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman.

Question for discussion

Why didnt the US use atomic bomb
against Soviet Union after the WWII?
Why did the US help Europe to recover?
Why did Nixon visit China? What was his
intention behind the visit?
Why did Reagan step up the arm race
with Soviet Union in early 1980s?
What was the international position of
America after the end of the Cold war?
Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman.