Review from Monday CHINA: What was the experience under Mao Zedong (1949-1976) like? CHINA UNDER MAO (1949-1976) ● Land redistribution- redistributed land amongst the peasants; killed landowners who resisted ● Formed collectivized farms ● Brought private industries under state control ● Copied Soviet Union’s Five Year Plans to increase industrial output CHINA UNDER MAO (1949-1976) ● “Great Leap Forward” (1958-1961)- established larger collective farms called communes; disastrous results- crop failures killed 20 million people ● Cultural Revolution (1966-1968)- Major push to establish an equal society of peasants and workers- Red Guards shut down colleges and schools, targeted anyone who resisted the communist regime COMMUNISM: Expectation vs Reality Expectation Reality? THE COLD WAR (1945-1991) ● Why do you think this period of time is known as the “Cold War?” ● What characterized this time period? ● Why did the USA and USSR have this kind of relationship after they fought on the same side in World War II? EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● Yalta Conference- February 1945- FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met in Yalta (USSR) to decide post-war terms- decided that Germany would be divided into zones of occupation amongst the Allies EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● Stalin felt a “buffer zone” of communist nations under Soviet control in Eastern Europe was necessary- why? ● Ignoring the Yalta agreement, Stalin installed communist governments in Eastern Europe- they would be “satellite countries” of the USSR ● This would become known as the iron curtain ● Harry Truman, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945- Truman pressed Stalin to permit free elections in Eastern Europe; Stalin refused EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● 1946: Stalin stated that communism and capitalism could not exist in the same world. Potsdam Conference (July 1945) By 1948, Europe was divided into two areas of influence: The democratic/capitalist West and the communist East. Germany was split in two: West Germany (divided between French, British, and American zones of occupation) and East Germany (occupied by the USSR) Berlin, Germany’s capital, which was in East Germany, was also divided in the same way 1961: The Berlin Wall was built to separate East and West Berlin EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● By 1947, the US had adopted the policy of containment- what does this mean? ● Truman Doctrine- US would support countries that rejected communism- How? Why might this be controversial? What effects would this foreign policy have on the US and other nations of the world for later decades? EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) Recall: What was Western Europe, Germany in particular, like after WWII? ● New international organizations like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) would help stabilize Western Europe’s economies, but more help was needed ● The US took more action to help Western Europe- the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift- How did these help Western European nations? Why did the US take these actions? What were the results of these actions? EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● 1949- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed by ten Western European nations plus the USA and Canada ● The Soviet Union responded with the Warsaw Pact in 1955 Why were these alliances formed? How did they impact the Cold War? EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● The Cold War became a nuclear arms race- the USSR detonated its own atomic bomb (A-bomb) in 1949; the USA developed the hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) in 1952; the USSR developed its own H-bomb in 1953 ● US president Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1960) backed the policy of brinkmanship- if the USSR attacks, the USA will retaliate will full force What impact did the policy of brinkmanship have? EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● Brinkmanship led to fear of nuclear war throughout the 1950s and 1960s- this is best represented by the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the USSR had planted missile launch sites on the island of Cuba. ● JFK demanded the missiles be removed, and ordered a blockade of Cuba. ● USSR premier Khrushchev ultimately agreed to remove the missiles in return for a US promise not to invade Cuba. EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) THE SPACE RACE ● 1957- The USSR launched Sputnik, the first unmanned satellite ● 1958- The USA launched its own satellite ● 1969- USA sucessfully landed astronauts on the moon (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) ● While the USA and USSR never directly fought each other in the Cold War, the Cold War did play out in terms of “proxy wars” or “surrogate wars”- each backed certain sides in other conflicts ● Examples of Cold War proxy wars: ○ Chinese Civil War (1930-1949) ○ Korean War (1950-1953) ○ Cuban Revolution (1959-1962) ○ Vietnam War (1955-1975) EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) KOREAN WAR (1950-53): ● At the end of WWII, Japanese surrendered to the Soviets in the north and Americans in the south in Korea- the boundary was set at the 38th parallel ● After the war, North Korea, led by Kim Il Sung, attempted to unify the peninsula under communism ● After 3 years, the war ended in a cease-fire agreement at the 38th parallel ● Korea would be split between the communist north and democratic south- a demilitarized zone (DMZ) was created between the two nations EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) THE CUBAN REVOLUTION (1959) ● The US had supported unpopular dictator Fulgencio Batista ● Fidel Castro led a successful overthrow in 1959- the US placed an embargo on Cuba; Cuba turned to the USSR for help ● US attempted to invade Cuba to overthrow Castro in 1961 (Bay of Pigs invasion), but it failed EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) VIETNAM WAR (1955-1975): ● Ho Chi Minh had tried to grow Vietnamese nationalism, rid Vietnam of French influence- founded the Vietminh (independence) League. Wanted to unify Vietnam under communism. ● By 1955, the French had been driven out of Vietnam ● Vietnam had been divided between the communist North and democratic South at the 17th parallel ● Believing in the domino theory, the US got directly involved in the 1960s-70s- fought the Vietminh and Vietcong (communist supporters) ● Ho Chi Minh successfully unified Vietnam under communism in 1975 By 1975, Vietnam had been unified under communism EARLY COLD WAR (1945-1975) CAMBODIA AND THE KHMER ROUGE (1975-1978) ● In 1975, Communist rebels called the Khmer Rouge set up a brutal regime in Cambodia led by Pol Pot ● In an attempt to make Cambodia a rural communist society, 2 million people were killed ● Known as the “Killing Fields” LATER COLD WAR (1975-1991) ● In the 1970s, the US and USSR began to reduce tensions ● US adopted the policy of detente- a policy of lessening Cold War tensions. ● US president Nixon became the first US president to visit communist China and the Soviet Union ● Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev (USSR) signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) I Treaty in 1972, which reduced missile stockpiles ● 1979: Jimmy Carter (US) and Brezhnev signed SALT II, but the US Congress did not ratify it after the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979 LATER COLD WAR (1975-1991) COLD WAR IN THE 1980s: ● US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher adopted strong anti-communist stances ● Meanwhile, Mikhail Gorbachev became the new Soviet leader ● In the mid-to-late 1980s, Gorbachev endorsed the policies of glasnost (openness), perestroika (economic restructuring), and democratization (opening of the political system) END OF THE COLD WAR (1989-1991) By 1991, the Soviet Union would cease to exist. What led to its demise? END OF THE COLD WAR (1989-1991) FACTORS THAT LED TO THE END OF THE USSR: ● Reform efforts by Gorbachev led to major economic and political changes ● Communist economy lagged behind Western capitalist economies ● Ethnic nationalism- other ethnic groups in the Soviet Union began to demand their independence ● Reluctance to use forceful measures to maintain strict obedience to the USSR in satellite republics ● Political turmoil between reformers and the “old guard” of Communist officials ● A long drawn out war in Afghanistan ● People lost faith in communism ● Global political culture more embraced democracy and human rights Map of the USSR- 1990 Map of the former Soviet Union, 1991 Communist Countries in the World Today LEGACY OF THE COLD WAR How does the Cold War affect our world today? .