1. Essential Question
Why did the USA and the USSR become Cold War
rivals in the period 1945 to 1949?

2. • Definition
Cold War
What Caused the Cold War?
The intense economic, political, and
ideological rivalry (short of military conflict)
after World War II between the Soviet Union
and its satellites and the democratic
countries of the Western world, under the
leadership of the United States.

3. • Definition
Ideology
The body of doctrine,
myth, belief, etc., that
guides an individual,
social movement,
institution, class, or large
group.
What Caused the Cold War?

4. • Origins
– The Russian Revolution from
1918-1921
– The U.S. supported the
Royalists
– The Bolsheviks (Communists)
never forgot
What Caused the Cold War?

5. Prompt: Why did the USA and the USSR become
Cold War rivals in the period 1945 to 1949?
• Historians have disagreed over the answer to this
question since the Cold War began.
• Historians can generally be placed into 4 groups.
1. The Traditionalists
2. The Revisionists
3. The Post Revisionists
4. The Post-1991 school
What Caused the Cold War?

6. 1. The Traditionalists
• The Soviet Union was to
blame for the Cold War
• The Cold War was the
direct result of Stalin’s
aggressive Soviet
expansionism

7. 2. The Revisionists
• The U.S. was to blame for
the Cold War
• The Cold War was caused
by the U.S. trying to keep
countries capitalist for
trade purposes
• The U.S. tried to intimidate
the Soviets (the dropping
of the Atomic bomb)

8. • Defined
– To stop the spread of
Communism and the
influence of the Soviet
Union.
• Official American policy
towards Communism
– Allow communism where it
already is, but not any
further.
President Truman
2. The Revisionists

9. • Containment is first
practiced in 1947 with
Greece
– Local Communists fighting
against existing Monarchy
– U.S. gives $400 million in aid
to help Greece fight
Communists
President Truman
2. The Revisionists

10. • Truman Doctrine
– “I believe that it must be the
policy of the United States to
support free peoples who are
resisting attempted
subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside
pressures….We must assist
free peoples to work out their
own destiny in their own
way.” President Truman
2. The Revisionists

11. 3. The Post-Revisionists
• The Cold War was neither the
USA’s nor the USSR’s fault
• The cause was a mutual
misunderstanding of each
other’s motives
• The Cold War was an inevitable result of the
situation at the time
– 2 superpowers trying to settle “the German
Question”

12. • “The German Question”
How can we prevent Germany from becoming powerful enough to
attack its neighbors ever again?
– The Russians took very high casualties to capture Berlin in
May 1945.
– They spent the early occupation trying to take over all zones of
the city but were stopped by German democrats.
– Reluctantly the Russians had to admit the Americans, French,
and British to their respective zones.
3. The Post-Revisionists

15. Iron CurtainIron Curtain ––
A term used byA term used by
Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
to describe theto describe the
separating ofseparating of
the communistthe communist
lands of Eastlands of East
Europe from theEurope from the
capitalist West.capitalist West.

16. The Iron Curtain

17. 4. The Post-1991 school
• Inspired by top secret documents uncovered
after the collapse of communism in Russia
• The Cold War was the result of the leaders’
personal faults and fanatical beliefs
• The Cold War was a clash of ideologies
– Primarily a clash between capitalism and
communism

19. Competing Ideologies
Soviet &
Eastern Bloc
Nations
[“Iron
Curtain”]
US & the
Western
Democracies
GOAL  spread world-
wide Communism
GOAL  “Containment”
of Communism & the
eventual collapse of the
Communist world.
[George Kennan]
METHODS:
1. Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
2. Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
3. Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts of Third
World peoples [Communist govt. & command economy vs.
Democratic govt. & capitalist economy]  “proxy wars”
4. Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]

20. Germany
Divided into 4 sectors following
WW II
Western allies soon merged 3 zones
into 1
West Germany – democratic
East Germany – soviet-style socialist

21. Germany
Marshall Plan
United States sent massive economic
aid to European democracies to help
rebuild
Berlin Crisis & Berlin Airlift
Russia blocked land & water supply
routes into west Berlin
From June 1948-May 1949, nearly
280,000 flights delivered more than 2
million tons of goods

22. Germany
Berlin Wall
1961, Berlin, the last place through
which Germans could leave East
Germany, was blocked off by the
“infamous” Berlin Wall
This wall became a symbol of Soviet
control

23. Korea
Proxy war, 1950-1953
Both North and South Korea were
attempting to re-unify Korea under
their respective governments.
Both sides were supported by external
powers
North Korea – Soviet Union
South Korea – United States

24. Iran
1951, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh
was elected prime minister.
Mossadegh became enormously
popular in Iran after he nationalized
Iran’s oil reserves.
In response, Britain embargoed
Iranian oil and, amidst Cold War
fears, invited the United States to
join in a plot to depose Mossadegh.Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh

25. Iran
1953, President Eisenhower
authorized Operation Ajax.
The operation was successful, and
Mossadegh was arrested on 19 April
1953.
U.S. replaced Mossadegh with
General Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Rule became increasingly autocratic.
With American support, the Shah
was able to rapidly modernize
Iranian infrastructure, but he
simultaneously crushed all forms of
political opposition with his
intelligence agency.

26. Vietnam
1954, war to gain independence
from France
Split into North and South by
treaty
Supposed to hold elections to reunite
country
North was Communist, South was
dictatorship
Elections didn’t happen and North
attacked south
U.S. supported South
Golf of Tonkin - 1964
Anti-War movements in U.S.
1975 Vietnam is united under
Communist government

27. Guatemala
1954, a freely elected
Guatemalan leader, Jacobo
Arbenz, is overthrown in a coup
orchestrated by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA).

28. Hungary
Following the fall of Nazi Germany,
Soviet troops occupied all of the country
and through their influence Hungary
gradually became a communist satellite
state of the Soviet Union.
The communist rule was nearly
unbearable for Hungary’s war-torn
citizens.
1956, Hungarian Revolution.
The Soviets retaliated massively with
military force, sending in over 150,000
troops and 2,500 tanks.

29. Cuba
Fidel Castro leads successful revolution,
1959
Nationalizes private property (some
owned by U.S. citizens and
businesses)
Nationalizes public utilities
Removed American citizens from the
island
1963, Castro moves toward fully-fledged
Communist system based on Soviet
model
U.S. – diplomatic & commercial
embargo
Cuba forced to trade only with Soviet
Union for a time

30. Cuba
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Attempt by U.S. trained force of Cuban exiles to invade south-
west Cuba and overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel
Castro.
Planned & funded by U.S. government.
The Cuban military defeated the invading force in a matter of
days and the event accelerated a rapid deterioration in Cuban-
American relations.

31. Cuba
Cuban Missile Crisis
U-2 spy plane discovers Soviet
medium-range ballistic missiles in
Cuba
Quarantine of Cuba (stop all
shipments)
Secret negotiations
U-2 reconnaissance photograph of Soviet
nuclear missiles in Cuba. Shown are the
transports and tents for fueling and
maintenance.

32. Other Threats
Atomic Bomb
U.S. - 1945
Soviet Union - 1949
Thought of Deterrence
Arms Race
Develop more Nuclear weapons
than the other guy
Space Race
Soviets first in space
Sputnik I October 4, 1957
Americans first on the moon
Apollo 11 July 21, 1969