The Cold War

Conflicting Ideologies;Conflicting Superpowers

Adam Smith

• Laissez-faire The Government should not intervene in the market

• Individuals are free to buy and sell as they please in the market

• Supply and demand determine price• Entrepreneurs open new businesses in the

hopes of gaining profits• Capital is invested in the hopes of gaining

profits

Karl Marx

• Co-authored with Friedrich Engels; The Communist Manifesto• According to Marx, the history of the world is

a history of class struggle• The proletariat will unite and overthrow the

bourgeoisie• A dictatorship of the proletariat will usher in a

new era

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat

• Abolish Private Property• Abolish Social Classes• Economic Equality

And then the dictatorship of the proletariat will wither away…

Or will it?

Allies During the Second World War

• Yes, Stalin and Roosevelt formed an unlikely alliance with Churchill during the Second World War

• However, this alliance’s purpose was to confront a greater threat

The Cold War

• However, with the defeat of the Fascists, conflicting ideologies led to conflict and tension

• The Soviet Union embraced Marxism and dictatorship.

• The United States embraced capitalism and democracy.

Soviet Satellites in the East

• Stalin installed communist regimes in Eastern Europe to ensure a buffer zone or protection from a Western invasion

• Western democracies referred to these Eastern European nations as satellites

An Iron Curtain Had Descended

The Alliances:

• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - The United States and its Allies

• The Warsaw Pact - The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

The Alliances:

• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - The United States and its Allies

• The Warsaw Pact - The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

USA Containment Policy:

• To Stop the Spread of Communism

1949:- NATO established- Soviets tested an atomic bomb- Communists establish People’s Republic of

China

1950-1953:- North Korea invades South Korea- Korean War ensues- The original line of demarcation is maintained

Stalin died in 1953:

•Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964)•Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982)

1959:

-Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba succeeds

-A Communist state is established

• Bay of Pigs (1961) was a failure in foreign policy for U.S.A.

• U.S. had aided Cuban exiles in an attempt to invade the island but Castro was aware of the plan and the plan failed

• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was a success for American foreign policy Soviet missiles on Cuban soil Kennedy demanded removal and yes, removed

And of course, there was the Vietnam War

• North Vietnam Communist under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh

• South Vietnam Non-communist dictatorship; civil war ensues; U.S. troops intervene

• 1975 South Vietnam falls to communism• Vietnam Unified under a communist regime

• During “Prague Spring” of 1968, Czechoslovakia embarked on a campaign of liberalizing reforms, Brezhnev sent in a Warsaw Pact invasion force

• Brezhnev Doctrine USSR had right to intervene in Eastern Europe

But from 1969 through 1979, the Cold War entered a more peaceful period known as détente, a diplomatic term referring to the relaxation of tensions

But greatest surprise the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Cold War Cartoons