Unit 8 – 1945 to 1990

Chapter 1

A New World Order

(pg. 15-32)

The World After War

• WWI President wanted to create a League of Nations to maintain world peace

• France and Britain wanted to punish Germany • U.S. Senate did not approve the treaty isolationist view • League of Nations did not have power enforced its decisions

without the U.S. Japan and Germany built their militaries • WWII President Roosevelt tried to keep U.S. out of war

• Lend-Lease program to the Allied Powers • Bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war

– U.S. dropped the A-Bomb • U.S. now a Superpower (an extraordinarily powerful nation with nuclear

capabilities) • USSR started to develop nuclear weapons

Preserving World Peace

• United Nations(UN): An organization of the world’s dedicated to cooperation and security, was established on October 24, 1945. – Sought to maintain peace cooperation is solving international problems – Respecting for human rights – UN placed a priority on maintaining peace and security – Hoped to present events like the Holocaust

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Outlining the fundamental rights that all human beings should at birth

– Similar to the U.S. Legislature, the members of the UN were divided into the General Assembly and Security Council • General Assembly: All members nations have a vote • Security Council: Call upon the military of members nations to enforce

its decisions about international peace and security

Other Parts Within The UN

– Secretariat: Handles that day-to-day business of the running the UN

– UN Economic and Social Counsel (UNESCO) address people’s rights and the issues surrounding poverty and helps preserve sites that are important to the World’s Heritage

– The International Court of Justice rules on legal problems among members countries that submit to the court’s jurisdiction

– The Trusteeship Council purpose of preparing the world’s colonies for independence it has been eliminated

• Primary goal of the UN is to preserve the peace…has four major strategies – Disarmament, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace-building

Economic Growth for Political Stability

• After WWII, world leaders recognized the role the economy played in maintaining stability – World has become more interdependent

• July 1944, world leaders created World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – Financial organizations to promote development, reduce poverty and encourage and

safeguard international investment – World Bank main goal is to support developing nations

• Long term loans for development project such as railroads, sanitation system, dams and education programs

– IMP on keeping currencies stable • Remember before WWII, Germany started to print more money in order to pay their debts but

his caused inflation.

• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) World leaders wanting to reduce the limit on free trade, GATT members agreed to trade with all members national equally and removed or reduce any barriers to trade

Criticism For These Programs

• Attacked for favoring the interest of the rick, developed countries of the west – Argument is that large multinational corporations

are the one who actually benefit from their increase trade

• IMP mandates the government to cut spending if a country has a lot of debt – Less money for social programs such as education

Unit 8 – 1945 to 1990

Chapter 2 An Iron Curtain Descends

(pg. )

Ideological Differences

• The U.S. and most of Western Europe were capitalist democracies Democracy is where leadership is determined by a vote of the people – Capitalist System the market forces supply and demand determine prices and

the distribution of products

• After the Revolution of 1917, the USSR had a Communist system, characterized by a socialist, command economy, enforced by a totalitarian dictatorship – Socialism distributes the society’s resources evenly to its people – Command Economy centralized government planning of the economy – Totalitarian system is which the government ha absolute power over the

economy as well as daily live of their people

• Soviet see capitalism as enslaving the workers for the benefit of the owners (small % of people owned the majority of the profit)

• Western valued the choice and individualism

Post-War Goals

• Western troops and Russia rushed quickly to take Berlin – “Big Three” powers, Churchill (G.B.), Stalin (USSR) and Roosevelt

(U.S.A) meet at Yalta Conference in February 1945, to discuss the future of Europe • Agreed that liberated nations of Europe would have free elections • All allies would divide Germany

• When Germany surrendered, the U.S. and Britain had liberated had liberated Western Europe, while USSR had liberated Eastern Europe– The “Big Three” met again at Potsdam in the summer of 1945, but

Harry S. Truman replaced Roosevelt • USSR wanted to really weaken Germany • USA wanted to build a wealthy and secure world

An Iron Curtain Falls

• Stalin was determined to create a buffer zone between USSR and the rest of Europe – Eastern Europe – Churchill called this “Iron Curtain” referring to the sharp line between

Communist Eastern Europe and democratic Western Europe

• West responded to the USSR with a policy of containment – Meaning to resist the spread of Communism, rather than to attack and invade

the USSR directly “Cold War” – Truman Doctrine support those nations that chose to align themselves with

the democratic west • “It must be the policy of the U.S to support free people who are resisting attempted

subjugation”

– Marshall Plan, U.S. should make sure that Europe economy recovered quickly by financially supporting democratic nations prevent the rise of dictators

A World Divided

• At the end of the war, Germany and Berlin was divided into France, U.S., British, and USSR – Western Germany was gradually given some powers – USSR attempted to seize control of all of Berlin

• Berlin was inside of Eastern Germany, so in June 24, 1948, a blockade

• U.S. Air Force and the British Royal Air (RAF) airlifted supplies to the Berliners for almost a year Berlin Airlift

• In 1949, twelve Western nations led by the U.S. formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• In 1955, the USSR responded with the Warsaw Pact or Eastern European satellite nations

Unit 8 – 1945 to 1990

Chapter 4

Cold War Conflict At Home

(pg. 93-110)

Questioning Loyalty

• Although the U.S. enjoyed great prosperity, the predominant mood was fear

• Congress passed a law requiring members of Communist organization to register – House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to find

communists, especially in the film industry • People in Hollywood were blacklisted • Alger Hiss, member of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, was accused as being

a Communist After two trails, was sent to jail

• Senator Joseph McCarthy “McCarthyism (1948-1956)– Accused politicians and government workers as being Communists

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Not given a fair trail and were accused of sending secrets to USSR about the atomic bomb

• Seen as irrelevant when started to accused the U.S. Army

The Space Race

• USSR & US realized it can launch a satellite into space to spy and direct missiles! – October 4, 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial satellite,

Sputnik into orbit • Sent the first mammal into space, first man in orbit and first person to

walk in space

– US schools started to emphasize science course • 1958, President Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA) – President Kennedy in 1961 “I believe that this nation should commit itself to

achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”

>> Apollo Project reached his goal in 1969 which landed the first astronauts on the moon.

Citizens Protect Against the Vietnam War

• During the 1960s, the Baby Boomers were entering college challenged the accepted ideas and behaviors of their parents’ generation – Arguments against the draft

• Most were 18 years old, poor and a minority • College educated, married or in the National Guard did not go!

– Viewed the war as US imperialistic attempt to control Vietnam no domino effect • “Hey, Hey, LBJ. How many kids did you kill today?”

– Television showed the brutality of the war • My Lai Massacre of innocent civilians

• Student for a Democratic Society (SDS) called for the overthrow of the U.S. government

• Kent State Shooting, in Ohio, students protesting the bombing of Cambodia and burned down a ROTC building – May 4, 1970, National Guard killed four students

• Richard Nixon wins election in 1968 because he promised to leave Vietnam

Nuclear Freeze

• U.S. called for limitations of nuclear development and testing – When developing the Hydrogen Bomb, discovered that

radioactive particles made people sick (fallout) • U.S. limited their testing to underground locations in Nevada

– 100 countries signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 which prohibited testing above ground, in space, or under sea

• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) in the 1970s, the U.S. and the USSR set a quota for nuclear weapons production but difficult to enforce – Created a nuclear freeze proposed to end all the production of

new nuclear weapons.

Unit 8 – 1945 to 1990

Chapter 5

The Cold War Cools Down

(pg. 111-115)

Détente: A Thawing

• In the 1970s, tensions between the U.S. and the USSR cool down – Under the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon, his National

Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, promoted a policy of détente, a thawing of Cold War tensions • Nixon was able to reestablish diplomatic relations with USSR • After the death of Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, realized that the USSR

could not continue to spend so much on weapons

– Sign the first treaty of SALT in 1972 – Reached out to China

• In 1971, the Chinese invited an American ping-pong team to visit mainland China

• In 1972, Nixon became the first American president to visit China

Détente Heats Up

• Israel fought several wars with Arab Nations • USSR & Cuba continued sponsoring revolutions in Latin-America

U.S. supports anti-communist leaders • Vietnam War • Korea divided into the 38th parallel

• USSR & US still have thousands of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) pointed at one another

• In 1979, USSR invaded Afghanistan – President Jimmy Carter declared that the US would boycott the

1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow • 50 nations also joined the boycott • Raised the U.S. defense spending and funded the anti-Soviet fighters in

Afghanistan

Collapse of Communism

• A bad recession and the Iranian-Held Hostages brought President Carter rating really low – Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980

• Ran on economic recovery and willing the Cold War • Increased defense spending and ended détente negotiations • Star Wars the new outer space missile defense shields

• In 1984, Mikhail Gorbachev initiated policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (allowing dissent) – Pressure by the U.S. defense spending, USSR economy was in terrible shape

• “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot”

• By 1989, Soviet Satellite started to revolt against puppet Communists governments – Fall of the Berlin War

• In 1991, USSR was dissolved

The President Builds its Power

• In theory, US government is divided into three branches of government; check and balance each other

• During time of great crisis, people naturally gravitate towards strong leaders – FDR New Deal, Executive Order to Japanese

Internment – Truman Executive Order to desegregate the military – Eisenhower sent troops to Korea and Vietnam – Reagan Nicaragua Contras and Star Wars

The Cold War In Latin America

• Ever since the days of the Monroe Doctrine the USA has regarded Latin America as its backward.

• Any threat, communist included would not be permitted to exist.

• The U.S. government fought to end communist or suspected communist regimes all over the region.