The Cold WarThe Cold War

The Cold War

The USSR under Stalin• Josef Stalin

(1879-1953)– Long-time Bolshevik– General secretary of

Party, then Lenin’s successor

– Chief propagandist of “Lenin cult”

– Mysterious– “Socialism in one

country” five-year plans

The USSR under Stalin

The USSR under Stalin

Tomb of Lenin, Red Square, Moscow

The USSR under Stalin

• Collectivization – Kulaks dispossessed

forcibly property to collective farms

– Poorer peasants forced onto collectives

– Resented by peasants – Results

• Millions lost lands• Approx. 10 million died

(1929-1933)!

Women laboring on a collective (1941)

The USSR under Stalin• Industrialization

– Goals• Rapid industrialization! • Competitive USSR!

– Focus: heavy industry, infrastructure

– New industrial cities– Slave labor in mines,

canals, logging– 400% growth

(1929 and 1940)!

The USSR under Stalin

• The Purges– Enemies within Party

condemned during “show trials” (1936-38) executed

– Removed “threats” within army

– Ordinary citizens arrested for “crimes against the state”

– Punishments: execution, GULAGS

The USSR under Stalin

The USSR and Stalin

• Attack on Religion– Objectives

• Eliminate religion• Propagate atheism

– Main target: Russian Orthodox Church• Clergy shot or sent to gulags• Churches closed• Revived during World War II

The USSR under Stalin

Demolition of Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow (1931)

Reconstructed church

The USSR and Stalin

• Questions?

The Cold War

• The Cold War Begins– IRON CURTAIN– USA and USSR at

odds over state of Eastern Europe

– TRUMAN DOCTRINE (1947)

– Cold War alliances• NATO (1949)• Warsaw Pact (1955)

The Cold War

• The First Showdown: Germany– Soviets goals: reparations, control– American goals

• Strong West Germany to check Stalin • West German economic reconstruction, revival of political life

The Cold War• The Berlin Blockade

– Soviets halted traffic between West Berlin and West Germany (June 1948)

– Goal: force West to rescind plans for West Germany

– West’s response: Berlin airlift

– Soviets lifted blockade (May 1949)

The Berlin airlift

The Cold War

• The Berlin Wall – Constructed 1961, and divided city– Purpose: keep East Berliners from fleeing

The Cold War

The Cold War

• Questions?

The Cold War

Chiang Kai-shek

Mao Zedong

• Nationalist China– Under CHIANG KAI-SHEK

(1887-1975)• Authoritarian• Goal: strong, modern

China• Opposed communism

– Growing Communist Party• Under MAO ZEDONG

(1893-1976)• Attractive to rural

peasants• Red Army

The Cold War• The Civil War

(1946-49)– Nationalists vs.

Communists– USA backed Chiang;

Soviets, Mao– Communist victory

People’s Republic of China (Oct. 1, 1949)

– Nationalists fled to Taiwan

The Cold War

• Communist China– Dominated by Mao– Mentored by USSR,

resented by USA– Landlords harassed,

all land collectivized (1949-1957)

– Everyone assigned to a work unit

– Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)

The Cold War

The Cold War

• The Cultural Revolution (1966-69)– Goal: rid China of

reverence for tradition– “Smash the four olds”– Red Guards formed to

find, expose anti-Marxist, pro-foreign sentiments

– “Little red book” – Anarchy!

The Cold War

The Cold War• “In the latter part of 1966, there came another

movement, the Cultural Revolution. Red Guards, made up of young, daring people, came into our houses and dismantled family altars and took away our ancestral tablets. They came into our bedroom and scraped off the various figurines carved onto the front wooden board of our beds. They also took down the balls of baby hair hanging from the bed frame. They said the figurines represented feudal ideas and that hanging balls of baby hair was an old custom. They said that anything that was feudal or old was bad and had to be destroyed. Tablets and altars from every household were piled up on the production team’s threshing ground and a fire was set to burn them all…Red Guards knocked down bodhisattvas and gods and goddesses from Yang Family Temple and Yan Family Temple” (Huiqin, p.125).

The Cold War• “By the latter part of 1968, the Cultural Revolution had entered a

phase called ‘cleansing of the class ranks.’ In early September, I went to a meeting at Zhuqiao Commune headquarters. In the evening when I returned home, I saw my husband was already home. Also at home was a Cultural Revolutionary rebel chief. He was there to take my husband away to a ‘study course.’ In those days, entering a study course meant political trouble…My husband was accused of being part of a counterrevolutionary organization. My husband firmly assured me that he had never belonged to any counterrevolutionary organization and that the facts would help to clear him of the accusation. With me, my father, and our children watching, my husband pushed his bike out through the dark alley…and rode away. On his bike were his bedding and clothes. The rebel chief followed my husband on his own bike. My husband’s departure that evening was the beginning of an ordeal that lasted twenty-two months” (Huiqin, pp. 136-37).

The Cold War

• Questions?

The Cold War

• The Cuban Revolution– Cuba developed,

modernized– Why revolution?

• Anti-American sentiment

• Vulnerable sugar economy

• Resentment of Batista

Batista

The Cold War• Fidel Castro (1926-)

– Led guerrilla forces against Batista victory (1959)

– Very popular!– Established

communist regime• State-controlled

economy• Nationalized US

property, assets!• Allied with USSR

The Cold War

Fidel and Raul Castro

The Cold War

• The Bay of Pigs Operation (April 1961)– Objective: set off general

uprising against Castro– Cuban airfields bombed,

though unsuccessfully (April 15)

– CIA-trained Cubans landed at Bay of Pigs (April 17) defeated!

– Humiliation for USA! Captured Cuban exiles

The Cold War• The Cuban Missile Crisis

(October 1962)– Soviets installed nuclear

missiles in Cuba (Sept. 1962)

– Discovered by US aerial surveillance (October 14)

– Kennedy’s response: naval blockade of Cuba, ultimatum (October 22)

– Resolution• Kruschev ordered removal

of missiles• US pledged not to invade

Cuba, to remove missiles in Turkey

The Cold War

The Cold War

• Questions?

The Cold War

• Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)– Former actor,

president of Screen Actors’ Guild

– President (1981-89)– Hated communism,

concerned about nuclear arms race

– Goal: confront USSR

The Cold War

• Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-)– Soviet premier

(1985-1991)– Reform-minded

• Attacked corruption• Glasnost• Perestroika

– Willing to negotiate with Reagan

The Cold War

• Nuclear Disarmament– Reagan and

Gorbachev had series of meetings (1985-87)

– The INF TREATY • Washington DC,

December 8, 1987• Superpowers must

eliminate intermediate-range missiles

Regan and Gorbachev signing the INF Treaty

The Cold War

• The Cold War Ends– Berlin Wall fell

(November 1989)– Republics of USSR

began to defect– USSR abolished

(December 1991)

Destruction of Berlin Wall

The Cold War

• Questions?

The Cold WarThe Cold WarWhy “Cold” War?Why “Cold” War?What was the overarching dynamic?What was the overarching dynamic?Who won?Who won?