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Social Studies Unit 5 Lesson 7 COLD WAR IN EUROPETwo great world powers emerged at the end of World War II: the United States and the Soviet Union. These two nations had been allies in a global war. Their respective leaders had helped draw up treaties and pacts to which both nations agreed. Both nations were charter members of the United Nations and held permanent positions on its Security Council.Politically and economically, however, the two nations were very different. The United States was founded as a democratic republic and had a free market economic system. The Soviet Union was Communist with a centrally planned economic system. Mutual distrust and tensions between the two nations developed into the Cold War. Soon, other countries got caught in the middle. In this lesson, you'll learn about the course of the Cold War in Europe.OBJECTIVESIdentify the causes, key figures, and course of the Cold WarRecognize the importance of the Marshall Plan and the Berlin WallCompare and contrast the two "Super Powers" philosophiesVOCABULARYcoalitionA temporary alliance for some special purpose.containmentThe confinement of a hostile force within existing geographical boundaries.guerrillaSpanish word meaning "little war"; warfare of harassment by ambushes and sudden munism After World War IIWhen World War II ended in Europe and the threat of Hitler was past, the Soviet Union immediately reverted to its former position. Soviet Communists had vowed to spread Communism everywhere by whatever means necessary. They lost little time in keeping their promise.A cold war—a war of threats and propaganda—sprang up between the Communists and the free world. Winston Churchill, Great Britain's wartime prime minister, used the expression "Iron Curtain" to describe the separation between the two spheres of government.The Soviet Union acted quickly to send troops and Communist political advisers into Eastern Europe. Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria came under Communist domination. These countries became Soviet satellites. Instead of receiving aid to help them rebuild, these countries found themselves being drained of resources under the Soviet Union as they had been under Nazi Germany. Yugoslavia and Albania also became Communist nations; however, Yugoslavia remained largely independent from the Soviet Union. Albania cut its ties with the Soviet Union in the?1960s.Unlike World War I, World War II left no Versailles Treaty to fester into yet another global conflict. In addition, the United States did not turn away from European problems nor retreat into isolationism. The United States and the other Western Allies, through the Marshall Plan and through agencies of the United Nations, tried to help Western European countries recover economically and politically.Growth of New CoalitionsThe position of the United States, as set forth in the Truman Doctrine in?1947, was one of?containment. This policy was designed to contain or to restrict the spread of Communism.The spread of Communism to other countries, Soviet opposition to the Marshall Plan, and the Soviet misuse of the veto power in the United Nations all combined to alarm the Western Allies. A meeting was held in April of?1949?to plan for defense against a possible aggressive attack by the powerful former ally.Included in the meeting were representatives of three Western Hemisphere governments (the United States, Canada, and Iceland) and nine Western European governments (Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Portugal). Together, these representatives formed a?coalition, or temporary alliance, known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was an agreement for collective self-defense. The Soviet Union and its satellite nations formed their own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in?1955.The American policy of containment and the Soviet Union's policy of expansion came into direct conflict in Asia. The Soviet Union used its late declaration of war against the virtually defeated Japanese as an excuse to make claims on China and Japan and other areas in the Far East. As a result, a coalition, known as the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), was formed in?1954?for collective self-defense. The United States, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines signed the agreement for common defense.The Couse of The Cold WarThe United States maintained a constant policy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War. That policy was to build and maintain military forces (including nuclear weapons) at a level to convince the Soviets that an attack on the United States or its allies would never succeed. The Soviets built their own weapons and forces as the two sides struggled to stay ahead of each other. The two sides did try to keep this arms race from getting completely out of control by continuing to negotiate and communicate at different times.By the?1970s, both sides had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other many times over. There was a very genuine concern that a war between the United States and the Soviet Union could destroy most of the world. Thus, while the United States tried to contain Communism, it also tried to avoid a war that no one could possibly win. This "mutually assured destruction" in the event of an all-out war was a major reason that so much of the Cold War was fought either in words or in Third World countries by armies of natives trained and supplied by "advisers" from the two great powers.The Cold War was marked by a series of crises and occasional agreements. One of the earliest crises was the Berlin blockade. It began in June?1948?when the Soviet Union blocked Allied access to West Berlin. The Allies responded with the Berlin airlift. Cargo planes transported tons of food, medical supplies, and other goods into West Berlin. The Soviets finally lifted the blockade in May?1949.The next major crisis in Europe occurred in?1956. A revolt began in Hungary against the Soviet-backed government. A reform-minded leader became prime minister. He announced Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and promised free elections. The Soviet Union sent tanks into Hungary to restore the Communists to power.The next crisis was in Berlin again. The Communist East German government was losing thousands of people who were fleeing to a free and prosperous West Germany. Over 150,000 fled in the first half of?1961, primarily through Berlin where a person could reach the American-controlled section just by crossing the right street. On August 13,?1961, the Communists built a wall around West Berlin to keep people in East Germany. It was completed in just a few days. The Berlin Wall became the most vivid symbol of the Cold War.In?1968, the Soviet Union and its satellites invaded Czechoslovakia to stop a reform movement started by that nation's president. Soviet troops occupied Czechoslovakia and removed the leaders of the reform movement. The new government strengthened Communist control of the nation and pledged its loyalty to the Soviet Union.In the?1970s, a slight easing of tensions occurred between the Soviet Union and the United States. This was called "detente." It was a time when the leaders of both nations met frequently and reached agreements on several issues. However, the policies of both nations remained the same.The Helsinki Agreements were signed in?1975. These finally recognized the new countries set up by the Soviets after World War II. They also arranged for some technological exchanges and spoke of U.S. goals of free government and trade. In?1972, SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) put a few limits on the number of nuclear weapons the two sides would have.Detente was soured by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in?1979. (The Soviets withdrew in?1988?after a successful Afghan?guerrilla?war against them.) In?1981, a trade union movement in Poland, known as Solidarity, was crushed when the government declared martial law to avoid Soviet intervention. Thus, by the mid-1980s?the Cold War was still going strong when a new ruler took control of the Soviet government. Mikhail Gorbachev became the man who ended the Soviet Empire and the Cold War.The End of The Cold WarWhen Gorbachev came to power in?1985, the Soviet Union was in serious trouble. The cost of paying for the arms race and supporting Communism around the world had bankrupted the Soviet Union. Gorbachev supported an increase in freedom as a way to revive the faltering Soviet economy. However, just a taste of freedom was all the repressed people needed to begin a full rebellion against the hated Communist system. Once the Soviet ruler made it clear he would no longer support the Communist governments in Eastern Europe, they fell like a house of cards in a hurricane.The Cold War ended in?1989. That year the Soviet Union held limited free elections. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania threw out their Communist governments. Hungary, still remembering its bid for freedom in?1956, threw out its Communist government and opened its borders to the west. This meant that East Germans could freely go to West Germany through Hungary. They left by the trainload. East Germany, facing the defection of its population over the Berlin Wall, opened its own borders on November 9,?1989. That night, hundreds climbed over the Berlin Wall and then began tearing it down. Germany became one nation again on October 3,?1990. In?1994, it celebrated the departure of the last Russian, American, British, and French soldiers from Berlin.See photos of Berlin taken during the days leading up to the end of the Berlin Wall.Post Cold WarThe Soviet Union broke apart in the?1990s, resulting in the emergency of fifteen new independent nations. A major concern of the United States was to secure the nuclear weapons still in the former Soviet Union so that they did not fall into the hands of terrorists. In addition, the United States needed to decide how much aid to give its former enemy as it struggled to recover from the devastation of Communism.The United States won the Cold War. Its free, capitalist economy was able to thrive despite the staggering cost of standing up to the Soviet Union for 44 years. In the end, since fighting was impossible, the survivor was the victor. Today, there are but a few Communist nations remaining in the world. However, even these have abandoned many of the basic beliefs of that philosophy. ................
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