Cold War Overview Lecture

Introduction

• Presenter announces a face reveal wearing new merch to boost sales
• New products: minimalist merch, Cold War merch, Churchill character pin
• Year: 1917, First World War context

Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution

• Germany sends exiled Lenin to Russia to create disruption
• Lenin leads revolution, pulls Russia out of WWI, instates communism, civil war, economic crisis, famine
• Lenin warns against Stalin on his deathbed

Stalin's Rise and Policies

• Stalin takes power post-Lenin
• Opponents arrested/disappear
• Implementation of Five-Year Plans
• Reign of terror, work camps
• WWII: Allies, Hitler's invasion, Winter as an ally
• Post-WWII conferences: Allies' plans

Early Cold War Tensions

• Stalin aware of USA's atomic bomb
• Post-WWII events: Greek Civil War, Turkey, Iran occupation
• NATO formation and Soviet fears
• Truman Doctrine: containment policy
• Start of Cold War

Marshall Plan vs. COMECON

• US's Marshall Plan: economic aid to Western Europe
• Stalin's COMECON: rival economic plan

The Berlin Crisis

• Berlin divided, Western segments under Western control
• Berlin Airlift: success for the West
• USSR's atomic bomb: nuclear parity
• Stalin's statement on war inevitability

Civil War and Communism in China and Korea

• China's civil war: Mao Zedong vs. Republic of China
• Korea split at the 38th parallel: North vs. South
• Korean War: US and UN intervention
• Stalemate until 2018

Khrushchev and De-Stalinization

• Stalin dies, Khrushchev's rise
• De-Stalinization, mild reforms, but suppression of uprisings
• Cultural bans: modern art, jazz music
• Espionage: KGB vs. US, U-2 incident

Space Race and Missile Gap

• USSR launches first satellite, sends man to space (Yuri Gagarin)
• Khrushchev confronts Nixon with Soviet achievements
• Nuclear arms race: atomic to hydrogen bombs
• Warsaw Pact vs. NATO

Berlin Wall Construction

• Mass defections from East to West Berlin
• Khrushchev builds Berlin Wall
• US response: tanks at Checkpoint Charlie
• Standoff and diplomatic resolution

Conclusion

• Kennedy's presidency and ongoing Cold War crises