Cold War Lecture Summary

Overview

• Post-WWII conflict between the US and the Soviet Union
• Ideological battle: Capitalism vs. Communism
• Key players/events: Stalin, Reagan, CIA, KGB, Berlin Wall, Hiroshima, Chernobyl
• Methods: Propaganda, espionage, psychological warfare, space race

Pre-Cold War Context

• Industrial Revolution: Machinery transformed western nations
• Class divide highlighted by Karl Marx, leading to Marxism
• Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 led by Lenin, establishment of USSR
• Differences in Communist and Capitalist ideologies surfaced

USSR under Lenin and Stalin

• Lenin established a one-party state, used propaganda, military action, and terror.
• Stalin's purges, industrialization, collectivization at great human cost

Post-War Divergence

• Divergent experiences of WWII between the US and USSR laid the groundwork for Cold War
• Establishment of collective security (UN) and financial institutions (World Bank, IMF)
• Germany divided into four zones of occupation

Early Cold War Tensions

• Truman Doctrine and policy of containment
• Military and economic measures taken to prevent spread of communism

Significant Cold War Events

• McCarthyism and anti-communist hysteria in the US
• Creation of CIA and initial operations like influencing Italian elections (1948)
• Marshall Plan: Economic aid to Europe to stave off communism
• Berlin Blockade & Airlift
• NATO establishment and Warsaw Pact

Asia and Cold War

• American occupation of Japan
• Chinese Communist victory under Mao Zedong (1949)
• Korean War (1950-1953), policy of nuclear restraint

Nuclear Arms Race

• Development of nuclear and hydrogen bombs by US and USSR
• Deterrence theory: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
• Various treaties and agreements attempted (SALT I & II)

Space Race

• Soviet early successes (Sputnik, Gagarin)
• US response with NASA and moon landing (1969)
• Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975)

Changing Dynamics in the 1970s

• Detente: Easing of tensions through treaties and diplomacy
• Domestic issues in the USSR and uprisings in Eastern Europe
• American internal political scandal: Watergate

Middle East Conflicts and Cold War

• Egyptian-Soviet alliances, oil politics, and regional conflicts
• US policies like Eisenhower Doctrine and interventions

Reagan Era and Beyond

• Reagan's aggressive stance against USSR, military buildup, Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
• Gorbachev’s reforms: Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness)
• End of the Cold War: Democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe, fall of Berlin Wall (1989), dissolution of USSR (1991)