The Cold War Conflicting Ideologies Conflicting Superpowers Adam

The Cold War Conflicting Ideologies; Conflicting Superpowers

Adam Smith • Laissez-faire The Government should not intervene in the market • Individuals are free to buy and sell as they please in the market • Supply and demand determine price • Entrepreneurs open new businesses in the hopes of gaining profits • Capital is invested in the hopes of gaining profits

Karl Marx • Co-authored with Friedrich Engels; The Communist Manifesto • According to Marx, the history of the world is a history of class struggle • The proletariat will unite and overthrow the bourgeoisie • A dictatorship of the proletariat will usher in a new era

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat • Abolish Private Property • Abolish Social Classes • Economic Equality

And then the dictatorship of the proletariat will wither away… Or will it?

Allies During the Second World War • Yes, Stalin and Roosevelt formed an unlikely alliance with Churchill during the Second World War • However, this alliance’s purpose was to confront a greater threat

The Cold War • However, with the defeat of the Fascists, conflicting ideologies led to conflict and tension • The Soviet Union embraced Marxism and dictatorship. • The United States embraced capitalism and democracy.

Soviet Satellites in the East • Stalin installed communist regimes in Eastern Europe to ensure a buffer zone or protection from a Western invasion • Western democracies referred to these Eastern European nations as satellites

An Iron Curtain Had Descended

The Alliances: • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - The United States and its Allies • The Warsaw Pact - The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

The Alliances: • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) - The United States and its Allies • The Warsaw Pact - The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

USA Containment Policy: • To Stop the Spread of Communism

1949: - NATO established - Soviets tested an atomic bomb - Communists establish People’s Republic of China

1950 -1953: - North Korea invades South Korea - Korean War ensues - The original line of demarcation is maintained

Stalin died in 1953: • Nikita Khrushchev (1953 -1964) • Leonid Brezhnev (1964 -1982)

1959: -Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba succeeds -A Communist state is established

• Bay of Pigs (1961) was a failure in foreign policy for U. S. A. • U. S. had aided Cuban exiles in an attempt to invade the island but Castro was aware of the plan and the plan failed • Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) was a success for American foreign policy Soviet missiles on Cuban soil Kennedy demanded removal and yes, removed

And of course, there was the Vietnam War • North Vietnam Communist under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh • South Vietnam Non-communist dictatorship; civil war ensues; U. S. troops intervene • 1975 South Vietnam falls to communism • Vietnam Unified under a communist regime

• During “Prague Spring” of 1968, Czechoslovakia embarked on a campaign of liberalizing reforms, Brezhnev sent in a Warsaw Pact invasion force • Brezhnev Doctrine USSR had right to intervene in Eastern Europe

But from 1969 through 1979, the Cold War entered a more peaceful period known as détente, a diplomatic term referring to the relaxation of tensions

But greatest surprise the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Cold War Cartoons