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4. The Cold War

Talking book

Did you know?

The Cold War in space

The USSR's achievements were:

in 1957 the first artificial space satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. It simply emitted signals, but in 1958, Sputnik 2 successfully took a dog, Laika, into space.
in 1961 the space shuttle Vostok 1 was launched with the astronaut Yuri Gagarin aboard.
in 1971 the first space station, Salyut 1, was sent into orbit.

The United States' achievements were:

in 1965 the Gemini missions took place. These were to prepare the astronauts who would later travel to the Moon.
on 20 July 1969, the space shuttle Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon.

The Cold War was a period of permanent tension between the two superpowers which lasted from 1947 to 1991. Each superpower aimed to demonstrate and increase its own power, while at the same time limiting or reducing the influence of the other. However, both the Americans and the Soviets wanted to avoid a direct military confrontation, since this could lead to nuclear war.

The two superpowers, the United States and the USSR, intervened militarily and economically in conflicts involving other countries in order to display their power and influence.
There was a balance of terror' between the superpowers because both countries had the nuclear weapons. The possession of weapons with such destructive power forced each superpower to avoid a military conflict in which they might be used.
There were two opposing military alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Together with the arms race, these alliances served as a further obstacle to direct military conflict. In 1957, United States military spending constituted 50% of the world's total, with Soviet spending constituting 20% of the total. These figures demonstrate how important the armaments industry became.
Both the United States and the USSR used the UN as a way to intervene in conflicts or to discuss problems peacefully. Both countries had the right to veto UN actions, and both used this right to protect their own interests (the USSR used it 116 times and the United States used it 60 times).
The superpowers competed with one another in the space race. Space became the field in which each side tried to land on the Moon first and demonstrate its military aerospace power.

The Cold War had two main phases: an initial phase between 1947 and 1961, during which there was a high level of tension between the superpowers, and a second phase characterised by an easing of tensions between 1962 and 1975.

Video 6. The space race

4.1. The initial phase (1947–1961)

Talking book

After 1947 there was a series of conflicts in which the superpowers intervened. They included the Greek Civil War, the Berlin Blockade and the building of the Berlin Wall, the Korean War and the Suez Crisis.

The Greek Civil War: in 1947 a civil war broke out between supporters of Paul I of Greece, who was supported by the United States, and a Soviet-backed communist guerrilla army. The war ended in 1948 with the victory of the monarchists, so Greece remained a Western-Bloc country.
The Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Wall: in 1948 Germany was divided into two areas. The Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany, had its capital in Bonn and was made up of the areas controlled by France, Great Britain and the United States. The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, had its capital in East Berlin and was made up of the area controlled by the USSR.
Berlin was also divided into two areas. The western part of the city belonged to West Germany. Communication between West Germany and West Berlin took place by air and along specific roads. In the 1948–1949 Berlin Blockade, the USSR blocked the Western Allies' land access to West Berlin, so supplies had to be brought in by air until the blockade was lifted. In 1961, East Germany built the Berlin Wall to stop the population of East Berlin escaping to West Berlin. The wall became a symbol of the division between the two blocs.

Important

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and pulled down in 1989.

The Berlin Wall

That Sunday morning in 1961, the noise of military vehicles unloading reels of barbed wire and concrete posts disturbed the peace of Berlin and awoke its inhabitants [...] In some sectors the wall ran along the middle of the street so as not to pass through West Berlin, or through the centre of a graveyard. [...]

For the next 19 years the wall was continually reinforced with 3.6 metre concrete blocks that were separate from the original fence, creating a no-man's land' which was under constant surveillance.

The wall separated many families during the Cold War. More than 100000 people tried to cross the wall to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin.

Historia: Del origen de la
civilización a nuestros días,
Pearson (Translated)
The Suez Crisis: in 1956, the President of Egypt, Abdel Nasser, declared that the Suez Canal belonged to Egypt as it passed through his country. France and Great Britain, who had controlled the canal, sent troops to occupy the area. However, when they heard that the USSR planned to support Egypt, they withdrew their troops. This was because they did not have the support of the United States, which wanted to avoid a war in the Middle East. As a result Nasser was able to nationalise the canal.
Talking book

The Korean War: an unresolved conflict?

The Korean War began in 1950 when communist North Korea, which was supported by the USSR and China, invaded South Korea, which was supported by the United States and the UN.

The conflict ended in 1953 when an armistice was signed. A demilitarised zone was established along the 38th parallel to separate the two countries. A totalitarian communist regime was established in North Korea, and a republic backed by the United States was set up in South Korea. However, the two countries have never signed a peace treaty.

Video 7. The Berlin airlift

Video 8. How to make a paper slide video

4.2. The easing of tensions (1962–1975)

Talking book

Did you know?

SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)

25 May 1972: the Soviet Union and the United States signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), in which they agreed not to set up nuclear arms in space and to limit their anti-missile systems.

26 May 1972: the superpowers signed the SALT 1 Treaty. This limited the number of strategic intercontinental weapons for the first time.

http://internacional.elpais.com /
(Translated)

In the 1960s tensions between the superpowers eased. This period was characterised by greater dialogue between them.

The easing of tensions was caused by two main factors.

President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev were more flexible in their negotiations with one another than previous leaders had been.
A number of international conferences on disarmament were held (known as SALT). Their aim was to avoid nuclear war and slow down the arms race, which was becoming a burden to both superpowers due to its high cost.

Despite this easing of tensions, conflict between the United States and the USSR was unavoidable. This was the case in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and in other conflicts in which the superpowers intervened, such as the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

After this period of reduced tensions, the Cold War continued until 1991 (when the USSR was dissolved).

**Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev, the leaders involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis**

The Arab–Israeli Conflict

Following the Holocaust, the UN approved the division of Palestine into two territories in 1947: Palestine, with a Muslim Arab population, and Israel, with a Jewish population.

In 1948 Great Britain's mandate over the area ended and it withdrew. The Jewish population proclaimed the State of Israel, which began the progressive occupation of the Palestinian zones. The Palestinians did not declare statehood because they did not agree with the division of the territories that had been approved by the UN. This situation led to a series of wars between the Israelis and the Palestinians and their Arab allies, including the First Arab–Israeli War in 1948–1949 and the Six-Day War in 1967. This conflict is known as the Arab–Israeli conflict.

In response to the conflict, the United States and Western Europe supported Israel, while the Arab countries (such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan) supported the Palestinians.

Israel's victories in the First Arab–Israeli War and the Six-Day War allowed it to acquire territory in the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt), the Golan Heights (Syria) and Gaza and the West Bank (Palestine). In 1964 the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was established, and in 1987 the First Intifada began. This was a popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.

During the following decades, there were periods of increased and decreased intensity, but the conflict remains unresolved today.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

After Cuba had gained independence, it remained in a semi-colonial relationship with the United States. In 1952 there was a military coup and Fulgencio Batista established a dictatorship.

In 1959 there was a revolution led by Fidel Castro, who established an authoritarian communist regime. In order to try to remove Castro, there was an American-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961 known as the Bay of Pigs, but this ended in failure.

Castro established an alliance with the USSR and in 1962 he allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons pointed towards the United States in Cuba. Negotiations between Kennedy and Khrushchev were successful in avoiding an armed conflict. This was the closest the superpowers had come to a direct conflict since the Cold War began.

Talking book

The Vietnam War (1954–1975)

**Vietnamese citizens fleeing from American bombs**

After gaining independence from France, Vietnam was divided into two states: North Vietnam, which was a communist state led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam, which was supported by the Western Bloc. This division was the main cause of the Vietnam War. There were, however, other factors:

the emergence of the Vietcong, a communist guerrilla army, in South Vietnam. They were supported by North Vietnam, who wanted to unify the country.
the involvement of the United States. The United States government was influenced by the domino theory, which stated that if one country became communist, the neighbouring countries would fall like dominos' and become communist too. As a result, they believed that South Vietnam could not be allowed to become communist.

The United States sent troops to support the South Vietnamese government in its fight against the Vietcong. It also carried out massive bombing campaigns of North Vietnam and some areas of South Vietnam. However, despite this the United States was unable to defeat the Vietcong.

**An anti-war protest in the United States**

In 1969 President Richard Nixon began to withdraw American troops from Vietnam, although he continued to support South Vietnam. In 1973 a peace settlement was signed, but in 1975 North Vietnam took control of South Vietnam and reunified the country as a communist state. In effect the United States had been defeated. Around the same time, Vietnam's neighbours, Laos and Cambodia, also became communist states. The Vietnam War had serious consequences for the United States.

The brutality of the American military, such as the use of chemical warfare and massacres of civilians, damaged the United States' international prestige, and also led to the emergence of a domestic anti-war movement.
The unpopularity of the Democratic party and President Lyndon Johnson, who had massively increased American involvement in Vietnam, led to the triumph of Richard Nixon and the Republican party.

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION WITHIN THE UNITED STATES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR

[...] The fight against communism should be brought to South-East Asia with strength and determination in order to achieve victory [...] The country (Vietnam) can be saved if we act quickly and with prudence. We must decide whether to support Diem (the President of South Vietnam) [...] or allow Vietnam to sink [...] (Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States)

[...] Help stop the murder of American youth. More than 7500 have already been killed in order to protect a corrupt military dictatorship, which has been kept in place against the wishes of the Vietnamese people. Help stop the merciless bombing of men, women and children. Help stop the use of the incendiary napalm, gases and toxic chemicals which destroy harvests in a country already suffering from poverty. Help stop the loss of thousands of millions of our dollars in Vietnam. Help bring our children home. (Appeal of American educators, March 1967)

A. León Conde, Guerras del siglo XX, Salvat (Adapted and translated)

Proxy wars

The Intifadas

Activity 26
Remember

Actividad 27
Understand

Activity 28
Listen and answer the questions about the Berlin Blockade.

Activity 29
Apply

Activity 30
Evaluate

Activity 31
Understand

Activity 32
Write a summary of the Vietnam War in your notebook, including:

Activity 33
Apply

Activity 34
Evaluate

Activity 35
Find out more about the intifadas. Write a short essay including their causes, who the uprisings were directed against, the forms they took and the population groups that participated.

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º

4. The Cold War

4.1. The initial phase (1947–1961)

4.2. The easing of tensions (1962–1975)

Activity 26

Remember

Actividad 27

Understand

Activity 28

Activity 29

Apply

Activity 30

Evaluate

Activity 31

Understand

Activity 32

Activity 33

Apply

Activity 34

Evaluate

Activity 35