CHAPTER 28: COLD WAR CONFLICTS AND CONSENSUS (1945 - 1965)

After studying this chapter you should be able to answer these questions:

1. Why did the spirit of cooperation decline toward the end and immediately after WWII,
resulting in a Cold War?

2. In what ways did the conflict between East and West manifest itself during the Cold War?

3. What were the main sources of stability and postwar recovery in Western Europe?

4. What was the pattern of development in the East Bloc? What happened to areas which
resisted Soviet control?

5. How did policies change based on the leader of the USSR? What remained constant?

6. What led to decolonization, and what various paths to independence were followed?

7. What changes in social class structure, women’s roles, and youth culture emerged after WWII?

OVERVIEW:

This chapter shows how Europe, especially western Europe, recovered from the destruction of 1939-1945, how the cold war split the
Continent into communist and noncommunist blocs, and how European empires came to an end as the people of Africa and Asia
achieved national independence.

The chapter examines why the Grand Alliance of Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States failed to hold together after they
succeeded in defeating Nazi Germany. Military decisions, ideological differences, and disputes over eastern Europe were key factors in
the origins of what became known as the cold war. By 1950, the Iron Curtain was in place, and western and eastern Europe were going
their separate ways. Battered western Europe rebuilt quickly and successfully, helped by new leaders and attitudes, American aid, and
the creation of the Common Market. America adopted a policy of containment of Communism as expressed in the Truman Doctrine.

Stalin reimposed a harsh dictatorship after the war, which Khrushchev relaxed but which Brezhnev tightened once again. An
anticommunist popular revolt in Hungary failed, while material conditions in communist countries gradually improved and communist
governments remained firmly in control. Soviet leaders engaged themselves in successfully putting down a revolution in Czechoslovakia
(1968), which sought socialism with a human face, and carried out at home a program of re-Stalinization that aimed at ending internal
opposition and reasserting a unified national spirit.

European empires in Asia and Africa went out of business after the Second World War. Most countries gained independence peacefully,
but there were bitter colonial wars in Vietnam and Algeria. India, under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi, is a leading example of the
former process. Even today, however, western influence lives

Society changed rapidly in the post-war years as well. The 1950s saw the birth of the American Civil Rights movement. An international
youth culture emerged in the 1960s, encouraged by opposition to the Vietnam War and frustration over increasing bureaucracy and
perceived western imperialism. The family and the role of women also underwent well-publicized changes. The divorce rate went up while
the marriage rate and birthrate fell. Married women were having fewer children and were even more likely to work outside the home for
wages. This trend reflected and encouraged a growing spirit of independence among women. Women and the family experienced a truly
revolutionary transformation.
Key Terms/People/Events (TPEs)
Highlight in your notes as you read

1. Cold War 33. European Coal and Steel 62. AK-47

2. Displaced persons Community 63. Dutch East Indies
3. collaborators 34. Treaty of Rome 64. French Indochina
4. denazification 35. Common Market 65. Ho Chi Minh
5. Nuremberg Trials 36. Installment purchasing 66. Partition
6. Crimes against humanity 37. Social security 67. Jawaharlal Nehru
7. “Big Three” 38. Cominform 68. Kuomintang
8. Tehran 39. Satellite States 69. Jiang Jieshi
9. Yalta Conference 40. Josip Broz Tito 70. Taiwan
10. Potsdam Conference 41. Socialist Realism 71. “Red Chinese”
11. Harry Truman 42. Nikita Khrushchev 72. Mandates
12. Buffer zone 43. “secret speech” 73. Zionist
13. “iron curtain” 44. De-Stalinization 74. Nationalized
14. Truman Doctrine 45. “peaceful coexistence” 75. Suez crisis
15. George Keenan 46. Boris Pasternak/Dr. 76. British Commonwealth
16. containment Zhviago 77. Mau Mau
17. Marshall Plan 47. Alexander 78. Apartheid
18. COMECON Solzhenitsyn/One Day in 79. Patrice Lumumba
19. NATO the Life of Ivan Denisovich 80. Proxy
20. Warsaw Pact 48. Imre Nagy 81. Joseph Mobutu
21. Big Science 49. United Nations 82. French commonwealth
22. Sputnik 50. Berlin Wall 83. Algeria
23. NASA 51. John F. Kennedy 84. Pieds-Noirs
24. Colossus 52. Fidel Castro 85. National Liberation Front
25. Economic miracle 53. Leonid Brezhnev (FLN)
26. Christian Democrats 54. Decolonization 86. Algerian War
27. Charles de Gaulle 55. self-determination 87. Neocolonialism
28. Francisco Franco 56. Mao Zedong 88. White collar workers
29. Labour Party 57. Mohandas Gandhi 89. Guest worker programs
30. Bretton Woods agreement 58. Gamal Abdel Nasser 90. Postcolonial migration
31. Organization for European 59. Jomo Kenyatta 91. Baby boom
Economic Cooperation 60. Aime Cesaire 92. Counterculture
32. Council of Europe 61. Frantz Fanon