Unit 8 Cold War and

Decolonization
Persons of Interest: John F Kennedy, Nikita
Khrushchev, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi
Topic: The Aftermath of WW2
The Nazis and the Japanese were defeated? The main winners were
the USA and the USSR what did each of them want in the new world?
Would WW2 just lead into WW3?
America’s goals after WW2: Create a new
world order where Capitalism is the preferred
global economic system and there is an
international organization to ensure world
peace (The United Nations -will hear about in
Unit 9), Become a major military superpower
and prevent another world war
Soviet Union’s Goals after WW2
Grow Communism around the world. Ensure that Russia will never be
threatened in invasion again by building the largest standing army in the world
and ensuring that every country that borders Russia is within Russia’s sphere
of influence or absorbed into the Soviet Union directly.
At the Potsdam Peace Conference that occurred after the Nazis
surrendered US president Harry Truman had a meeting with Joseph
Stalin and they could not agree on what the future of the world would
look like: Truman wanted free elections and capitalism, Stalin wanted
Totalitarianism and communism. This wasn’t looking good….
The Cold War Begins
Immediately after WW2 The USSR and the USA began positioning themselves
for a possible WW3. Both countries would spy on each other, amass allies,
and grow their militaries in what is known as the Cold War. WW3 would have
most certainly been the most deadly conflict in world history. But thankfully
WW3 never came
3 Global Teams emerged
NATO was a military alliance lead by the USA Which included Britain+France and
almost every Western European country +Turkey and Canada.

The Warsaw Pact was lead by the Soviet Union and Included most Eastern
European countries

The Non-Aligned movement was lead by Indonesia and India and they just wanted
to stay out of all this
The Red Scare
The USA got really upset when a Soviet Spy named Julius Roseburg
stole the plans to make Nuclear bombs and gave them to the Soviet
Union. In repose we killed Julius and his wife Ethel by Electric Chair. In
response American culture entered a period called the Red Scare where
we targeted suspected communists and punished them even without real
evidence. The Cold War was definitely on!
America never stopped making guns
Other countries around the world stopped making military equipment
after WW2, but the USA developed something called the military
industrial complex where we continue to be the world’s biggest
supplier of military equipment even after WW2 ended. American
politicians wanted to be ready for WW3 at a moments notice. America
is still the largest military supplier even in 2023
Nuclear Arms Race
Soon both the USA and the USSR were testing bigger and better nuclear weapons.
Bikini Bottom. Eventually both sides would amass enough Nuclear weapons to destroy
the earth 5 times over. These larger nukes produced significantly more radiation which
causes “fast acting cancer” in all living organisms. Both the NATO countries and the
Warsaw Pact recognized that if they launched a total war against each other then both
sides would use nuclear weapons and everyone would die on both sides. This concept is
called mutually assured destruction. So throughout the cold war both sides limited their
direct conflict with each other even though they were clearly enemies
Nukes // mention global nuclear contamination
Nevada Test Site Pictures
Space Race
during the Cold War The Soviet Union and the USA completed for scientific
achievement. The Soviet Union successfully sent Yuri Gagarin as the first person
who ever traveled into outer space in 1961. The USA responded by investing
millions into American public education and invented hundreds of new technologies
that resulted in Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon in 1969
Compare the USSR and the USA
Similarities: Both countries had massive world destroying militaries, Both countries had
international spy agencies that operated in every country in the world the USA had the CIA,
and the USSR had the KGB, Both countries openly challenged each other and saw each
other as clear enemies

Differences: In the Soviet Union women were given full rights and opportunities, racism was
significantly less of an issue in the Soviet Union than the USA, The Soviet Union did not
have any real opportunities to grow wealth beyond the middle class.
Topic Change Decolonization:
The End of Imperialism and the emergence of new
countries around the world since 1945. Some countries
negotiated their independence peacefully, others fought
wars for their freedom
When WW2 ended, the British and French empires collapsed. The stress
of WW2 pushed these two empires to the limit and colonial people were
now loudly demanding their independence. The Soviet Union provided
military assistance to many of these former colonies and encouraged
them declare their independence from the NATO alliance and potentially
ally with communism.
Many people in the developing world wanted both independence from their
colonial overlords and LAND REFORM. The Soviet Union tended to provide
military assistance to those who desired redistributing land ownership. The USA
tended to provide weapons to the rich landowning classes and this created
hundreds of conflicts around the world that both the USA and the USSR would
become involved with.
Proxy Wars
throughout the world by both superpower countries getting involved in local civil
wars or wars for independence from former Empires. These wars included:
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Angola, Algeria, Sandinistas-Contras, Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. These wars all were about newly independent countries determining
their economic system/form of government, but the USA and the USSR got
involved on opposing sides and made the conflicts significantly more deadly.
Decolonization summaries
Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independence from the Dutch Empire.
He got help from both the Imperial Japanese and the USSR. As soon as he achieved
independence he set up the non-aligned movement that tried to discourage other countries
from accepting aid from the USA or USSR (it didn’t really work…)

Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of the Ghana independence movement, he spent ten years
in the USA and with the help of African Americans he achieved Ghana’s independence. He
tried to create a “United States of Africa” called Pan-Africa but the many different African
countries did not agree to his terms.
Gamal Nasser advocated an aggressive strategy to rebuild Egypt as a major
power. He also desired Pan-Arabism which would be the “United States of
Arabs” (didn’t work out). During his time in office he got economic help from
both the USA and USSR and dramatically improved Egypt’s economy.

Julius Nyerere was a Communist revolutionary who achieved Tanzania’s

independence. He created a philosophy called Ujamaa which is an African
version of Communism similar to Chinese communism.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike - World’s first Female prime minister! In 1960. She passed
many socialist policies in Sri lanka and took away rights from the Tamil minority
causing them to create a terrorist organization The Tamil tigers against the
government

Mengistu Haile Mariam - As a boy he lived in the USA as a boy and experienced
racism. As a result he looked into the ideals of Communism racial equality and he
returned to his native Ethiopia. He allied with the USSR and ruled Ethiopia with
extreme military force.
Indira Gandhi - Was Prime minister of India between 1960-1984. She
adopted new technologies for farming and did Soviet Style 5 year plans to
improve India’s economy. She established policies that placed high tariffs on
foreign goods and she wanted India’s products to be made in India. Another
huge change during her tenure was Land Reform. India style had serf style
farms in 1960. The new Indian government set a law that people could own
a maximum amount of land, so the old rich landowning families of India were
required to donate any excess land to their tenants.
Many of these new countries had borders that did not fit the
cultural heritage of the people who lived there. Some of these
problems persist into 2024!! These countries just declared
independence with the borders that were imposed on them
during imperialism. Problems!
New/resurgent Countries in the world emerge:
The Jewish people, many of whom were direct survivors of the Holocaust decided
to take back their homeland in Israel and create a Jewish State. They have had
consistent problems with their Arab neighbors who claim the land as their own.

The Country of Cambodia emerged from the French Indo-Chinese possessions

and the Khmer Rouge attempted to Recreate an agricultural communist society
referencing the old Khmer Empire (they killed millions and committed a terrible
genocide)
Independence movements that didn’t succeed--
Biafra separatist movement Nigeria - The igbo tribe in Southern Nigeria viewed
themselves as a different nation state then the rest of Nigeria, their independence
movement failed when the Nigerian army crushed their military.

Quebecois in Canada - The french speaking region in Canada voted for independence
on three different occasions and each time they voted to stay. 49%-leave 51%-stay.

Shining path - Was a Communist-Terrorist Organization in Peru sponsored by the USSR

that desired to achieve communism in South America through violence. The group was
majority women?! They still exist in 2024!
All these new independence movements reshaped many societies and there was tons
of more immigration in the 1960s-1980s, more than any time in human history. As
countries broke away from their imperialist occupiers many wanted to still maintain an
economic relationship with the West so there were huge movements of people around
the world immigrating to these richer western countries. All this new immigration lead
to cultural conflict still visible in 2021

Algerians moved to -> France

India/Pakistan moved to -> UK

Philippines/Korea/Vietnam moved to -> USA

Turks moved to -> Germany

Who was America friends with?
The USA was so desperate to stop communist expansion we allied ourselves with some truly terrible
people during the cold war: These were all Authoritarian style leaders who kept a tight grip on their
people with American support.

Chile under Augusto Pinochet - Hardcore ruler who arrested his political enemies and then dropped
them out of helicopters into volcanos. Stole $28 million for himself

Spain under the Fascist Francisco Franco - Spanish Hitler, Killed ~100,000 people. Brutally
suppressed the Basque and Catalonian minorities in order to promote Spanish speaking national
language

Uganda under Idi Amin - Killed 500,000 ethnic minorities. Later betrayed the USA and worked with the
Soviet Union and Terrorist groups
Insert Mr Brown’s Regular World History class
Presentations on Decolonization of India, Modern
China, Recent Germany, Chernobyl, Soviet Invasion
of Afghanistan, and The End of the Cold War . And
add those notes to this presentation