Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Secondary 4
Chapter 8:
From a World War to a
Cold War
In a Nutshell
5
Competing
ideologies
Wartime alliances
broke down
Competing ideologies
The USA
Communism
The USSR
Communism VS Democracy
Who controls the society?
Communism
Democracy
Communism VS Democracy
How should people live?
Communism
Democracy
Communism VS Democracy
How should the wealth of the society be
created and shared?
Communism
Communism VS Democracy
How should the wealth of the society be
created and shared?
Democracy
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Communism VS Democracy
Democracy
Communism
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Feelings of mistrust
Could this mean the end of Capitalism and Democracy? The West
begin to question the actions of the Communists.
The USA and the USSR had more power to spread their ideologies
around after they became superpowers at the end of World War II.
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The Soviet Union joined the USA and Britain as one of the Allied
Powers and joined in the fight against Japan, Italy and Germany.
The feud was resumed after the war ended and when they found no
common enemy to unite them against.
The leaders of the USSR, the USA and Britain met at Yalta to
discuss what to do with Germany once the war was over.
After the war ended, they met at Potsdam to resume the discussion
that was stopped.
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Truman
What to do with
Germany?
We should cripple
Germany completely.
What to do with
Eastern Europe?
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Significance
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Europe was divided
Europe was divided into two blocs between 1945 and 1948.
The East comprised mainly of Communist governments and
the West consisted of democratic countries.
The USSR expanded its control over Eastern Europe by
setting up Communist governments in these countries.
The USSR could then influence these Communist
governments to follow policies that were non-threatening to it.
The countries with Communist governments were known as
satellite states.
The West criticised the USSR for setting up such
governments without holding free elections and for their harsh
tactics.
Such actions further contributed to the bad blood between the
two superpowers.
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In August 1949, the West set up the German Federal Republic in West Germany.2
In October, the USSR set up the German Democratic Republic in East Germany.3
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Military alliances
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The USA feared that the USSR might give China the
technology to produce its own nuclear weapons.
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Through this, the USA hoped to turn Japan into its main
anti-Communist ally in the region.
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Case Study 1:
The Korean War
Korea was divided at the 38th parallel
after World War II.
The USSR
North: The Peoples
Democratic Republic
The USA
South: The Republic of
Korea
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Case Study 1:
The Korean War
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Case Study 1:
The Korean War
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Korea
The war cost the lives of
about 2.5 million Koreans.
Many families were
separated because of the
division at the 38th parallel.
Global impact
The war also showed
that smaller countries
were not always controlled
by superpowers. In the
case of Korea, both the
North and South used the
superpowers to achieve
their aim of uniting Korea
China
China showed that it was
a major military power with
its entry into the war.
China grew confident and
demanded a seat in the UN
in 1971.
Impact of the
Korean War
Taiwan
Fearing China might use the
Korean War as a chance
to attack Taiwan, the USA
sent military support to
Taiwan.
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Japan
Japan became a key US
partner in Asia and a model
of US democracy. The Korean
War also helped Japans
economy as it was the main
supplier of South Korea.
USA
Following the Korean War,
the USA was eager to form
alliances in Asia. This
included ANZUS (with
Australia and New Zealand)
and SEATO in Southeast
Asia.
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Case Study 2:
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Trouble began in 1962 when the USA found out that the
USSR had missiles in Cuba which could hit most of the
major American cities.
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Case Study 2 :
The Cuban Missile Crisis
President Kennedy ordered a US
naval blockade of Cuba to stop
supplies from reaching Cuba.
The USSR had been worried about US missiles in Turkey (an ally
of the USA) due to its proximity to some of the Soviet cities.
Soviet leader Khrushchev felt he should also find allies and build
nuclear missile sites near the USA.
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Impact of the
Cuban Missile
Crisis
Tense Soviet-Chinese
relations
The crisis made SovietChinese relations tense.
China accused the Soviets
for being weak. The quarrel
between China and the
USSR divided the
international Communist
movement into two groups.
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Summary
Europe
divided
Germany
divided
NATO
Warsaw Pact
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2
Marshall Plan
Truman Doctrine
Impact on Europe
Impact outside
Europe
Increasing
mistrust
Alliance
breakdown
Competing
ideologies
Korea
Cuba