post-wwii major themes

Post-WWII Major Themes

Cold WarMassive

military expendituresRise of

nuclear weapons

Crash Course: http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=y9HjvHZfCUI

Tension leading up to cold war

Soviets occupied and installed communist governments in several eastern European countries

Stalin’s speech (1946) declaring that communism and capitalism could not exist in the same world

Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech

Germany’s split

Hot Wars related to the Cold War

Propaganda on both sides

Red Scare http://www.designer

-daily.com/examples-of-american-cold-war-propaganda-2918

Soviet Propaganda http://englishrussia.

com/2006/09/20/soviet-propaganda-against-usa-posters/

Containment

Excerpt from Truman’s speech to Congress (March 12, 1947):

“Our way of life is based upon the will of the majority and is distinguished by free institutions…free elections…and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression…fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free people, resisting attempted subjugation (control) by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

Marshall Plan

NATO versus Warsaw Pact

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): defensive military alliance

Warsaw Pact

Berlin Wall: symbol of a world divided into rival camps

Warsaw Pact

Other forms of cold war competition

James Bond: popular culture was influenced by global conflicts http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=RaEU_A405zA

Consumerism in the U.S.

USSR Lag in Consumer Goods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3z3eSVG7A

Ronald Reagan new car joke