USA part 1

the belief that america shouldnt play an important role in world problems and concentrate of her own country. The Great Depression strengthened arguments that America should focus on economic recovery at home

in the 1920s, the us helped Europe recover from the First World War by:

• lending money to European countries
• taking the lead in disarmament meetings

as time went on, american involvement was neccessary

• Roosevelt was corncered about the rise of dictatorships in Europe and with Japan's expansion in China, but his priority was solving economic problems at home
• Roosevelt encouraged economic co-operation with other nations through his 'Good Neighbour Policy' which was succesful with developing link in Latin America
• During the late 30s, congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts= to keep America out of future wars
  • 35- banned sale of weapons to counries at war
  • The fifth Neutrality Act(1939) did allow the President to authorise 'Cash and Carry'(countries could buy war materials but have to transport goods in own ship)

when war broke out in Europe in 39, Roosevelt announced that USA wouldnt get involved. Opinion within America was divided:

• The Committe to Defend America (CDA) wanted to help Britain(sort of going to war)
• The American First Committe (AFC) opposed anythig that might risk America's neutrality

involement

• Congress increased budget for defence spending and roosevelt introduced peacetime conscription for men aged 21-35
• Congress passed the 'Lend-Lease Agreement' which meant the US could lend britain up to $7,000 million worth of weapons. argreement extended to to USSR when it was attacked(in 41)
• by 41, US destroyers were being tranported to as far as Iceland
• in 41, Roosevelt and Chuchill agreed the Atlantic Charter which became orgin of the United Nations. They set goals for the post world war including
  • Freedom of the seas
  • Free trade of World
  • End to the use of armed forces

• during the 30s, ***an obtained extra land
• when ***an invaded china in 37, the usa took no measures
• 1940- ***an joined Germany and Italy in the Three Power Pact- this heightened american fears

Roosevelt responded by

• cancelling trade agreements with china
• sale of oil(90% of *** oil came from us) , planes, chemicals and iron was stoped

7 Dec 41

• 360 japanese torpedo planes and destroyers attacked the US naval fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hiwaii
• surprised attack
  • planes were parked
  • weapons were locked away
• 2345 men killed, 1250 wounded
• 4 battleships and 2 destroyers sunk

8 December- USA and Brit declared war on ***an

11 December ***, Ger and Italy declared war on USA and Brit

America enters ww2

Roosevelt and Churchil agreed that the priority in the war was the defeat of Germany

• Nov 42- as 'Operation Torch' Us and Brit troops went North africa (Morocco and Tunisia) and won battle by May 43
• July and Sept '43- US troops invaded Sicily and Italy
• 6 june 44- D-day- invaded 5 normandy beaches (inc Utah and Sword beach)- made a second front
• allies liberated Paris during the battle of the Bulge- 19,000 troups died
• 8 may- ger surrended ending the war in Europe

• after pearl harbour the ***anese swept over south east asia  and islands of the western pacific
• by mid 42- the Japanese had conqured over 2.5 million square killometres of land and 2/3 of tin reseveres and oil supplies
• may 42- ***an experienced her first defeat by America at battle of coral sea
• june 42- the ***anese failled to capture midway island(provided turning point of battle of pacific)
• october 44- the Battle of Leyte Gulf- largest sea battle in hitory. *** lost 4 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships. Us had captured the Philippines
• feb 45- The island of Iwo Jima was captured by US with loss of 4000 us marines and 20,000 *** solidiers

why US won

• us had a large industrial base and was able to produce more weapons than japs
• japs industrial production was badly affected by US bombing raids
• Key naval battles(ie midway, coral sea) gave us command of sea and air

first bomb- 'Little Boy'

• August 6th 45
• dropped on Hiroshima 
• killed 138,000
• 78,000 buildings destroyed
• costed $2 billion

second-'fat man'

• dropped on Nagasaki
• three days later
• 48,000 died

15 august 45 Hirohito surrendered(***) ending war in pacific

The USA and USSR had worked together during WW2 to fight a common enemy- germany. one ger was defeated, the 2 superpowers began to deteriorate

• US believed in Capitalism and feared spread of Communism
• by may 45, soviet forces occupied large parts of eastern europe and stalin didnt intend of withdrawing his troops and imposed communist governments on the 6 satelites (poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Gemany)
• pres tuman distrusted stalin and only informed him of the bomb 11 days before it was dropped 
• when the leaders of the big 3 met at the Potsdam in july 45, relations were strained. stalin was in no mood to allow the holding of free elections in his zones

• Truman Doctrine of Containment(47)- using us influence and military resources to prevent the expansion of Communism into non-communism countries
• Marshall Plan(47)- backed up his policy of containment by this plan. US programme of financial and economic aid to europe so that countries with a strong economy would be able to repel Communism
• The Domino theory- the idea that if one country fell into communism, the neighbouring countries will
• iron curtain- a term used by Churchill to describe the boundary dividing europe into 2 separate areas from 45-91

after ww2, germany was split into 4 zones, including Berlin which was deep in the soviet zone

• By june 48, the US,Brit and French zones had merged together and a new currenct had been introduced  in an attempt to make w.ger economically prosperous (to resist comm)
• stalin was becoming worried that w.berlin would become a wealthy capatilist base
• on 24 june 48, soviet troops cut off links between west berlin and west germany
• stalin hoped the west would be forced to give up their sectors 
• the west organised an airlift to fly in supplies to w.berlin. 8000 tonnes of food coal milk clothes flown in everyday
• the airlift lasted 11 months (until may 49) when stalin gave in and re-opened all routes to west berlin

containment was a success

Truman and Stalin

resulted in: Warsaw Pact  , Nato and Arms Race

The Berlin crisis had convinced Truman of the need to contain Communism. For this reason the USA joined with 11 other western powers to form 'The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation' in April 49. 

it was a defensive alliance but its main goal was to stop communism.

by 1955, the USSR had set up its own organisation- The Warsaw Pact. it was made made up of the USSR and its European satelite states.

by 1959, over 200,000 e.germ had moved to the west each year. these included many skilled workers(ie doctors) and it made comm look bad

in 61 Khrushchev ordered the construction of a 45 km concrete wall to separate east from west berlin. happened during the night(2 am)

50 died trying to cross the wall

this increased tension of the cold war

kennedy and Khrushchev

during the 50s and 60s, the Usa became involved in 3 flashpoints of the Cold war in

 Korea

Cuba

Vietnam

• In jan 59, the US-backed Cuban dictator, Bastista was overthrown by a left wing rebel force led by Fidel Castro
• Castro ejected all US businesses and investment: the us refused to buy cubas biggest export, sugar: the USSR offered to buy the sugar instead
• USSR strengthened his relations with Castro and Khrushchev set up a missile base there to balance things out as he had 2 in italy and Turkey. 90 miles of the US base land
• Kennedy supported a landing of Cuban exiles at the 'Bay of Pigs' to over thrown Castro; it was a disaster and a great humiliation for Kennedy

• on 14 oct 62, an american U2 spy plane took photos of Soviet missile launch sites being constructed on Cuba. Kennedy impossed a blockade on 20 oct
• 25 oct- JFK sent a letter asking khrushchev to withdraw missiles from cuba and he replied sying he would only if the us lifted its blockade and agreed not to invade Cuba

• Turning point
• Kennedy looked better as it was kept a secret. this resulted in Russia losing hope in Krush
• both were accused of brinkmanship
• a hotline was installed between White house and Kremlin
• in 63- Test Ban Treaty was signed- banning nuclear weapons test in water, sea or space

why Involement

• Vietnam became divided. N.Vietnam fell under communism under the leadership of Minh, south was led by non-communist Diem
• in 63, Diem was overthrown and feared the Communists would take over the South
• the us policy of
  • containment meant that america had given support to Diem
  • the domino theory caused america to believe that if s.Vietnam became communist then so would neighbouring Laos and Cambodia(dey diid)

Withdrawal

upon enetring the office in 69, Nixon begn a policy on Nietnamisation (pulling US troops out but giving financial support to the South Vietnamese army)  and peace talks

in 73, a ceasefire was signed in paris, followed by a peace treaty

North vietnam was allowed to keep all the land it had captured from the south

US methods:

• Operation Rolling Thunder- intese bombing campaign of n.vietnam. 65-68. aim to destroy vietcong supply routes
• Chemical warefare: agent orage- chemical: destroyed jungle. Napalm-burning jelly
• 'search and destroy' technique- villages searched and set alight
• increasing troop numbers- 64-180,000 68-540,000
• High Tech War- US used latest tech: B25 bombers, helicopters, rocket launchers

Reason for US defeat:

• Inexperienced troops- many were young and inexperienced. unable to deal with guerilla warfare
• Vietcong tactics- they fought a guerilla war avoiding pitched battles and using tunnels which troops unawared of
• Growing opposition at home- high coverage and deathrates led to the emergence of peace movement 
• Support from USSR and China- The vietcong were supplied with weapons from both

detente is used to descrive periods of thaw in the cold war relations between 71-79

Reasons for detente

• The US hopped to improve relations with both USSR and China
• Reduce the risk of world war
• ruduce the cost of the arms race
• The Brezhnev Doctrine- the USSR would take action to stop countries leaving the Warsaw Pact- this alarmed USA
• USA want to end its involvement in Vietnam which was expensive in terms of military and lives. it was hoped china and USSR could help negociations with north vietnam

Detente with USSR-  SALT 1(72)

• in 72, Nixon visted Moscow to improve relations between the USA and USSR
• The 'Strategic Arms Limitation Talks had started in 69 and led to the signing of SALT 1 in 72
• limited the number of intercontinental missiles (ICBMs) and anti-balistic missiles (ABMs) and both agreed not to test ICMs and submarine-launched missiles
• SALT 1 important because first agreement between the superpowers to successfully limit number of nuclear weapons held

Detente with China 72

• Relations between china and USSR was strained and nixon hoped to exploit this but at the same time china desired more friendly relations with china would help them negociate an end to vietnam war
• 'Ping-pom diplomacy'- the chinese ping pong team invited the us to china which set the scene for improved relations between the countries. in april 71, usa lifted its 21 year old trade embargo with china
• china was allowed to take a seat in the united nations in oct 71
• in feb 72, nixon became first us pres to visit china- it improved trading links

The Helsinki Agreements 75

in 75, USA and USSR aong with 33 other nations made declarations about international issues

• Security- USSR accepted existence of w.ger
• Human rights- each country had to agree to accept basic human rights inc freedom of speach, religion and thoughts
• Co-operation-  agreements to work toowards economic, scientific and cultural links

Ending of Detente 79

• By June 79, The USA and USSR were in final stages of agreeing SALT II which would further limites on number of weapons they had
• The US Senate refused to sign up to the SALT II agreement following the USSR invasion of Afganistan in December 79
• Links between the USA and USSR were cut off and the US alongside with 61 other countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow olympics

This marked an end to the detente

Reagan and 2nd cold war

Reagan and Gorbachev(return to detente)

ending of the cold war

Iran

The Gulf war

Reagan and Second cold war

• in 81, Reagan came into office and returned to an aggresive anti-soviet foreign policy
• Reagan increased his defence budget  and in '83, scientists started working on the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) (or starwars) developing satelites with lasers which would shoot down missiles before they could hit the us
• SDI was a turing point in the cold war as the ussr no longer had the money to fund more defence spending to keep up with the us 

Reagan(and bush snr) and Gorbachev (return to detente)

• Gorbachev became the new leader of the USSR and he started a process of reform
• in nov 85, reagan and Gorbachev agreed to speed up the arms reduction talks and a second meeting in 86 was held but negociations were slow. a 3rd meeting in 87 (in washington) led to the signing of Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) by both agreed to destroy all short and medium ranged weapons in Europe within 3 years
• in 89, Bush Snr and Gorbechev met at Malta and announced an end to the cold War

• in 89, Gorbachev told leaders of satellite states the soviet troops wouldnt be needed and that members of warsaw Pact could make changes to their countries without interference
• Reform quickly spread across the satellite states and the USSR did nothing to stop them
• in 89 nov, berlin wall fell and by 90 all satellite states were now democratically elected governments
• these events weakened the USSR and in 91, gorbechev resigned as leader

Europe was no longer divided by comm and cap and the cold war had ended

Iran

• In 79, the Shah of Iran, who had received US backing, was forced to abdicate
• iran now fell under the contol of Khomeini(a religious leader) who annoinced that the us was the 'Great Satan'
• in nov 79, Iranian students stormed the US embassy and 66 Americans were taken hostage and held for 444 days
• Pres Carter authorised a rescue mission in april 80 and failed

this worsened relations between the us and Iran

Gulf war 90-91

• In 1990, troops from iraq invaded and captured neighbouring Kuwait as Hussein(leader) saw Kuwait as a prize which would help lessen the countries debts
• The us wanted to protect its interests and imposed sanctions on Iraq. The Us, Britain and other states sent forces to protect Saudi Arabi's oil reserves
• in 91, the allies launched 'Operation Desert Storm' and then 'Operation Desert Saber'

With the defeat of Hussein, america had restored order to the oil producing states of the Middle East