cold war in the americas. readings smith, talons, chs. 5-8

COLD WAR IN THE AMERICAS

Readings

Smith, Talons, chs. 5-8

CHRONOLOGY OF COLD WAR

1941-45 World War II (Europe and Asia)1946 Churchill speech on “iron curtain”1947 Truman Doctrine1948 Berlin airlift1949 Soviet atomic bomb, Communist victory in China 1950-53 Korean War1965-75 Vietnam War1962 Cuban missile crisis1989 Collapse of Berlin Wall1990-91 Implosion of Soviet Union

The U.S. and the Cold War

Credos and Rules of the Game

1. Bipolar conflict

2. Arms race and “mutual assured destruction” (MAD)

3. The need for “containment” of Soviet expansion

4. Geopolitics, dominoes, and the Third World

5. Marxism and the developing world

Joseph Stalin, 1878-1953

Allied leaders meeting at Yalta, 1945

Harry S. Truman, 1948

Mao Zedong, 1966

Shaping U.S. Policy

1. Monroe redux: cordoning off the Americas

2. Economic aid: the Alliance for Progress

3. Purging the body politic

4. Containing revolution:• Guatemala (1954)• Bay of Pigs (1961)• Dominican Republic (1965)• Chile (1973)• Grenada (1983)• Central America (1980s)

The Kennedy White House: John Jr. advising his father

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Reflections

1.Reality vs. ideology

2. Imagining alternatives (?)

3.On the language of “war”