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Alright, and so at the end of the last
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videos talking about how the
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European Union had been created on
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the basis, really the Marshall Plan. And
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gives it really in some ways to model
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for perhaps how the world could go with
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increasing integration.
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It's difficult, It's messy, you don't like
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working with others perhaps to set your own
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economic and other policies.
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But it's worked very well
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in the European case and it may be that
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this is one model for the future,
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but perhaps not. You'll be the ones
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that will decide this in the next
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20 to 30 to 40 years.
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Well that age of
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post-War progress was not shared
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fully by the Eastern Block under the Soviet Union.
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Stalinist policies,
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Stalinist control was imposed
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murderously as I mentioned before and
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these economic policies were not as productive.
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The Eastern Europe still moved forward
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with the higher rates of
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education, longevity, and health.
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Basic indicators that societies are
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functioning at at least a basic level
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but under the surface political
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resentment was building against Soviet Control.
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Now Stalin died in 1953 and
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the new leader the Soviet Union again
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was Nikita Khrushchev.
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He wanted to build socialism
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more peacefully, perhaps a less
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oppressively he ended the most egregious
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oppression of the Stalinist system.
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People are no longer taken away
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and shot in the middle the night for
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example the way they had been under
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Stalin.
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The large
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system of prison camps in which tens
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of millions of people were eventually part
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of the so-called gulag system of
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prison camps in Russia that system
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was eventually pretty much shut down
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under Khrushchev. But
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Khrushchev did believe he had to
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maintain control over the empire in the
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east, and the in 53, 56, 68
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as you can see here there
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episodes in which States tried to
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break away perhaps or find greater
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freedom within the soviet orbit.
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In all these cases of even believed it
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needed to maintain control his empire
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because losing a piece of its empire
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would be an additional
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an addition to the United American
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power, and we have that zero-sum game
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the opposing alliance blocks as we talked
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about before,
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which
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means that each side needs to be very
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vigilant about maintaining its core
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strength.
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Now, Khrushchev tried to
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have both guns and butter in a sense
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by putting missiles in Cuba. They hope to
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cheaply gain a sense of military parity
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with the United States in military equality
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with the United States. You can see here the
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sketch showing the
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radius of the missiles that would have
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been could have been launched from Cuba.
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This was really a sign of weakness
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because the Americans could build a
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much larger missiles, much more
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effective missiles and we also did place
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missiles very close to the Civil Union in
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turkey and other places like this. So
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Khrushchev felt this this was simply a
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turnabout is fair play, but of course
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Kennedy and the United States more
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generally did not allow the
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missiles to be placed in Cuba. There was a
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Confrontation on the high Seas as American ships
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prevented the Missiles from being
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shipped and being installed in Cuba
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although it may be there were some
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missiles that were already there or
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Where in the process of being built at
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the very time of the confrontation.
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Another sign of soviet Weakness was
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the building of the Berlin wall in
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1961. The Iron Curtain was a symbolic
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wall the Berlin wall was a real wall as well
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it was built around West
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Berlin and then around really
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along the Border between the East
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and West More Generally with the period
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after 1961 and
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this was a tremendous
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blow to soviet prestige having to build
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wall to keep people into a system
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they believed they said was the future
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of humanity the soviet system the system
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of Communism and Socialism and
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yet people were trying to flee so much
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that they had to build a wall.
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So it was a sign of weakness not a it
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looked aggressive, and in some ways it
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was aggressive,
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but just like the Cuba Missile Crisis
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it really was a sign of underlying
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weakness and some ways that makes it
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more dangerous because when one is
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feeling weak
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Your back is against the wall you you
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you can't see a way out. That's when you make
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miscalculations, and when wars begin,
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so it's really quite lucky in many ways that
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the Cuban Missile Crisis particularly did
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not lead to a global
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nuclear confrontation nuclear war.
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Now as you can see in as I mentioned
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before after Khrushchev fall from power
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and he fell from power in part because
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of his failures in Cuba and elsewhere.
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After Khrushchev fell from power
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leader Brezhnev took over 1982 as you
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can see and
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institute a really crash program and
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nuclear build up as we looked at those
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numbers before of Nuclear weapons.
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So the lesson the Soviet Union learned from its
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humiliation in Cuba was they have to
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get stronger and bigger, and they worked
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very hard to do so becoming even more dangerous.
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So here we have an opportunity for
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another perhaps lesson
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some have suggested for example
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that in international affairs you you really
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don't want to humiliate your opponent you
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don't want to make them look too bad
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because you know Russia is not going to go away.
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They're going to be here they might
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feel humiliated you might get your way in
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a particular issue
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but in the long term it may be that
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you'll have to work together to solve
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issues and humiliating and
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triumphing over an opponent is
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sometimes merely the foundation for a future conflict.
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Well, Let's take a look at one example
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of the cold war in the case of the two Germany's.
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West Germany the Federal German
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Republic Here East Germany the German
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Democratic republic here
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and here's Berlin behind the lines here
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West Berlin was of course part of
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West Germany. In a 1948
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the Soviet Union tried to force the
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western powers out of West Berlin here's Berlin
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here's the Western sector the Eastern Sector Berlin
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and there's Berlin in the Eastern zone
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of the East Germany and this led to a
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year in which
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West Berlin was supplied by air.
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This is the first large-scale
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resupply of an entire city by air
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It was a triumph of Western
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technology, and just like the Berlin wall a
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little bit later the brilliant blockade was a terrible
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publicity defeat for the soviet Union.
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Every plane that landed was bringing
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medicine and food for poor starving
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children as you can see the battle city new is trying to
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starve widows and orphans and and
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freeze people in the winter, so
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the Berlin blockade was again another
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sign that so the Union was not
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Winning the war for the hearts and
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minds of Europe and at this time.
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But it the Berlin blockade did convince
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the western powers that they needed to create a
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military Alliance, I've already
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mentioned it before the North Atlantic
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Treaty Organization was formed in the
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aftermath of the Berlin blockade. The
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soviets eventually gave up on this and
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allowed resupply of Berlin by Road is
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according to their treaty
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they should have allowed all the way
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along. So Union for its part built a
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military Alliance called the Warsaw
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Pact and these then are the two military
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sides of the cold War NATO versus
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Warsaw pact essentially. Well as part
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of NATO West Germany was rebuilt and here
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They are busily building Volkswagen
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of course the Volkswagen is created by
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Ferdinand Porsche who
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of course Porsche sports cars, and it
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was designed under the during the nazi
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regime as a kind of people's car the
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Volkswagen and
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It became a bit a symbol of the
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German resurgence after World War 2.
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began to first see Volkswagens on the
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streets of the United states in the late 1950s
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and if you can get your hands on the
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1957 Volkswagen you should do, so
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they're rather rare still today. Yeah, and
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of course Volkswagen is still feature
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of the American scene, so
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Volkswagen was a sign of the
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resurgence of German industry just like a
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little bit later Japanese cars today
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we have Korean cars in the roads
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eight states and ten years we might have
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Chinese car. So
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Germany is going blazing that trail of
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economic development
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international trade and globalization in
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the 1940s and 50s.
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Building to a parliamentary democracy
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becoming part of NATO a true a real
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success story of the
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government before this the Nazi
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Regime was one of the worst tyrannies in
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the history of humankind.
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So the prospects for a truly free and
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democratic government in Germany was
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not a foregone conclusion and so again
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we have
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trying to stress in some ways some of
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the success stories of history because
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there is a lot to be depressed about but in some
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cases in some cases we do have signs of hope.
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Well East Germany on the other side
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of the Berlin wall here is the Berlin wall being built and
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there's the riots in 1953 already talked
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about it when Stalin died there was there
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where riots in East Germany to try to
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perhaps break way or find it a more
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freeway under the soviet domination.
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East Germany was modeled after the soviet Union and
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had some of the same successes that
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so the Soviet Union had as I mentioned
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before already in building a
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relatively stable economic regime,
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providing basic services to its people, but unable to create
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military, excuse me a political system
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that was anything close to free
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really two leaders in the entire history
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of East Germany across these 40 years
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as you can see. And
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also, East Germany was relied upon
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secret service vast
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infrastructure
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network of secret police and spies
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Which to this day even after the fall of
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the Berlin wall is still
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kind of scar on the German psyche.
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Many people cooperate with the
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police because the secret place of East
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Germany because they felt they didn't
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have an alternative.
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People where informing upon each
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other and in those files the East German
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police are lots of secrets that
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still West Germans even today are still
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dealing with that that sense of
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betrayal and of
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oppression from the East European past.
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That then is one look sort of on the
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two sides of the iron curtain there is the
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classic iron curtain as
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Churchill said from Stetten on the
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Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic here the
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an iron curtain has descended across
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Europe as he said in
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1946. And
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that line became a line that also
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divided the world the so-called free world
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the world of the NATO alliance in Blue
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here
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Communist Russia
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Eventually Communist China and its allies.
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So this division of a bipolar world
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world with two poles one about the united
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states the other Russia this bipolar world
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was really
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started in Europe for European
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reasons in many ways, but then was
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extended to the rest of the world, and
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that's the story of
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decolonization in the cold war which
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will be turning to more in the next module.
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Thanks so much.
