Beginnings of the Cold War
* US vs. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Truman Doctrine
Democracy vs. Communism: Capitalism vs. Socialism

Cold War: a time after WW2 when the USA and the Soviet Union
were rivals for world influence.


Characteristics
1.
Political, strategic and ideological struggle between the
US and the USSR that spread throughout the world
2. Struggle that contained everything short of war
3. Competing social and economic ideologies
Two sides of Cold War
• NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
– USA, France, Great Britain, West Germany
– CAPITALISM
– Democracy-Free elections-freedoms
•
Warsaw Pact – pro Soviet countries – USSR, and
all countries controlled by the USSR.
– COMMUNISM
• Government owns most businesses
,land, stores
• Limited freedom of speech/religion
IRON CURTAIN: A term used by Winston Churchill to
describe the separating of those communist lands of
Eastern Europe from the West.
The Berlin Crisis: June 1948-May 1949*Berlin is
Germany’s capital city
1948: West Germany grew in prosperity due to the Marshall Plan
(West wanted East to rejoin; Stalin feared it would hurt Soviet security)
June 1948: Stalin wanted control of West Berlin (in E.Germany)
BLOCKADE: Cuts road, rail and canal links with West Berlin, hoping
to starve it into submission West responded by airlifting supplies to
allow West Berlin to survive May 1949: USSR admitted defeat, lifted
blockade
Berlin blockade led to Berlin Airlift
Berlin Wall (torn down 1989)
• August 18, 1961, the Russian communist government began
to build a wall separating East Berlin from West Berlin
• The Soviets built the wall to keep communists from
escaping to the American sector.
The Truman Doctrine in March 1947 promised that the USA
“would support free peoples who are resisting” communism.
This led to containment – stopping the spread of
communism through military and non-military ways
Domino Theory

Communism spreads like a disease…… The domino
theory was used by successive United States
administrations during the Cold War to justify the need
for American intervention around the world (50-80
Eisenhower)
Marshall Plan

USA’s plan to send food, blankets, fuel to Europe to help
them. AND to keep them from turning communist.
**helped countries economically so they won’t go red.
Iran Crisis of 1946:
 USSR refused to withdraw from oil rich Iran after WWII US encouraged them to leave and promised them oil
drilling rights but later backed Iran in refusing them.
USSR suspicious of USA
Greece and Turkey
• 1947: First areas where the policy of containment was used
to stop communist expansion
Cuban Missile Crisis: Concerns closer to USA
Vietnam War
Korean War
Space Race
 The USA and the Soviet Union raced as the world
watched to be the first to conquer space.
 Soviets first in space satellite and man
Arms Race
 USSR A-Bomb 1949
 USA H bomb 1952