Cold War Notes
1940’s
Iron Curtain
-Imaginary line dividing communist East Europe and non-communist Western Europe.
-Came from Winston Churchill speech.
Marshal Plan
-U.S. gave $13 billion to Western European nations to help rebuild after W.W. II
-meant to save countries from temptation of turning communist
Containment
-U.S. Cold War policy to prevent communism from spreading to new nations
Berlin Blockade
- (1948) Stalin’s siege of West Berlin which was cut off from all railway, road and canals from
supplies and electricity.
Berlin Airlift
-(1948-1949)U.S. flew supplies around the clock every day for 11 months to keep West -Berlin
from falling to East Germany/U.S.S.R
N.A.T.O.
-Military alliance of U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France and other non-communist countries
Warsaw Pact
-Military alliance of U.S.S.R. and other Eastern European countries
-created in response to N.A.T.O.
Stalin
-Totalitarian, Communist, dictator of U.S.S. R from the 1920’s to1953 when he dies
-His actions shaped the early Cold War
1950’s
Korean War
-(1950-1953) After Japanese leave Korea, North Korea declared communist and South Korea
declared non-communist.
-Divided at 38th parallel
-North Korea invades South Korea
-U.S. & U.N. troops defend South Korea
-ends in a stalemate/tie
Hungarian Revolt
-(1956) Hungarian uprising against Soviet Union
-crushed by Soviet tanks and troops-Soviet Union would not allow nations self-rule
Cuban Revolution
-(1959)-Led by Fidel Castro, communist revolution 90 miles from U.S. shores
1960’s
Berlin Wall
-Built by East Germany/U.S.S.R to prevent people from escaping to the West
-came to symbolize the Cold War
Domino Theory
-the idea that if one country became communist, its neighbors would then turn communist and then
other neighbors would turn communist, etc.
Bay of Pigs
-(1961) U.S. /C.I.A. planned invasion of Cuba by Cubans to overthrow Castro
-FAILED
Cuban Missile Crisis
-(1962) 13-day confrontation in between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic
missiles deployed in Cuba.
-U.S. naval ships set a blockade around Cuba
-U.S.S.R agreed to pull nuclear missiles out of Cuba
-U.S. agreed to pull missiles out of Turkey
-Height of Cold War
-Closest we’ve ever come to Nuclear War
Vietnam War
-(1960’s-1970’s)Vietnam divided into a communist North & non-communist South
-U.S. supported South – after years of fighting and huge casualties, U.S. walked left
-Vietnam became one, communist nation under Ho Chi Minh
“Prague Spring”
-(1968) Czechoslovakian Hungarian uprising against Soviet Union
-crushed by Soviet tanks and troops
Space Race
-U.S. and U.S.S.R competed to be first in space
-competed to put 1st man in space (U.S.S.R.) and put 1st man on moon,(U.S.)
1970’s
Détente
-gradual cooling of tensions in the 1970’s between U.S. & U.S.S.R.
Chilean Spring
-after Chile elected a communist leader (Allende), U.S. helps to remove him and install a noncommunist dictator (Pinochet).
1980’s
Chernobyl Disaster
-(1986) explosion at a nuclear power plant in U.S.S.R. leads to hundreds of thousands killed,
health and safety of millions more compromised
-Soviet govt. was slow to react and ask for help-made things worse
Mikael Gorbachev
-final leader of the U.S.S.R.
-recognized that communism and totalitarianism was not working
-policies of Perestroika and Glasnost both helped lead to end of Cold War
Perestroika
-Gorbachev policy-allows for some capitalism & making U.S.S.R. less communist
Glasnost
-Gorbachev policy allows for less censorship and more openness with the West
Ronald Reagan
-U.S. President 1981-1989
-outspent Gorbachev in arms race, forcing Gorbachev to wind down Cold War
Berlin Wall Comes Down/German Reunification
-(1989) in many ways symbolized the end of the Cold War
Tiananmen Square Massacre
-(1989) China-Protest by Chinese students in nation’s capital
-demanded democracy, freedom of speech/press, fair trials, etc.
-Chinese govt. brought in tanks/troops and crushed the protests
Break-Up/Collapse of Soviet Union
-(1991) Gorbachev (peacefully) turns Russia over to Boris Yeltsin
-Led to the creation of nations that had been part of the Soviet Union for decades
(Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, etc.)