Hot War EndsCold War Begins
1945-1990
©2011 Houston Independent School District
The Cold War…
In 1945, one major war ended and another
began…The Cold War lasted about 45 years.
The United States became the leader of the
free-market capitalist world. America and its
allies struggled to keep the communist,
totalitarian Soviet Union from expanding into
Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Cold War
Definition: The antagonism between the
United States and the Soviet Union using
other nations to do the fighting.
1946-1990
Domestic Issues…
Balance of Power influenced both Domestic
and Foreign Policy…
 Arms Race
 Space Race
 Senator Joseph McCarthy searches for the
“enemy within” – communists in America
 Prosperity of the 1950s… “Happy Days”
Balance of Power…
if you do then I will…
United States uses
the first atomic
bomb against
Japan to end WWII
and continues
development of
nuclear weapons…
Soviets feel they
have to try and
keep up in an arms
race with more and
more powerful
weapons…
+ US
Arms
Race…
.
US – Jumps into the
space race with the
creation of NASA
and plans for
manned space
flight leading to
travel to the moon
in 1969…and
increased money
and emphasis on
math and science
education
+
USSR
1957 – The Soviets
launch the first orbital
space craft – Sputnik
– beginning the space
race and the
challenge of
advanced math and
science education
TO the United
States LANDING
ON THE MOON –
Apollo 11 1969
SPUTNIK - 1957
SPACE RACE
McCarthyism…
Where are the
Communists???
McCarthyism…
Searching for subversives within…
Foreign Policy Issues…
Truman Doctrine – Policy of Containment
Marshall Plan – Economic Aid to Europe
Berlin Blockade/Airlift
NATO
Korean Conflict
Cuban Missile Crisis
Europe after WWII
Cold War – Fear of Soviet Aggression
March 1946--Sir Winston Churchill
delivers his Iron Curtain speech at
Westminster College in Missouri after
accepting an honorary degree.
“From Stettin in the Baltic to
Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron
curtain has descended across the
Continent.”
Truman Doctrine 1947
US policy to help any
country fighting
against Communism
– first enacted as aid
to Greece and
Turkey…it shifted US
foreign policy toward
the Soviets to a policy
of containment.
Marshall Plan for European
Recovery
Berlin Airlift
June 1948-May
1949
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Containment…
There were no direct military campaigns
between the United States and the Soviet
Union. Yet billions of dollars and millions of
lives were lost in the fight.
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Afghanistan, and
Angola all became battlegrounds between
the two ideologies of democratic/capitalism
versus communist/socialism and neither
side intended to retreat…
Where
will “the
Soviet
Bear”
stop???
Korean Conflict 1950 - 1953
FACTS ABOUT "THE FORGOTTEN WAR“
A UN Mission with troops from 24 countries
33,741 US Dead
23,615 Killed In Action
92,134 US Wounded*
4,820 US Missing In Action (Declared Dead)
7,245 Prisoners Of War
2,847 Died in POW Camp
Brand New Missiles!!!
n
n
1956--America's first
ICBM
(Intercontinental
Ballastic Missile)
1956--The US
develops the Polaris
missile, which can be
launched from a
submerged
submarine.
Cuban
Missile
Crisis
13 Days in
the Fall of
1962 when
the world
lived on the
edge of
nuclear war
The Growth of the Berlin Wall
1961-1989
Escalation in Vietnam…
The Turbulent 60s
The Soviet- Afghan War
n
1979--Embarking on their own version of Vietnam, the
USSR sends tanks, troops, aircraft to Afghanistan.
The US and many Muslim states
would support Afghan rebels who
would fight for religious reasons
as well as nationalistic reasons.
The Soviet Union’s Final “Czar”
1987 Gorbachev
campaigns for
glasnost &
perestroika
-glasnost: freedom of
speech and release of
some political prisoners
- perestroika: small
scale private ownership
[instead of government
ownership
Instability and Collapse
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1989 Demonstrations in
Tiananmen Square
East Germans begin to
move to West Germany
through Hungary
Hungary and
Czechoslovakia vote out
Communist rule (Velvet
Revolution)
Romania votes out
Communist rule but has
short civil war
(Ceausescu)
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1989 Berlin Wall comes
down
1990 Reunification of
Germany
Pope John Paul II, born
in Poland, uses the
leverage of his position
as the leader of all
Catholics world-wide to
end communism
1989 In Poland,
Solidarity wins the
national legislative
elections (org. of
ordinary workers)
1990 Lech Walesa
elected President of
Poland managing its
transition to a postcommunist state
Soviet Union Collapses
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1991 Coup in Soviet
Union gets rid of
communism and
speeds the break-up
of the Soviet Union
Gorbachev resigns;
Yeltsin elected
President
START (Strategic
Arms Reduction
Treaty) is initiated
You Decide: Who Won the Cold War?
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There was no announced
winner, so you set the
criteria, and decide who
came out on top....
Consider:
The Space Race
 The Arms Race
 Conflict
 Containment
 Other factors…

Work in a small group to
determine who gets the trophy.