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What do you think this cartoon
means?
Superpowers
 
Superpowers:
Nations stronger
than other powerful
nations
 
 
WWII left Europe
and Japan in ruin
Two great powers
remained:
United States and
Soviet Union
Game depicts the 1980 U.S. vs.
U.S.S.R. Olympic hockey game.
Facing off
NATO symbol with member
country flags
 
Warsaw Pact pin
Each formed European military alliance made up of
nations it occupied or protected
  U.S. = North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
  U.S.S.R.= Warsaw Pact
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Iron Curtain
 
In 1946 speech,
Stalin predicted
communism to
triumph over
capitalism
 
In response,
Churchill coined
the term ‘Iron
Curtain’
Iron Curtain
 
Curtain
represented the
‘line’ between
democratic West
and communist
East.
 
What else did the
line separate?
Iron Curtain
 
Curtain represented
the ‘line’ between
democratic West
and communist East
 
What else did the
line separate?
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Iron Curtain
 
Iron curtain was
‘sealing off the
countries in Eastern
Europe’
 
“An iron curtain has
descended across the
Continent. Behind that line
lie all the capitals of the
ancient states of Central and
Eastern Europe….these
famous cities lie in what I
must call the Soviet sphere,
and are all subject….to a
very high…measure of
control from Moscow.”
-Winston Churchill, 1946
Berlin
 
City was a focus point
of Cold War tensions.
 
Split into democratic
West Berlin and
communist East Berlin.
 
Democratic areas of
Germany were
prosperous
  Communist
(eastern) residents
were jealous!!
Those East Germans were Green with
jealousy
Western Berlin
 
This area became a showcase for
how prosperous Western areas
were.
 
A massive wave of East
Germans, unhappy with
communism, fled to West
Berlin.
 
Communists not happy with
this!
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Berlin Wall
 
Built in 1961 to stop the
flight of East Berliners to
West Berlin.
 
Massive concrete barrier,
topped with barbed wire
and patrolled by guards
 
Showed that workers had
to be forcibly kept from
fleeing.
 
Not the communist
‘paradise’ at all!
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Other Cold War Tensions
 
Revolts began against
Soviet rule in East
Germany, Poland,
Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia.
  Demonstrators
couldn’t stand up to
Russian defenses.
  Revolts were put
down hard.
Viva la Revolucion!
 
‘Prague Spring’:
Czechoslovakian leader
introduced freedom of
expression and limited
democracy
 
Seen as threat to Soviet
domination.
 
Warsaw Pact troops
invaded and stopped
these freedoms .
Nuclear Threat!
 
Most threatening
aspect of Cold War
 
Arms race between
US and USSR
Photo of the first Soviet nuclear bomb
detonation. 1949.
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Arms Race
 
U.S. drops first Atomic
bomb in Japan (1945).
 
Soviet Union creates own
Atomic Bomb in 1949.
  Start of Arms Race
 
U.S. makes bigger bomb.
Hydrogen bomb - 1953
  Soviet Union makes
one 8 months later.
 
This also applies to other military
equipment: submarines,
aircraft, etc.
Arms Race (cont.)
 
Bombs got bigger and
bigger
 
Each side tried to get
the upper hand.
  Built huge stockpiles
of bombs.
  This is the “Race”
 
Delivery systems start with
bombers then switch to
ballistic missiles.
Minuteman II Test Missile Launch
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