Cold War

Albert Einstein

• German born American immigrant

• Famous physicist and teacher

• Convinced Franklin D. Roosevelt to create the Manhattan Project

• Famous for this theory of relativity (E=mc²)

• Taught at Princeton University

Harry S. Truman

• President from 1945 (when president Franklin D. Roosevelt died) to 1952• Democrat• Made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II• Led the United States into the Cold War after unsuccessful meeting with Joseph

Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, at Potsdam• Introduced the Cold War foreign policies of containment and the Truman

Doctrine• Committed U.S. troops to the Korean War• First President to send U.S. aid into the situation that would become the Vietnam

War• Domestic agenda known as the Fair Deal• Won famously close election against Thomas Dewey in 1948• Promoted civil rights, although Congress was unreceptive• Desegregated the Armed Forces• Well known for candor that made him unpopular during his time but endeared him

to historians

Truman Doctrine

• Cold War foreign policy that decreed the United States would provide economic and military aid to any nation attempting to fight against communism

• President Harry S. Truman first exercised this principle by asking Congress for $500 million to send to Greece and Turkey in 1947, when Greece was fighting a civil war, one side of which sought to establish a communist government

Fair Deal

• Domestic agenda of Harry S.Truman

• Largely an attempt to continue New Deal policies in the year after World War II

Potsdam

• Site of meeting between Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Harry S. Truman (who had recently become president when Franklin D. Roosevelt died) just before the end of World War II

• Truman alienated Stalin, contributing to the tension that led to the onset of the Cold War

Manhattan Project

• The secret program to develop an atomic bomb during World War II

• Worked in New Mexico

• Staffed by a number of famous scientists, including Robert J. Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein

• Resulted in the creation of the atomic bomb, as used by the United States against Japan to end World War II

Atomic Bomb

• A weapon of mass destruction created by splitting atoms

• Used by the United States against Japan to end World War II

• Developed by the secret Manhattan Project

United Nations

• International organization founded at the end of World War II to help arbitrate international disagreements before they led to wars; agreed upon by Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Yalta conference

• First met in San Francisco in 1945

• Eleanor Roosevelt served as first U.S. representative to this organization

Marshall Plan

• Massive program of American aid to help European nations rebuild after World War II

• Undertaken during the presidency of Harry S. Truman

• Helped solidify western European opposition to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact

Soviet Union

• Communist nation that rose to be a world superpower during the Cold War

• Had been American ally in World War II but quickly became rival once the war ended

• Formed protective alliances, including COMECON and the Warsaw Pact

• Included Russia and 15 republics in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

Berlin Airlift

• American and British joint effort to supply residents of West Berlin with food and other necessities after the Soviet Union blockaded the small, free enclave in the middle of East Germany.

• Made Berlin an international symbol of freedom

Taft-Hartley Act

• Strongly anti-labor union legislation that the Republican controlled Congress pushed through in 1947

• Repealed large sections of the Wagner Act; vetoed by Harry S. Truman, who had not been particularly kind to organized labor but said that this bill was too harsh

• Congress overrode Truman’s veto

• Helped to build Truman’s campaign to unexpectedly win reelection in 1948

Berlin Wall

• Constructed by the Soviet Union in 1961 to keep East Germans from leaving the country by entering the democratic West Berlin

• Site of John F. Kennedy’s famous visit in 1963

• Destroyed in 1989 when East and West Germany re-unified as the Eastern European Bloc of Soviet satellites began to fall apart

Dwight D. Eisenhower

• President of the United States from 1952 – 1960

• Was a general in World War II

• Led Allied forces on D-Day

• Republican

• Intensified the Cold War

• Minimal Domestic policy

• Oversaw the creation of the interstate highway system

• Warned of the military industrial complex

Cold War

•

• The extended tensions between the United States and its allies (NATO) and the Soviet Union and its allies (Warsaw Pact)

• Began at the end of World War II• Major events include the Berlin airlift, the Korean

War, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, and the Vietnam War

• Major American foreign policy ideas relating to the Cold War include containment, brinkmanship, deterrence, the domino theory, and détente

• Ended during George Bush’s presidency when first the Warsaw Pact and then the Soviet Union dissolved

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• Cold War alliance formed in 1949 by the United States and western European nations for mutual defense against the Soviet Union and its communist satellite states (which later organized the Warsaw Pact)

Warsaw Pact

• Military Pact between the Soviet Union and its communist satellite states to serve as a counterbalance to NATO

• Formed in 1955

Korean War

• Conflict early in the Cold War in which the United States lead a United Nations force aiding South Korea in a civil war against communist North Korea

• War ended in a stalemate, as North and South Korea agreed to settle to the borders they had before the Korean War

• Division of Korea into north and south has been caused by Soviet and American occupation during World War II

Deterrence

• American Cold War policy pioneered Dwight D. Eisenhower.

• Posited that the threat of “massive retaliation”- Eisenhower’s term for an American nuclear attack- would prevent the Soviet Union from undertaking policies it knew would upset the United States.

• Operated as a justification for an increase in the American supply or armaments, particularly nuclear weapons.

McCarthyism

• Nickname for the national witch-hunt for communists that took place during the height of the Cold War, in the early 1950’s

• Nickname comes from the leadership in this effort by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy

• Came to an end when McCarthy took on the U.S. Army, which was too powerful for his intimidation tactics

• McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954 for his conduct

John F. Kennedy

• President from 1960-1963, when he was assassinated

• Won an extremely close election over Richard M. Nixon in 1960

• Youngest president ever elected

• Only Catholic president ever

• Domestic agenda was called the New Frontier and was largely uneventful

• Oversaw the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, United States response to the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the early escalation of American involvement in the Vietnam War

• Lyndon B. Johnson pushed civil rights legislation through Congress, in part by evoking Kennedy’s memory.

New Frontier

•Domestic agenda of John F. Kennedy; most of Kennedy’s proposals failed to make it through Congress

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

• Government agency which coordinates American exploration of outer space

• Founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was president

• Greatest moment was when Apollo 11 mission (1969) landed men on the moon, meeting John F. Kennedy’s challenge to beat the Soviets to the moon before the end of the 1960’s

Bay of Pigs invasion

• Ill fated 1961 secret mission to overthrow the communist Cuban government of Fidel Castro

• Authorized by John F. Kennedy just after his inauguration

• Failed mission both angered the governments of Cuba and the Soviet Union and embarrassed America in eyes of U.S. allies

Cuban Missile Crisis

• 1962 Cold War event triggered when American intelligence discovered missiles belonging to the Soviet Union in Cuba and John F. Kennedy went on national television demanding the removal of the missiles

• Prime example of brinksmanship• Closest the United States and the Soviet Union ever came to beginning

a war• Ended when Soviets agreed to remove missiles in return for U.S.

agreement not to invade Cuba again (after the Bay of Pigs invasion) and secret deal to remove American missiles from Turkey

Brinksmanship

• American Cold War strategy by which conflicts with the Soviet Union were allowed to build to the verge of war without any negotiation

• Pioneered by Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration

• Exemplified by the Cuban Missile Crisis

Containment

• Strategic foundation of the American approach to the cold war

• Held that the united states must work to stop the spread of communism anywhere that it sought to expand

• Contributed to the Truman doctrine, the Korean war, the Berlin airlift, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Vietnam war, among other events.

Vietnam War

• Cold War conflict between communist North Vietnam and nationalist South Vietnam, supported by the United States

• American advisors were aiding the South Vietnamese from the presidency of Harry S. Truman to the presidency of John F. Kennedy, when American military presence in Vietnam expanded

• War ended in 1973, when Richard Nixon agreed to remove American troops, an action that followed by North Vietnamese takeover of South Vietnam

• The war was escalated most strongly by Lyndon B. Johnson and then by Nixon, who began secret bombings and invasions of Cambodia

• Extremely controversial in the United States, leading to massive youth protests, the expansion of the counterculture, and disarray in the Democratic party, which was nationally televised at the Democratic convention of 1968

Domino theory

• Another American Cold War concept from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration.

• Theory that United States must enforce containment in third world countries, because once one nation fell to communism, its neighbors would likely follow, just like falling dominoes.

Lyndon B. Johnson

• President from 1963 (after the assassination of John F. Kennedy) to 1968

• Escalated the Vietnam War

• Domestically presided over the implementation of Great Society legislation

• Pushed civil rights legislation (Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965) through Congress

• Had been U.S. senator from Texas before coming vice president

• Chose not to run for reelection in 1968 because of controversy over the Vietnam War

Great Society

• Domestic agenda of Lyndon B. Johnson

• Created the broadest array of government-funded social programs since the New deal

• Worked to alleviate economic injustice

• Often called the war on poverty

• Included first major successful civil rights legislation

Counterculture

• Name for the youth movement in the 1960’s that was in opposition to the general principles of the prevailing culture

• Included movements dedicated to liberal politics, feminism, civil rights, and communal living, in addition to brad agreement about opposition to the Vietnam War

• Played major role in the popularity of political rock-n-roll, including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and others

Richard M. Nixon

• President from 1968-1874• Republican• Served as vice president under Dwight D.

Eisenhower, but lost the 1960 presidential election• Ran successfully for governor of California in 1962• Made remarkable political comeback in 1968• Originated foreign policy of detenté• First U.S. president to recognize and visit

communist China• Resigned in disgrace after the Watergate scandal

enveloped his presidency

Détente

• American Cold War policy pioneered by Richard Nixon

• Policy held that working with Cold War enemies to expand trade and create treaties would make war less likely

• Resulted in first American arms treaties with the Soviet Union and American recognition of the communist government of China for the first time

Watergate

• Scandal that forced Richard Nixon to resign from the presidency

• Began when burglars, acting on instruction from the White House, broke into the Democratic party campaign headquarters in the Watergate Hotel before the 1972 election

• Burglars were caught, and the scandal grew out of the White House effort to cover up what had happened

• When Nixon resigned on April 9, 1974, Gerald Ford became president

Energy crisis

• mid-1970 crisis created when middle Eastern oil-production nations (Working together in a group called OPEC) first raised the price of oil considerably and then refused to export oil to nations that supported Israel

• Set off massive inflation in the United States

Ronald Reagan

• President from 1980-1988• Republican• Had been a movie actor and then governor of California• Extremely popular• Advocated massive arms build up in the Cold War• Slashed taxes to fit his theory of supply-side (trickle-down)

economics• Severely cut government spending in all areas but military

expansion• Instituted deficit spending• Second term as president was marred by Iran Contra scandal

George Bush

• President from 1988-1992• Republican; served as vice president under

Ronald Reagan• Domestic agenda was largely consumed with

trying to fix problems caused by the deficits of the Reagan years

• Foreign policy was crowned by leadership of the United Nations coalition that won the Persian Gulf War

• Was president when the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Persian Gulf War

• Fought in 1990 and 1991

• Began when Iraq invaded Kuwait, a small nation that exports a large volume of oil

• President Gorge Bush organized a coalition through the UNITED NATIONS that sent an international force to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait

• The U.N force was victorious in only 42 days

War of Resolution

• Attempts to restore the balance of powers outlined by the Constitution after the assumption of presidential ( or executive ) power during the Korean War and the Vietnam War

• Passed in 1973

• Requires the president to seek congressional approval within 60 days of the deployment of American troops

• What was the guiding principle of the American foreign policy throughout the Cold War where nations should not roll back communism but keep it from spreading and resist communist aggression in other nations?

• Truman Doctrine• Fair Deal• Marshall Plan• Monroe Doctrine

• What was formed near the end of World War II to create a body for the nations of the world to try to prevent future global wars?

• NATO• United Nations• OPEC• Truman Doctrine

• What was the result of the Korean War? • North and South Korea became one under a

democratic government.• North and South Korea became one under a

communist government.• North Korea and South Korea stayed divided at the

17th parallel with North Korea under a communist government and South Korea free of communist occupation.

• North Korea and South Korea stayed divided at the 38th parallel with North Korea under a communist government and South Korea free of communist occupation.

• Who played on Americans fear of communism by recklessly accusing many American governmental officials and citizens of being communists with flimsy or no evidence?

• Joseph McCarthy• Douglas MacArthur• Robert McNamara• Earl Warren

• What agreement was made between the Soviet Union and its satellite nations in Western Europe?

• Berlin Wall• Yalta Agreement• Great Society• Warsaw Pact

• Who was NOT convicted of spying for the Soviet Union or giving them our plans for nuclear weapons?

• Ethel Rosenberg• Alger Hiss• Julius Rosenberg• Joseph McCarthy

• What type of government was created in West Germany when it resumed self-government after Allied occupation?

• Communism• democracy• Oligarchy• Monarchy

• Who was president when the U.S. adopted the policy of massive retaliation?

• President Nixon• President Truman• President Eisenhower• President Kennedy

• What nation was aiding Cuba with tanks, jets,  and missiles?

• USSR• Vietnam   • Korea• China

• The domino theory was a foreign policy that proposed which of the following arguments?

• If a communist revolution were to succeed in one Asian country, then other nearby nations would also turn to communism.

• Foreign policy in Asia was a game.• If the United States colonized one Asian

country, then the Asian trade market would open dramatically.

• If one Asian country were to become a democracy, then other nearby nations would also become democracies.

• Who said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" as well as increased America's  military and economic pressure on the Soviet Union?

• Ronald Reagan• Gerald Ford• Jimmy Carter• George Bush

• Which is NOT a true about how the threat of  a nuclear war affected Americans?

• Schools practiced drills to train children about what to do in case of a nuclear attack.

• American citizens built bomb shelters in their basements, back yards, or communities.

• Americans immigrated to Canada and other countries not in disagreements with the USSR.

• Americans bought dog tags, radiation protection clothing, and other items claiming they would offer protection during a nuclear attack.

• The CIA created a plan to help Cuban exiles invade and overthrow Castro.  Where did the invasion occur in Cuba?

• Hanoi• Bay of Pigs• Guantanamo• Havana

• What was formed as a defensive alliance among the United States and western European countries to prevent a Soviet invasion of Western Europe?

• UN• Anti-Communism League• NATO• OPEC

• Who said, "the US would pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty?"

• John F. Kennedy• Joseph McCarthy• Dwight D. Eisenhower• Richard Nixon

• At the start of the Korean War, who invaded whom?

• North Korea invaded South Korea• South Korea invaded North Korea• China and North Korea invaded

South Korea• South Korea and the US invaded

North Korea

• Which of the following is the policy reflected by American's involvement in the Korean War?

• massive retaliation• brinkmanship• ouch theory• containment

• Which is NOT an example of how the heavy expenditures throughout the Cold War benefited Virginia's economy?

• the Pentagon was built in Northern Virginia• Numerous private companies received

contracts with the military• Richmond became the headquarters of the

CIA• several large naval and air bases were built

around the Hampton Roads area

• Which of the following American military interventions was NOT based on the Cold War theory of containment?

• The Berlin airlift• The Persian Gulf War• The Vietnam War• The Cuban missile crisis

• Who led a communist revolution that took over Cuba in the late 1950s?

• Fulgencio Batista• Nikita Khrushchev• Fidel Castro• Ho Chi Minh

• Which of the following Cold War events was an example of détente?

• The Cuban Missile Crisis• The Korean War• The Berlin airlift• Nixon's visit to China

• Following its defeat, Japan was occupied by the American forces.  Which is NOT true about Japan during this time period?

• Japan became a strong ally of the United States.

• Japan adopted a democratic form of government.

• Japan eventually resumed self-government.• Japan adopted communism.

• The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union marked the

• end of the Cold War• failure of the Marshall Plan• success of the League of Nations• end of the Korean War

• What was the U.S. plan to provide massive financial aid to rebuild European economies and prevent the spread of communism?

• NATO• Marshall Plan• United Nations• Truman Doctrine

• Which nation saw a communist takeover shortly after World War II?

• China• Laos• South Korea• South Vietnam

• What does McCarthyism mean? • making false accusations based on

rumor or guilt by association• never backing down even if it means

war• keep bombing until someone gives in• keeping communism within its borders

• Which is NOT an internal problem of the Soviet Union?

• The United States could not compete with the USSR's military expenses.

• Rising nationalism in Soviet republics• Gorbachev's ideas of "glasnost" and

"perestroika" or openness and economic restructuring

• Economic efficiency

• What became the foreign and the domestic policy issues in every presidential election from the late 1940s through the 1960s?

• Cold War and abortion rights• Cold War and civil rights• Vietnam War and voting rights for all

citizens• Vietnam War and poverty

• The Soviet Union and the United States represent starkly different fundamental values.  Which of the following statements explains these different values?

• The USSR believes in  a totalitarian government with a communist (socialist) economic system while the US believes in a democratic political institution and a generally free market economic system.

• The USSR believes in a communist government while the US believes in a monarchy.

• The US believes in laissez-faire economics and a democratic government while the USSR believes in a free market and democratic government.

• Both the USSR and US believe in a democratic government but the USSR believes their rulers should have communist tendencies.

• President Kennedy was assassinated on what date?

• November 22, 1963• September 2, 1945• April 4, 1968• May 17, 1954

• When did the Cold War end? • at the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989• when North and South Vietnam merged

in 1975• in 1963 with the assassination of

President Kennedy• in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Who said in his inaugural address, "As k not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country?"

• Dwight D. Eisenhower• Lyndon B. Johnson• Richard Nixon• John F. Kennedy

• Which of the following best describes United States involvement in the Korean War?

• United States involvement was an example of the policy of containment.

• United States involvement was part of a détente policy.

• The United States did not commit military forces to fight in Korea.

• The United States and the Soviet Union committed military forces to fight as allies in Korea.

• Where was JFK when he was shot?

• Los Angeles, California• Harlem, New York• Memphis, Tennessee• Dallas, Texas

• What country's forces came to the aid of North Korea when the United States and South Korean military pushed into North Korea?

• China• Cuba• USSR• North Vietnam

• When did the Cold War begin? • at the start of the Korean War• at the start of World War II• at the end of World War II• at the end of the World War I

• What portion of Germany did the Soviet Union gain control of?

• Western• southern• Northern• Eastern

• All of the following were Cold War responses to Soviet aggression EXCEPT

• The Berlin airlift• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization• The Truman Doctrine• President Truman's decision to drop the

atomic bomb

• The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was a response to concerns over

• congressional abuse of authority in deployment of US military forces

• an imbalance of powers in deployment of US military forces

• Supreme Court interference in the deployment of US military forces

• under use of  military forces

• The US and USSR come closest to the brink of a nuclear war due to the events at what site?

• Hungary• Berlin• Cuba• Vietnam   

• Who was the politician who led a congressional hearing into communist infiltration o f the American government and society?

• Dwight D. Eisenhower• Richard Nixon• Henry Cabot Lodge• Joseph McCarthy

• What type of relationship did the communist nations of the Soviet Union and China have in the 1970s?

• They were allied until the fall of the Berlin Wall.

• They were strong allies.• They were under one government.• They were rivals for territory and

diplomatic influence.

• The 1950s domestic hysteria over the infiltration of communists into American government and society is known as

• the Red Scare• McCarthyism• the domino theory• the Salem Witch Trials

• Which of the following was primarily characterized by tension between the Soviet Union and the United States?

• The McCarthy hearings• The Crimean War• Japanese internment• the Cold War

• The Bay of Pigs invasion, authorized by President John F. Kennedy, was an attempt to unseat which of the following communist leaders?

• Kim Il Sung• Ho Chi Minh• Mao Tse-tung• Fidel Castro

• The economic theory implemented by President Ronald Reagan is known as

• the domino theory• trust-busting• trickle-down economics• isolationism

• What was the agreement ending the Cuban missile crisis?

• The USSR would remove their missiles from Cuba and the US would remove their troops from Florida.

• The US and USSR both agree to destroy all their nuclear weapons.

• The US would allow Soviet ships past the 500 mile barrier around Cuba and the USSR would apologize for pointing nuclear missiles at US cities.

• The US would not invade Cuba and the USSR would remove their  missiles from Cuba.

• Compared to public support for US involvement in the Korean War, public support of the US military intervention in southeast Asia during the 1960s and early 1970s is best described as

• more controversial• a little bit stronger• much stronger• about the same

• How did the Cold War affect American life?

• Americans lived with a fear of communism and threat of nuclear war.

• Americans felt that nuclear war would never occur and went on living a good life.

• Americans banded together and believed that no matter the cost we should aid all countries in fighting communism.

• Americans feared that World War III would occur with our opponent, Germany.

• Anti-Communist fear found a responsive environment in the US after WWII partly because of

• the loss of China to communism.• the United States' dropping the atomic

bomb on Japan.• The depressed economy in the United

States after the war.• the Soviet Union's testing of an atomic

weapon.

• At the end of World War II, what nation occupied most of Eastern and Central Europe?

• Germany• United States• Soviet Union• Japan

• President Nixon practiced détente, policy aimed at easing Cold War tensions, by visiting which communist nation?

• Vietnam• Cuba• China• USSR

• Who was the last leader of the Soviet Union?

a) Nikita Khrushchevb) Joseph Stalinc) Mikhail Gorbachevd) Vladimir Lenin

• What does perestroika mean? a) giving government grants to

educationb) reforming Soviet societyc) reforming the military to make it

strongerd) restructuring communist societies

• What does glasnost mean? • reforming society thru federal aid• helping aid other  communist

countries• ignoring social issues of civilians• openness in discussing social

issues

• In what country did the military kill hundreds of college students protesting for freedom?

• China• Vietnam• Germany• USSR

• What was the purpose of the START II Treaty?

• The USSR and US agree to stop building nuclear weapons.

• The USSR and US agree to stop the space race.

• The USSR and US agree to build more nuclear weapons.

• The USSR and US agree to reduce the number of nuclear weapons.

• Which is NOT a problem the Soviet Union was facing before it collapsed?

• Military and economic pressure from the United States

• Rising nationalism in the republics• Military spending was cheap so they

began making too many weapons• Economic inefficiency

• Who was president of the United States when the Soviet Union collapsed?

• George H.W. Bush• Ronald Reagan• John F. Kennedy• Jimmy Carter

• What European country reunited after the USSR collapsed?

• Germany• Poland• Italy• Hungary

• All of the following are examples of how the Cold War helped Virginia's economy EXCEPT

• building naval and air bases in Hampton Roads

• contracting private companies to do military work

• building the Pentagon in Northern Virginia• building naval training center at Annapolis