What do you know?

Why was the Cold War important to the United States’

involvement in Asia?

THE COLD WARWhy is it “cold”?

No actual military fighting (ex. guns, bombs) happened

between the U.S. and Soviet Union

The War Before

World War II

• lasted from 1939 to 1945

• involved most of the world's nations

Two competing military partnerships:

• the Allies

(U.K., U.S., Soviet Union)

• the Axis powers

(Germany, Japan, Italy) Roosevelt (U.S.)

Stalin (Soviet Union)

Churchill (U.K.)

COLD WAR: The Beginning

Allies (U.K., U.S., Soviet Union) winWWII in 1945.

Governments and the balance of power around the world drastically changed

The communist Soviet Union and the democratic United States became rival superpowers (have nuclear

weapons)

This started the Cold War which lasted for the next 44 years (1947-1991).

Communism vs. Democracy Despite being allies against the

Axis powers, the Soviet Union and the US disagreed about politics and the arrangement of the post-war world

Eastern Bloc

• Soviet Union occupied Eastern European countries

Containment Policy

• U.S. tries to keep communism from spreading to other countries

What is the COLD WAR? The democratic United States and the

communist Soviet Union competed with each other to get other countries around the world to support their type of governing – democratic or communist.

How was the Cold War

“fought”?

No DIRECT fighting with the military (ex. guns, bombs) b/w Soviet Union & U.S. happened

Proxy (substitute)wars – U.S. and Soviet Union backed different sides in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and more

How else was the Cold War

“fought”? military alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact)

Sending soldiers to areas (but not fighting)

Helping weaker nations

Espionage (spying)

Propaganda (spreading rumors)

nuclear arms races (who had more weapons?)

appeals to neutral nations

rivalry at sports events (ex. Olympics)

technological competitions (ex. Space Race)

The Cold War was a terrifying time because of the high stakes involved with new weapons and mutually assured destruction. Tensions peaked in the early 1960s when JFK

(U.S.) and Khrushchev (Soviet) took us to the brink of nuclear war, which would have killed billions and ended

human civilization as we know it.

Cold War ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

What do you know?

Why was the Cold War important to the

United States involvement in Asia?

What do you know?

1. What is the “domino theory”?

2. What is the “containment policy”?

3. What do they have to do with the Untied States involvement in Japan, Vietnam, and Korea?