The Cold War

1945-1991

What is it?

• Cold = tensions

• Tension b/w USA & Soviet Union

• Democracy v. Communism

• Almost war

Berlin Airlift• Germany divided after WWII

• USSR blocks Allies from Berlin

– Fly in supplies

• Eventually build Berlin Wall

Alliances• NATO: US, France, Great Britain, Canada, & 8 other

European nations

• Warsaw Pact: USSR & Eastern Europe

Iron Curtain

• Speech by Winston Churchill

• Means the world is split in two: West & East

Not an actual curtain—METAPHOR

Arms Race

• We have nukes; they want nukes

• They get nukes

• We get nervous. We build better nukes. (H-Bomb)

• They build better nukes.

• We threaten each other with our nukes: Mutually Assured Destruction

• We agree not to blow each other up…but keep our hands hovered over the BIG RED BUTTON…just in case.

Cuban Missile Crisis

• USSR puts nuclear weapons in Cuba

• USA threatens to attack

• 13 days of tension—USSR agrees to back off

• Almost nuclear WW3

Space Race• USA & USSR want beat each other into space

– Maybe send weapons?

– Shows who is powerful

• USSR: first satellite (Sputnik), first animal (dog) & man into space (Yuri Gagarin)

• USA: first man to land on the moon

Cold War Heats Up in Asia

• China becomes communist seen as “lost”

• North Korean tries to become communist Korean War UN & US involvement Korea divides into North and South

• N. Vietnam tries to become communist US gets involved Vietnam war lasts 10+ years US withdraws in 1970s all of Vietnam falls to communism

Collapse of USSR• Gorbachev comes to power in USSR, allows

freedoms

• Reagan: anti-communist, calls for fall of Berlin Wall—symbol of freedom

Torn down in 1989

Collapse of USSR

• USSR loses territory, people rebel

• Soviet Union dissolved in 1991