THE COLD WAR

The Cold War ● The Cold War was an intense period of conflict and competition between the US and Russia after WWII. ● Russia was trying to spread communism around the world. ● The US was trying to contain the spread of communism and promote democracies.

Soviet Union ● After WWI, the Russian empire had a civil war. ● With the development of communism and the totalitarian dictatorship of Stalin, Russia began spreading the idea of communism to neighboring countries. ● They formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) also called the Soviet Union. ● In this union, Russia controlled the other countries like a puppet master controls puppets..

Germany After WWII ● The Allies did not want to take the chance that Germany would rise up after WWII and start another war. ● Therefore, Germany was divided up into 4 sections and militarily controlled by the US, Russia, Britain, and France. Berlin, even though in Russia's section is also divided.

Berlin Airlift ● Soviets blockade ground routes to West Berlin, controlled by US and British forces. Soviets want British and US to give up their claims to West Berlin because Berlin is in Soviet territory. ● Soviets don’t want their citizens to escape to W. Berlin and then leave Soviet control forever. Soviets also want to control all of Germany forever. ● The US and Britain refuse to give up their area to Soviet rule because they want to eventually set up an independent democracy in Germany. ● Not bowing down to the will of the Soviets and not wanting war, the US send supplies by air to the people of W. Berlin.

The Marshall Plan ● The US came up with the Marshall Plan to provide war-torn Western European countries much needed financial support to rebuild their countries infrastructures and economies. ● The US offered it to prevent those countries from turning to communist Russia for help.

Containment ● Containment was a theory and US Cold War policy that the US should give financial and military aid to any country to stop the spread of communism to that country. ● The official US policy was called the TRUMAN DOCTRINE. The US feared the DOMINO THEORY (if one country fell to communism, the countries next to it would soon follow.)

Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council ● The CIA was created as an espionage (spying) agency for the US during the Cold War. ● The NSC was created to advise the President on national security issues and foreign matters.

Korean War ● This war was an important turning point in the Cold War because US went against the Monroe Doctrine and practiced CONTAINMENT for the first time. It showed that the US would fight against the spread of communism in Asia. ● N. Korea (communist) invaded S. Korea (democratic) ● UN forces led by US general Douglas MacArthur push N. Koreans back across 38 th Parallel.

Korean War ● China (communist) gets involved and helps N. Korea. A stalemate occurs. ● MacArthur wants to continue fighting and fight Chinese if necessary. Truman does not want war with China ● MacArthur’s disagreement with Truman becomes public and he is fired. ● Eisenhower becomes president and ends war. S. Korea remains a democracy. A victory for US but some believe that MacArthur could have made all of Korea democratic.

McCarthyism ● Senator Joseph McCarthy was the key figure in the spread of the fear of communism in the US in the 1950s. ● He and the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) accused many Americans of being communist and ruined many innocent lives in the process. ● Not only did it spread the fear of communism but it also spread the fear of being accused of being Communists.

U-2 Incident ● A US U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia. ● The US initially denied that they were spying on Russia. ● Later they admitted it but did not apologize. ● This incident intensified the Cold War and distrust between the US and Russia.

Bay of Pigs ● Fidel Castro overthrew the US-friendly Cuban gov’t with the help of Russian weapons and financing. Cuba became communist. ● The US trained and armed Cuban exiles. They sent the Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro’s gov’t. The exiles landed in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs where the Cuban army was waiting for them. ● Without the element of surprise, the exiles were easily defeated. The world discovered that the US had backed the coup. The US was embarrassed and Russia was determined to make sure the US did not take Cuba

Cuban Missile Crisis ● In response to the Bay of Pigs, Russian leader Khrushchev put nuclear missiles in Cuba. ● The US was unhappy about the close proximity of the weapons to the US. The President John F. Kennedy threatened to invade Cuba if the nuclear weapons were not removed. The US went to DEFCON 2 for first time in history. DEFCON 1 meant nuclear war possibly. ● Soviets threatened war if US invaded Cuba. Soviets agreed to remove missiles from Cuba and US agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. Closest that the world ever came to nuclear war.

NATO v. Warsaw Pact The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the US and all of its democratic allies in the UN. Warsaw Pact is the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) or Russia and all of its communists allies. Like the Democrats and the Republicans in our gov’t, NATO and the Warsaw Pact voted against each other often in international politics in the UN during the Cold War.

Vietnam War ● Vietnam was a war between North Vietnam (communist) and South Vietnam (democratic). ● US President Lyndon B. Johnson first sent advisers and later troops to support S. Vietnam. ● N. Vietnam even though outgunned never quit. People in America were tired of the war and many were against it. ● President Richard Nixon pulled the US out of the war and S. Vietnam fell to communism.

Detente ● Nixon eased tensions some in the Cold War between the US and USSR by negotiating with the Soviets. ● Both sides realized that a nuclear war could not be won by either side. The Vietnam war hurt the US economy so the US wanted to spend less on military. ● Russia and China were not getting along and the US became friendly with China so Russia became concerned about a US-China alliance. ● Both the US and Soviets were ready to negotiate.

The Berlin Wall ● In Berlin, Germany, the Soviets built a wall in 1961 to prevent people in Eastern Berlin (controlled by the Soviets) from going to Western Berlin (controlled by Americans) ● The wall was heavily guarded by the Soviets. ● Soviet and US relations improved as communism failed in the Soviet Union. The Cold War ended and the wall was torn down.