THE COLD WAR HEATS UP Unit 10 – Topic 2

A. Berlin Airlift ( )  Stalin ordered a blockade of West Berlin (inside Soviet- controlled East Germany) -- all supplies were cut off.  Operation Vittles - U.S. and Great Britain flew food and supplies into West Berlin to break the blockade for 11 months! Operation Vittles

B. USSR exploded a nuclear device (1949)  US is not the only one with the bomb  New threat of a nuclear war that would destroy both countries How do you think the USSR built a bomb so quickly? Julius & Ethel Rosenberg Alger Hiss

C. China became Communist (1949)  Civil war between Mao Zedong (Communist) and Chiang Kai-Shek (capitalists/nationalists). The capitalist Chinese flee to Taiwan  Mao’s Communist takeover increases American fears of communist domination of the world but …  China and the Soviet Union became rivals, not allies.  In the 1970's, Pres. Nixon’s diplomatic mission to Beijing exploited this division of the major communist powers

D. The Korean War  North Korea (Communist) invaded South Korea (Capitalist) (1950)  Why did the US get involved? – to contain communism  American troops (in a United Nations force) counterattacked deep into North Korea  Chinese troops entered on the side of North Korea  Could have become World War III  Eventually ended with a stalemate and a divided N/S Korea

E. Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President (1953)  New policy of “massive retaliation” to deter any nuclear strike by the Soviets.  Nuclear arms race leads to MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction