1. Countdown to Armageddon
The Cold War
Countdown to Armageddon

2. The division of Germany
After the war, Germany is divided between American, French, British and Russian zones
Western allies zones will merge in 1949 to form the Federal Republic of Germany (“West Germany”)
Russian zone becomes the German Democratic Republic (“East Germany”) in 1949
Berlin is also divided up into 4 zones, however its location is well within the eastern “Russian” zone
This will create problems, as “West Berlin” is separated from the rest of West Germany

4. The ‘Iron Curtain’ falls
Soviets and Americans jostle for post war position at the end of WWII
Russia has been invaded from the west 3 times in past 130 years
Wants buffer in case of another attack
How does the west see this?
Europe begins to take sides
Russia blockades West Berlin in June 1948
Western allies conduct the “Berlin Airlift”- 200,000 flights in a little over a year to resupply the city
Airlift works and Soviets lift the blockade in September 1949

5. Marshall Plan
Containment- policy of stopping Soviet expansion and keeping communism “contained”
Marshall Plan- billions of dollars in aid given by US to Western Europe.
Why?

6. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "Iron Curtain" has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
-Winston Churchill

8. Balance of Power America Soviet Union A-bomb Technology
Forms NATO with western allies
Massive land army in Europe
Numbers
Forms Warsaw Pact with Soviet block

9. The game changes Soviets had been working on the bomb since 1942
Gain information from spies and captured Nazi scientists
Successful test atomic weapon in 1949
Changes how the cold war will be conducted
Arms race

11. The game changes…again
United States Ivy Mike and Castle Bravo tests
Development of Thermonuclear weapons (“H-bomb”)
Use fusion and fission
Far more powerful than atomic bombs (Castle Bravo is 1,000 times bigger than the bomb of Hiroshima)

12. Comparison of new nuclear weapons
Little Boy .015 Megatons
- Dropped on Hiroshima
Ivy King
.5 Megatons
- Largest pure fission bomb
Ivy Mike 10 Megatons
- First Thermonuclear bomb
Castle Bravo 15 Megatons
- Largest US test
Tsar Bomba 50 Megatons
- Largest nuclear weapon ever tested

13. The Korean War
War by proxy

14. “38th Parallel”
What does that mean?
- Border between N and S Korea