1. The Cold War
1945 – 1989 (1991)
To the Brink and Back

2. The Soviet Union
Was created in 1917 when V.I. Lenin took Russia over from the czar, or king.
Lenin based the new govt. on a new concept created by Karl Marx: communism.
Communism held that all people should be equal, but in practice it was a form of dictatorship – the govt. also controlled the economy.

3. The Cold War

4. Stalin took over when Lenin died. He used fear to control his people.
The US and the USSR were allies during WWII, but as soon as they had defeated their common enemy – Germany – the Cold War began. The Soviet Union kept control over Eastern Europe after the war.

5. A political, economic, and diplomatic conflict without open military conflict that began with the end of WWII.

6. The Cold War – the 1950s
The United States and Western Europe form NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – a military alliance of the U.S. and Western Europe.

7. Containment begins. NATO will limit the spread of communism at any cost (Truman Doctrine).
In the 50s this was represented by the Korean War.

8. The Soviet Union version of NATO was the Warsaw Pact, an alliance of the Soviet Union and Eastern European, or satellite countries.
The military buildup of the Cold War put a major strain on the Soviet economy which was still suffering from the devastation of WWII. It is still in turmoil today.

9. The USSR attempted to increase industrial and agricultural production but was unsuccessful.
The lack of incentives hurts production in a communist system.
Their economy could not pay for the costs of the Cold War.

10. The Cold War – the 1960s
Krushchev backed down from President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis and was ousted from power in 1964.
This was probably the closest the superpowers came to actual war.
The Vietnam War begins and does not end until the 70s.

11. The people were kept under control by the KGB, or the secret police.
Soviet citizens had little freedom and were not allowed to leave without permission. If they wanted to leave they had to escape or defect.
The govt. also controlled the press and used propaganda to spread their message.
The people were kept under control by the KGB, or the secret police.
The Kremlin, Red Square

12. Because the Super Powers - the US and the USSR - wanted to avoid nuclear war, they found other ways to compete.
Slowed by MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction.

13. For example, Sputnik, the Soviet satellite, started the Space Race.
The Arms Race refers to the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons developed by both sides.
The two sides saw any victory as a triumph for their system: democracy or communism.

14. The countries competed in any arena, especially sports
The countries competed in any arena, especially sports. This culminated in the boycott of each other’s Summer Olympics in Moscow in 1980 and in LA in 1984.

15. By 1972, antagonism between the USSR and Communist China forced Brezhnev to adopt Détente – or a decrease in tension.
This first thaw in the Cold War led to the SALT, or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

16. SALT in the 70s was followed by START, Strategic Arms Reduction Talks with Gorbachev in the final decade of the Cold War, the 1980s.

17. The End
The end of the Cold War in Europe is traced to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The USSR collapsed suddenly in 1991.