1. Aim: Define the Cold War

2. The Cold War Divides the World
Conflicts marked the start of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union
A cold war is a struggle over political differences carried on by means short of military action or war
1949: the superpowers used spying, propaganda, diplomacy, & secret operations in their dealings with each other 2

3. Superpowers Form Rival Alliances
Berlin blockade heightened Western Europe’s fears of Soviet aggression
Result: 1949, ten western European nations joined the US & Canada to form a defensive military alliance
Called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Soviet Union saw NATO as a threat & formed its own alliance in 1955
Called the Warsaw Pact
Included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, & Albania
1961: East Germans built a wall to separate East & West Berlin
Berlin Wall symbolized a world divided into rival camps 3

4. The Threat of Nuclear War
As alliances were forming, the Cold War threatened to heat up enough to destroy the world
1950: President Truman authorized work on a thermonuclear weapon
The hydrogen (H) bomb would be thousands of times more powerful than the A-bomb
1952: US test the first H Bomb
1953: Soviets tested their own
This willingness to go to the brink or edge of war was known as brinkmanship:
Required a reliable source of nuclear weapons & airplanes to deliver them
US strengthened its air force 4

5. The Cold War In The Skies
August 1957: Soviets announced the development of a rocket that could travel great distances
Oct 4, Soviets used an ICBM to push Sputnik, the first unmanned satellite, above the Earth’s atmosphere
1958: US launched its own satellite
1960: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) started secret high-altitude spy flights over Soviet territory in planes called U-2’s
U-2 incident heightened Cold War tension 5