1. Cold War
Unit 8 Study Guide

2. Where were decisions about the post-WWII world discussed by Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt?
Post-WWII Europe
Yalta
Stalin promises free elections in E. Europe
Potsdam (Truman replaces FDR)
Stalin breaks promises …decides to keep E. Europe as buffer zone…countries become Soviet “satellites”

3. What is NATO? Why was it created?
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Created in 1945
A defensive military alliance against the Soviet Union

4. What was the Warsaw Pact? Why was it created?
Defensive military alliance between the USSR and E. European nations
Created in response to NATO threat

5. The Cold War
USA vs. USSR
No direct fighting between the two superpowers
Fought w/proxies (surrogates, substitutes)
Communism vs. capitalism
Communism vs. democracy
end of WWII

6. Why did the Soviet Union want to control Eastern European countries
Why did the Soviet Union want to control Eastern European countries? What type of nations did they become during the Cold War?
E. Europe to be a buffer zone
Protect Soviet Union from attack by W. Europe
E. European nations becomes “satellites” controlled by Soviet Union

7. Why did Japan and West Germany recover to quickly after WWII
Why did Japan and West Germany recover to quickly after WWII? What was the U.S. role in their recovery?
Massive U.S. assistance
Marshall Plan for W. Euro
Capitalist countries w/ strong economies would not become communist
W. Europe as buffer for US vs. Soviet threat
Japan as buffer for US vs. Chinese threat

8. What was the “Iron Curtain”?
The imaginary border between Eastern and Western Europe.
The term was first used by Winston Churchill.

9. Explain the Truman Doctrine.
US aid was given to countries fighting communist uprisings.
Supports policy of containment (stopping the spread of communism)
Greece & Turkey receive $400 million in aid to fight communist uprisings

10. United Nations Est. in 1945, after WWII General Assembly
All member nations
Security Council
Holds power to use force and impose sanctions (fines)
5 permanent members
Each has veto power…
USA
USSR
Britain
France
China

11. Chinese Civil War (Communist Revolution in China)
Communists
Mao Zedong
Supported by USSR
Supported by Chinese peasants
Were promised land
Nationalists
Chiang Kai-Shek
Supported by US

12. What was the Great Leap Forward?
Economic plan to increase agricultural and industrial development in China
Largely failed
Poor planning
Crop failures, famine
Inefficient industry

13. Compare the Great Leap Forward in China and the 5-Year Plans in the Soviet Union.
Both economic developments plans
Centrally planned by gov’t
Both communist
Both mostly failed

14. What was the Cultural Revolution?
A movement in China to remove foreign influences.
It attempted to purify society by eliminating intellectual and artistic activity.

15. What happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989?
A massive student protest for democratic reforms in China.
Reflects Chinese unwilling to permit democracy
Although Chinese permit capitalism

16. The U.S. and the Soviet Union competed for influence over what types of nations around the world?
Third world nations.
Also called developing, or emerging, nations.
Territories that are outside of both superpowers’ sphere of influence

17. Describe the policy of containment.
Foreign policy
Stopping the spread of communism
Korea, Vietnam, …

18. What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Soviets try to build nuclear missile sites in Cuba
US, Pres. Kennedy deal w/ crisis
Closest world has come to nuclear war
Deal negotiated: Soviet missiles out of Cuba….US missiles out of Turkey
Example of success of diplomacy

19. How did the Soviet Union respond to uprisings in Eastern Europe?
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
Democratic & anti-Soviet uprisings
Brutally crushed by Soviet military
US does little to help

20. What was the Solidarity Movement in Poland?
Labor movement
Lech Walesa – leader
First grassroots movement to challenge authority of Soviet-controlled gov’t
Exposes Soviet weakness

21. What were glasnost, perestroika, and democratization?
Soviet policy of openness to the free flow of ideas and info
Perestroika
Restructuring of Soviet economy to permit more local decision making
Democratization
Process of creating a gov’t elected by the people

22. Berlin Wall
Built in 1961
To keep E. Germans from defecting (leaving) to the west
Torn down spontaneously by the people of Berlin to reunify city (and end Cold War)
1989

23. Why did the Soviet Union lose the Cold War?
Huge US spending on the military bankrupts the Soviet Union
Centrally planned, communist economy inefficient