View
221
Download
0
Category
Tags:
Preview:
Citation preview
The Cold War 1945-1991
What is it?
• Cold = tensions• Tension b/w USA & Soviet Union• Democracy v. Communism • Almost war
Berlin Airlift• Germany divided after WWII• USSR blocks Allies from Berlin– Fly in supplies
• Eventually build Berlin Wall
Alliances• NATO: US, France, Great Britain, Canada, & 8 other
European nations • Warsaw Pact: USSR & Eastern Europe
Iron Curtain
• Speech by Winston Churchill• Means the world is split in two: West & East
Not an actual curtain—METAPHOR
Arms Race• We have nukes; they want nukes• They get nukes• We get nervous. We build better nukes. (H-Bomb)• They build better nukes.• We threaten each other with our nukes: Mutually
Assured Destruction • We agree not to blow each other up…but keep our
hands hovered over the BIG RED BUTTON…just in case.
Cuban Missile Crisis
• USSR puts nuclear weapons in Cuba• USA threatens to attack• 13 days of tension—USSR agrees to back off• Almost nuclear WW3
Space Race• USA & USSR want beat each other into space– Maybe send weapons? – Shows who is powerful
• USSR: first satellite (Sputnik), first animal (dog) & man into space (Yuri Gagarin)
• USA: first man to land on the moon
Cold War Heats Up in Asia • China becomes communist seen as “lost”
• North Korean tries to become communist Korean War UN & US involvement Korea divides into North and South
• N. Vietnam tries to become communist US gets involved Vietnam war lasts 10+ years US withdraws in 1970s all of Vietnam falls to communism
Collapse of USSR• Gorbachev comes to power in USSR, allows
freedoms• Reagan: anti-communist, calls for fall of Berlin Wall
—symbol of freedom Torn down in 1989
Collapse of USSR
• USSR loses territory, people rebel • Soviet Union dissolved in 1991
Recommended