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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4

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