8.2: The Cold War

Question 1

CAUSES

Answer 1

• tension from 1917 Russian Revolution
• US capitalist democracy v. Soviet authoritarian communism
• above ideologies both = expansionist
• Allies agreed for free elections in Central and Eastern Europe
• Soviet kept troops stationed in above countries for buffer zone between Germany and USSR
• essentially Soviet Satellite states
• agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into 4
• BUT Berlin amidst Soviet zone
• Soviet zone essentially = communist state
• Soviets desired German weakness for lessened threat and reparation extraction
• West wanted economically strong Germany for stable, central Europe
• “Iron Curtain” coined by Churchill

Question 2

CONTAINMENT

Answer 2

• Truman Doctrine
• above = result of Soviet pressure on Turkey and Greece
• Congress agreed on $400 million in aid and military support to above
• Marshall Plan: $13 billion to rebuilding European nations
• nations w/ healthy economies likely to choose democracy
• Berlin Blockade
• Berlin Airlift [200,000 flights]
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization = military alliance to resist Soviet aggression
• Warsaw Pact = Soviet response
• Nuclear Proliferation
• kept producing nukes but realized they couldn’t use them [MAD]

Question 3

PROXY WARS

Answer 3

• KOREAN WAR
• Japanese colony pre-1945
• divided along 38th parallel post war
• Soviets helped North and US aided South
• June 1950: Northern invasion of South using Soviet munitions
• UN support to South
• majority US troops
• pushed North to China under General Douglas MacArthur
• China sent troops
• return to 38th parallel
• war = direct result of containment