The Cold War: East vs West

Question 1

Cold War

Answer 1

a struggle over political differences carried on by means short of military action or war
*struggle to see if the political ideologies of capitalism/democracy or communism/totalitarianism would rule the world

Question 2

During WWII the US and the Soviet Union were uneasy allies (Distrust grew) - Why?

Answer 2

1. (USA felt betrayed) Soviet/German non-aggression pact
2. (USSR) Allies delay in attacking Europe (D- Day)

Question 3

Yalta Conference

Answer 3

Feb 1945 (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt) Create a post war peace
1. agreed to divide Germany into four zones occupied by the French, British, USA and the Soviet Union
2. Stalin promised to give Eastern European countries free elections after the war

Question 4

San Francisco Conference - April 1945

Answer 4

The United Nations was established (International peace keeping organization- replaced the league of nations) New York City

Question 5

*USA and Soviet Union had different postwar goals

Question 6

Major goals of the Soviet Union

Answer 6

1. Shield itself from another invasion from he west
2. Spread communism
   *Wanted to use Eastern Europe as that shield or buffer (wall of protection)

Question 7

Major goals of the USA

Answer 7

1. Stop the spread of communism
2. Spread democracy

Question 8

Potsdam Conference

Answer 8

1. Stalin said he was not going to allow free elections in Eastern Europe
2. He declared that communism and capitalism could not exist in the same world (The Cold War began)

Question 9

By 1948…

Answer 9

The allies (USA, Britain, and France) had given back their zones to the Germans as promised. The Soviet Union had not

Question 10

2 German states created

Answer 10

1. Federal Republic of Germany - West Germany
2. German Democratic Republic- East Germany

Question 11

Iron Curtain (Winston Churchill)

Answer 11

term that came to represent the division between communist Eastern Europe and Democratic Western Europe

Question 12

US foreign policy

Answer 12

containment - stopping the spread of communism and spreading democracy

Question 13

Truman Doctrine

Answer 13

gave military aid and weapons to any country in the world that resisted and rejected communism (Turkey and Greece)

Question 14

Marshall Plan

Answer 14

economic assistance (aid) program to rebuild Western Europe after the war ($13 billion)
-the only requirement was to stay away from communism (Named after the Secretary of State George Marshall)
-The USA offered to do all the same for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe but the Soviets refused

Question 15

Berlin Airlift: 1948

Answer 15

Soviet Union demanded Berlin. Berlin was in the soviet sector - Set up a blockade around West Berlin (Island of Democracy)
-West Berlin faced starvation
-For the next 11 months, the Americans and British airlifted food & supplies in to the people of West Berlin

Question 16

Result of the Berlin airlift

Answer 16

Soviets gave up and lifted the blockade in 1949 - This was the 1st major conflict in the Cold War

Question 17

Two rival military alliances formed during the Cold War

Answer 17

1. NATO - (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) led by the USA, Canada, and Western Europe
2. Warsaw Pact: led by the Soviet Union & Eastern Europe

Question 18

During the Cold war there was always a threat of Nuclear War

Answer 18

H-Bombs (hydrogen) developed that were thousands of times more powerful than A-bombs (atomic)

Question 19

brinkmanship

Answer 19

willingness to go to the brink or edge of war created huge tension between the 2 superpowers
*For the next 40 years there was an Arms Race (build up of nuclear weapons)

Question 20

Space Race

Answer 20

Be able to launch weapons from space
1. 1957 - Soviets created the first the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missiles)
2. 1957 - Soviets launched the Sputnik I - First unmanned satellite in space
3. 1957 - Soviets launch a dog into space - First living thing in space
4. 1958 - USA launches Explorer I - First communication satellite
5. 1960 - USA launched the 1st spy planes (U-2s)
6. 1961 - Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin - 1st man into space
7. 1961 - USA launches Allen Sheppard into space
8. 1962 - John Glenn - First to orbit the earth
9. 1962 - USA - Neil Armstrong - 1st to step on the moon

Question 21

Red Scare/Red Hunt - 1950s

Answer 21

-Fear that the communist had infiltrated spies into the US government
-Joseph McCarthy led investigation

Question 22

1961 - Berlin Wall

Answer 22

-Living conditions in East Berlin - Very bad
-Between 1949 and 1961 - hundreds of thousands of East Berliners fled to the west (young, and talented) -escaping communism
Soviet Union built a wall up over night to keep people in
-Wall divided East and West Berlin
*over 100 miles long

Question 23

1959 - Communist take over Cuba

Answer 23

-Fidel Castro
-USA Greatly concerned

Question 24

1961 - Bay of pigs invasion (Cuba)

Answer 24

-President John F. Kennedy gave approval to an overthrow of the communist government
-CIA trained Cuban exiles
-Failed miserably
-Cuba turned to the Soviet Union for protection

Question 25

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis

Answer 25

-Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet leader) placed several nuclear missiles in Cuba - all pointed toward the USA -Kennedy demanded they be removed -USA set up a blockade of the island -Soviet sub -Brink of nuclear war. 13 days -Soviet Union backed off *Closest US ever came to nuclear war

Question 26

JFK 1963

Answer 26

assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald

Question 27

1970-80s

Answer 27

-Detente: easing of tensions between USA & Soviet Union -SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union aimed at limited nuclear weapons

Question 28

End of Cold War

Answer 28

1. Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) 2. Fall of the Soviet Union (1990) *Us President Ronald Reagan: played a major role in the collapse of the USSR

Question 29

Communist Revolution in China

Answer 29

Prior to WWII the Chinese were in the middle in the middle of a bitter Civil War (the communist forces vs democratic forces) -The war was put on hold during WWII to fight off their common enemy Japan

Question 30

Leaders of the revolution

Answer 30

Nationalist (democratic) forces were led by Jiang Jieshi/Chang Kai Shek Communist forces were led by Mao Zedong -The USA supported the Nationalists and the Soviet Union supported the Communist *The Communist forces were much better trained and had the support of the peasant population (Promised free land)

Question 31

Communist forces won (1949)

Answer 31

-Nationalist democratic forces were forced to flee China - They settled on the island of Formosa (Taiwan) - Free China -Communist China Tibet by force in 1950 (brutal takeover). Dalai Lama- the spiritual and political was forced into exile

Question 32

The Great Leap Forward

Answer 32

Attempt to Modernize the country The state/Mao seized all land from landlords and… -started state controlled collective farms called commune (supported 25,000) -Most peasants were taken off farms and forced to work in factory production

Question 33

Why the Great Leap Forward failed

Answer 33

failed because not enough farmers to produce food Results: Famines killed over 30 million people

Question 34

The Cultural Revolution - 1960s

Answer 34

goal was to establish a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal -Education was deemphasized. intellectuals, artists, westerners, and educated were dangerous -Emphasized the hands - hard work (Peasants) -Closed all schools

Question 35

Purge the country of the

Answer 35

Four olds 1. Old thoughts 2. Old culture 3. Old customs 4. Old Habits

Question 36

Red guards

Answer 36

former high school and college students who formed military units to enforce the revolution -about 5-8 million people died from persecution

Question 37

End of Revolution

Answer 37

Movement got carried away. Chaos ensued - ended in 1976 w/ the death of Mao