The Cold War: Main events 1945-1959 Flashcards
What is happening in the U.S. after WW2 with the Soviet Union.
Tension! Anxiety! Competition, distrust, fear, and how to stop the spread of communism. Known as the Cold War
When did the cold war start and end?
The Cold War started in 1945 at the end of World War 2 and ended in 1989, with the fall of the Soviet Union, although some believe it still exists today.
The cold war greatly affected americans, how?
Fear and tension. “The big bad scary Soviet Union.” The fear of an attack using the nuclear bomb. Mentally and emotionally fears.
U.S presidents during the cold war
Truman: (d) 1945-1953
Eisenhower: (r) 1953-1961
Russian Leaders
Stalin: 1927-1953
Malenkov: 1953-1955
Khrushchev 1955-1964
Foreign leaders
- Chiang Kai –Shek (Leader of China 1925-1949)
- Mao Zedong (Communist leader of China (1949-1976)
- Fulgencio Batista (Leader of Cuba 1953-1959)
- Fidel Castro (Communist Leader of Cuba 1959-2016)
- Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech (given at a graduation)
March 5th 1946- Truman, Churchill, Stalin
- Churchill sounded the alarm that Stalin and Soviet aggression was to be feared by the west and Democratic countries. In a speech given at a college campus in Fulton, Ohio he declared that a figurative/symbolic curtain divided the East from the West, communism from Democracy.
- Containment
- All Presidents (1945-89)
- U.S. Foregin Policy throughout the Cold War. Keep Communism in Russia and not let it spread.
- Don’t want vulnerable countries to come under Soviet influence.
- Fear of the Domino Theory ( it will eventually come to the U.S.)
- Truman Doctrine
-1947-1970 Truman.
- Part of containment. It was the idea that the U.S. would safeguard the world from communism.
- Truman’s idea
- To positively influence/affect the world (countries that were vulnerable) so that hopefully they would become Democratic and not communist.
Marshall Plan
-1947-1948. George Marshall (sec. of state, deal with other countries)
- If the Truman Doctrine was the idea, the Marshall Plan is the idea put into action. Provide financial aid to any country that would resist communism. First used in Greece and turkey (successful)
- Building of the Berlin Blockade
- Truman and Stalin
- Germany is a powder keg after the war. Divided into 4 zones. Eastern-communist. Western- pro-democracy.
-Citizens who were in the Soviet zone begin feeling to the western zone. Stalin is humiliated y this and begins to build a blockade to separate the two and stop East Berliners from fleeing west. The wall was built in this same location in 1961 and stand until 1989.
- Berlin Airlift
- Stalin and Truman. For 11 months 1948-1949
- After the blockade is build, East Berlin is cut off from the rest of the world. Stalin is literally starving these people and denying them electricity, water, and resources. Terrible situation. The U.S. comes to the rescue and airlifts in supplies.
- We parachute in supplies and pro-american and pro-democratic information pamphlets.
- Americans look like the hero, Soviet Union looks like the villain.
- NATO and the WARSAW Pact
- Stalin and Truman. 1948- North At;antic Treaty Organization (West).
- Just like any peacetime alliane system that we have studied, it causes tension and worry amongst nations of the world.
- NATO signed y 12 nations. An attack on one would be an attack on all. Western countries including Frane, G.B.. American, etc.
- Warsaw Pact: 1955- as a counter to NATO, the Soviet Union blok formed a similar pact. including Eastern European countries like Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. The warsaw pact ended when the soviet union fell.
- Communist Victory in china
- January 1949. Chaing Kai Shek. Mao Zedong. Truman. Stalin.
- China at the end of WW2 was a democratic country. Feared communism would be spread to china.
- Mao Zedong ( pro communist leader in china) greatly appealed to the common people in China and with his forces and the help of the Soviet Union, he overthrew the US-friendly and pro-democratic government of Chiang Kai Shek.
- Mao Zedong would remain in power until his death in 1976 by January 1949 China was a communist country.
- First major instance of the failure of our containment policy.
- China still remains a communist country.
- Korean War
- 1950-1953. Truman and Stalin.
- With communism in China people feared it would spread to Korea.
- By 1950 the northern part of korea was leaning towards communism (influenced by China and russia) and the southern part is pro-democratic (influenced by America and the west). The country fall into a Civil War with Americans fighting with the South and the Russians fighting with the north.
- The war would last from 1950-1953 and result in the death of 36,000 American. The war ends in stalemate (niether side wins) with Korea being split along the 38th parallel.
- Korea remains divided to this day with North Korea being a Communist country and South Korea being a Democratic country.
