History: The Cold War

Question 1

During what years did the Cold War take place?

Answer 1

1945-89

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Question 2

At which conference did the Ally leaders agree on their plan for post WW2? (say where, when, who)

Answer 2

Yalta, 1945, between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin

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Question 3

In what way did Stalin back out of his Yalta commitments?

Answer 3

He committed to respect democracy and independence of countries freed from Nazis, but in reality he sought to dominate Poland and East Europe

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Question 4

Define the Truman doctrine

Answer 4

Post WW2, a willingness to provide economic and military aid to Western European countries under pressure

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Question 5

Which plan (and how much $), in the wake of WW2, signalled a US rejection of isolationism?

Answer 5

Marshall Plan, 1947, $13B

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Question 6

In the Cold War, who called for a “long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.”? and what was this policy known as?

Answer 6

George Kennan
“containment”

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Question 7

Describe the countries that were part of the USSR

Answer 7

• Internal Empire: Russia + 14 other republics (Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine…)
• External Empire: 7 countries, nominally independent, but controlled by Moscow (East Germany, Poland, Romania)

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Question 8

Winston Churchill, speaking as a private citizen in Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946, described the Soviet Union as creating an —— between the countries it was dominating in Eastern Europe and the rest of Europe.

Answer 8

Iron Curtain

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Question 9

What was the Berlin airlilft?

Answer 9

The U.S. and Western answer was the Berlin airlift, which provided enough food, fuel, and other basic supplies to enable the city and its residents to survive until the Soviets backed down and lifted the blockade in the spring of 1949. Blockade started in summer 1948

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Question 10

What major event in the Cold War took place in 1950?

Answer 10

North Korea (Soviet-supported) invaded South Koreah to unite the peninsula

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Question 11

How did South Korea defend itself from the North in 1950?

Answer 11

Large, sustained, American-led military intervention carried out under UN auspices

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Question 12

In 1954, a diplomatic conference was convened to dismantle French Indochina, which became…

(Name 3 countries)

Answer 12

Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam

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Question 13

After militaty intervention by the US in Vietnam, what was final result?

Answer 13

South fell to the North (Communists) in 1975

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Question 14

What was a knock on effect of the victory of North Vietnam over the South (1975)?

Answer 14

Sowed the seeds for the ensuing civil war and genocide in Cambodia

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Question 15

What was the Cuban missile crisis?

Answer 15

1962
Soviets installing nuclear warheads in Cuba
Kennedy demanded they be removed (established a blockade), and in return removed missiles from Turkey and pledged not to invade Cuba

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Question 16

Three reasons that Cold War remained cold?

Answer 16

1. Balacne of military power: NATO vs. Warsaw Pact
2. Nuclear capabilities
3. Arms controls

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Question 17

Two countries that adopted Communism in the Western hemishpere?

Answer 17

• Cuba
• Nicaragua

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Question 18

The United States had declared, through the ——, that it was prepared to act to protect what it judged to be its vital interests in what was essentially viewed as an American sphere of influence.

Answer 18

Monroe Doctrine

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Question 19

What are the origins of the term “Third World”?

Answer 19

Developing countries that are neither US-led first world, or Soviet-led second world

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Question 20

What name is given to increased peaceful relations between US and Soviets during Cold War?

Answer 20

“détente”

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Question 21

Two potential dates for ending of the Cold War?

Answer 21

1989 - fall of the Berlin Wall
1991 - unravelling of Soviet Union and external empire

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Question 22

Who led USSR in its final days?

Answer 22

Mikhail Gorbachev

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Question 23

Give an example of where USA overstretched in the Cold War (in Korea)?

Answer 23

It was not content to restore the previous status quo and, after liberating South Korea, decided to press north to try to reunify the peninsula.

This outcome was too much for both the Soviet Union and China, and the Chinese dispatched hundreds of thousands of “volunteers” to push back against the U.S.-led, UN-authorized force.

The result was an additional twenty thousand American dead and a prolonged war that ended roughly along the original border.

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Question 24

Was China and USSR aligned?

Answer 24

By the late 1960’s, fighting had broken out between the two, e.g. about (1) China’s resistance at being junior partner (2) which Communist model to choose for third world countries (3) shared border disputes

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