The Cold War Unfolds (30.1) Flashcards
What 2 great powers remained after WW2?
US and USSR
How long did the cold war shadow the world
Over 40 years
Where did the cold war-confrontation begin?
Europe
What did each power form? What did they do?
Euro Military Alliances that occupied+protected
What was the US alliance called? What part of Europe was this? What year was this created?
NATO which was WESTERN EUROPE. Created in 1949
What was the USSR alliance called? What part of Europe was this? What year was this created?
Warsaw Pact which was EASTERN EUROPE. Created in 1955
Where did they face each other?
Along the iron curtain
What did each side stand for?
Communist East, Democratic West
Where was the main focus of tension in Cold War?
Berlin
What did West Berlin become a showcase for?
West German Prosperity
Where did unhappy communists from East Germany go?
They fled to West Berlin.
What did East Germany do to stop the flight? What year?
Built a wall in 1961 to seal off West Berlin
What did the wall show?
Showed Workers far from paradise had to be forced to not flee
Where did revolts against Soviet Union domination in Eastern Germany happen?
Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
Where did one of the earlier revolts occur?
East Berlin
In 1953 how many people confronted the Soviet Army and where?
Over 50,000 workers confronted SU army in German Capital
What happened because of the revolt? Were they able to stand up to the Soviet tanks?
It spread to other countries, but they were not match against the tanks.
In 1956, how did the Eastern European people challenge USSR and where?
Challenged them with economic reforms in Poland and Hungary
What were the poles responding to?
Responding to soviet backed mass arrests of non-communist leaders and government seizures of private land and industry
What did Hungary leader Imre Nagy try to do?
He ended one-party rule and tried to get out of the Warsaw Pact
What did the Soviet Union do in response to Hungary?
They launched an massive assault that overwhelmed resistance and then executed Nagy.
In 1968 what did Czechoslovakian leader Alexander Ducek introduce? What was the blossoming of freedom known as?
He introduced greater freedom of expression and limited democracy. This was called “Prague Spring”
What did the Soviet Leaders fear because of the prague summer?
Feared democracy would threaten communist power.
What did the Warsaw Pact Troops launch on Czechoslovakia
Launched invasion on Czechoslovakia in August to put an end to the freedoms
What was one of the most terrifying aspects of the Cold War?
The Arms Race after WW2
At first who was the only nuclear power? Then what happened in 1949.
At first, US was the only nuclear power, but then in 1949 the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons
What did both sides develop in 1953?
The hydro bomb which were more destructive than atomic bombs
What did some think the nuclear war would do?
Destroy both the US and USSR
What was the result of both sides racing each other to match each others weapons?
Balance of Terror
What did the worlds people fear?
Lived in constant fear of nuclear doom
What did the two sides do to reduce the threat of nuclear war?
The two sides met in disarmament talks
What slowed the progress?
The distrust.
In 1969 what did the US+USSR begin?
Began SALT to limit number of nuclear weapons held by each side
When did they sign these agreements?
1972 and 1979
What did one of the agreements limit and why?
One limited Anti Ballistic Missiles because they were seen as a threat to balance of terror due to the fact that while it protected one side, it would provoke another. Also seen as tech that could potentially renew arms race
During the 1980s what did president Ronald Reagan launch? What did critics think?
He launched a program to build a “Star Wars” missile defense against nuclear attack. Critics thought it would violate ABM treaty.
What did the US+USSR sign in 1991?
START
What did the agreements lead to in the 1970s?
détente
What was the American strategy during détente?
They tried to restrain the Soviet Union through diplomatic agreements rather than by military means.
When and Why did détente end?
It ended in 1979 when the USSR invaded afghanistan
Who else had developed there own nuclear weapons in the 1960s? What did world leaders try to keep?
China, Britain, and France. They tried to keep the arms race from spreading any further.
What did many nations sign in 1968
NPT
What would the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty do?
It had the nations that signed it agree not to develop nuclear weapons to stop the spread of them.
Where did the cold war begin, and where did it spread?
Began in Central Europe and now spread to the whole world
When WW2 ended, who were the Soviet Union assisting?
They were assisting communist forces in China and Korea
What did the American Leaders see?
They saw that the US faced a conflict as global as the two world wars.
What did the US do as part of its strategy to contain Soviet Power?
Reached out to the world diplomatically and militarily
What alliance was, along with other European democracies only one of several region of alliances?
NATO
What alliance did the US form in 1955? Who was in it?
Formed SEATO with US, France, Britain, Australia, Pakistan, Thailand, New Zealand, and Philippines
Who was in the CENTO alliance?
Britain, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan.
Who did the US form military alliances with?
South Korea and Japan
What two governments did the Soviet Union form alliances with?
Asia and Africa
Who had an alliance with the Soviet Union from 1949-1960?
Communist China
What were the allies of the USSR called?
Soviet bloc
Unlike the Soviets, what did America establish all over the globe?
Army, Navy and Air Force bases.
By the end of the Cold War, what did the Soviets face?
They faced the military nightmare of encirclement by an enemy.
What spread across Europe, Asia, North America and the Pacific Islands?
American army camps, naval stations and air force bases.
Who patrolled the world’s oceans?
American fleets
What played into the war?
Local Conflicts
What often happened?
US + there allies supported one side while USSR + allies (soviet bloc) supported the other
How did the superpowers confront each other?
They confronted each other indirectly rather than head to head.
What added to the cold war tensions?
Political Shifts
Where did communist forces win control of and when?
They won control of China’s mainland in 1949
What did the US fear?
Feared that a communistic tide would sweep around the world
What european colonies demanded independence?
Africa and Asia
As colonies battled for independence what happened?
Liberation leaders and guerrillas sought out help from one Cold War power or the other
On occasion what did the Cold War erupt into? and where especially?
Shooting Wars especially in Asia
What two places were torn by brutal conflict? Who played crucial roles in it?
Korea and Vietnam were torn by brutal conflict and the USA, USSR, and China played a huge role in this.
What did the superpowers provide and to who?
They provided weapons, training or aid to opposing forces in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Where is Cuba located?
90 miles of the coast of Florida
Who did the most serious conflict in the Western Hemisphere involve?
Cuba
In the 1950s, who in Cuba organized and armed rebellion and for what reason?
Fidel Castro organized an armed rebellion against the corrupt dictator who ruled cuba
What was this transformation called in Cuba?
Cuban Revolution
Who did castro seek support from?
Soviet Union
What did Castro do in Cuba?
Nationalized businesses, put land under government control, and restricted Cuban freedoms
What happened to critics of this new regime?
(CUBA)
They were jailed or silence and hundreds of thousands fled to Florida.
What did the US attempt to do?
Bring down the communist regime next door.
In 1961, what did JFK approve?
He approved an invasion attempt by US trained cuban exiles.
Why did the US care about Cuba?
We cared because Cuba is 90 miles from Florida which is close to us.
What was this invasion called? Did it succeed
The Bay of Pigs invasion, known for the bay where invaders came ashore in Cuba, quickly ended in failure after Castro’s forces captured the invaders
What did the US impose that still remains in affect today?
A trading embargo
In 1962, what did the Soviet Union send to Cuba?
They sent missiles to Cuba
How did President Kennedy respond?
He imposed a naval blockade that prevented further shipments from USSR
What did Kennedy demand?
He demanded the removal of these missiles from Cuba
What did the world face these few tense days?
Risk of Nuclear War over this issue
Finally, what did the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agree to?
He agreed to remove the missiles so war was averted.
What did the victory in WW2 bring to the soviet people?
Few rewards
What did Stalin continue with?
Continued with his rude policies. He filled camps with enemies of the state.
What did Stalin seem ready to do? What happened?
He seemed ready for another purge but he died in 1953
In USSR, who controlled most aspects of public life?
Government
What did communists value?
Obedienece, discipline, and economic security.
What did they seek to spread around the globe?
There communist command economy and there communist ideology in general
In command economy who made most of the decisions and what for what reasons did they make these decisions?
The government bureaus made the decisions and they made their decisions for political reasons that did not make much economic sense
Who owns the property?
Government
Who rose to power after Stalin died
Nikita Khrushchev
In 1956 what did Nikita do that shocked Communist Party Members
Denounced Stalin’s abuse of power
What did Khrushchev maintain? What did he change?
He maintained the communist party’s political control but he closed prison camps and eased censorship
What did he want with the west?
Peaceful Relations
Who held power in the 1960s?
Leonid Brezhnev
What did critics face under him?
(Leonid)
Arrest and Imprisonment
What did some do despite the risk of punishment?
Some courageous people dared to criticize the government
Who was Andrey Sakharov?
He was a distinguished Soviet scientist that spoke out for civil liberties. He got silenced, then he was sent to a prison camp, released, then exiled.
The cold war was not only a military rivalry…what was it also?
It was also a competition between two contracting economic and political value systems
What did the US give to their citizens?
Gave them the freedom to make there own economic and political choices.
What is a free market like?
-Producers+Consumers make the economic decisions
-Property is privately owned
What was the USA’s basic policy towards communist countries?
containment
What did this strategy mean?
Supporting any gov facing invasion, or internal rebellion
What was created in the US due to the nuclear threat?
Fallout Shelters
What did the US gov launch in 1961
They launched a community fallout shelter program to create fallout shelters in public and commercial buildings, stocked with 2-weeks worth of food.
In 1962, what did people start to do?
Due to the CMC, people started to build shelters in there own backyards
During the 1950s-1970s what did they conduct at schools?
They conducted air raid drills where kids would hide under their desks to try to save themselves.
In the 1940s-1950s, what did the Cold War lead to in the US
A red scare.
In 1950, what did McCarthy lead a hunt for? What did he become notorious for?
He led a hunt for American communists (mostly focused on military people and state department people) and was notorious for UNPROVEN charges
What was McCarthyism?
Accusing innocent people of communism and the fear that this created.
When did McCarthys influence fade?
Faded after he attacked the patriotism of the US army.
What did getting blacklisted mean?
You were basically cancelled and your life would be RUINED
What did HUAC lead? What was special about the members?
They led a similar campaign that identified supposed communist sympathizers. The members that made this up were apart of the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
In 1947 who did they look to expose?
They exposed communist sympathizers in Hollywood Movies
