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The Causes of the Cold War
•America is the richest country and Russia is the biggest country.
•The American economy is capitalist while Russia is communist.
•The leaders of each country each believed that the other economy was evil.
•The US had atomic bombs while Russia had the biggest army.
•The US feared the spread of communism.
•The US wanted reconstruction while Russia wanted reparations. -
Mao Zedong and Communist Control of China
•There was a civil war from 1946 to 1949 and the communists won against the nationalists who were supported by the US.
•Mao seized the land and divided it among the peasants who were forced into collective farms.
•He made a plan that had larger collective farms (communes.) The plan failed.
•Mao formed the Red Guards (militia units) that led the Cultural Revolution to establish a society were all were equal.
•Mao decided it had to end in 1968. -
The Iron Curtain
•Stalin created a buffer of communsit governments.
•Truman, Stalin and Churchill met in Germany
•Europe was divided between East and West and Germany had been split into two sections.
•Iron curtain represents Europe’s division into democratic Europe and communist Europe.
•The term was first used by Churchill in 1946.
•The US wanted to protect human rights and the Soviet Union wanted to create a buffer zone of comunist states to prevent war. -
U.S. Containment, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan
•The US adopted containment, a policy directed at blocking the Soviet influence and stopping the expansion.
•Truman’s support for countries that rejected communism was the Truman Doctrine.
•Truman Doctrine caused congress to give money to aid Turkey and Greece in 1947.
•The Marshall Plan was a plan that would assist needy European countries by providing food, machinery and other materials. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
•The Soviet Union held West Berlin hostage.
•The Soviet Union cut of highway, water and rail traffic into Berlin’s western zones, causing the city to face starvation.
•American and British officials flew food into West Berlin for 11 months and the Soviet Union lifted the blockade in May 1949.
•The Soviet Union wanted to keep the enemy weak and divided.
•The US wanted to allow Germany to reunify. -
The Arms Race (threat of Nuclear War)
•The US had atomic bombs.
•The Soviet Union created their own weapons.
•President Truman started work on a thermonuclear weapon which would be thousands of times more powerful. The Soviets also began research and testing.
•The US declared brinkmanship, strengthened its air force and began producing stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
•The Soviet Union responded with military buildup.
•The US and the Soviet Union wanted to be more powerful than the other. -
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
•Ten western European nations joined with the US and Canada to form an alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
•NATO was viewed as a threat by the Soviet Union so they formed the Warsaw Pact, an alliance that included the Soviet Union, East Germany, and other countries near the Soviet Union.
•A wall was built to separate Berlin.
•Not every country joined the alliances.
•The US wanted to keep the Soviet Union’s influence under control. The Soviet Union wanted to expand. -
Korean War
•The north of Korea was communist and the south was supported by western powers.
•The North Koreans attacked the South. The US was involved to stop communism.
•The soviets were absent when the UN voted to interfere so they sent a force to Korea.
•The UN pushed the North Koreans to the 38th parallel.
•The Chinese sent troops to North Korea that outnumbered the UN.
•The war ended with a cease-fire in 1953. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
•Fidel Castro was harsh and took over US owned sugar mills.
•Eisenhower ordered an embargo on trade with Cuba.
•Anti-Castro exiles invaded Cuba and were defeated when the US did not provide air support.
•Nikita Khrushchev, the soviet leader, thought the US would not resist Soviet expansion in Latin America.
•He started missile sites in Cuba, but a US spy plane discovered them in 1962.
•J.F.K. declared the missiles a threat and demanded their
removal.
•Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles. -
The Fall of the Soviet Union and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
•Lithuania defied Gorbachev. Gorbachev responded with a economic blockade and a attack on the capital.
•Boris Yeltsin criticized Borbackev and became the first elected president.
•Conservatists detained Gorbachev at his home and demanded his resignation. They ordered troops to attack the parliament building but they refused.
•Republics declared independence and they formed the commonwealth of independent states.
•The Germans began to speak of reunifiation after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
