Cold War Powerpoint for Ms. Pearson's Classes

1. The Cold War

2. I. The Post-War World (1945-1949)
II. Communism in Asia (1949-1953)
III. The Khrushchev Era (1955-1964)
IV. The Brezhnev Era (1964-1985)
V. The Fall of Communism (1985-1992)
Outline

3. I. The Post-War World
The United Nations
• Fifty nations send delegates to San Francisco to draft the
“Charter of the United Nations” in 1945
• Five permanent members: United States, Great Britain, the
Soviet Union, China, and France
• Designed to promote international cooperation and peace

4. The Soviet Bloc
Communism in Eastern Europe
• Red Army’s presence in Eastern Europe allows Stalin to
establish Communist governments in
Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, and
Czechoslovakia
• Ensured that there were friendly governments on borders
• Mutual defense treaty, Warsaw Pact
“The Iron Curtain”
• Churchill gives speech in 1946 at Fulton, Missouri
• Declares “From Stettin in the Baltic to the Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent”

6. Democracy CommunismVS.
“A War of Ideology”

7. Post-War Germany
Occupation Zones in Germany
• Post-War Germany is split up into occupation zones
• Berlin split into four occupation zones; Western powers had
access through Eastern Germany to Berlin
The Berlin Blockade
• Soviet Union creates the Berlin Blockade in
• Berlin Airlift used by the U.S. to send supplies
• Soviets end blockade in 1949
• Western nations found Federal Republic of (West) Germany
• Soviets create the (East) German Democratic Republic

9. Containment
U.S. Policy Against Communism
• Domino effect/domino theory
• The Truman Doctrine: United States provides assistance to
Greece and Turkey to fight against Communist rebels
• The Marshall Plan: Provision of $13 billion for the economic
restoration of Europe; European Recovery Program
The Establishment of NATO
• Military alliance for Western Countries
• In 1949, twelve nations meet to sign the North Atlantic
Pact, establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO)

10. II. Communism in Asia
The Cold War in China
• Soviet Union gives support to Communists, led by Mao Zedong
• United States supports Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-Shek
• Nationalists retreat to TAIWAN, Mao forms the People’s
Republic of China in 1949
Pre-War Korea
• Yalta Conference grants North Korea to the Soviets
• Communist government led by Kim Il-Sung
• United States supports South Koreans, led by Syngman Rhee
• Occupying powers withdraw in 1949

11. The Korean War
Initial North Korean Attacks
• North Korea invades in 1950
• Americans and S. Koreans surrounded at the Pusan Perimeter
• General MacArthur conducts landing at Inchon; destroys
majority of North Korean army in the South
Stabilization of the Front
• South Korean forces approach China; Chinese join the fight
• Chinese troops push Americans and S. Koreans out of N. Korea
• MacArthur dismissed for protesting against limited war
• UN armies stabilize front near 38th Parallel in 1953

13. The Vietnam War
Pre-War Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh declares independence, defeats French in 1954
• Anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem wins power in the South
• Gulf of Tonkin Incident: USS Maddox attacked by NV PT boats
• Lyndon B. Johnson declares war in 1964,
United States Involvement
• Operation Rolling Thunder: Bombing of supply lines
• Military drafting imposed by US increases
• Tet Offensive by NV, political and strategic victory
• Protests against war in US, “Vietnamization”

16. III. The Khrushchev Era
Tension in Europe
• Nikita Khrushchev rises to power in 1955, calls for “peaceful
coexistence” between Russia and the West; “The Thaw”
• Demands demilitarization of Germany; request ignored
• U-2 incident; Khrushchev breaks up the Paris Summit in 1960
• Berlin wall constructed in early 1961
Castro in Cuba
• In 1959, Fidel Castro (assisted by Che Guevara) overthrows
Fulgencia Batista, a US supported dictator; United States
breaks diplomatic relations
• CIA begins to train Cuban exiles to oust Castro

18. Mutually Assured Destruction
ICBM: Inter-Continental
Ballistic Missile
ABM: Anti-Ballistic Missile

19. The Cuban Missile Crisis
Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Plan approved by new president John F. Kennedy
• 1,500 Cuban exiles invade in 1961; crushed in three days
• Castro declares himself a Marxist; allies with Soviet Union
Nuclear Missiles in Cuba
• Soviets send weapons and missiles to Cuba in May 1962
• On Oct. 22, Kennedy demands removal of missiles
• Khrushchev demands removal of missiles from Turkey
• Crisis resolved on Oct. 28; closest to nuclear war

21. IV. The Brezhnev Era
Changes in the Soviet Union
• Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982): undoes reforms by
Khrushchev, “refreezes”, deteriorates relations with China
Détente and Treaties
• Détente: a relaxing of tension, as by negotiations or agreements
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Outer Space Treaty (1960s)
• SALT I (1972): Froze existing numbers of ICBMs, limits on ABMs
• SALT II (1979): Banned new missile programs, effective
• Ends when USSR invades Afghanistan in 1979
• Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down in 1983, killing 269

23. V. The Fall of Communism
The Gorbachev Era
• Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991): three major reforms
• Glasnost: “openness”; less cultural repression
• Perestroika: “restructuring”; economic reforms
• Democratization: opening of the political system
Revolution and Independence (1989)
• Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary become democracies
• Trade union Solidarity demands government recognition;
Communists give in and hold free elections
• Chinese put down democratic protests at Tiananmen Square

24. Fall of the Soviet Union
• Boris Yeltsin criticizes slow reforms, gains popularity
• Elected as first president of the Russian Republic in 1991
• Halts coup by hardline Communists, gains support
• Ex-Soviet states form the Commonwealth of Independent States
• USSR dissolves on December 26th, 1991
German Reunification
• Protestors in East Germany demand opening to West Germany
• Leader of East Germany appeases protestors
• Berlin Wall falls in 1989
Germany and the USSR