The Cold War featured ideological competition between capitalist United States and communist Soviet Union and their allies. Both sides built alliances like NATO and Warsaw Pact and stockpiled nuclear weapons, risking global destruction. Berlin became a flashpoint as the divided city's West part was surrounded by East Germany. The USSR blockaded West Berlin in 1948 but the US airlifted supplies until the blockade ended. To stop emigration, East Germany later built the Berlin Wall. Another crisis occurred in 1962 when US discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, bringing the superpowers close to war until the USSR removed the missiles.

1. Crises Of the Cold War

2. The Cold War and Containment
• The Cold War featured the US and the USSR,
two SUPERPOWERs with completely different
political systems (Capitalism v Communism)
competing for influence around the world.
The presence of nuclear weapons held by both
sides made the stakes of the cold war very
high, as a direct total war between the two
sides would have resulted in a nuclear war,
killing millions of civilians. Neither side wanted
to provoke the other into resulting to a nuclear
attack.
• The US under President Truman decided they
could not remove communism where it existed
but instead focused on containing it and
stopping its spread.
Truman knew containment
was our best option in
stopping communism
while avoiding nuclear
war.

4. Europe Divided
• Europe had been divided along
communist and Capitalist lines
following WWII and this
continued throughout the Cold
War. The US made an Alliance
known as NATO (the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization) with
many countries, promising that
an attack on those countries
would be regarded as an attack
on the USA.
• The USSR formed their own
alliance, the Warsaw Pact to
counter NATO. This alliance
included the Iron Curtain
countries, the “satellite”
communist states in Europe.
Europe divided: Capitalist and Communist

5. NATO and
the Warsaw
Pact. Map
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6. Berlin• One Cold War Crisis occurred
surrounding the city of Berlin.
• Berlin (along with the rest of
Germany) had been divided
amongst the 4 allied powers of
WWII. West Berlin was controlled
by the US, UK, and France while
East Berlin was controlled by the
USSR.
• Berlin though was totally
surrounded by the Soviet portion
of Germany, and the USSR (led by
Stalin) resented having an enclave
of capitalism in its zone. Stalin
looked to remove the US support
from the city and take over W
Berlin.
• Defending W. Berlin became the
frontline and first test of the US
policy of containment.
West Berlin was in the heart of
Communist East Germany.

7. Berlin Airlift
• In 1948, Stalin decided he would try to
blockade the roads that led to West
Berlin, this would cut off their supplies
and hopefully get the west to abandon
its stake in the city. He figured the US
would not risk a conflict and
confrontation trying to go through the
blockade.
• The US and Britain developed a
different plan and responded by
airlifting all supplies needed for W.
Berlin. The US also put their army on
full alert, basically daring the USSR to
try and stop the airlift.
• Stalin chose not to shoot down US
planes and instead reopened roads to
the city in 1949 after a year of supplies
being airlifted into the city.
For a full year, American and British
troops airlifted supplies to the
blockaded W. Berliners

8. Nikita Khrushchev
• Josef Stalin died in 1953 after almost 30
years in power as ruler of the USSR.
• He would eventually be replaced by a
man named Nikita Khrushchev
• Khrushchev sought to “de-Stalinize” the
Soviet Union.
• He openly stated the atrocities that Stalin
had committed and had numerous
monuments to Stalin destroyed.
• However, Khrushchev was still a
communist and sought to lead his country
to victory in the Cold War.
Khrushchev wanted to move the
USSR away from Stalin’s
brutality

9. Berlin as an escape route
• West Berlin had become a
prosperous capitalist city,
while East Berlin did not see
such a quick recovery under
the communist system.
• Many of the well-educated in
East Berlin started use West
Berlin as their way to escape
communism and flee to the
Western World.
• In addition as long as people
had access to West Berlin,
they would be able to see
the success of the capitalist
system and would desire to
leave communism.

10. Berlin Wall
• In 1961, wanting to prevent the
“brain drain” of skilled people
leaving communist East
Germany, the BERLIN WALL, a
concrete and barbed wire wall
around W. Berlin, was put in
place to keep people from
leaving the communist system.
• The US was prepared to defend
W. Berlin’s freedom but did not
destroy the barrier out of fear of
starting a nuclear war. It would
divide the city until 1989. Its
significance was that it served as
a physical symbol of the division
of Europe.

11. Cuba
• Cuba was the site of another major cold war
crisis.
• In 1959 under a revolution led by Fidel
Castro, Cuba became a communist country.
The US had vital economic interests in Cuba
(casinos, hotels) and lost them when Cuba
became communist.
• The US tried and failed to remove Castro
from power in an invasion known as the Bay
of Pigs, and the CIA tried and failed to
assassinate him. The US was worried as they
faced a potentially hostile neighbor only 90
miles off of the coast of Florida. This was a
failure of the policy of containment as
communism had now spread.

12. Cuba: Role in Cold War
• The USSR had fallen behind
in the nuclear arms race with
the US. They did not possess
the long range missile
capability or the number of
missile sites that the US did.
• However, the USSR
supported Cuba and desired
to use this country as a
valuable ally in the Cold War.
Since it was close to the US it
represented an area from
which the USSR could
potentially attack the US
from.
Castro and Khrushchev became allies
Cuba is only 90 miles off of Florida’s coast

13. Missile Sites
• Khrushchev decided to
secretly build missile sites in
Cuba that he could hit the US
with.
• US spy planes spotted the
missile sites in October of
1962.
• President John Kennedy
declared that the presence of
missiles in Cuba was
unacceptable.
• He ordered a blockade of
Cuba, to prevent any new
missiles from being delivered
and demanded that the
missiles in Cuba be removed.
A U-2 spy plane identified the
missile sites

14. Tensions Increase
• Khrushchev renounced the
blockade.
• Meanwhile, Kennedy
prepared a large force to
invade Cuba.
• He also announced that any
attack on the US or country in
Western Hemisphere would
be met with a direct attack on
Cuba or the Soviet Union.
• The Two powers appeared to
be headed for Nuclear War.
Nuclear War was a real
possibility during the crisis

15. The Crisis Ends
• The Crisis finally broke after two
weeks of tension, when Soviet
ships decided to stop and not
resist the US blockade.
• The 2 sides negotiated a
settlement where the USSR
would remove the missiles from
Cuba and the US would promise
to never invade Cuba in the
future and remove some of its
missile sites in Turkey (although
this 2nd condition was not made
public).
• Finally the crisis reached a
peaceful end.
Negotiations at the UN and direct
communication between President
Kennedy and Khrushchev
thankfully helped the Crisis end
peacefully

16. Conclusion
• The Cuban Missile crisis was the height of tensions
between the US and USSR, and the closest the war
came to being a “hot” war.
• Sadly, President Kennedy was shot and killed the
next year.
• The USSR viewed the crisis as an embarrassment and
Khrushchev was replaced as the head of the Soviet
Union a few months later.
• Still, the Cold War would continue for another 25
years.