2. Division of Germany
•World War II ends with the division of Germany into four sections,
three being West Germany (France, Britain, U.S.) and East Germany
(USSR)
•Created a division between U.S. and USSR, made ideological
differences apparent
•Berlin Wall would strengthen this divide of Germany dramatically
3. Containment
•Created and encouraged by George Kennan in his ‘Long Telegram’
•Was the effort of keeping communism ‘contained’ to the Soviet
Union, and keeping it from spreading to other nations
•Led to the Truman Doctrine, which pledged support to nations facing
authoritative rule
•Continued to evolve and be used more as the Cold War went on
4. Espionage
•The act of using spies to retrieve information about the opposing
nation, or to plant false information
•Spies risked death or in rare occasions torture if discovered
•Used often in Germany, using secret tunnels to get to the other side
of the Berlin Wall
•Basis for movies like James Bond, which glorified being a spy
5. Arms Race
•The rapid buildup of advanced weaponry to defeat the opponent who
is advancing just as rapidly
•Encompassed all forms of weaponry, but emphasis on nuclear subs,
ICBMs, and various missiles and bombs
•Created ‘mutually assured destruction’, the idea that any attack with
the goal of destroying the other nation would result in a following
attack of similar/greater magnitude
6. Korean War
•38th parallel was division between the communist North Korea and
the democratic Republic of Korea in the south
•North Koreans invaded the south in 1950, causing a war to start, with
the U.S. supporting the south
•Back and forth battles caused the city of Seoul to be captured over
and over again
•Eventual armistice made peace, no particular winner, countries were
kept seperate
7. Cuban Missile Crisis
•Happened over the course of two weeks in 1962, possibly biggest
threat to U.S. safety during entirety of Cold War
•U2 planes took pictures of what was determined to be missiles in
Cuba, Kennedy responds with a quarantine of Cuba
•U2 plane is shot over Cuba, causes further distress
•Removal of Cuban missiles is exchanged for the U.S. removal of
missiles from Turkey and Italy
8. Vietnam War
•Vietnam had been at war for years before U.S. involvement, just hadn’t
escalated to the level it eventually would
•North Vietnamese troops known as the Viet Cong were communist,
fighting against South Vietnamese
•Soldiers were recruited via a draft
•Over 15,000 deaths of U.S. soldiers, sometimes known as ‘the only war the
U.S. has lost’
•Nixon ended the war with ‘Vietnamization’ putting the war effort in the
control of the South Vietnamese, which led to their failure
9. Détente
•French word for the easing of strained relations
•Period during the Cold War for the making of peace between U.S. and
USSR
•SALT I in 1969 reduced military power on both sides
•SALT II in 1972-79 greatly reduced missile research and production
•While peace itself was a reward, so was the economic boost of reduced
military spending
•Helsinki Accords improved life in Eastern Bloc and improved relations with
West
10. Fall of the Soviet Union
•Glasnost and Perestroika started as government reforms but ended up
contributing to the fall of the Soviet Union
•The 1989 Revolutions led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as the
independence of many countries in the Eastern Bloc
•Soviet Union became CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), one of
which being Russia
•Russians unsure if country was doomed or was the start of a new and better
way of life
•Many Americans viewed it as a U.S. victory of the Cold War
