The Cold War began as World War II ended and the Soviet Union and United States emerged as the dominant world superpowers with opposing political and economic ideologies. This led to decades of global tensions and confrontation as the two nations competed for influence and power. Key events that escalated tensions included the Soviets taking control of Eastern Europe, the Berlin Blockade, formation of NATO, and the Korean War. The space race and Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world closest to nuclear war during this period of confrontation known as the Cold War.

1. THE
COLD
WAR
BEGINS

2. THE G.I. BILL
●World War II veterans (GI’s)
get to attend college for free
● Millions of GIs bought
homes, attended
college, started businesses, or
found jobs

3. THE G.I. BILL ● The GI Bill made
new homes very
affordable to
returning soldiers
President Franklin Roosevelt signs the GI Bill in 1944
● Between 1945 and
1954, the U.S. added 13
million new homes

4. Truman and civil rights
● One of the major acts made
by Truman was when he made
an executive order
to end segregation in
the armed forces
● Truman also asked
Congress to pass a civil
rights bill that would make
lynching a federal crime

5. ELECTION of 1948
● Truman angered
many Southern
Democrats by
Harry S Truman Thomas Dewey Strom Thurmond
supporting integration
● Many people didn’t think
he would be re-elected

6. Integration – mixing of groups
previously separated: equal
treatment for all ethnic groups

7. ● The era of confrontation and competition between
the U.S. and the Soviet Union when the threat of
nuclear war created constant world tension
United States Soviet Union
vs.
Democracy Communism

8. The Cold War
United States Russia
• Believed in a communistic
• Believed in democratic forms of forms of government
government • Believed in workers revolting
•Believed the free enterprise system (striking) against business
was necessary for economic growth owners and taking control of
government

9. Soviets
take over
Eastern
Soviet troops move into Germany near the end of World War II
Europe
● As World War II ended,
the Soviet army occupied
the countries of Eastern
Europe that Germany had
conquered during the war

10. The Iron Curtain
Poland, Romania,
Czechoslovakia,
Hungary Bulgaria
and East Germany
became satellite
nations of Soviet
Union
“An iron curtain has descended across the Continent”
– Prime Minister Winston Churchill

11. Peep under the
Iron curtain
March 6, 1946
Who is “Joe”?
What part of
Europe is sealed
off?
What does the
wall symbolize?

12. Letter from U.S. diplomat
George Kennan that led to the
U.S. policy of containment of
communism.
Kennan said the Russians were concerned about
invasions from the west and wanted a buffer zone
Russians wanted to spread communism world-wide
U.S. should use diplomatic, economic and military
actions to keep communism contained

13. Truman Doctrine
● U.S. foreign policy established by President Truman saying
the U.S. would protect democracies throughout the world
“It must be the policy of
the United States to
support free peoples
who are resisting
attempted subjugation
by armed minorities or
outside pressures”
-- Harry Truman

14. Truman Doctrine
● It pledged that the United States
would fight Communism worldwide
American tanks provided by the Truman Doctrine roll through Turkey

15. Aid for Europe ● Secretary of State
George Marshall
toured Western
Europe.
●Marshall feared
that poor
Europeans would
turn to
Communism
Children in a London suburb, waiting outside the wreckage of what was their home

16. Marshall
Plan
● U.S. plan for rebuilding
Western Europe, and stopping
communism after World War II
● Plan pumped
billions of dollars
into Western
Europe for food
and supplies
George C. Marshall

17. Marshall Plan aids Western Europe
The Marshall Plan proved to be a great success

18. The Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was a meeting of the Allied leaders
during World War II to decide what to do with Germany

19. Germany
Divided
British
● After World War
II, Germany was
Soviet
divided into four
zones, occupied by
French, British, Amer
ican, and Soviet
French troops
● Berlin, the capital
American
city, was divided

20. East and West
Germany
formed
East Berlin
West East West Berlin
Germany
Germany ● In June of 1948, the
French, British and
American zones were
joined into the nation of
West Germany after the
Soviets refused to end
their occupation of
Germany.

21. ● In response, the
Soviets cut off West
Berlin from the rest of
the world with a
blockade.
Eventual site of the Berlin Wall

22. Berlin Airlift
● President Truman
decided to avoid the
blockade by flying in
food and other
supplies to the needy
people of West Berlin

23. Berlin Airlift
● The Berlin Airlift
saved the people of West
Berlin from falling
under Soviet Union
control

24. Birth of NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
● Formed in 1949
to protect
Western Europe
from Soviet
aggression

25. The Warsaw Pact
● The Warsaw Pact was the
Soviet Union’s response to
the creation of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization

26. Cold War spreads to Asia
● Communists
take over in
China
China Korea
● The country of Korea became
the next battleground in the Cold
War

27. The Korean War
The Cold War gets HOT
● Following World War
II, the Allies divided
Korea at the 38th parallel
● Soviets controlled
North Korea; U.S. sets
up a democracy in South
Korea

28. The Korean War
A “Police Action” (1950-1953)
●“Domino Theory”
If one country falls to communism,
others around it will fall as well

29. The Korean War
The Cold War gets HOT
● On June 25, 1950,
North Korea invades
South Korea
● UN forces under
Macarthur come to
the aid of South Korea
● Communist forces
push UN forces to
brink of defeat, but
UN forces push back

30. The Korean War
● North Koreans pushed
back to border with China
● Chinese enter war on
the side of North Koreans
● Macarthur
calls for an
invasion of
China, wants
to use the
atomic bomb
An artillery officer directs UN troops as they
drop white phosphorous on a Communist-held
post in February 1951.

31. The Korean War
● War ends in a
stalemate
● Korean War
ended July 1953
● Korea was
divided at the 38th
parallel
● U.S. began a major military build-up;
began using military force to prevent
spread of communism

32. Red Scare
● U.S. citizens in 1950s feared
Communists wanted to take over
the world. This fear was known as
the Red Scare.

33. Red Scare
● People who were accused of being
Communists were often “blacklisted”
● If someone was
blacklisted, it meant they
were denied work or
ostracized from society
Movie stars Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart lead a
protest during height of Hollywood Blacklist controversy

34. McCarthyism
● In 1952, U.S. Senator Joe
McCarthy began holding
Senate hearings
● McCarthy turned the hearings
into witch-hunts, destroying
people’s reputations

35. Russians launch Sputnik
The Russians have beaten America into
space—they have the technological edge!

36. The Space Race Begins
● In 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin blasted off into space,
making the Soviet Union the first
nation to launch a human into
space
● Kennedy said he
wanted U.S. to land a
man on the moon by
the end of the 1960s

37. The Space Race Begins
● on July 20, 1969, when
Neil Armstrong became
the first human to step
foot on the moon
“That’s one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.” –
Neil Armstrong

38. Berlin Wall Built
● Soviets wanted to keep
Germans from moving out of
East Germany into West
Berlin

39. Castro embraces Communism
(1959)
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro embraces Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev

40. Bay of Pigs Debacle
(1961)
● CIA-trained Cuban
exiles led an attack at the
Bay of Pigs in Cuba in an
attempt to overthrow
Castro
● Invasion was a
disaster and failed;

41. Cuban Missile Crisis
● U.S. and Russia
came extremely close to
nuclear war when
Russians place nuclear
missiles in Cuba in
November of 1962

42. Cuban Missile Crisis
● United States places
an embargo on
incoming shipments to
Cuba from the Soviet
Union

43. Cuban Missile Crisis
● Kennedy threatens a
U.S. invasion of Cuba
unless Soviet missiles
are removed
● The Russians
agreed to take their
missiles out of Cuba
if the U.S. removed
theirs from Turkey
President John F. Kennedy thinking in the Oval
Office during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962