The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and Soviet Union from 1947 to 1991. It started with the breakdown of the alliance between the US, Britain, and USSR after WWII and developed into a rivalry between capitalist and communist ideologies. The world divided into two opposing camps led by the two superpowers, and several proxy wars were fought globally without direct conflict between the US and USSR. The Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 due to economic inefficiencies and internal political pressures.

1. The Cold War (1947-1991)

2. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The end of the Alliance
• USA, Britain and USSR
defeated the Axis
• However, their alliance
started to crumble shortly,
even before defeating Hitler,
differences between them
showed up
• By 1947, the Cold War had
started

3. The Cold War (1947-1991)

4. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Cold War (1947-1991)
• Long period of rivalry
between USA and USSR
and their allies
• Several wars, but no direct
confrontation between
both superpowers

5. The Cold War (1947-1991)

6. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Cold war was fought
in different fronts
• Political  Democracy/Soviet
dictatorship (although Franco
was supported by the USA)
• Economic 
Capitalism/Centralized Soviet
economy
• Propaganda  Two ways of life

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8. The Cold War (1947-1991)

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12. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Cold war ended
with the collapse of
the USSR
• Inefficient economic
system
• Lack of freedoms

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14. The Cold War (1947-1991)

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18. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The world divided into
two blocks 1945-1955
• Stalin imposed
Communism in Central
Europe (1945-1948)
• Soviet Germany, Poland,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
• Yugoslavia and Albania
• Churchill’s «Iron Curtain»

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22. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The world divided into
two blocks 1945-1955
• American reaction:
• «Containment policy»
proclaimed by Truman in
1947 (Truman Doctrine)
• «Marshall Plan» 1947

23. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The world divided into
two blocks 1945-1955
• «Containment policy»
proclaimed by Truman in
1947 (Truman Doctrine)
• Britain gave up helping Greece
• US took over  Any other
communist aggresion will be
contained by the US

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26. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The world divided into
two blocks 1945-1955
• «Marshall Plan» 1947
• Economic aid to Europe
• Less poverty, less
attraction on
Communism
• Recover European
economy

27. The Cold War (1947-1991)

28. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Spain was excluded
because of Franco’s
Dictatorship

29. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The world divided into
two blocks 1945-1955
• Germany and Berlin: four
occupation zones (UK, US, Fr. &
USSR)
• Cold war caused the division of
Germany and Berlin
• FRG (Western Germany) DRG
(Eastern Germany)
• Western Berlin isolated within DRG

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31. The Cold War (1947-1991)

32. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The victory of the
Chinese communist
revolution
• Mao Zedong – October 1949
• The world’s most populous
country joined the communist
bloc
• Increasing anxiety in the West

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35. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Soviet Union carried
out its first atomic bomb
test
• August 1949, a few months
earlier than the victory of the
Chinese communists

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37. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Bipolar World (1949-
1955)
• The world got divided into to
blocs led by the USA and the
USSR
• Military alliances were
established all over the world

38. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Bipolar World (1949-
1955)
• 1949 NATO: North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (Millitary
alliance of the USA and its
allies). Spain could not join until
1982
• European Economic Community,
1957 (Now European Union)

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42. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Bipolar World (1949-
1955)
• 1949  China and the USSR
signed different agreements
• 1955  Warsaw Pact (Millitary
alliance of the USSR and its allies
in Central and Eastern Europe)
• Yugoslavia, although a
communist country, did not join
the alliance

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46. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Peaceful Coexistence
(1955-1962)
• 1953  Stalin died and was
substituted by Khruschev
• New atmosphere  the «thaw»
• Khruschev talked about
«peaceful coexistence»
• However, there were serious
international crisis

47. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Vienna summit meeting 1961

48. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Peaceful Coexistence
(1955-1962)
• Why the «thaw»?
• Balance of terror  Mutually
assured destruction (both
superpowers had accumulated a
great number of atomic
weapons)
• Nobody could win a nuclear war

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Nuclear fallout shelter

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The construction of the
Berlin Wall (1961)
• Division of Germany
• 1951-1958: More than 2 million
left GDR (Communist Germany),
lots of them through Berlin
• 1961: Berlin was erected
• West Berlin got completely
isolated
• Symbol of the Cold War

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Cuban Missile Crisis
(1962)
• 1959, Castro’s revolution
• Pigs’ Bay– Playa Girón, 1961:
Failed attempt of invading Cuba
• Castro asked the URSS to deploy
nucelar missiles in the island
• 1963, US spy planes discovered
them

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Pigs’ Bay– Playa Girón, 1961
Failed attempt of invading Cuba

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59. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Cuban Missile Crisis
(1962)
• Kennedy’s reaction: blockade of the
island
• US proclaimed that its navy will prevent
any Soviet ship from getting to Cuba
• The moment the world was closest to a
nuclear war
• Finally, the Soviets withdraw the
missiles from Cuba and the USA from
Turkey

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62. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The end of the Sino-
Soviet Alliance, 1962
• Both communist powers broke
relations
• A long enemity started
• Ideological and strategic
differences
• Great news for the US and the
western bloc

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Mao and Khruschev, the end of the friendship

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The Détente, 1962-1975
• After being on the brink of
starting a war in Cuba, both
superpowers looked for a
détente
• Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty,
1968
• SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation
Agreement), 1972

66. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Nixon and Brezhnev after singing SALT I

67. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The Détente, 1962-1975
• However, local wars continued
in which the USA and the USSR
intervened
• Middle East conflict (Israel with
USA support, Arab countries
with USSR’s)
• Vietnam war (Military
intervention of the USA)

68. The Cold War (1947-1991)
Middle East conflict
• 1948, creation of Israel
• «Six Days War» 1967
• «Yom Kippur War» 1973
• Israel, backed up by USA,
became the hegemon in the
area
• Israel occupied Palestinian
territories and a section of
Syria

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Six Days War

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Vietnam war (1959-1975)
• Vietnam got divided after WWII
• North communist, South pro-
western dictatorship
• Conflicts grew and the USA half
million soldiers to fight N. Vietnam
and the communist guerrilla
(«Vietcong»)
• USA humiliated
• 1975, Vietnam got reunified under
a communist goviernment

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83. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The new Cold War (1975-
1985)
• The West weakened by 1973 economic
crisis (“oil crisis”)
• The USSR increased its interventions all
around the world (in reality, the Soviet
Union was increasingly weaker)
• Ronald Reagan (1980s)  policy of
confrontation
• More military expenses + feeble
economy  collapse of the Soviet bloc

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87. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The new Cold War (1975-
1985)
• Great Soviet mistake  Expanionism in
the 1970s with Leonid Brezhnev
• 1975, Vietnam reunified
• Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua,
1979
• From 1974 on, pro-Soviet regimes in
Ethiopia, Angola and Mozambique
• Greatest mistake  Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan (1979)

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92. The Cold War (1947-1991)
The new Cold War (1975-
1985)
• Soviet feeble and stagnant economy
• Increase in military expenses to face
Reagan’s rearmament
• 1985 New leader, Mijail Gorbachov,
was forced to launch a plan of reforms
(“perestroika”)
• It failed and led to the collapse of the
communist bloc(“Berlin Wall
Fall,1989”) and the end of the USSR
(1991)

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