The document outlines the major events and time periods of the Cold War from 1945-1992. It was a war of ideologies between democracy led by the United States and its allies, and communism led by the Soviet Union. Key events included the establishment of NATO in 1949, the Korean War from 1950-1953, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after WWII, and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1989-1991.

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