The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and Soviet Union from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. During this time, there was no direct military conflict between the two superpowers, but they supported major regional conflicts like the Korean War and the Vietnam War by proxy. Tensions escalated further in events like the Berlin Blockade and Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Cold War only ended in the late 1980s as reformist leader Gorbachev rose to power in the USSR and liberalized communist rule in Eastern Europe.

1. Unit 14
The Cold War
Social Studies – ESO-4

2. 2
The Cold War
• Background
• Peace was not stable.
• USA and USSR were different.
• No fighting but alliances and diplomatic
conflict.
• The USA was afraid of the spread of
Communism.
• The USSR blockaded Berlin.
• In 1949 the two Germanies appeared and
NATO was formed.
• 1955 Warsaw Pact.
•

3. 3
The Cold War
• Eastern Europe
• The USSR controlled Eastern Europe.
• In 1961 Berlin was divided by a wall.
• The Cold war in Asia.
• In 1949 Mao transformed China into a
Communist State.
• Cold War was extended to Asia because
the USA felt the Communist threat.

4. 4
The Cold War
• War in Korea (1950)
• Former colony of Japan which
was divided in North (pro
communist) and South (pro
USA) after WWII.
• Communist North Korea got
the support of China to
reunite the country and went
to war.
• The USA, UN and Western
countries support South
Korea.
• In 1953 both sides agreed a
cease-fire.

5. 5
The Cold War
• The Cuban crisis
• Since 1949 Batista, a military dictator ruled
Cuba.
• In 1956 Fidel Castro made a frustrated
attempt to overthrow government.
• In 1959 Castro began a guerrilla war and
overthrow the government.
• In 1961 Kennedy failed to invade Cuba
landing in the Bay of Pigs.
• Castro got Soviet military assistance with
missiles.
• A naval blockade of Cuba was ordered by
Kennedy.
• Hot phone line between USA and USSR.

6. 6
The Cold War

7. 7
The Cold War
• The Vietnam War
• In 1954 France withdrew from Indochina
thanks to Geneva Agreement.
• Vietnam was partitioned into Communist
North and democratic South.

8. 8
The Cold War
• Eastern Europe and the USSR during
and after the 1960s.
• Czechoslovakia rebelled
against communism (1968).
• In 1980 Poland had Walesa as
leader of a trade union called
Solidarity demanding rights.
• In 1988 soviet leader
Gorbachev set the Eastern
European countries free. His
new policies were Glasnost
and Perestroika.
• In 1989 the cold war ended.
• In 1991 the USSR dissolved.

9. 9
The Cold War
 Pictures from Banco Imágenes ITE (“Maps of Korea” by Alejandro Cana Sánchez), Ceaucescu by Kightlinger-
Wikimedia, Llech Walesa by Slawek-Wikimedia, Student protesters from Wikimedia