Cold War

"War of words and threats" between

the USA and Soviet Union from

1945-1991.

It was a political and economic

struggle between these countries.

Communism

Political theory based on the writings of

Karl Marx.

Political ideology of the Soviet Union.

All property, including homes and

businesses, should belong to the

government, to ensure that all members

of society have a fair share.

Capitalism

Economic system.

Economic ideology of the USA.

Everyone should be free to own

property and business and make

money.

Franklin D.

Roosevelt

President of the USA from 1933-

1945.

Joseph Stalin

Leader of the Soviet Union from

1924-1953.

Tehran

Conference

Meeting of the Grand Alliance in

November 1943

Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.

Agreements:

• USA and Britain would open second front against Germany.

• Stalin would declare war on Japan to support USA.

• Germany would lose land after the war.

• Soviet Union to be allowed to keep land it seized.

• An international body should be established to avoid further

disputes.

Yalta

Conference

Second meeting of the Grand Alliance in

February 1945

Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.

Agreements:

• After the war Germany to be spilt into four zones.

• Germany to pay $20 billion in reparations.

• United Nations to be set up.

• Future governments in countries in Eastern Europe to be

decided in free elections.

• The Polish borders to be returned to their position in 1921

and there to be free elections.

Harry S.

Truman

President of the USA from 1945-

1953.

Potsdam

Conference

Final meeting of the Grand Alliance in

July-August 1945

Truman, Attlee and Stalin.

Agreements:

• Germany divided into four zones but the economy to be run as a whole

country.

• Berlin to be divided into four zones.

• Each administration to receive reparations for their zone.

Disagreements:

• The government of Eastern Europe – Truman did not like the control the

Soviet Union had over the countries they had liberated from Nazi rule.

• Poland – Truman thought there should be less communist influence.

United

Nations

An organization of independent

states formed in 1945 to promote

international peace and security.

Domino

Theory

The political theory that if one

nation comes under Communist

control then neighboring nations

will also come under Communist

control.

Containment

US policy established by the

Truman administration in 1947 to

stop the spread of Soviet

influence and to contain it to what

it was at the end of the Second

World War.

Satellite State

A nation politically and economically

dominated or controlled by another

more powerful country.

In this case, countries like Poland,

Hungary and Czechoslovakia who

were under the influence of the

Soviet Union.

Division of

Germany

In 1947 Germany (and its capital Berlin)

was divided into 4 zones controlled by the

USA, Great Britain, France and the Soviet

Union.

In 1948 the British, American and French

zones were combined to create Trizonia.

Germany was now split into East Germany

(controlled by the Soviets) and West

Germany (Trizonia).

Truman

Doctrine

Policy statement by President

Truman in 1947 that promised

military and economic aid to nations

threatened by armed minorities or

outside groups.

Specifically targeted at Greece and

Turkey who were threatened by

communist aggression.

Marshall Plan

A United States program of

economic aid for the

reconstruction of Europe.

(1948-1952)

Cominform

Communist Information Bureau

A political organisation established by

Stalin in 1947.

Ensured that all satellite states

worked together and took orders

from Moscow.

Comecon

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

Established in 1949.

Purpose was to support Soviet Satellite

states who were prevented from accessing

aid from the Marshall Plan.

Berlin

Blockade

June 1948

Stalin shut off the land routes across

Soviet-controlled Germany into Berlin

to stop supplies reaching West

Berlin.

Blockade led to the Berlin Airlift.

Berlin Airlift

Planes flew in food, fuel and other

supplies to 2 million Berliners

during the Berlin Blockade which

cut off West Berlin from the rest of

the world.

Arms Race

Cold war competition between the

USA and Soviet Union to increase

their armed forces and develop

new weapons.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

An alliance made to defend one

another if they were attacked by any

other country.

Members included USA, Britain,

France, Canada and other Western

European countries.

Warsaw Pact

Treaty signed in 1955 that formed an

alliance of the Eastern European

countries behind the Iron Curtain.

The Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria,

Czechoslovakia, East Germany,

Hungary, Poland, and Romania

Iron Curtain

A term used by British Prime

Minister Winston Churchill to

describe the Soviet Union's policy

of isolation during the Cold War.

The ‘Iron Curtain’ separated

Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe

from the rest of Europe.

Korean War

1950-1953

Conflict between South Korea and

Communist North Korea.

The Soviet Union supported North Korea.

The USA supported South Korea.

The United Nations sent troops, led by the

USA, to help defend South Korea after it

was invaded by North Korea.

Dwight D.

Eisenhower

President of the USA from 1953-

1961.

Nikita

Khrushchev

First Secretary of the Communist

Party and leader of the Soviet

Union from 1953 to 1964.

ICBM

Inter-continental ballistic

missiles.

Developed by the USA in 1957.

Soviet Union had them by 1958.

Hungarian

Uprising

1956

Protest in Hungary over lack of

political freedoms and poor living

standards.

1000 Soviet tanks rolled into

Budapest to suppress the uprising

and remove the leader Nagy.

Fidel Castro

Cuban socialist leader who

overthrew the dictator (Batista) in

1959 and established a Marxist

Socialist state in Cuba.

SLBM

Submarine-launched ballistic

missiles.

Developed by the USA in 1960.

Soviets had them by 1968.

John F.

Kennedy

President of the USA from 1961-

1963.

Assassinated in Dallas, Texas in

November 1963.

Berlin Wall

In 1961, the Soviet Union built a

high barrier to seal off their sector

of Berlin in order to stop the flow

of refugees out of the Soviet zone

of Germany.

The wall was torn down in 1989.

Bay of Pigs

Incident

Failed invasion of Cuba in 1961

when a force of 1,400 Cuban

exiles, backed by the United

States, landed at the Bay of Pigs

in Cuba.

Cuban

Missile Crisis

In October 1962, the USA and the Soviet Union came close to

nuclear war when President Kennedy insisted that Nikita

Khrushchev remove the missiles he had placed in Cuba.

The USA set up a naval blockade around Cuba.

The Soviets did not try to break the blockade and the crisis ended

when the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba.

The USA agreed secretly to remove their missiles from Turkey.

A hotline was set up between Washington and Moscow to improve

communication.

The USA and Soviet Union signed new treaties to limit nuclear

weapons.

Lyndon B.

Johnson

President of the USA from 1963-

1969.

Leonid

Brezhnev

Leader of the Soviet Union from

1964 to 1982.

Prague

Spring

1968

Reforms introduced by

Czechoslovakia leader Alexander

Dubcek.

He believed a communist

government should offer ‘socialism

with a human face’.

Brezhnev

Doctrine

Brezhnev declared that the actions of any

individual communist country affected all

communist countries.

He said it was each countries duty to take

steps against other countries if their

actins threatened the communist states.

ABM

Anti-ballistic missiles.

Developed by the Soviet Union in

1968 to intercept ICBMs.

The USA developed theirs in 1972.

Détente

1969-1979

Relaxation of tensions between

the United States and its two

major Communist rivals, the

Soviet Union and China.

Richard

Nixon

President of the USA from 1969-

1974.

SALT 1

Strategic Arms Limitation

Treaty

A treaty signed in 1972 by the USA

and the Soviet Union limiting the

number and use of antiballistic

missiles.

Gerald Ford

President of the USA from 1974-

1977.

Helsinki

Accords

1975

1. European borders.

2. International cooperation.

3. Human rights.

Apollo-Soyuz

mission

1975

Joint Soviet-US space mission.

James

(Jimmy)

Carter

President of the USA from 1977-

1981.

SALT 2

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty 2

A treaty agreed by the USA and the

Soviet Union involving further limitations

on the number and use of ICBMs.

Treaty abandoned after the Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Ronald

Reagan

President of the USA from 1981-

1989.

SDI

Strategic Defense Initiative (‘Star

Wars’)

Policy introduced by Reagan which

launched new satellite weapons.

Designed to force the Soviet Union to

surrender or spend money they did

not have trying to compete.

Mikhail

Gorbachev

Leader of the Soviet Union from

1985 to 1991 whose policies

caused the end of the Soviet

Union.

Glasnost

“Openness and honesty”

A Soviet policy allowing more open

discussion of political and social

issues, as well as more widespread

news and information.

Introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in

1985.

Perestroika

“Reconstruction”

A Soviet programme to reconstruct

and reorganise the Soviet

government and economy.

Introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in

1985.