The Cold WarPart One
Ceallach Gibbons
People
USSR Leaders
Stalin• Ruler of Soviet Union from 1922-1953• Responsible for rapid industrialization
and economic reform in Russia• 1930’s launched the “Great Terror,” to
promote the Communist party, many people accused of treachery and terrorism, executed or imprisoned
• After WWII Stalin installed communist governments in most of Eastern Europe, formed the “Iron Curtain” that began the Cold War
Khrushchev• Denounced Stalin’s legacy, Soviet
Union entered a period of de-Stalinization
• Exposed Stalin’s tyranny and abuse of power
• Released many of Stalin’s political prisoners
• USSR continued to try to catch up to the West economically
• Surpassed with the Sputnik space satellite in 1957
• As aggressive as Stalin with foreign policy, stationed missiles in Cuba
USA Leaders
Truman• Became president after Roosevelt’s
death in d1945• First American president to fight
the Cold War• Focused on Western Europe
instead of the Pacific, trying to avoid combat
• Provided aid money for Turkey and Greece to keep them loyal to the United States (called the Truman Doctrine)
• Issued the Marshall Plan to financially assist Western Europe
Roosevelt • The Yalta conference is often cited as
the beginning of the Cold War (2/4/1945-2/11)
• Roosevelt, Stalin and Winston Churchill (“The Big Three”), negotiated Soviet control of Easter Europe
• Churchill and Roosevelt were accused of being to easy with the Soviets, giving them too much land
• They declared that the Yalta conference just proved how powerful the Soviet Empire had become
Terms
Post-War Europe
NATO• The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization• Countries aligned with the Untied
States, opposed to Communism
The Warsaw Pact• The Soviet Union’s response to
NATO• A group of communist aligned
countries, many forced to join• Creation of the two programs led
to proxy warfare and client states
Exploding TechnologiesMutually Assured Destruction
• Also called the ‘MAD’ theory
• The idea that many people took comfort in, the idea that nuclear warfare would not break out, because it would mean the end of not only the country being bombed, but the end of mankind
American Military Industrial Complex
• Even in times of peace the governments of the world spent 100 billion dollars on military expenditures
• In President Eisenhower’s farewell speech, he warned the United States about the warning of military and industrial leaders whom it would behoove to engage in warfare
• His warnings were not heeded, Cold War broke out
Events
The Korean War• Communist North Korea invaded South
Korea• Both had been colonies of Japan from 1910
to 1945• China supported North Korea and the
United States supported South Korea, millions of casualties
• Increased the Chinese threat towards America
• Helped Japan recover from WWII, was a manufacturing site for United States weapons
• Hurt relationships between the United States and Europe, European countries did not support the United States’ heavy involvement in the war
• Technology played a major role• NATO and Warsaw Pact formed as a result
of the war
The Cuban Missile Crisis• Fidel Castro, dictator in Cuba declared a “Six Point
Program” reflecting communist philosophy• Established close relationship with the Soviet Union• As Castro carried out his plan, hundreds of
thousands of Cubans fled, mostly to Miami• United States provided about 1500 of the refugees
with weapons to then invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs
• Invaders defeated immediately• One year later (1962), the Soviet Union provided
Cuba with nuclear tipped warheads, denied their existence
• United States obtained photographic proof that such weapons existed, and threatened to start a nuclear war if they were not removed
• USSR agreed to remove them, only if the United States promised not to invade Cuba again