The Cold War

Honors US History Quest

The Yalta Conference

Stalin intended to protect his borders and rebuild his country. Stalin wanted to punish Germany but FDR knew they didn’t have money. The big 3 meet.

United States Goals

Spread democracy, buy raw materials, rebuild Europe, and reunite Germany

Soviet Union Goals

Spread communism, take raw materials, control Eastern Europe, and keep Germany divided.

The United Nations

Maintain international peace and security.

Division of Germany

West: Britain, France, US. East: Soviets. Berlin: carved up among the four nations.

Containment

Restriction of communism to it current borders

Eastern Bloc

Stalin creating a border with other countries to get to his country.

Iron Curtain

Boundary between Eastern Europe and Western Europe.

Truman Doctrine

US would help people resisting communism and give economic and military aid to countries to fight communism.

Marshall Plan

Spend billions of dollars to help Europe rebuild, including the soviet union. To qualify for the aid nations had to agree to spend the dollars on goods from the US. Soviets refuse and call it “buying Europe”.

Berlin Airlift

11 months, melted the hatred between former American and German enemies.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, “trip-wire”. Attack on one or more nations in Europe or North America considered an attack on all.

Civil War in China

Mao Zedong won(communist), was a frightening failure of containment.

Korean War

38th parallel(latitude). North: Communists. South: non-communist(pro-western).

Korean War Peace Talks

Peace talks begin, Armistice: stop fighting, end = beginning.

McCarthyism

Intimidation, often unfounded accusations in the name of fighting communism.

HUAC

House un-american activities committee, hearings.

Hollywood Blacklist

Primarily Jewish film actors, investigated by the HUAC

CIA

Central Intelligence Agency, Undercover operations, reported directly to the President.

CIA and Iran

Basically started a civil war to get the person they want in power, led to resentment among Iranians.

Suez Crisis

Over control of the Suez Canal, opened the Middle East to the Soviets, helped Egypt. Over oil.

Cuba

Turns communist, Fidel Castro.

Domino Theory

If one country in a region fell to communism, others would follow.

Brinkmanship

The willingness to go to the brink or edge of all-out war(not back down).

U2 Incident

CIA made secret flights into Soviet territory and took pictures, got caught. The “thaw” was over(honeymoon phase over). Things get worse between the US and Soviets(greater tension).

Sputnik

ICBM: intercontinental ballistic missiles launched it. First artificial satellite to orbit the earth, US horrified that they were behind(they could bomb them).