Cold War Review (copy)

The Cold War

The battle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (USSR) due to opposing ideologies: capitalism vs. communism. It is not a physical fight, but both countries try to get other countries to embrace their ideology.

Importance: Left a legacy on international relations

Capitalism

An economic system in which trade and industry are privately owned and products and prices are determined by competition (A Free Market)

Containment

The idea the U.S. followed in which they would contain and stop the spread of communism to other countries.

Importance: To stop the global spread of communism

Arms Race

The buildup of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was because it provided more safety.

Importance: Fostered global anxiety, draining economies, and lead to treaties.

Long Telegram

An 8,000 word report from George F. Kennan which was about how the Soviet Union’s expansion of communism to other countries poses a threat, so the U.S. should adapt a policy of containment.

Importance: Provided justification to use the strategy of containment

NSC-68

The guidebook for how the U.S. was going to fight in the cold war. They would defend South Korea and build up their nuclear weapons.C

Importance: Blueprint for America’s militarized containment strategy.

Doolittle Committee

The U.S. will gain closer ties to the CIA and the military with the goal to exploit Soviet defectors which will prevent the spread of communism.

Importance: overhauling U.S. intelligence, emphasizing aggressive espionage, counterintelligence (finding Soviet defectors), and strategic planning against the USSR, shaping the CIA's covert power and methods to compete in the new ideological struggle, and fostering closer military-intelligence coordination to counter global threats

Truman Doctrine

Containment, and provide military force or aid

Importance: established the U.S. policy of containment, pledging to support "free peoples" resisting communist subjugation, thus shifting America from isolationism to a global leadership role

Marshall Plan

Economic aid to Western Europe

Importance: economically rebuilding Western Europe to prevent communist takeovers, fostering democratic stability, creating strong US alliances (like NATO), and solidifying the economic and ideological division between the US-led West and the Soviet-dominated East.

Berlin Blockade

The split of Berlin into west (capitalist) and east (communism)

Importance: Solidified Cold War divisions

NATO

Capitalist pact to stop the spread of communism and if one country was attacked, the others would help fight them off

Importance: provide collective defense and deter Soviet aggression in Europe through military readiness, joint exercises, and strategic planning

Warsaw Pact

Soviet pact, direct response to NATO

Importance: solidifying Soviet control over Eastern Europe and fueling the arms race

India’s Independence Movement

Gandhi used nonpeaceful protests against the British since their resources were depleted after the war. In the end India became an independent country.

Importance: ending British colonial rule, establishing the world's largest democracy, and inspiring global decolonization through its unique nonviolent resistance

Domino Theory

If one theory falls to communism, the rest will

Importance: it justified massive U.S. intervention, especially in Vietnam, by arguing that if one nation fell to communism, its neighbors would rapidly follow, leading to widespread regional collapse and strategic losses for the West

Chinese Communist Revolution

Containment fails and China becomes communist

Importance: because it added the world's most populous nation to the communist bloc, shifting the global balance of power, creating a major "Eastern Front,"

The Korean War

The war between South and North Korea due to opposing ideologies. The war ends with a draw and is considered pointless.

Importance: the first major armed conflict between US-backed and Soviet/Chinese-backed forces, cementing the policy of containment, escalating the global arms race, solidifying military alliances like NATO, and transforming the conflict from a political struggle into a hot proxy war, setting the stage for future interventions like Vietnam.

The Vietnam War

South Vietnam and the U.S. is attacking communism in North Vietnam.

Importance: embodying the US policy of containment against Soviet/Chinese communism, driven by the domino theory

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

Ho Chi Minh surrounds the French ending the French Indochina War

Importance: shattered French colonialism, galvanized anti-colonial movements globally, and directly triggered deeper U.S. involvement in Vietnam by creating a power vacuum filled by communist North Vietnam, escalating the conflict into a proxy war between US-backed containment and Soviet/Chinese-supported communism

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

U.S. has the right to send troops to Vietnam and attack them

Importance: shattered French colonialism, galvanized anti-colonial movements globally, and directly triggered deeper U.S. involvement in Vietnam by creating a power vacuum filled by communist North Vietnam, escalating the conflict into a proxy war between US-backed containment and Soviet/Chinese-supported communism

TET Offensive

A huge offesive against the U.S. from the Vietcong. In the end, Americans find out the U.S. government has been lying about their position in the war

Importance: The shattered American confidence in winning the Vietnam War, turning public opinion against the conflict despite being a military loss for the Communists, and exposed the gap between official optimism

Khmer Rouge

Marxist leader of Cambodia, Pol Pot, caused many people to die because of physical or mental distress

Importance: because Cambodia became a proxy battleground for the larger ideological conflict between communist powers (China vs. Soviet Union/Vietnam) and Western nations (United States), leading to a devastating genocide. 

CIA and KGB

Secret groups that would overthrow governments that did not follow their ideology

Importance: as the primary intelligence agencies for the US and USSR

Operation Ajax (Coup in Iran, 1953)

The U.S. overthrows Mossafegh, leader of Iran, by showing their citizens he is a bad person. After, they installed the Shah of Iran.

Importance: it cemented Iran as a U.S. ally against Soviet influence by restoring the pro-Western Shah, but it also became a blueprint

Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro overthrows Batista, the president of Cuba, making Cuba a communist country.

Importance: bringing Soviet communism to the Western Hemisphere, directly challenging U.S. dominance, and sparking major crises like the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war and intensifying U.S.-Soviet rivalry for decades

Operation Mongoose

The plan to assassinate Fidel Castro

Importance: the CIA's massive, secret effort (post-Bay of Pigs) to destabilize and overthrow Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba through sabotage, propaganda, and economic warfare, ultimately escalating tensions and directly contributing to the Soviet decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba,

Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba has missles aimed towards the U.S. but is resolved by the removal of misslies on both sides (U.S. and USSR).

Importance: the closest the world came to nuclear war, forcing the US and USSR to realize the dangers of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), leading to nuclear arms control, the Moscow-Washington hotline for direct communication,

1954 Guatemalan Coup (Overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz)

The U.S. creates false news to display how Arbenz is a bad leader, leading to his resignation. This coup causes great instability in the country

Importance: t established a U.S. precedent for overthrowing perceived leftist, anti-American governments in Latin America, justifying it as anti-communist containment

Detente

It was the easing of tensions between the U.S. and USSR due to the shared fear of a nuclear war.

Importance: allowed the U.S. and Soviets to manage their rivalry through dialogue, leading to vital arms control treaties (SALT, ABM), human rights agreements (Helsinki Accords), economic cooperation, and even space collaboration (Apollo-Soyuz), preventing direct nuclear conflict and establishing frameworks for future diplomacy despite eventual setbacks like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Collapse of the Soviet Union

The glasnost or openess caused criticizm from the west after realizing how poor the second world is

Importance: definitive end of the Cold War, marking the conclusion of the decades-long ideological, political, and military standoff between the US-led West and the Soviet bloc, leading to the dissolution of communist empires, the emergence of 15 independent nations, and the triumph of capitalism over communism as a global system, fundamentally reshaping world politics and ending the bipolar world order.