FSOT: Cold War (1945-1991)

Containment

An idea that believed communism could stay where it was but it was not allowed to spread.

Its goals included:

1. Blocking futhrer expansion of Soviet power

2. Expose the falsaies of Soviet pretensions

3. Induce a retraction of the Kremlin’s control and influence

4. Foster a seed of destruction within the Soviet system

Truman Doctrine

President Truman’s pledge to support “freedom loving people” against Communist threat. In its first test, the U.S. sent $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to promote democracy and deter communist aspirations.

Marshall Plan

Named after U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the plan provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts in Western Europe following the end of World War II.

It was expected that the economic growth experienced in thoise countries would halt the spread of communism in Europe.

It was also expected that indebted countries would favor policies that advanced U.S. interests in Europe.

NATO

In 1949, the U.S. created a military alliamnce between the U.S. and 11 Western European democracies whose purpse is to resist Soviet military expansion. The agreement that was an attack on one member nation was an attack on all and others would come to each other’s defense.

Created as a part of the U.S.’s policy of containment.

Warsaw Pact

Created in 1955, it was the Soviet’s rival military alliance which included the Eastern European nations that were under Soviet control post WWII.

Korean War

Lasted from 1950-1953; The first armed war the U.S. was in after World War II.

After World War II, Korea was split betwen a communist North and an anti-communist but hardly democratic South. The two wwere supposed to reunite but it was impossible due to their ideological differences.

In 1950, North Korea invaded the South → Truman went to the UN to get authorization but not Congress as he believed it wasn’t a war but an international police force.

US and South Korean forces pushed back North Korean forces past the 38th parrallel.

The US also tried to reunified Korea by going to North Korea’s border with China. This spooked Chinese forces who launched a counterattack, pushing forces back to the 38th parrallel.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In 1962, U.S. intelligence discovered Soviet missile sites being built in Cuba.

Vietnam War

Nuclear deterrence

A strategy in which the United States and the Soviet Union used the threat of massive nuclear retaliation to prevent each other from launching an attack (e.g. Mutually Assured Destruction)

Detente

French for "relaxation of tension"; A period of general easing of geopolitical tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, lasting from approximately 1969 to 1979. It ended after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Fall of Berlin Wall

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Collapse of Soviet Union

Berlin Crisis

In 1949, Germany was split into two nations: West Germany (democracy - led by US, UK, France) and East Germany (communist - USSR) → this included Berlin, which was divided East and West.

Berlin Airlift

After the split of Germany, West Berlin was dependent on goods from West Germany, which had to travel through East Germany to get there.

In 1948, Stalin later cut of the roads to West Berlin, leading the U.S. to conduct an 11-month airlift of supplies. Stalin later lifted the blockade and built the Berlin Wall in 1961.

How were the Soviets able to build their nuclear arsenal?

Espinoage.

An example of this was seen in Germna physicist Klaus Fuchs who worked on the Manhattan Project and leaked information to the USSR.

What are the legacies of the Korean War?

1. It was an expensive war in both lives and money.

2. It further strengthened executive power in the US as Truman went to war without declaration and Congress did nothing about it.

3. It strengthened the Cold War mentality.

4. It set the stage for the US’s longer war in Asia during the Cold War: Vietnam.

How did the US get involved with Vietman?

The US backed behind the French to maintain their colonial empire of Vietnam due to its fear of communism. The U.S. later supported the elitest and repressive regime of Ngo Dinh Diem as he was anti-communist. The U.S. provided on-the-ground support to Vietnam as “advisors” to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVIN); The first U.S. advisors were killed in 1961.

Gulf of Tonkin

A faked incident in 1964 in which North Korean parol boats attacked U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin (which is off the coast of North Vietnam); President Johnson asked Congress if he can take action against Vietnam and they obliged. This ultimately led to the Vietnam War.

Pentagon Papers

Published by the New York Times in 1971; classified documents that showed that the US goevrnent had been misleading the Americna public on the Vietnam War for years.

Paris Peace Agreement

Signed in 1973; it allowed the U.S. to withdraw its troops.

What were the legacies of the Vietnam War?

1. The war was costly in terms of lives and money

2. It was the first was the U.S. definitively lost (because the U.S.didn’t understand the Vietnamese)

3. It also widened the gap between Americans and their trust in the government.

Who was the first U.S. President to visit USSR during the Cold War?

Richard Nixon to sign the SALT I treaty.

Strategic Armed Limitations Treaty I

Signed in 1972 between President Nixon and the USSR’s Leonid Brezhnev to agree to limit prolifieration of nuclear weapons.