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