Cold War Facts
What is containment and expansionism?
Which country supported each policy?
Containment: Attempting to stop the spread of communism through aid to nation in danger. The US supported this policy.
Expansionism: The process of expanding communism to other countries and increasing a country's global sphere of influence. The USSR supported this policy.
a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides that would effectively result in the complete, utter, and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.
Name two of the Proxy Wars we discussed
Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Cuba (Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban Missile Crisis)
How did Kennedy respond to finding out there were nuclear missiles in Cuba?
He put a naval blockade or quarantine on Cuba.
Who was the leader of the USSR when it fell in 1991?
Mikhail Gorbachev
What was the Iron Curtain?
A metaphorical divide between East and West Europe where the East was the communist sphere controlled by the USSR and the West was the democratic free world influenced by the United States.
What is the name of the first successful satellite in space, and who sent it?
Sputnik
The USSR
It remains separated to this day!
Who was the leader of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Fidel Castro
What is detente and what does it have to do with the Cold War?
It means a loosening, and during the 70s there was a detente in the Cold War, so tensions between the US and the USSR were decreased!
An example of the detente would be the SALT negotiations.
What were the two allies of the Cold War.
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
What was the nickname for Reagan's space-based missile defense system aimed at neutralizing the Soviet military threat.
Star Wars
Was communism contained in Vietnam?
No, at the end of the war, North and South Vietnam were united under a communist dictatorship.
How did the US find out that the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons in Cuba?
United States U2 spy planes spotted them and took pictures.
Name two countries who declared independence from the Soviet Union
What was the Marshall Plan and which US president implemented it?
United States programs which provided money, supplies, and machinery to assist European countries in rebuilding after World War II.
President Harry Truman implemented it (he was the first president of the Cold War!)
"SALT" attempted to accomplish what?
To limit the nuclear capabilities of the US and Soviet Union
It is the line (of latitude) that separates North Korea and South Korea.
The 38th Parallel.
Who were the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
US: President John F. Kennedy
USSR: Nikita Khrushchev
What were “glasnost” and “perestroika”?
Gorbachev's economic and political reforms
Glasnost - political openness
Perestroika - economic restructure
How did the Berlin Wall represent the Cold War?
It was a physical manifestation of the entire Cold War. The Cold War was all about the US versus the USSR and communism vs democracy. That idea was represented right in Berlin. West was democratic controlled by the US and East was communist controlled by the USSR. There were even examples of East repression before the wall like the Berlin Blockade that led the US having to send supplies to West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift. The Wall represented the perfect divide between the US and USSR and it's fall preceded the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
How did the Space and Arms race drive the US and Soviet Union apart?
The Space and Arms Race represented the divide between the two superpowers. Each side was intelligent with immense advances in technology and weapons, yet they fought to be better than the other instead of working together. Each side needed to prove they were the best, which is why they raced each other to space and why they had to have the best weapons.
Explain how Korea and Vietnam were Proxy Wars
Both wars were Civil Wars fought within their own countries. Neither the United States nor the Soviet technically needed to intervene, but their goals on expansionism or containment led to both countries getting involved in the wars. They were using both wars as a way to further their own political agendas and international power and influence.
What was the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The Soviet Union promised to take their missiles out of Cuba.
The US promised to NOT invade Cuba, lift the blockade on them, AND to take their missiles out of Turkey.
How did Gorbachev lead to the fall of the Soviet Union?
His reforms attempted to heal the Soviet Union, but instead it led to uprisings. People were starting to have access to more freedoms and choices, both inside and outside of the USSR. Satellite nations started fighting for democracy and started to declare independence from the USSR with their new freedoms. Then extreme communists in the USSR tried to overthrow Gorbachev but the people who supported these new freedoms stopped the coup. After the coup and the satellite nations declaring independence, Gorbachev resigned, and the communist party was removed in the Soviet Union.