Cold War: Superpowers Face Off

Cold War: Superpowers Face Off Chapter 17-1

Vocabulary1947-1991 • United Nations • Iron Curtain • Containment • Truman Doctrine • Marshall Plan • Cold War • NATO • Warsaw Pact • Brinksmanship

Allies Become Enemies • U.S. and USSR alliance starts to unravel before WWII ends • U.S. mad that Stalin signed non-aggression pact • Stalin mad at Allies for not invading Europe sooner

Yalta Conference • U.S., Britain, and Soviet Union met in Feb 1945 and decided to divide Germany into 4 occupied zones • U.S. • France • Britain • USSR

Creation of UN • June 1945 48 nations formed the United Nations in San Francisco • United Nations: International Peace keeping organization • Five Permanent Members with veto power • U.S • France • Great Britain • China • Soviet Union

U.S. versus USSR Goals • U.S. left the war strong, USSR left weak and mad • Communism versus Capitalism • Capitalism: economic system where the means of production are controlled by individuals for profit. • Communism: Means of production are owned by everyone.

USSR • Goal to protect their country from any future invasion and spread Communism • Eastern Europe was that buffer • Collection of communist states • Iron Curtain Speech-Churchill in the U.S. • Represents Europe’s division into Democratic Western states and Communist Eastern Europe

U.S. Tries to Contain Soviets • U.S. foreign policy of Containment: Policy geared towards stopping the expansion of Communism. Helping countries resist Communism • Truman Doctrine: Financial support for countries resisting Communism • Marshall Plan: Financial support for Western European countries to re build • Also prevented Communism from becoming popular

The Berlin Airlift • The City of Berlin was divided into West and East. • The West was surrounded by Soviet controlled Germany • Stalin cut off access to supplies • U.S. and GB flew supplies into West Berlin for almost a year to keep them fed and supplied • Stalin lifts embargo

Cold War Divides the World • Small conflicts combined to be what we call the Cold War • NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization • Alliance of U.S., Canada, Britain and many others to come to each others aid if attacked • Warsaw Pact: created in response to NATO by the Communist countries

Threat of Nuclear War • 1949 Soviet Union exploded their first bomb • Arms race: the race to have more weapons than the other side. • Brinksmanship: The willingness to to go to the brink or edge of war and the politics associated with that. • ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile used to push the war into space • Space Race

U-2 • CIA put spy planes high in the skies above the USSR • One was caught in 1960 • Francis Gary Powers was caught and exchanged after a few years for a Soviet Spy • Heightened Cold War tensions • U.S. denied spying but was caught red handed

Assessment • What were Stalin’s motives in supporting Communist governments in Eastern Europe? • Why might Berlin be a likely spot for trouble to develop during the Cold War • What factors help to explain why the U.S. and the Soviet Union became rivals instead of allies?

Cold War: Superpowers Face Off