1. Ideas and Events in the Early Cold War
The Cold War
Ideas and Events in the Early Cold War

2. 1945-1989 Becoming the World’s Leader

3. Key Concept and Terms
By the end of WWII, superpowers emerged whose ideological differences led to competition for power and resources.
Key Terms:
Communism
Capitalism
Iron Curtain
Domino Theory
Containment

4. Soviet Union v. United States
Ideology: Communism
Essential Characteristics: classless, stateless; common ownership of the means of production
Ideology: Capitalism
Essential Characteristics:
Private ownership of production; competition for profit

5. Example 1:“an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent” - Churchill
“Iron Curtain:” Need division between East (Communism) and West (Capitalism)
behind the Iron Curtain: Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the Soviet Union

6. Example 2: Domino Theory
Belief that if one country falls to Communism, others will
[could shift balance of power]

7. Example 3: Containment Policy
The U.S. should limit Communism to certain regions;
Goal = STOP Communism

8. Why Communists were scary
1948: February -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
1948: June Berlin Blockade begins
1949: September -- Mao Zedong, a Communist, takes control of China
1949: September -- Soviets explode first atomic bomb
"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic." — Joseph Stalin
Stalin established a reign of terror that included mass arrests, executions and deportations. He also rallied his troops to beat back a German invasion in some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II. At his death on March 1, 1953, there was a mass outpouring of grief; at a 1956 Party Congress, successor Nikita Khrushchev denounced him as a murderer.
The purpose of slides 2 and 3 is to capture that the Soviets had the bomb, were taking aggressive acts after WW2 and that the Communists had some powerful leaders. Slide 4 sends you to a MSN short video clip that tells the Cold War in 2 minutes.

9. Potsdam Conference – July 1945
As WWII continued in Asia, Allied powers met in Potsdam, Germany to discuss war’s end
Key Leaders:
U.S. President Truman
British Prime Minister Attlee
USSR leader Stalin
Key Decisions:
Create United Nations
Divide Germany into 4 occupation zones

11. Germany: 4 Zones

12. Division of Germany
1948 – U.S., France & Great Britain combine their zones to form West Germany
U.S.S.R.
controlled East
Germany
Berlin, the
capital, is split

13. Berlin Airlift
Soviets set up blockade from West Germany to West Berlin
US & British airlifted supplies into West Berlin for 11 months
Blockade ended in
May 1949

15. Cold War Timeline Aug. 6, 1945 – U.S. drops atomic bomb on Japan
March 1946 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill uses metaphor to describe relationship between US and Soviets/Free and Communist worlds as divided by an “Iron Curtain.”
March 1947 – U.S. takes active role in anti-Communist Greek Civil War
June 1947 – U.S. announces Marshall Plan to rebuild any European nation that denounces communism
February 1948 – Communists take over Czechoslovakia
June 24, 1948 – Berlin Blockade begins
June 27, 1948 – Berlin Airlift begins
May 1949 – Berlin Airlift & Blockade end
July 1949 – North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed
September 1949 – Mao and Communists take control of China
September 1949 – Soviet successfully test first atomic bomb. Arms race starts.

16. Cold War Timeline
February 1950 – Senator Joe McCarthy launches communist witch hunt in U.S.
July 1950 – Korean War begins
March 1954 – Soviets form KGB
1954 – US helps overthrow governments in Iran and Guatemala
July 1954 – French defeated at Dien Bien Phu, US begins aid, Vietnam divided at 17th parallel
October 1957 – Sputnik launched. Space race begins
May 1955 – Warsaw Pact formed
January 1959 – Cuba taken over by Communist Castro
September 1959 – Soviet Leader Khrushchev visits U.S. He is denied access to Disneyland
May 1960 – US admits that one of its spy planes has been shot down over Russia
April 1960 – Bay of Pigs invasion
August 1960 – Berlin Wall construction begins
October 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis
August 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin incident marks official launch of American troops into Vietnam to fight communism
April 1969 – Apollo 11 lands on the moon. America takes lead in space race

17. End of the Cold War Timeline
1983 – President Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative – aka Star Wars
1985 – Iran-Contra Affair secretly and illegally funnels arms to anti-Communist guerrillas
January Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
June China puts down protests for democracy; Poland becomes independent
September 1989 Hungary becomes independent
November Berlin Wall falls
December Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania; Soviet empire ends