1. The Policies of Containment
The Cold War
The Policies of Containment

2. Post WWII Conditions Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe
Promised free elections, Soviets control them.
Results in Soviet satellite States.
Tensions are high.

3. Marshall Plan U.S. aid offered to European nations to rebuild.
- lesson learned from WWI.
Soviet denies access to satellite states.
Solidifies the Soviet Bloc
- Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
- Later Cuba following Castro’s revolution
Churchill deems this “The Iron Curtain”

4. Containment Doctrine Total effort to stop the spread of Communism.
- diplomatically, economically, militarily and domestically.
- McCarthyism and the Red Scare.
Domino Theory
- foundation of foreign policy throughout the Cold War.

5. Korean War Russia-backed communist North
US & UN-backed democratic South
Southern coalition makes progress.
Chinese army pushes back.
Truce at 38th Parallel
- Communist North Korea – oppressive closed nation.
- Democratic and Capitalist South Korea
- economic power today.

6. Korean Peninsula at Night

7. Cuban Missile Crisis Castro-led revolution turns Cuba to communism.
Failed US-backed invasion.
Soviets place nuclear warheads.
Kennedy faced with three options.
Naval blockade is chosen.
Both sides agree to compromise.
Closest the world has ever come to a nuclear exchange.

8. The Vietnam Conflict First Indochina War
Vietnam was a French colonial holding.
Ho Chi Minh-led Communists from the North.
US-backed French colonials in the South.
- U.S. paying for 75% of the French expenses.
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
- Communist victory over the French

9. The Vietnam Conflict Vietnam War (Second Indochina War)
Truce of French defeat calls for free elections.
US backs Diem
- extremely corrupt, opposed to Communism.
US involvement escalates from advisors to combatants vs NVA and VC.
58,000 American casualties.
Nixon’s “Peace with Honor.”
Vietnam remains a communist nation.

10. Nixon’s Détente Shift to diplomacy and disarmament.
- notion that both US and Russia sought world stability
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
- sought to reduce the arms race.
- each would maintain a deterrent.
- aresenals are defensive.
Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

11. Reagan Rearmament
Orders the largest increase in defense spending in US history.
Restored the arms race.
Cost of competing cripples Russia.
Slowly loses control of satellite States.
Each turns to democracy.
Berlin Wall falls
- symbolic of the end of the Cold War.
Yeltsin addresses Congress.