Cold War

• NATO and the Warsaw Pact


  • Divided by the Iron Curtain
• People leaving East Berlin for West Berlin


  A wall was built to prevent the escape of East Germans
• Many Eastern European countries revolted against Soviet authority
• Balance of terror


  The US and the Soviet Union each developed nuclear weapons to maintain it
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

  1. To limit the number of nuclear weapons and anti-ballistic missiles

  2. Led to a détente in the 1970s
• The US and the USSR formed more alliances

  1. To protect their interests around the world

  2. Confronted each other indirectly by taking sides in local conflicts
• Cuba was home to the major Cold War conflict in the Western Hemisphere, with a communist government retaining control
• Soviets wanted to


  Spread their ideology and command economy to other countries
• Policies of Soviet leaders

  • Stalin's successors maintained strict Communist party control
  • Khrushchev closed the prison camps and eased censorship
  • Under Brezhnev, government critics again faced arrest
• Containment


  The American government tried to keep communism from spreading
• The fear of nuclear war led to fear, then paranoia, of communists. Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to root out communists, real and imagined
• During the Cold War, the US played a central role in helping other nations rebuild
• America experienced boom times in the 1950s and 1960s


  The more affluent Americans moved from cities to suburbs
• In the 1970s, high oil prices


  Brought on a recession
• After the decline of Communism, German voters approved the reunification of Germany. All Germans then benefited from the former West Germany's booming economy
• Britain and other European colonial powers struggled with rebuilding and gave their colonies independence
• Minorities began to demand equal rights after WWII


  1. The US Supreme Court struck down segregation in schools

  2. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a civil rights movement that used boycotts and peaceful marches to make demands
• Programs for the poor and disadvantaged

  Grew under Democratic presidents Kennedy and Johnson but shrank under Republican President Reagan
• After WWII, Japan became a parliamentary democracy
• Japan quickly built modern factories and began to export vast quantities of goods. Its GDP climbed
• Japan imposed tariffs on imports


  Which angered Americans, who accused Japan of unfair trade practices
• The American military continues to maintain troops and bases in Japan
• Chinese communists defeated the nationalists


  1. Private properties were seized

  2. Opponents were persecuted

  3. Mao Zedong created communes to produce crops, steel, and other products

  4. During the Great Leap Forward, tens of millions died of starvation, products were created low-quality
• China and the Soviet Union had a troubled history

  Over Russian encroachment into Chinese territory and a dispute over ideology
• The US came to recognize the People's Republic of China and, under President Nixon, established formal diplomatic relations
• Taiwan continued to assert its independence from China
• When each of the rulers of North and South Korea wanted to rule the entire country

  1. The two sides went to war

  2. The South was backed by the US and the North by the Soviets

  3. China sent troops to help the North Koreans and the war turned into a stalemate

  4. Neither side could win, both sides agreed to an armistice
• After the armistice, South Korea flourished economically with a market economy
• Communist North Korea continues to stagnate economically and harshly suppress dissent
• North and South Korea remain divided to this day
• After the war, the French faced guerilla forces in their colony of Vietnam


  1. The Vietnamese victory at the Battle of Dienbienphu forced the French to leave

  2. Vietnam was divided into the Communist North and the non-communist South

  3. Guerilla fighters begin operating in South Vietnam in the early 1960s
• The US first sent supplies and military advisors to the South Vietnamese government


  1. Then it sent hundreds of thousands of troops

  2. The Soviets and Chinese sent aid but no troops to North Vietnam

  3. Guerilla fighters were closely allied with villagers and knew jungles well
• The Tet Offensive changed public opinion over the war in the US
• Mounting deaths brought growing opposition to the war in the US

  1. The US negotiated a cease-fire and withdrew its troops, leaving Vietnam's future to be determined by its own people

  2. Two years later, North Vietnam conquered the South
• Mikhail Gorbachev signed arms control treaties and pulled out of Afghanistan. He began a policy of openness, ending censorship, and allowing limited private enterprise
• These policies caused many to lose their jobs and some of the Soviet republics to demand independence. The 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved
• Some Eastern European countries, such as Hungary and Poland, began to seek political reforms before Gorbachev came into office
• The East German Government, however, was not ready for Gorbachev's reforms and banned Soviet publications
• Communist governments soon began to fall in Eastern Europe
• Old borders changed when Czechoslovakia became two countries