part 2: development

• what was the advantage of NATO to smaller countries?

  made theme less vunlerable to Soviet influence or attack, in case the Soviets attempted to pick off countries one by one.
• why was the fact that NATO meant that USA could have military bases across Europe, a good thing?

  would allow for an easier, more effective and better coordinated defense in the event of a Soviet attack.
• by forming NATO, what did the USA make clear to Russia?

  that they were willing to defend Western Europe from Soviet expansionism.
• why were US allies happy to have US forces in Europe?

  it guarenteed their protection from possible attack, the Soviet union didn't see this in the same way.
• which were the countries that formed NATO?

  USA, Canada, UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Italy, Portugal
• which countries joined NATO later?

  Greece, Turkey, West Germany, Spain
• what 2 things happened in 1949 that made the West want to create NATO?

  Stalin had imposed communist governments on the countries of Eastern Europe. The blockade convinced the West they needed a defensive organisation as a precaution against Soviet attack.
• what does NATO stand for?

  North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• when was NATO set up?

  4th April 1949
• what did all NATO members agree to do?

  an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe/North America shall be considered an attack on them all.
• what is a superpower?

  an extremely powerful nation capable of influencing international events
• how did USA/USSR feel about the sphere of influence?

  USA believed there should be no sphere of influence whereas USSR believed they should have a sphere of influence to guarentee USSR's safety.
• what did the Americans think the Soviet sphere of influence was?

  they could take over countries/control them.
• what did the Soviets think the Soviet sphere of influence was?

  they were influencing countries to share all the same beliefs as them.
• what happened in 1950 between China and the USSR?

  they signed the Treaty of Friendship
• what did the USSR do after signing the Treaty of Friendship with China?

  sent experts, aids, and loans to China.
• why did China's strong relations with the USSR increase tension between USA/USSR?

  USSR were only making China more powerful, which then benefited the USSR also as they had China's loyalty while the USA could've had this.
• what happened to China in 1949?

  they became the People's Republic of China (PRC) which was communist which still exists today.
• who were the CCP?

  Chinese Communist Party
• who were the PRC?

  People's Republic of China
• why did Truman send Marshall to China in 1945?

  to create a peace agreement in China but they didn't think China was important enough to intervene with the civil war, they assumed the communists would lose.
• why did the Chinese civil war increase tension between USA/USSR?

  USA had lost a big industrial country (China), this put pressure on Eastern Europe and now the USSR did have China.
• what were proxy wars?

  where a communist group was fighting against a nationalist/capitalist one.
• How did the USSR and USA exert influence on proxy wars?

  • direct military intervention
  • aid
  • weapons and supplies
• who was Mao Zedong?

  leader of the Chinese communist party, who which the USSR supported.
• when did China become a communist dictatorship?


  1949: the leader of the Chinese government, Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan. Mao Zedong became the leader of China.
• what happened in Korea in 1950?


  the Northern communists, backed by the USSR amd China, invaded the South. America, backed by the UN, organised a counter attack.
• what did the Chinese People's Volenteers force the US to do in late 1950s (in Korea?)

  retreat, but this forced the US to send more troops, eventually allowing them to force the communists back to the 38th parallel, the border assigned between the North and the South.
• what was the end of the Korean war?

  clashes carried on until 1953, when America's new president, Eidenhower, offered peace. The border between the 2 countries has remained the same ever since.
• who did the Americans support in the Vietnamese war?

  Ngo Dinh Diem in the South, even though he was a corrupt dictator, against the communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
• who were the Viet Cong?

  a group made up of soldiers from the North Vietnamese army and people from the South who wanted to overthrow the regime. Diem was overthrown by his own generals.
• why could the USA not fight the Viet Cong's tactics, despite their superior tactics?

  Guerilla warfare was a particular challenge for the Americans to counter.
• what was the USA's response to North korea's guerilla warfare?

  • targeting civilians
  • destroying villages
  • using chemical weapons
• how did the Vietnamese war end?

  after many protests, Richard Nixon brought the war to an end in 1973, but 2 years later, south Vietnam fell to communism.
• when did the USSR complete its development of an atomic bomb?

  August 1949 (4 years behind USA: August 1945).
• when did the USA build their hydrogen bomb compared to the USSR?

  • USA: 1952
  • USSR: 1953
• when did USSR develop ICBMs compared to the USA?

  • USSR: 1958
  • USA: 1959
• when was the Warsaw Pact signed?

  14th May 1955
• what was the Warsaw pact?

  a rival to NATO (which was created in 1949) it was an alliance between the USSR and it's satellite states in Eastern Europe (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia).
• what was Sputnik?

  the USSR launched its first ever satellite into space in 1957, it was called Sputnik.