REVIEW FOR THE

UNIT 13 TEST

The Cold War

INSTRUCTIONS: Go through the slides and answer each

question in the packet; the slide numbers are listed for each question

REVIEW FOR THE

UNIT 13 TEST

After WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union were the world’s two “superpowers”

The “Cold War” was the rivalry between the US and the USSR (or Soviet Union) where they competed

militarily and economically

Instead, the USA and USSR engaged in a “cold” war, doing everything just short of

openly fighting to hurt the enemy

A “hot” war is a war fought the usual way: with weapons and soldiers; because of the

threat of nuclear destruction, the US and USSR did not

fight a “hot” war

WHAT IS “IDEOLOGY”?

An IDEOLOGY is a philosophy, or a way of thinking

Ideologies of nations can be based on politics, economics, or religion

The Cold War was an era of

competing ideologies: the USA

promoted democracy and capitalism while

the USSR believed in totalitarianism and communism

What were the major ideologies of the USA and

the USSR?

President Truman created a foreign policy

called containment to

stop Soviet influence and

stop the spread of communism;

containment was the U.S.’s

primary goal in the Cold War

Stalin failed to keep his promise of allowing free

elections in Eastern Europe after WWII; this

was the main cause of distrust between the US

and the USSR after the war

M =

The “Marshall Plan” had the goal of

stopping the spread of communism by

providing money to war-torn European

nations (making them economically strong enough to

prevent communism from taking hold)

The United States formed the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance that had

the goal of resisting Soviet aggression and

protecting democratic nations

WESTERN EUROPE: Capitalism and

Democracy

EASTERN EUROPE: Communism and Totalitarianism

Europe was divided by the figurative “iron curtain” that separated democratic/capitalist Western Europe

from communist/totalitarian Eastern Europe “IRON CURTAIN”: nickname for the

boundary between the two sides

The countries directly east of the boundary in the middle were called “Soviet satellite nations”

Satellites: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria; these countries served as a

“buffer zone” between the USSR and the West, which was a major victory for the USSR in the Cold War

The best example of the

success of America’s

“containment” policy was preventing

communism from spreading

into Greece and Turkey by giving them military aid

ARMS RACE: The United States were the first to develop the hydrogen bomb, and the Soviet Union tested their own hydrogen bomb soon after that

Mutually Assured Destruction: If nuclear war happened, it would be likely that both sides would be

destroyed, along with the rest of the world; this is what made the US and USSR hesitant to go to war

This map shows that the US and USSR had enough nuclear missiles to destroy each other

(Mutually Assured Destruction)

The USA was afraid of a “domino theory” in which communist nations make their neighbors fall to

communism; this was the reason for U.S. intervention in Korea and Vietnam during the Cold War

Outcome of the Korean War: the USA successfully

stopped communism

from spreading into South Korea and showed that it was willing to fight to contain

communism

In the 1950s, President

Eisenhower escalated the Cold

War by using “brinkmanship”:

threatening to use nuclear weapons

and willingness to go to the brink of war

If the USSR attacked a

NATO member, the U.S. would

attack every major Soviet

city and military target; this policy was

called “massive

retaliation”

China had a civil war before and

after WWII; Mao Zedong was the

leader of the Communist

faction

Mao’s Communist Party gained

popularity among poor peasants by

dividing land among the

peasants, while the Nationalists

ignored their problems

In 1949, the Communists won the Civil War and Mao created the Peoples’ Republic of China

Mao’s “Great Leap

Forward”Mao began a program called the “Great Leap

Forward”; similar to Stalin’s “Five Year

Plans”, it had the goal of improving

agricultural and industrial production

The goal of the Cultural Revolution was to reinforce Communist values in China and

attack traditional Chinese ideas

Mao distributed to all Chinese citizens the “Little Red Book,” a book of his quotes that reinforced what was acceptable for Chinese communists

Part of the “Cultural

Revolution” was closing schools

and universities, burning books;

the Communists also humiliated, beat, arrested,

and killed people who

were critics of Mao’s programs

Much like the “Reign of Terror” during the French Revolution, the Cultural Revolution used violence to

eliminate or silence opponents and critics

BERLIN: A DIVIDED CITY IN HOSTILE TERRITORY

The German city of Berlin became divided after WWII into a communist part and a democratic part

Communist East Berlin

Democratic West Berlin

Much like Berlin in

Germany, Vietnam had

become divided: North Vietnam was communist, while South Vietnam was democratic

When communist leader Ho Chi Minh gained independence for

Vietnam, the USA feared communism spreading in

Southeast Asia

The U.S. sent troops to Vietnam to stop the spread of

communism, just like they had done in Korea

The American military used bombing raids,

herbicides, and search-and-destroy missions to fight the Vietcong

Much like Ho Chi Minh had done in Vietnam, Fidel Castro became the leader

of a communist government in Cuba

CUBA

In 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first

satellite in space

Sputnik shocked the U.S., which then encouraged Americans to focus on math,

science, and technology education

The Berlin Wall was built by the communists to prevent East

Germans from moving into the democratic Western part of Berlin

In 1969, Apollo 11 landed U.S. astronauts on the moon

The Soviets were winning the “Space Race”, which led to President Kennedy committing the U.S. to being

the first to land on the Moon

During the Cold War, the USA and USSR created intelligence agencies, the CIA and KGB, in order

to carry out covert operations (spying, espionage, sabotage, assassinations)

In the 1970s, President Nixon’s policy of détente (easing Cold War tensions) replaced the policy of brinkmanship

(always willing to go to the edge of war)

In 1972, Nixon became the

first U.S. president to

visit China and to recognize

communists as the legitimate government of

China; this opened up American-

Chinese relations

The USA and USSR signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) which limited the

number of ICBMs each nation could have

In response to the USSR moving nuclear missiles into Cuba, the US set up a naval blockade to prevent any

more military supplies from getting to Cuba

After nearly going to war, the Soviets withdrew its nuclear missiles from Cuba

The USSR invaded Afghanistan to put down an anti-communist revolt and maintain a

communist government there

Mikhail Gorbachev was different leader

than Nikita Khrushchev:

Gorbachev limited nuclear weapons while Khrushchev

had built an enormous number

of missiles and spread them to Cuba

One of Gorbachev’s reforms was

“perestroika”, where the Soviet

economy was changed by

allowing some private ownership

of business

“Don't Be Afraid of Work.”

Another reform by Gorbachev was glasnost (“openness”), which encouraged freedom of speech and allowed expression of new ideas

“Be Bold, Comrade! Openness

Is Our Strength!”

After Stalin’s death, new USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev began a series of reforms known as “de-Stalinization”,

which included releasing political

prisoners and relaxing censorship

Reagan’s most ambitious program was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), called “Star Wars”: satellites with lasers designed to protect the U.S. from missile attacks

In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down by celebrating East Berliners and West

Berliners; this was the symbolic end of communism and the Cold War

From 1989 to 1991, nations of the USSR and Eastern Europe

broke away from Soviet control; they had free elections and

became democratic

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Soviet Union into fifteen separate nations signified the

end of the Cold War

THE FORMER SOVIET UNION: Russia, Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine,

Moldova, Armenia, Georgia,

Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,

Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,

Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan

A combination of internal problems and external pressures weakened the Soviet Union, much like what had happened to the Roman Empire back in 476 BCE

SOVIET UNION

ROMAN EMPIRE

WHAT CAUSED THE USSR TO BREAK UP AND COMMUNISM TO FALL?

(1) Reagan’s strong stand against the communists and outspending the USSR in the

arms race they could not afford

(2) Gorbachev’s introduction of reforms

made the flaws of communism as an

economic system clear to the Russian people

(3) Gorbachev allowing Eastern European countries to have a taste of democracy and freedom made those countries want

more; they broke free of the Soviets’ influence

WHAT IS THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?

“The Industrial Revolution” refers to the time period when there was a huge increase of machine-made

goods in factories, which replaced work done by hand

IMPERIALISM IN ASIA

The Dutch profited from rubber, tin, oil resources and

cash-crop plantations

The French profited from rice

plantations as well as

cash-crops (coffee, tea,

spices)

The end result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 is that Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks

transformed Russia into the world’s first Communist nation, called the Soviet Union

The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I between Germany and the Allies; the Treaty led to the economic collapse of Germany by forcing the

Germans to pay high war reparations

Fascist governments (like Mussolini’s and Hitler’s) and Communist governments (like Stalin’s) shared the belief that totalitarian

dictators should rule their people

“IF YOU HAVE CORRECTLY

ANSWERED ALL OF THE

QUESTIONS ON YOUR REVIEW PACKET, YOU

WILL BE READY FOR THE UNIT

13 TEST.”