Cold War (Europe)

puppet government

a country that has an independent government, but does not have authority over its territory/is mostly controlled by another country

deterrence

a policy of discouraging an attack by making the opponent fear an even more powerful counterattack

Berlin Blockade/airlift

• Soviets cut off supply lines to Berlin

• West Berliners were held hostage with no access to food/meds/supplies

• as a result, the people of West Berlin suffered

• the Americans + British brought about the Berlin Airlift

  • they sent food and supplies into West Berlin

  • May 1949- SU stopped the blockade

Bloc

a group linked by a common interest (ex: the soviet bloc made up of the communist nations where their foreign policies depended on the SU)

Warsaw Pact

a treaty between the SU and its satellite states, pledging to defend each other if 1 or more of them came under attack

• was a response to the West’s NATO

• an alliance for soviet troops to be kept in each country involved in the pact

United Nations

• was made to keep peace and security during the Cold War

• 2 most important bodies:

  • General Assembly- can discuss any matter within the UN Charter and suggest solutions

  • Security Council- works with international conflicts and bars trade with or sends troops to other countries to maintain peace

Containment

the act of preventing the spread of communism to other nations

• the Truman Doctrine was the US’ form of containment, where the US would help countries/people threatened by soviet forces

  • sent military + economic aid to the affected countries

  • Marshall Plan- named after US secretary of state George Marshall

    • economic assistance sent to postwar Europe from 1947-1952

De-Stalinization

• political reform after Stalin’s death

• an end to large-scale forced labor

• freeing Gulag prisoners

Glasnost

• created to address issues within the SU and get the public involved with locating problems in the systems and what could be done about them

• made by the Gorbachev administration

• openness and transparency in the government

Truman Doctrine

Harry Truman's foreign policy that asked for military and economic aid to be sent to Greece and Turkey, as well as aid to any country that asked for help with resisting communism

nonaligned nations

a nation that does not take a side, otherwise known as being neutral

Iron Curtain

• created to describe the political barrier between the soviet bloc (satellite nations) and the West (free nations)

• named by Winston Churchill

• the divide between communist and anti-communist nations

Cuban Missile Crisis

when the Soviet Union secretly shipped nuclear missiles to Cuba which alarmed the United States and prompted them to demand the removal of the missiles

Brinkmanship

pushing a situation to the brink of conflict, but not initiating anything

Winston Churchill

Great Britain’s PM

President Truman

US President

Joseph Stalin

Russia’s leader

Compare and contrast the different major leaders of the Soviet Union: Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev

Stalin:

• rapid industrialization

• forced labor

• a one-party totalitarian state

• collectivization

• very little personal freedoms

• spreading the idea of communism

Khrushchev:

• un-did Stalin’s actions

• “de-Stalinization”

• sponsored the early Soviet space program

• wanted to co-exist with the west and not let their ideologies set them apart

• allowing foreign media and books

• unbanned writers and composers/loosened up censorship

Gorbachev:

• helped take down the Iron Curtain

• cultivated friendly relations w/noncommunist states

• helped end the Cold War

• allowed citizens to discuss problems within the SU and come up with solutions for them

What were cold war tensions like during Khrushchev and Kennedy’s time in office?

• tensions were very high because of the Cuban Missile Crisis

  • the SU was threatening to use missiles that were being kept in Cuba and the US demanded the removal of them

What made Yugoslavia such an interesting nation during the Cold War?

Yugoslavia was communist by choice

What were the causes of the Cold War?

• Different political views

• communism was the government & economic structure in the SU

• no private property

• private business was not encouraged

• land owned by the state

• this challenged democracy + capitalism in the US, which had more freedom and encouragement of private ownership

• Nonaggression Pact

  • US couldn’t forgive SU for aligning themselves w/ Germany

    • especially since Stalin formed the axis w/ Hitler

• Atomic bomb

  • SU was upset the US created the bomb in secret

  • the SU wanted not only the same weapon (bomb), but a more destructive one

• Yalta Conference

  • big 3 nations represented- US, Great Britain, and SU

  • Stalin stated he would allow Poland “free elections”

  • later at the Potsdam Conference with Pres. Truman, Stalin took back his statement and said no to free elections

• Soviet Union expansion

  • the SU gained land in Germany and Europe, which made other nations fearful of the spread of communism

• What happened to Germany and Berlin after WWII?

  • How did the United Nations play into this decision?

  • Why didn’t the Soviet Union want to combine their piece of Germany and Berlin?

• Germany was broken into 4 zones- occupied by Allied powers

• the SU’s piece contained Berlin (Germany’s capital)

• Berlin was also split into 4 occupied zones, all surrounded by SU occupied land

• Stalin agreed to participate in the United Nations only if the SU got a permanent seat in the security council

  • they saw that he did not want to hold up his ends of the agreements/didn’t cooperate

• the SU did not want to combine their piece of Germany and Berlin with the Western Allies because they were still in fear of Germany rising back to power and posing a threat to the SU’s security

What is unique about the name the Soviet Union gave to their German government?

the name of the SU’s German government was the German Democratic Republic, which was ironic because a republic is supposed to be controlled by the people, but Stalin was a very harsh dictator and gave people no freedom

• What reasons did Khrushchev give for the Berlin Wall being put up?

  • Why didn’t Kennedy intersect the building of the wall?

• Khrushchev wanted to prevent more people from escaping to the West, so he separated East and West Germany

• he also wanted to solve post-war financial issues

• Kennedy didn’t intersect the building of the wall because he figured it was better than a war

What countries were given permanent seats on the Security Council of the United Nations? What do these countries have in common?

United Nations: most important branches were the general assembly and security council

• GB

• France

• US

• SU

• China

these countries are all nuclear weapon states

Why was Gorbachev so different then the Soviet leaders that had come before him?

• Gorbachev focused on restructuring the SU and redoing Stalin’s policies

• this included restructuring the economy, creating personal freedoms, easing up on censorship, paving the way for private ownership, and getting the public educated

What were Stalin’s goals?

• wanted to spread communism

• was setting up communist puppet government

• Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria were satellite states of the SU

• executed a soviet bloc in Eastern Europe

Peaceful co-existence

• Khrushchev’s idea

• asserted that the US and USSR could live together in peace even with different ideologies instead of fighting

• he attended international peace conferences to further his idea (ex: Geneva conference)

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• 10 western European nations, most important: GB, US, and France

• it was an extra insurance policy, if anyone attacks you, then you have all these nations to back you up

Dissidents

people who oppose the government/go against its ideas