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Causes of Cold war, Differences between Soviet Russia and United States
Philosophical differences between the Soviet Union and the United States reached back to the 1920s.
Soviet Union: communism, totalitarian dictatorship
United States: free-enterprise capitalism, republic
Allies during the war, but not truly friends The Soviet Union refused to let Eastern Europe hold elections as promised at Yalta. Soviets wanted British and Americans to open a second European front earlier in the war. U.S. atomic bomb plans worried Soviet Union. -
The Iron Curtain
• The Soviet Union had the goal to shielf iteselt from invasion of the west.
•Soviet troops occupied a strip of countried along the western border
•Stalin stated these groups were a necessary "wall of protection".
•The Soviet Union acted this way so they can protect themselves from invasions. -
Mao Zedong and Communist Control of China
*The group of communists led by Mao Zedong was in control of China. This group was in an arguement with the nationlist party.
* Mao's group ended up having victory and was in a campaign to conquer the world. The communists were trying to transform China and revive the revolution after the failure of the Great Leap Foward.
•Laeter, the red guards led an uprising called Cultual Revolution, this established peasnts and workers to be equal
*China acted this way so could uprise after failures. -
Atomic Bomb
This was 8 days after President Harry Truman created the first nuculear bomb.
They created this and shipped it out.
They used 2 atomic bombs to attack Japan.
They named it the Fat Man. -
U.S. Containment, Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
•President Truman adopted containment which is directed at blocking Soviet influence.
•He perfomed a speech called "The Truman Doctrine". This speech supported countried that rejected communism. However, Truman was able to collect $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece.
•After the war,Western Europe was in scaricity of jobs and food. An assistant program called the "Marshall plan" provided materials to rebuild Western Europe
*The US acted this way to help countries in ruins. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
•The United States and its allies clashed with the Soviet Union over Germany. The Soviets wanted to keep their former enemy weak and divided
•In 1948, France, Britain, and the United States decided to withdraw their forces from Germany and allow their occupation zones to form one nation.
*The Soviet Union responded by holding West Berlin hostage. Soviet Union cut off highway, water rail traffic into Berlin’s western zones. The city faced starvation. -
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
*This event marks the start of the cold war. After the Berlin blockade making Europe fear the Soviet Union, western nations joined the U.S to form a defensive militairy alliance. This was called the North Atlantic Treaty Ogranization, or NATO.
*The NATO was found as a threat to the Soviet Union so they formed their own alliance called the Warsaw Pact.
•The U.S acted this way because they feared the Sobiet agression and wanted a way to defend themselves. -
The arms race (threat of Nuclear War)
*As allliances formed, Weapons were becoming thousands of times more powerful.
*The cold war was also affecting science and education programs.The soviets also created a satellite above the earth's atmosphere.
•The Americans felt they had fallen behind in science and the government poured money into science education and launched their own satellite. The skies privided the arena for a superpower conflict.
•The US acted this way to keep up with the soviets technology so they could defeat them. -
Korean War
• On June 25, 1950, North Koreans swept across the 38th parallel in a surprise attack on South Korea.
• President Truman was convinced that the North Korean aggressors were repeating what Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had done in the 1930s.
• Over the next two years, UN forces fought to drive the Chinese and North Koreans back. By 1952, UN troops had regained control of South Korea.
• In July 1953, the UN forces and North Korea signed a cease-fire agreement. -
Fall of Soviet Russia
After Brezhnev’s death in 1982, the aging leadership of the Soviet
Union tried to hold on to power. However, each of Brezhnev’s two successors
died after only about a year in office. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected, he had strong political skills.
Past Soviet leaders had created a totalitarian state.
As a result, Soviet society rarely changed, and the Soviet economy stagnated. -
The causes of the Cold War - The differences between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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The Fall of the Soviet Union and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
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Cuban Missile Crisis
