1. The Cold War
1945-1991

2. What is it?
• Cold = tensions
• Tension b/w USA & Soviet Union
• Democracy v. Communism
• Almost war

3. Berlin Airlift
• Germany divided after WWII
• USSR blocks Allies from Berlin
– Fly in supplies
• Eventually build Berlin Wall

5. Alliances
• NATO: US, France, Great Britain, Canada, & 8 other
European nations
• Warsaw Pact: USSR & Eastern Europe

6. Iron Curtain
• Speech by Winston Churchill
• Means the world is split in two: West & East
Not an actual
curtain—
METAPHOR

7. Arms Race
• We have nukes; they want nukes
• They get nukes
• We get nervous. We build better nukes. (H-Bomb)
• They build better nukes.
• We threaten each other with our nukes: Mutually
Assured Destruction
• We agree not to blow each other up…but keep our
hands hovered over the BIG RED BUTTON…just in
case.

9. Cuban Missile Crisis
• USSR puts nuclear weapons in Cuba
• USA threatens to attack
• 13 days of tension—USSR agrees to back off
• Almost nuclear WW3

10. Space Race
• USA & USSR want beat each other into space
– Maybe send weapons?
– Shows who is powerful
• USSR: first satellite (Sputnik), first animal (dog) &
man into space (Yuri Gagarin)
• USA: first man to land on the moon

12. Cold War Heats Up in Asia
• China becomes communist seen as “lost”
• North Korean tries to become communist 
Korean War  UN & US involvement  Korea
divides into North and South
• N. Vietnam tries to become communist  US gets
involved Vietnam war lasts 10+ years  US
withdraws in 1970s all of Vietnam falls to
communism

13. Collapse of USSR
• Gorbachev comes to power in USSR, allows
freedoms
• Reagan: anti-communist, calls for fall of Berlin
Wall—symbol of freedom
Torn down in 1989

14. Collapse of USSR
• USSR loses territory, people rebel
• Soviet Union dissolved in 1991