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Truman Doctrine
Stated the US would provide money to countries (in this case, Greece) threatened by Commie expansion
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European Recovery Program/Marshall Plan
- Marshall was a chief of staff for the US Army during WWII and won a Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan
- Was designed to rebuild prosperity and stability of Europe
- Included $13 bullion in aid for economic recovery
- Underlying Marshall Plan was the belief that Commie aggression was successful in countries where there were economic problems
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Satellite (Buffer) States
- Refused to participate in the Marshall Plan
- Soviets saw the Marshall Plan as an attempt to buy support from countries
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COMECON
- Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
- Soviet response to the Marshall Plan
- Failed because the Soviet Union was unable to provide necessary financial aid
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Policy of Containment
Kept communism w/in its existing boundaries and prevent further Soviet aggressive moves
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Berlin
- Divided into four zones
- February 1948, Great Britain, France, US were making plans to unify the three Western sections and Berlin and create a West German govn
- Soviet Union created a blockade, preventing trucks, trains, food, supplies, or barges to enter the three Western zones
- Solution for this was the Berlin Airlift; for 10 months, more than 200,000 flights and 2.3 million tons
- Soviets lifted blockade May 1949
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West Germany/East Germany
- West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) was formally created Sept 1949
- East Germany (German Democratic Republic) was set up by the Soviets
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Arms Race
- United States and Soviet Union were involved in an arms race, in which both countries built up their armies and weapons and nuclear weapons became increasingly destructive
- Both sides believed an arsenal of nuclear weapons would prevent war and because of this, neither side could risk using their massive supplies of weapons
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NATO/Warsaw Pact
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed April 1949
- Formed when Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, and Iceland signed a treaty w/ the US and Canada, then later Greece, West Germany, and Turkey
- All powers who signed agreed to provide mutual help if any one of them was attacked
- 1955, Warsaw Pact was created when the USSR joined w/ Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, West Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania in a formal military alliance
- Europe was once again divided into hostile alliance systems, just like it had been in WWI
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Korean War
- Soviets and Americans agreed to divide Korea into two zones and hold elections to reunify Korea
- American-Soviet relations grew worse, and two different govn in Korea were created: Commie in the north, anti-Commie in the south
- Stalin sent North Korean troops to South Korea June 25, 1950
- October 1950, UN forces were sent w/ the aim of unifying Korea, and Chinese sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops into North Korea and pushed the UN back
- Three more years of fighting and no final victory and an armistice was signed 1953
- Tensions between the two countries remain high, and w/ North Korea pouring money into the military, the country’s economic situation grows worse
- 2002, fears arose of North Korean leaders pursuing nuclear weapons despite sucky economy
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SEATO/CENTO
- US, Great Britain, France, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
- The Central Treaty Organization (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Great Britain, US) was meant to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding to the south
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Space Race
- 1957, Soviets sent Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite, to orbit Earth
- The US was afraid it held missiles
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Deterrence
- This policy held that huge arsenals of nuclear weapons on both sides prevented war
- Belief that neither side would launch a nuclear attack because the other side would be able to strike back w/ devastating power (Look at Arms Race)
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Berlin Wall
- A wall built to separate East Germany from West Berlin to stop those from escaping Commies in the east to find a better place to live in prosperity in West Berlin
- Had massive barrier guarded by barbed wire, floodlights, machine-gun towers, minefields, and dog patrols
- It became a striking symbol of the division between two superpowers (Iron Curtain, etc.)
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Nikita Khrushchev
- 1955, new leader of the Soviet Union tried to take advantage of the US concern over missiles to solve the problem of West Berlin
- Many escaped East Berlin to West Berlin because they were tired of the Commies
- August 1961, East German govn began to build a wall separating East Germany from West Berlin (Berlin Wall)
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Cuban Missile Crisis
- 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and set a Soviet-supported totalitarian regime in Cuba
- Kennedy approved a secret plan for Cuban exiles to invade Cuba in hope of causing a revolt against Castro--the invasion was a disaster
- Many of the exiles were killed/captured at an attempted landing at the Bay of Pigs
- After Bay of Pigs, Soviet Union sent arms and military advisors to Cuba
- 1962, Khrushchev began to place nuclear missiles in Cuba
- Kennedy decided to blockade Cuba to prevent the Soviet fleet and this gave both sides time to find a peaceful solution
- Soviet wouldn’t attack as long as Kennedy didn’t invade, and Kennedy agreed
- It brought the world frighteningly close to nuclear war
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Vietnam War
- 1954, France agreed to a peace settlement and Vietnam was divided into two parts: in the north, Commies were based in Hanoi, in the south, non-Commies were based in Saigon
- US gave aid to the south, and in spite of it, South Vietnamese Commie guerrillas (aka Viet Cong) were on the verge of seizing control by 1965
- March 1965, Pres Johnson sent US troops to South Vietnam to prevent the Commies from taking over
- North Vietnam responded by sending more forces to the south
- By 1960, the war had reached a stalemate
- Pres Nixon reached an agreement w/ North Vietnam in 1973
- The reunification of Vietnam under Commies had immediate impact in the region
- Cambodia was ruled over dictator Khmer Rouge and had massacred 1.5 Cambodians between 1975 and 1979
- Commie triumph in Indochina didn’t lead to “falling dominoes"
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Domino Theory
A theory that states that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would create a domino effect and fall to communism as well
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Post WWII Soviet Economy/Life
- To create a new industrial base, Soviet workers were expected to produce goods for export
- Same strict lifestyle was found in Eastern Europe where the Soviet Union controlled the commie govns of the region
- Periodically, the people rebelled
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De-Stalinization
- The process of eliminating the more ruthless policies of Stalin
- At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, Khrushchev condemned Stalin for his “administrative violence, mass repression, and terror”
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