Social 30 Chapter 7

The political, economic, social struggle between the Soviet Union and the US using propaganda, espionage, and economic measures rather than their militaries after WW2.

A multi-billion dollar plan to provide economic aid to to all European countries from the US. The Soviets refused and the blame for the dividing of Europe fell on the Soviet Union. The Marshall Plan was crucial to Western Europe's economic recovery.

A state with great power and influence. Used to describe the US and Soviet Union.

A period of lessened tensions between the major powers during the Cold War.

Military and political struggles for independence from countries that have colonized/oppressed them.

Mutually assured destruction. The idea that regardless of whichever power attacks first, both would be destroyed in the event of nuclear war.

The concrete wall built by East Germans to separate East and West Berlin.

A conflict where a superpower supports another state that opposes the rival superpower. The support may be money, arms, personnel, but is always indirect.

A phrase that describes the barrier in Europe between democratic Western European countries and Soviet East European countries.

The territories that a powerful country has control over.

A country's foreign policy of acquiring additional territory by violating another country's sovereignty.

An anti-communist movement in the US led by Republican Joseph McCarthy intended to uncover and persecute those with perceived ties to communism in the US.

A point in time where a country is pushed almost to the point of war.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A military alliance designed to defend members from an attack by the Soviet Union.

1926. To deter any further US attacks, Castro appealed to the Soviet Union to install nuclear weapons in Cuba. CIA flights over Cuba discovered that the Soviets were secretly constructing offensive missile sites.

Kennedy imposed a naval quarantine to stop Soviet ships from reaching Cuba. Kennedy and Khrushchev eventually reached an agreement where the missiles in Cuba would be dismantled in exchange for an American promise not to invade Cuba. Secretly the US also agreed to destroy its missile bases in Turkey.

Joseph Stalin (the Soviet Union), Theodore Roosevelt (the United States), and Winston Churchill (the United Kingdom).

1945. The Allied forces could see that WW2 would soon end and the "Big Three" met at Yalta (on the Black Sea) to plan both their remaining wartime actions and the future for postwar Europe. One key task for the leaders was to redraw the map of Europe.

Firm diplomatic, economic, and military counterpressure by the US to block Soviet aggression. Ironically, the Soviets were looking for insulation from the Capitalist West.

The Cold War foreign policy of both major powers aiming to deter the strategic advances of the other through arms development and arms build up. Deterrence depends on each combatant creating the perception that each is willing to resort to military confrontation.

The practice of spying to obtain secret information.

The position taken during the Cold War by countries in the UN that did not form an alliance with either the US or the Soviet Union.

A war that includes troops in direct conflict.

1955. When West Germany joined NATO, the Soviet Union responded by creating its own alliance system in Eastern Europe.

1949. An expansion of the containment doctrine which called for a dramatic increase in defense spending. Paid for with a large tax increase, served as the framework for American policy over the next 20 years.

1945. Truman (the US), Stalin (the Soviet Union), Churchill (the UK) met in Potsdam, Germany to warn Japan to surrender or face the consequences. Truman secretly ordered the attack on Japan by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Soviet Union felt that they had won WW2, and deserved land and to economically raid Eastern Europe to recoup their expenses during the war. They saw the US as a threat to their way of life; especially after the US developed atomic weapons.

Winston Churchill

1947. Financial aid of war supplies to Greece to help push out Communism. The Truman Doctrine marked a new level of American commitment to a Cold War.

1948. US, Britain, France merged their zones to create an independent West German state. The Soviets responded by blockading land access to Berlin. US began airlifting supples that lasted almost a year. 1949. Stalin lifted the blockade when he conceded that he could not prevent the creation of West Germany. Thus, the creation of East and West Germany.