Cold War

Guidelines and Questions

1. When did Cold war start?

a. 1947, right after the WWII. The defeat of Germany and Japan left 2 main world
powers (the United States and the Soviet Union)
2. What was the original formation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics?
a. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)
b. Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR)
c. Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR)
d. Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR)
3. What countries formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
a. Republic of Armenia
b. Republic of Azerbaijan
c. Republic of Belarus
d. Republic of Estonia
e. Republic of Kazakhstan
f. Georgia
g. Republic of Kyrgyzstan
h. Republic of Latvia
i. Republic of Lithuania
j. Republic of Moldova
k. Republic of Tajikistan
l. Republic of Turkmenistan
m. Ukraine
n. Republic of Uzbekistan
o. Russia
4. When was the Soviet Union formed and how long did it last?
a. 1922-1991
b. 69 years
c. Marxist-Leninist Ideology of politic
5. Who was the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cold War?
a. Joseph Stalin (December 18, 1878-1953)
b. After the death of Vladimir Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin rose to power as General
Secretary of the Communist Party
6. What caused the Cold War?
(“The Big Three” For the slide, Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, talk about the photo bomb)
a. Fear of Communism
b. Truman hated Stalin
c. USSR was afraid of the atomic bomb that the United States claimed to have
d. USSR disliked capitalism
e. USSR divided Germany (Soviet Zone)
f. America refused to share the secret ingredient in making the nuclear bomb.
g. Secure border for both powers
h. Aim of spreading the two political idea
7. Who were the presidents of the United States during the Cold War?
a. Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
i. First Cold War President
ii. Hated Stalin
iii. Worried about the spread of communism
iv. Korean War (oversaw it)
b. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
i. Relied on passive agreements
ii. Hydrogen bomb develops
iii. Massive Retaliation policy “try me, I’ll just Nuc you”
c. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
i. Escalated the Cold War tension the most
ii. Increased the troops, which Johnson used for Vietnam war.
iii. Started the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Unions
iv. Space Race
d. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)
i. Vietnam war
ii. All in on the Vietnam war (very unpopular and never went for re-election)
e. Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974)
i. Full attack on Vietnam
ii. Bombed the borders of Cambodia and Laos (led to revolution in
Cambodia)
iii. Complete withdrawal by 1973 from Vietnam
iv. Visited China (although it was communist) after they became communist
v. Signed SALT (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks/Treaty) 1 (nuclear arms
limitation treaty)
f. Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977)
i. Visited China
ii. Main focus was in the middle east
g. James E. Carter (1977-1981)
i. Signs SALT II (arms reduction treaties)
ii. Pays 20 billion dollars to the Afghans to fight the Soviet aggressors
h. Ronald W. Reagan (1981-1989)
i. Beginning of the end of Cold War
ii. Berlin Wall falls
iii. Threatens to rage war on Soviets, knowing that they are running out of
money.
iv. Arm Race continues
v. The continuation of Arm Race broke down the economy of the Soviet
Union, which later leads to the end of Soviet Union.
i. George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)
i. Cold War ends
ii. Signs SART III (Reduces 35% of the arsenal and 50% of ICBM,
intercontinental ballistic missile, a missile designed to travel 3,400 miles
to deliver nuclear weapon.
iii. Signs the U.S.-Russian Strategic Partnership, putting an end to the Cold
War.
8. Why did the Cold War end?
a. Soviet Unions started to lack in oil and gas. This made their economy fall, and
with Reagan accelerating the rate of arm race, the Soviet Union were left with no
money to run the Union.
9. How did the Soviet Union Fall?
a. In 1985, Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, brought in the idea of
capitalism to the Soviet Union to raise the economy to continue the arm race with
the United States, but capitalism caught the heart of the people of the countries
that formed the Soviet Union. They later decided to give up on communist and
socialist idea and follow the capitalism.