http://www.history.com/media.

d
o?action=clip&id=d1t30
(Einstein)
Manhattan Project

• In 1939, the Nazis were

rumored to be developing an
atomic bomb.
• The United States initiated its
own program under the Army
Corps of Engineers in June
1942. America needed to build
an atomic weapon before
Germany or Japan did.

http://www.history.com/media.do?
action=clip&id=tdih_0716 (atomic
bomb)
The point of total vaporization from the
blast measured one half of a mile in
diameter. Total destruction ranged at one
mile in diameter. Severe blast damage
carried as far as two miles in diameter. At
two and a half miles, everything flammable
in the area burned. The remaining area of
the blast zone was riddled with serious
blazes that stretched out to the final edge at
a little over three miles in diameter.

66,000 people were killed and 69,000

people were injured by a 10 kiloton atomic
explosion.

Nagasaki's population dropped in one split-

second from 422,000 to 383,000. 39,000
were killed, over 25,000 were injured.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki
Atomic Catastrophe
Germany 1945
Yalta Conference
• The Yalta Conference of 1945 was the
second of three conferences held
between the three Allied superpowers
during the World War II era. During
this particular conference, which was to
be the last one attended by President
Roosevelt before his death, there was
discussion about what to do with
Germany and how to end the war in the
pacific with the Japanese. This
conference in Yalta would not be the
last. There would be a third and final
conference held before everything was
settled with World War II, but even
then not all would be fine. Out of the
end of the war, the beginnings of the
Cold War had originated.
Nuremberg Trials
 United Nations
The United Nations is central to global efforts to
solve problems that challenge humanity.

The United Nations works to promote respect for

human rights, protect the environment, fight
disease and reduce poverty. UN agencies
define the standards for safe and efficient air
travel and help improve telecommunications
and enhance consumer protection.

The United Nations leads the international

campaigns against drug trafficking and
terrorism.

Throughout the world, the UN and its agencies

assist refugees, set up programs to clear
landmines, help expand food production and
lead the fight against AIDS. http://www.history.com
/media.do?
http://www.un.org action=clip&id=speech
_286
Iron Curtain
Containment
 Truman Doctrine
• After the catastrophe of WWII, Great Britain
could no longer provide financial aid to the
governments of Greece and Turkey

• President Harry S. Truman asked for $400

million in military and economic assistance for
Greece and Turkey and established a doctrine,
aptly characterized the Truman Doctrine, that
would guide U.S. diplomacy for the next forty
years. President Truman declared, "It must be
the policy of the United States to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures."

• Truman Doctrine signaled America's post war

embrace of global leadership and ended its
longstanding policy of isolationism.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org
The primary plan of the
United States for
rebuilding and creating a
stronger foundation for
Marshall Plan
the allied countries of
Europe, and repelling
communism after World
War II.

Give $ to stop the spread of

communism
 • The city of Berlin, although located in the
eastern Soviet half, was also divided into four
sectors --West Berlin occupied by Allied

Berlin Airlift
interests and East Berlin occupied by Soviets.
In June 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to
control all of Berlin by cutting surface traffic
to and from the city of West Berlin. Starving
out the population and cutting off their
business was their method of gaining control.
The Truman administration reacted with a
continual daily airlift which brought much
needed food and supplies into the city of
West Berlin. This Airbridge to Berlin lasted
until the end of September of 1949---
although on May 12, 1949, the Soviet
government yielded and lifted the blockade.
• www.tumanlibrary.org
NATO North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
Establishes a system of collective
security whereby its member states
agree to mutual defense in response to
an attack by any external party.
http://www.nato.int/
Warsaw Pact
 Brinkmanship
• Brinkmanship (often misused as brinksmanship) is the
practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge of—or
to the brink of—disaster in order to achieve the most
advantageous outcome. It occurs in international politics,
foreign policy, labor relations, and (in contemporary
settings) military strategy involving the threatened use of
nuclear weapons.

• This maneuver of pushing a situation with the opponent to

the brink succeeds by forcing the opponent to back down
and make concessions. This might be achieved through
diplomatic maneuvers by creating the impression that one
is willing to use extreme methods rather than concede.
During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear force was often
used as such an escalating measure. Adolf Hitler also used
brinkmanship conspicuously during his rise to power.
 Chinese Revolution (1949)
• China became
communist and the
nationalists fled to
Taiwan.
• Truman did NOT
recognize The
People’s Republic of
China because it was
COMMUNIST
Cultural Revolution
 Korean War

• Conflict to stop the spread

of communism

• 1951-1953

• Stalemate (No change)

• “War” between China

(North Korea) and the
United States (South
Korea)
 Vietnam

• In May 1961, President Kennedy

sent 500 more American advisers
to Vietnam, bringing American
forces to 1,400 men.
• The leader of South Vietnam,
Diem, attacked Buddhist
communities, etc.
• Kennedy agreed for the CIA to
assist in a South Vietnamese army
coup against Diem.
• On November 2, 1963, Diem was
assassinated.
jfklibrary.org
 •1965-1973

Vietnam War•Only War US Lost

•Did not stop the spread of communism
Khmer Rouge
 •

The plan was to encourage the South Vietnamese to take more

responsibility for fighting the war. It was hoped that this policy would
eventually enable the United States to withdraw gradually all their soldiers
from Vietnam. (madman theory/Phoenix program)
Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

Vietnamization
 Non-Aligned Nations
• Because the Non-Aligned Movement was formed as an attempt to
thwart the Cold War, it has struggled to find relevance since the Cold
War ended. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, a founding member, its
membership was suspended in 1992 at the regular Ministerial Meeting
of the Movement, held in New York during the regular yearly session
of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The successor states
of the SFR Yugoslavia have expressed little interest in membership,
though some have observer status. In 2004, Malta and Cyprus ceased
to be members and joined the European Union. Belarus remains the
sole member of the Movement in Europe. Turkmenistan, Belarus and
the Dominican Republic are the most recent entrants. The applications
of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Costa Rica were rejected in 1995 and
1998.
Bay of Pigs Invasion

• In 1961, the United States launched

an attack on Cuba meant to
overthrow Castro's government. 

• Though the aid and training given

to the Cuban exiles was substantial,
they suffered total defeat and
created a humiliating situation for
the United States. 

• In the end, the attack only

increased Cubans' support of Fidel
Castro.
historyofcuba.com
 Cuban Missile Crisis
• Almost World War III
• 13 Days
Civil War in Nicaragua
Iranian Revolution
Indo-Pakistan War of 1971
India V. Pakistan over what is now
Bangladesh

US backed Pakistan (hoping to keep

USSR out of the region)

The war ended in a crushing defeat for

the Pakistani military in just a
fortnight.

US backed Pakistan because of the fear

of USSR

France/Britain supported India and

Bangladesh rebels
Fall of Saigon

The fall of the city was preceded

by the evacuation or flight of
almost all the Americans in Saigon,
along with tens of thousands of
South Vietnamese. The evacuation
culminated in Operation Frequent
Wind, the largest helicopter
evacuation in history.
AFGHANISTAN WAR
1978–92, conflict between anti-Communist Muslim Afghan guerrillas (mujahidin) and Afghan government and Soviet forces.
The conflict had its origins in the 1978 coup that overthrew Afghan president Sardar Muhammad Daud Khan, who had
come to power by ousting the king in 1973. The president was assassinated and a pro-Soviet Communist government
under Noor Mohammed Taraki was established. In 1979 another coup, which brought Hafizullah Amin to power, provoked
an invasion (Dec., 1979) by Soviet forces and the installation of Babrak Karmal as president.

The Soviet invasion, which sparked Afghan resistance, intially involved an estimated 30,000 troops, a force that ultimately
grew to 100,000. The mujahidin were supported by aid from the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia, channeled through
Pakistan, and from Iran. Although the USSR had superior weapons and complete air control, the rebels successfully eluded
them. The conflict largely settled into a stalemate, with Soviet and government forces controlling the urban areas, and the
Afghan guerrillas operating fairly freely in mountainous rural regions. As the war progressed, the rebels improved their
organization and tactics and began using imported and captured weapons, including U.S. antiaircraft missiles, to neutralize
the technological advantages of the USSR.

In 1986, Karmal resigned and Mohammad Najibullah became h

ead of a collective leadership. In Feb., 1988, President Mikhail Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of USSR troops,
which was completed one year later. Soviet citizens had become increasingly discontented with the war, which dragged on
without success but with continuing casualties. In the spring of 1992, Najibullah's government collapsed and, after 14 years
of rule by the People's Democratic party, Kabul fell to a coalition of mujahidin under the military leadership of Ahmed Shah
Massoud.

The war left Afghanistan with severe political, economic, and ecological problems. More than 1 million Afghans died in the
war and 5 million became refugees in neighboring countries. In addition, 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed and 37,000
wounded. Economic production was drastically curtailed, and much of the land laid waste. At the end of the war more than
5 million mines saturated approximately 2% of the country, where they will pose a threat to human and animal life well into
the 21st cent. The disparate guerrilla forces that had triumphed proved unable to unite, and Afghanistan became divided
into spheres of control. These political divisions set the stage for the rise of the Taliban later in the decade.

Aided Afghanistan in liberation from USSR

CIA provided training and support to rebel
fighters (Osama, etc.)
 SALT II
•
 Arms Race

After SALT and SALT II, the United States returned to rearmament and tried to restart the arms race
through the production of new weapons and anti-weapons systems. The central part of this strategy
was the Strategic Defense Initiative, a space based anti-ballistic missile system derided as "Star
Wars" by its critics.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
• SDI’s focus was to use ground-based
and space-based systems to protect the
United States from attack by strategic
nuclear ballistic missiles.

• An early focus of the project was to be a

curtain of X-ray lasers powered by
nuclear explosions. The curtain was to
be deployed, first by a series of missiles
launched from submarines during the
critical seconds following a Soviet
attack, then later by satellites and
powered by nuclear warheads built into
the satellites
• In theory, the energy from the warhead
detonation was to pump a series of laser
emitters in the missiles or satellites and
produce an impenetrable barrier to
incoming warheads.
 Glasnost

A Russian word for "transparency"

or "openness." Mikhail Gorbachev
used the term to describe a
program of reform introduced to
the Soviet Union in 1985 whose
goals included combating
corruption and the abuse of
privilege by the political classes. In
the broadest sense, it aimed to
liberalize freedom of the press
gradually, and to allow for freedom
of dissent.
Fall of Berlin Wall
 End of Cold War
On the 9th of November, 1989, the
Border separating Western from
Eastern Germany was effectively
opened

The Fall of the Berlin Wall will always be

used as a symbol for the end of the Cold War
Soviet Break-up