Cold war

Yalta conference:
● A meeting where the WW2 allies decided to fix the world forever in postwar europe
● The conference was mainly focused on the unconditional surrender of germany. Hitler
would get the boot

Potsdam conference
● Held for new berlin
● The post war fate of germany
● This conference was where stalin took control of the easter block
● Last post war conference
● The soviets wanted to unite germany to gain full control of germany so that no one will
scramble to take the other bits of germany
Berlin blockade: 1948 - 49
● Berlin was divided into 4 sectors but were mainly known to be two - the US side and the
Soviet Union side
● The wall was heavily blockaded since people would try to climb over the wall. Free travel
was allowed through the wall
● When people from the soviet side went to the other side they realised it was rich af. So
people from the east would move to the west
● Tanks from the soviet and us side inched closer to the wall increasing tension. This was
soon resolved when the leaders had a chat and decided to both leave
CIA & KGB
● The CIA was formed since president Rossevelt wanted an intelligence taskforce to make
the country stronger. CIA would go to other nations to get info
● The KGBwas a group that was mainly a group that held state security.
Cominform
● After ww2 the cominform was made 1947 - 1956
● It was the information bureau of the communist and workers’ parties
● It was an attempt to hold strong control of the east block
● May have been dissolved due to destalinization
● Allowed communist countries to coordinate
● Allowed the soviet union to enforce control
● Encouraged trade within the east bloc countries and discouraged trade with the west
bloc
● Everyone had to answer to stalin
Truman doctrine & marshall plan - near the start of the cold war
● Marks the start of the cold war.
● After WW 2
● Truman doctrine:
● It was signed by president Harry S. Truman on march 12, 1947
● To counter the geopolitical expansion of the USSR/communism
 ● It took place in countries that were allegedly threatened by the USSR/communism
● America provided economic and economic support to all democratic or capitalist nations
● Also boosted the US economy itself
● Upheld the policy of containment
● Marshall plan:
● Signed by truman april 3 1948
● Proposed by George C. Marshall
● To provide foeign aid to european countries.
Iron curtain
● Divides europe into two halves
● The east belonged to the soviet union
● The west were nations with political freedom
● East was communist
● West was mainly capitalist
The Korean War
● 1950 - 1953
● The north invaded south to make the south communist
Vietnam war
● 1954 - 1975
● Vietnam was a french colony before the
● The US supported france against the rise of communism is vietnam
● The US feared that once vietnam becomes communist then other countries will also go
communist - domino theory
Warsaw Pact
● A credit to destalinization
● A treaty that stated that there would be mutual assistance
● Countries - Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, czechoslovakia,
● Made after the berlin blockade
● Minovski wanted to strengthen military power
Cuban missile crisis
● A year after the bay of pigs invasion
● This was a huge failure on the American military’s part
● Communism managed to get into Cuba
● Khrushchev, in retaliation to American placement in Turkey he placed nuclear bombs in
cuba
● This was a major problem in America
● America’s president at the time, Kennedy, decided to create a blockade to prevent ships
from getting to Cuba.
● Nuclear bombs in both places were set to arm. This terrified everyone of a third world
war.
● This was and the only first time that America switched to defcon 2. Defcon 3 is slight
interference, defcon 2 is to prepare nuclear war, and defcon 1 was nuclear war.
S.A.L.T
● A bilateral conference
 ● Two conferences
● Laws that regulate nuclear arms
● Happened cuz of the cuban missile crisis
● Linden v. Jhonson
● SALT 1: they made a treaty - nuclear weapon developing area for each site was ratified
by the senate
● ABM
● ACM
● SALT 2: was to prohibit certain nuclear weapons. Was not ratified by the senate
● SALT majorly reduced the use of nuclear weapons
Bay of Pigs
● April 17 1961
● 1,400 cuabn exiles launched what became a terrible excuse of an invasion on the Bay of
Pigs southern coast of cuba
● The Cuban exiles were financed by the CIA
Germany Post 1945
● 1945 April 16 - Roosevelt died
● April 20 - Hitler has his birthday and spends it in a buker
● General Alfred signed official surrender May 7
● May 9 - victory in europe day
● The leader of west Germany allowed people to go to the east. The people all gathered
and the guards opened the doors which led to the fall of the berlin wall.
The hungarianrevolution
● 1956
● Revolution of Hungary against the soviet union
● This was regarded as the first major threat against the soviet union during the cold war.
● Most of the food made by Hungary was sent to the soviet union
● The soviet union had sent tanks to suppress the revolution
● Hungary was religious but the soviet union had banned religion
● The hungarians were very patriotic and hated the fact that they were controlled by the
soviet union
● 2,500 people died and quarter of a million people fled out of fear of the soviet union
Velvet revolution
● 1989
● Czechoslovakia
● Non violent
● A revolution against the soviet union to regain its democracy
US - Iran conflict
● Iran revolted against the current monarch of Iran - 1979
● US backed the monarch so Iran held people at the american embassy hostage for three
years
Dissolution of the U.S.S.R
● The USSR formed in 1922 and brought down in 1991 - alive for 69 years
● Started with Mikhail Gorbachev
● Factors leading to it: fall od the berlin wall, political reforms made by Gorbachev, during
the arms race & space race russia forgot to feed its people, they spent a lot of money in
the military leaving nothing, people started to revolt, the chernobyl crisis was the final
punch that led to the dissolution