Cold War Presidents and Important Cold War Issues
Cold War Presidents and Important Cold War Issues
Directions: Using lecture and videos from class, fill in the big ideas of each of the terms. You are responsible to know all these for the test this Wednesday. This is your study guide…you should use all the knowledge gained this unit via videos and other activities to fully understand each of these.
President Truman’s Cold War IssuesContainment / Policy to hold in communism where it is; Not letting communism spread to other Western European countries.
Marshall Plan / $13 billion in aid to help rebuilding efforts in Western Europe
China civil War / Commies (Mao) vs Chaing Kai Shek (nationalist), we briefly support Shek, but China eventually falls to communists
Berlin Airlift / USSR blockade BerlinUSA drops food & supplies out of planes
Stalin eventually reopens roads& bridges
President Eisenhower’s Cold War Issues
Korean War (1950-1953) / 38th PLL- Splits Korea into N. Korea (Comm.) & S. Korea (Dem.)
38th PLL turns into DMZ (De-Militarized Zone)
“military industrial complex” / Eisenhower term for the “business” of military people and weapons manufacturers..
many people are making weapons in USA so we automatically have war all the time now
MISPLACED POWER, influences our government
Sputnik / Russia launched aircraft into space
USA is afraid of USSR getting ahead in space technology
USA afraid of Russian missiles being launched from space
USA has to rush to get Further in Space technology
U-2 incident / USA spy plane was shot down by USSR
Gary Powers was captured
“space race” / Race between USSR and USA to see who will get more advanced in space more quickly, who can send someone to moon first
National Education Defense Act / Educate children to be scientists
More funding in science and math programs
“domino theory” / The theory if Vietnam falls under communism then all other areas in south east Asia most likely fall under communism (Eisenhower theory)
brinkmanship / Scare USSR into thinking we are on the edge of declaring nuclear war to get them to fall back of USA.
Eisenhower Doctrine / Middle Eastern countries have oil, don’t want them to be taken over by communism
Help and keep them chill, so start paying attention to this region!
President Kennedy’s Cold War Issues
Bay of Pigs / Invasion of Cuba
Enlistment of Cuban exiles
CIA wanted to start an overthrow of Fidel Castro
Failure for USA
Cuban Missile Crisis / Stopping Russia From delivering Nuclear warheads to Cuba
Instead of military aggression, Kennedy choose “Blockade” of Russian ships attempting to bring nukes to Cuba
Success for USA (not of containment, but of getting rid of Cuban nukes)
Berlin Wall / Stopping people of East Berlin (Comm.) from getting into West Berlin (Democracy.)
Wall in circles West Berlin
“arms race” / Getting more nuclear weapons than the communists, this costs both sides a bunch of money to keep up!
President Johnson’s Cold War Issues
Involvement in Vietnam / Tried the containment method
LBJ Increased troop levels throughout his presidency
Unpopular war so USA didn’t have the Motivation/Drive
Failure for USA/containment
President Nixon’s Cold War Issues
Détente with Soviet Union / “thawing” or relaxing of cold war tension, Talking things out with Brezhnev (leader of Russia then)
Détente with China / “thawing” or relaxing of cold war tension, Talking things out with Mao Zedong, commie leader
President Ford’s Cold War Issues
Helsinki Accords / Treaty reducing nuclear weapons
President Carter’s Cold War Issues
SALT / Treaty that reduces nuclear weapons more
Strategic
Arms
Limitation
Treaty
President Reagan’s Cold War Issues
M.A.D. / Mutually
Assured
Destruction
The idea that if both sides have crazy amounts of nukes, neither side will attack because they both are certain of total destruction
Star Wars (SDI) / Strategic Defense Initiative:
Make an unbelievable device to capture nuclear weapons, Take them into space, and let the weapon detonate in space
Was never created—because its stupid!
Mocked by people as “star wars” because it is so Fantasy and Science fiction
President Reagan’s Cold War Issues continued…
Perestroika
Gorbachev Russian Terms / Means ‘Economic Reform”: Gobechev (new Russian leader) saw communism was failing and wanted to bring in elements of capitalism and private property
- Owning own business
- Restructuring
Glasnost
Gorbachev Russian Terms / “Openness “: Gobechev wanted to loosen some of the old way of keeping Soviets totally closed off from society.
- Free Press
- Info can come in and out
- Open to tourism Starting in the 1980s
“tear down this wall” / Reagan challenged Czar Gorbachev to take down the berlin wall…”if you’re really serious about reform”, take it down!
President G.H. Bush’s Cold War Issues
Protests at Tiananmen Square
/ China student protests
Military crush protest for democratic Reform
April-June
Mao dies- New guy lets in some democratic reform like we have today, but in this event, lots of people died
Fall of Berlin Wall
/ Nov. 9, 1989
People hear the wall will be opened, but freak out and actually tear it all down by hand. (see video on my website!)
New election Laws
1991 Germany Re-Unifies as one country
1991 Gorbachev Steps down
Velvet Revolutions / Peaceful revolutions all through the Communist Bloc countries, no death, communism falls, people get freedom