The cold war began in 1946… and ended in 1991…

The cold war was between… and the … these two superpowers never actually engaged in direct warfare with each other, relations between communist … and the democratic … were extremely unfriendly and tense. Since …. was communist it had a …. economy

1946 Winston Churchill visited the U.S. and made the iron curtain speech. He wanted other countries to share the concern he had over the growing power of the Soviet Union. When he said “...an Iron Curtain had descended across the continent…” he was referring to the spread of communist ideas and culture across western Europe.
Goal of Soviet Union: to spread communism
Goal of U.S: to stop communism from spreading (containment)
1948 Berlin Blockade: Stalin tried to take over West Berlin
  • 1949- Stalin admitted defeat and gave up control of West Berlin
  • Arms Race1949 -Soviet Union explodes its first Atomic Bomb ( the U.S. had already used an atomic bomb on Japan during WW2) Now there were two superpowers.
  • 1949 -North Atlantic Treaty organization NATO, was formed - a democratic alliance, countries that agreed to support each other in war

1950-1953 Korean War -the two superpowers supported different sides of the war: Communist North Korea supported by USSR, Democratic South Korea supported by U.S.
Arms Race 1952 -the U.S. explodes its first hydrogen bomb
1955 Warsaw Pact - formed an alliance of communist countries that agreed to support each other in war
Space Race : 1957 USSR launched Sputnik 1 –first satellite sent into geocentric orbit
  • 1961- USSR puts first human is space
  • 1961 - Kennedy gives speech challenging the U.S. to put a man on the moon

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis- the U.S. had missiles in Turkey aimed at the USSR, the USSR had missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States It was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. Fortunately the two leaders at the time Kennedy and Khrushchev settled the matter diplomatically (peacefully) and the missiles were removed.
1969 The U.S. lands a man on the moon – Apollo 11 landed and Neil Armstrong planted the American Flag on the moon.
1969 President Nixon and Soviet leader Brezhnev engage in SALT 1 talks, Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty Agreement - they agree to freeze the number of missiles
1972-1979 Salt Talks 2 – they agree to reduce the number of missiles
The USSR begins to have major economic problems and social unrest. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader at the time attempted reform to no avail.
1989 The Berlin Wall Falls, 1990 East and West Germany is reunited.
1991 The USSR is dissolved as a functioning state.