Conflicts
Cold War
Regional wars
Population Growth
Comparative World Industrial Potential, 1750-1980
Decolonization
120+ new nations since 1945
Cold War
Regional wars
US and Soviet Union
Britain, France, Germany
Soviet occupation
Lack of democratic traditions
Czechoslovakia is exception
Communists dominated anti-Nazi resistance
1) Communists in democratic coalition govt.
2) Harassment of non-communists
3) Communist coup with Soviet aid
Communist ideology
Security (Revives Tsarist policy)
No help for occupied E. Europe
Support for anti-Communist dictators
Military aid to Greece and Turkey, 1947
*Marshall Plan, 1948-51
*North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, 1949
*Berlin Blockade, 1948-9
Soviet atomic bomb, 1949
Hydrogen bombs, 1952-53
*Berlin Wall, 1961-89
*Cuban/Turkish missile crisis, 1962
How did the Cold War affect the internal policies of the Americans and Soviets?
*Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963
Detente
Nixon Administration (1968-73)
1. Despite unprecedented global economic growth, what megatrends underlay the continued regional conflicts that have occurred worldwide since the end of World War II?
2. What different methods did the U.S. and Soviet Union use to exert control over countries in Western and Eastern Europe from 1945 to 1949?
3. How was the U.S. strategy of containment implemented? What were its positive and negative aspects?
4. How and why did tensions between the Soviets and Americans escalate during the 1950s and 1960s? Why did the Cold War ultimately remain "cold"?
1. What are the origins of the Cold War? What different methods did the United States and Soviet Union use to exert control over countries in Western and Eastern Europe?
1. In what ways were the American and Soviet perceptions of each other similar during the Cold War?
What would account for these similarities?