Communism &
the Cold War
Readings
Timeline of the Cold War
CLASSWORK
The Berlin Blockade: The First Major Battle of the Cold War
The Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War, setting up the stage for the
decades of tensions that were to follow. In 1948, Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union,
blocked all rail and road access to Berlin. This sudden and unexpected move led to a major U.S.
operation known as the Berlin Airlift, in which supplies were flown into the city for almost a
year.
Background
At the end of World War II, defeated Germany was divided into four zones, controlled
separately by the U.S., France, Britain and the Soviet Union. Although Berlin lay deep within
the Soviet zone, it too was divided into four sections. While the Western countries (France,
Britain and the U.S.) hoped Germany would soon be united as a democratic country, the Soviet
Union hoped that Germany would follow its own example and become communist.
Causes of the Berlin Blockade
Stalin was renowned for his paranoia. He had submitted his own people to terrible purges in
order to cleanse the Soviet Union of opposition. It is therefore unsurprising that he felt
threatened by Western presence in the heart of the Soviet zone.
In 1948 the three non-Russian zones united to form one economic unit. Stalin did not like the
idea of a strong Germany, preferring it to remain divided as Russia had been invaded by
Germany in the past. In response to the joining of the three non-Russian zones, Stalin blocked
all rail and road access to the Berlin.
Consequences of the Berlin Blockade
The Western half of Berlin contained around two and a quarter million people who had only six
week's worth of food. West Berlin, despite its strategic liability because of the surrounding
Soviet zone, had become a symbol of democratic resistance to the expansion of communism.
The U.S. saw the blockade as a test of their commitment and, unwilling to risk military
confrontation with the Soviet Union, they took the lead in the major airlifting operation.
The Berlin Airlift
According to Flying Officer Frank Stillwell who participated in the airlift, "It was the greatest
ever humanitarian undertaking, providing the essential supplies to 2.2 million Berlin inhabitants.
If we had failed, the Russians would have taken over Berlin completely, with the spread of
communism westward."
The airlift began on July 1 under the leadership of General Curtis LeMay. By the end of the
blockade, the airlift (codenamed "Operation Vittles") was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons
of supplies a day.
The Soviets ended the blockade on May 12, 1949, but the Cold War had just begun and would
last for more than 40 more years.
Byrnes, Rebecca. "The Berlin Blockade: The First Major Battle of the Cold War." Suite101.com 4 Jul. 2008: Web. 3 Jan
2010. <http://militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_berlin_blockade>.
CLASSWORK
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 was the most dangerous episode of the Cold War. The
Cold War was a political struggle between the world's two great superpowers, the United States and
the Soviet Union. The Cold War lasted from the end of World War II until the early 1990's. No
battles were actually fought. But the Cuban missile crisis for the first time raised the possibility of
nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
In the spring of 1962, Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev ordered nuclear missiles to be installed on
the Caribbean island of Cuba, a mere 90 miles from the United States. He had received permission
to do this from the Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The military buildup took place during the summer
and autumn of 1962.
The Cuban missile crisis started on October 16, 1962, when U.S. president John F. Kennedy was
informed that American intelligence had detected the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The crisis
lasted 13 days. It consisted of two periods.
During the first period, from October 16 to 22, President Kennedy and his advisers discussed how to
react to the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba without informing the American public or other
nations of the situation. The president's advisers made a number of recommendations. These
included a military attack on the missile sites. But Kennedy chose instead to establish a naval
blockade around Cuba. This would halt any further deliveries of Soviet missiles to the island. On
October 22 in a televised speech, the president informed the American public about the missiles and
his decision.
During the second phase of the crisis, from October 22 to 28, millions of people throughout the
world feared that a nuclear war between the two superpowers was inescapable. On October 24 the
American blockade went into effect. Soviet ships approached the line of blockade. For a while, a
U.S.-Soviet clash on the seas seemed likely. Much to Kennedy's relief, however, the Soviet ships
stopped before crossing the line of blockade. They instead headed back toward the Soviet Union.
Ultimately, Kennedy and Khrushchev used diplomacy to end the crisis. Through an exchange of
letters between the two men, a settlement was reached. The Soviet leader agreed to remove the
nuclear weapons from Cuba. Meanwhile, Kennedy publicly pledged that the United States would
not invade the island. Privately, Kennedy also pledged in due course to remove American missiles
stationed in Turkey near the Soviet border. But this fact was not made known to the public.
The Cuban missile crisis changed Soviet-American relations. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev had
been sobered by the events of October 1962. They then moved to reduce tensions between the
superpowers and to minimize the possibility of another dangerous confrontation. In 1963, Kennedy
called for a more tolerant attitude toward the Soviet Union. Shortly afterward, the United States, the
Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty. It was designed to limit further
nuclear testing.
White, Mark J. "Cuban Missile Crisis." The New Book of Knowledge®. 2010. Grolier Online. 3 Jan. 2010
<http://nbk.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2040360-h>.
CLASSWORK
Sputnik
On Oct. 4, 1957, a mysterious beeping
sound interrupted radio and television
broadcasts around the world. The eerie
noise sparked bewilderment and fear-as
well as angry calls to local repairmen.
The beeping was a coded message from
the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik
1. Launched by what was then the Soviet
Union, Sputnik orbited Earth every 96
minutes.
Sputnik did more than just transmit
information. It set off an intense
NASA
competition between the United States and
Sputnik 2 flew with a canine crew. Laika, later
the Soviet Union that came to be known as dubbed 'Muttnik,' was the first animal in space.
the "space race." The two countries were
already mired in the Cold War (1945-1991), a nonmilitary struggle for power, and U.S.
and Soviet scientists had been rushing to become the first country to conquer space.
When Sputnik started its rounds, the United States was still months away from launching
a satellite.
The Soviets' success took Americans by surprise. Many began to question a long-held
assumption: that U.S. technology was the best in the world. Some feared that if the
Soviets could put a satellite in space, they could easily land missiles on U.S. soil.
Less than a month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, with a dog named Laika
onboard. Called "Muttnik" by journalists, Laika was the first animal in space.
Americans struggled to catch up. In December 1957, the first U.S. attempt to launch a
satellite failed. Nicknamed "Dudnik" by reporters, the satellite rose 3 feet before falling
to the ground. A month later, the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, entered Earth's orbit.
The Soviets outpaced the Americans again in 1961, sending the first human, cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin, into orbit. A few months later, Alan B. Shepard became the first American
in space. The United States finally trumped the Soviets' space achievements in July 1969,
when American astronauts became the first people to land on the moon.
CLASSWORK
The Cold War
The Cold War dominated political life in the second half of the 20th century. It began in 1945, as
World War II was ending. It continued through several phases until it was formally declared over in
1990.
The Nature of the Cold War
The Cold War, in one sense, was a power struggle between the two nuclear military giants of the
age, the United States and the Soviet Union. But on a more basic level, the Cold War was a contest
between two opposing ways of life. One was democratic capitalism, whose leading representatives
were the United States and the nations of Western Europe. The other was totalitarian Communism,
the system of the Soviet Union and its "satellite" nations in Eastern Europe.
Between 1945 and 1990, despite constant tensions and an alarming buildup of nuclear weapons on
both sides, the United States and the Soviet Union officially remained at peace. This is the reason it
was called a "cold" war. Yet it was hardly a peaceful era.
The Cold War Begins
The Cold War started after 1945, when the Soviet Union began imposing Communist regimes on
weaker countries throughout Eastern Europe. The United States and its allies feared both this sudden
increase in Soviet power and further Soviet expansion. Deep mistrust of the ruthless Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin intensified Western concerns.
To contain the spread of Communism, the United States under President Harry S. Truman
introduced two plans. The Truman Doctrine (1947) provided military and economic aid to Greece
and Turkey. The Marshall Plan (1948) provided economic assistance to all the war-torn countries of
Western Europe. These programs helped weaken Communist influences throughout Western
Europe. Nevertheless, by 1948 the Soviets had firmly established Communist rule in Eastern
Europe.
The Soviets countered the Marshall Plan with the Berlin Blockade. They hoped to force the United
States, Great Britain, and France to abandon their postwar occupation of West Berlin. (This half of
the German capital was surrounded by Soviet-controlled territory that later became the Communist
state of East Germany.) But the allies were able to defeat the blockade with the Berlin Airlift (194849).
In 1949, the United States, Britain, France, Canada, and eight other nations formed the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). They signed a common defense treaty to prevent Soviet
aggression. In 1955, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites formed the Warsaw Pact.
This organization was meant to counter NATO's military strength.
HOMEWORK
The Cold War intensified in 1949 when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. That same
year in China, the Communists under Mao Zedong won a civil war. Mao brought the world's most
populous nation into the Communist camp.
The Cold War turned hot in Asia in 1950. Communist North Korea, with Soviet approval, invaded
non-Communist South Korea. The United States, under the banner of the United Nations, led the
defense of South Korea during the Korean War (1950-53).
To the Brink of Nuclear War
After Stalin died in 1953, there was a brief improvement in Soviet-American relations. But in 1962,
the Cold War reached its most dangerous moment with the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the time,
President John F. Kennedy resided in the White House and Nikita Khrushchev was supreme leader
of the Soviet Union. For nearly two weeks in October, the two superpowers stood at the brink of
nuclear war. Finally they were able to resolve their differences.
Vietnam and Détente
After the Cuban missile crisis, the United States became increasingly involved in an unsuccessful
war to stop Communist expansion into South Vietnam. While the Vietnam War was at its height in
the late 1960's and early 1970's, Soviet-American relations actually improved, despite the Soviets'
aid to North Vietnam. This period of relaxation of tensions between the superpowers was known as
détente. In 1972 the first nuclear arms control agreement was reached.
Another important event during this time was the deepening feud between the Soviet Union and
Communist China. Their differences divided the Communist world.
The End of the Cold War
Several crises, including a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, ended détente. But relations
improved again in 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev, who wished to end Cold War tensions, became
the Soviet leader. He found an enthusiastic partner in U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who earlier had
called the Soviet Union an "evil empire." In 1987, the two leaders signed the first treaty to eliminate
an entire class of nuclear weapons.
In 1989, popular discontent led to the collapse of the Soviet Union's Communist allies in Eastern
Europe. The most dramatic event of that year took place when the disintegrating government of East
Germany tore down the Berlin Wall. It had been the most powerful symbol of the Cold War. By
1990, at a meeting in Paris, U.S. president George Bush was able to announce, "We have closed a
chapter in history. The Cold War is over." The following year, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Kort, Michael G. "Cold War." The New Book of Knowledge®. 2010. Grolier Online. 2 Jan. 2010
<http://nbk-ada.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2005992-h>.
HOMEWORK
How to Build a Fallout Shelter
After WWII, fallout shelters in basements and backyards, designed to reduce the risk of
radiation exposure from a nuclear bomb became popular. Consider some guidelines when
building your own shelter.
Step1: Choose a below ground area for your fallout shelter if earthquakes and flooding are not a
threat. Although above ground shelters are permissible under these conditions, the ground, itself,
provides a natural a barrier, effectively reducing radiation levels.
Step 2: Design your fallout shelter to provide space for all the occupants to live for a minimum
of two weeks after a nuclear incident, to allow radiation to subside to a safer level. This means
designing sleeping and bathroom quarters if no basement living area is available. If you plan to
use your shelter only for protection from storms, you may choose to build a smaller model.
Step 3: Excavate and pour concrete walls to a thickness of 8 inches and reinforce the concrete
with steel, in the form of structural rebar. Following national building code is sufficient for
underground fallout shelters.
Step 4: Waterproof the concrete walls of your shelter before you backfill. Purchase a good tarbased sealant and roll it thickly on dried concrete walls to prevent ground moisture and runoff
from entering the shelter.
Step 5: Allow for adequate ventilation. Install a roof fan to release hot air that accumulates in the
shelter and provide filtered intakes to remove the largest fallout particles in the air if your shelter
is for radiation protection.
Step 6: Construct a reinforced ceiling in your shelter, covered by 12 inches of soil. If your
shelter is large, an engineered steel truss system will provide additional protection from the soil
or concrete that will cover the shelter. Pouring a patio on top of the shelter is a popular way to
add extra protection. Avoid using the above ground surface as a driveway.
Step 7: Provide an adequate water source. Experts disagree on the long-term danger from
drinking irradiated water but all agree that in the days following a nuclear incident, exposed
water sources are undrinkable. Filtering drinking water may not provide adequate protection.
Consider installing a distillation unit in your shelter to process water before drinking or washing.
Step 8: Install a heavy steel door to the entrance of your fallout shelter to deflect radioactive
particles. In addition, the safest method of entrance to a shelter is from a door installed flat on
the ground with the stairs descending below. Elevated entrances provide less protection from
radiation but if one is necessary, pour concrete exterior walls and push soil up around the walls
as high as possible.
Sheridan, Glyn. "How to Build a Fallout Shelter." eHow.com. Web. 3 Jan 2010.
<http://www.ehow.com/how_2320123_build-fallout-shelter.html>.
HOMEWORK
Timeline of the Cold War
1940s
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1945: February 4-11-- Yalta Conference; Cold War Begins
1945: August 6 -- United States first used atomic bomb in war
1945: August 8 -- Russia enters war against Japan
1945: August 14 -- Japanese surrender End of World War II
1946: March -- Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" Speech
1947: March -- Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War
1947: June -- Marshall Plan is announced
1948: February -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
1948: June 24 -- Berlin Blockade begins
1949: July -- NATO ratified
1949: May 12 -- Berlin Blockade ends
1949: September -- Mao Zedong, a Communist, takes control of China
1949: September -- Soviets explode first atomic bomb
1950s
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1950: February -- Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt
1950: June -- Korean War begins
1951: January 12 -- Federal Civil Defense Administration established
1953: June 19 -- Rosenberg executions
1953: July -- Korean War ends
1954: March -- KGB established
1954 -- CIA helps overthrow unfriendly regimes in Iran and Guatemala
1954: July -- Vietnam split at 17th parallel
1955: May -- Warsaw Pact formed
1956: October - November -- Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary. Egypt took
control of Suez Canal; U.S. refused to help take it back
1957: October 4 -- Sputnik launched into orbit
1958: November -- Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin
1959: January -- Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
1959: September -- Khrushchev visits United States; denied access to Disneyland
HOMEWORK
1960s
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1960: May -- Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet
territory
1960: November -- John F. Kennedy elected President
1961: April -- Bay of Pigs invasion
1961: July -- Kennedy requests 25% spending increase for military
1961: August 13 -- Berlin border closed
1961: August 17 -- Construction of Berlin Wall begins
1962: -- U.S. involvement in Vietnam increased
1962: October -- Cuban Missile Crisis
1963: July -- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
1963: November -- President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas
1964: August -- Gulf of Tonkin incident
1965: April -- U.S. Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism
1965: July -- Announcement of dispatching of 150,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam
1968: January -- North Korea captured U.S.S. Pueblo
1968: August -- Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt
1969: July 20 -- Apollo 11 lands on the moon
1970s
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1970: April -- President Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia
1972: July -- SALT I signed
1973: January -- Cease fire in Vietnam between North Vietnam and United States
1973: September -- United States helps overthrow Chile government
1973: October -- Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid
1974: August -- President Nixon resigns
1975: April 17 -- North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam
1979: July -- SALT II signed
1979: November -- Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis
1980s
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1983: -- President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative
1983: October -- U.S. troops overthrow regime in Grenada
1985: -- Iran-Contra Affair (arms sold to Iran, profits used to support contras in
Nicaragua)
1985: -- Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union
HOMEWORK
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1986: October -- Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear
missiles from Europe
1986: November -- Iran-Contra Affair revealed to public
1987: October -- Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range
nuclear missiles by signing treaty
1989: January -- Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
1989: June -- China puts down protests for democracy; Poland becomes independent
1989: September -- Hungary becomes independent
1989: November -- Berlin Wall falls
1989: December -- Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and
Rumania; Soviet empire ends
1990s
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1990: March -- Lithuania becomes independent
1990: May 29 -- Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia
1990: October 3 -- Germany reunited
1991: April -- Warsaw Pact ends
1991: August -- End of Soviet Union; Cold War Ends
HOMEWORK