Using a chronology: the Cold War.As World War II ended, only two superpowers emerged, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The Cold War was essentially a struggle for global power and influence between democracy and Communism, the political systems these two countries represented. Read this chronology of that conflict, then answer the questions that follow. 1945: World War II ends. The Soviet Red Army occupies much of Eastern Europe Eastern Europe The countries of eastern Europe, especially those that were allied with the USSR in the Warsaw Pact, which was established in 1955 and dissolved in 1991. and the eastern part of Germany. In 1946, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warns that "an iron curtain Iron Curtain Political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas. has descended across the continent." 1949: Germany becomes two countries, Soviet-dominated East Germany East Germany: see Germany. and democratic West Germany West Germany: see Germany. . Berlin, the former capital, is also a divided city. China declares itself a Communist nation. 1950: Armies of Communist North Korea, backed by China, invade South Korea. The U.S. comes to South Korea's aid. The Korean War Korean War, conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean) and U.S. (South Korean) zones of occupation. will end in a stalemate in 1953. 1953: The Soviet Union tests its first hydrogen bomb, a year after the U.S. This more-powerful successor to the atomic bomb atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei (see nuclear energy). The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alamos, N.Mex. helps fuel a U.S.-Soviet "arms race"--a contest to plant nuclear missiles around the world. 1961: East Germany builds a wall dividing East and West Berlin. 1962: The U.S. and the Soviet Union come to the brink of war over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to heightens Cold War tensions but also leads to a Hot Line--a direct telephone link between leaders of the two countries. 1968: Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev issues the Brezhnev Doctrine. This policy justifies the use of Soviet troops to repress re·press v. 1. To hold back by an act of volition. 2. To exclude something from the conscious mind. democratic movements in Czechoslovakia and other Soviet-bloc countries. 1972: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon visits China and the Soviet Union, opening a new era of dialogue with those nations. 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev [gawr-buh-CHAWF], the new Soviet leader, begins a program of openness, called glasnost glasnost (gläs`nōst), Soviet cultural and social policy of the late 1980s. Following his ascension to the leadership of the USSR in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev began to promote a policy of openness in public discussions about current and , and restructuring of the economic, political, and social systems, called perestroika. 1989: The Communist country of Hungary schedules its first multiparty elections. Germans demolish the Berlin Wall. One by one, Soviet-bloc countries begin to elect non-Communist governments. 1991: The Soviet Union breaks apart into 15 independent nations, signaling the end of the Cold War. QUESTIONS 1. According to this chronology, how long did the Cold War last?-- 2. What lay behind the "Iron Curtain"?-- 3. Which conflict pitted an ally of the U.S. against an ally of China?-- 4. What weapon heightened the tensions of the Cold War?-- 5. How long did the Berlin Wall stand?-- 6. What positive development came from the Cuban Missile Crisis?-- 7. What did the Brezhnev Doctrine say? 8. Which Soviet leader began a new period of openness?-- 9. What role did U.S. President Richard M. Nixon play in ending the Cold War? 10. What ended the Cold War?- 1. 46 years [1945 to 1991] 2. the Soviet-controlled countries of Eastern Europe 3. the Korean War 4. the hydrogen bomb 5. 28 years [1961 to 1989] 6. a direct phone line between the leaders of the Soviet Union An approximately chronological list of leaders of the Soviet Union (heads of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Soviet Union). The formal structure of power in the Soviet Union consisted of three main branches that gave rise to three top and the US. called the Hot Line 7. It justified the use of Soviet troops to repress democracy movements in Soviet-bloc countries. 8. Mikhail Gorbachev 9. He opened a dialogue with Communist countries by visiting China and the Soviet Union. 10. the collapse of the Soviet Unionss |
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