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The Cold War:
1945-1990
What’s the term
mean?
• “Cold War” refers to
the era, 1945-90, of
extreme tension
between the U.S. and
its allies and the Soviet
Union and its Allies.
Today’s Outcomes:
1. What was “The Iron
Curtain” and why did it
emerge after 1945?
2. What are some key Cold
War terms?
3. HW: How did the Cold
War begin?
Iron Curtain
• In a speech
in Missouri,
Churchill
first
articulates
the division
of Europe
What did Churchill mean?
• “Iron Curtain” is a
metaphor—Churchill
meant the invisible line
that divided communist
Europe and (mostly)
democratic Europe
Vocab Term
• Those nations behind the
Iron Curtain—Poland,
Hungary, East Germany,
etc.—are called satellite
nations
• Why?
To U.S. President Truman and the
West, this “Iron Curtain” represents
a betrayal
• At the Yalta
conference in
1945, Stalin had
implied he’d
allow elections
in nations
occupied by his
forces
Is Stalin pulling a Trotsky?
• That is, is he
attempting to
spread
Communism
beyond
Russia’s
borders—that
“Permanent
Revolution”
stuff?
Or was Stalin’s motive
defensive?
• Russia had always faced
enemies from the West.
Stalin may have been
determined that next war be
fought in Poland or
Germany, and not in a
U.S.S.R. that had just lost 22
million people
More Cold War vocab
Containment
• The policy first enunciated
by President Truman:
America will stop the spread
of communism through
diplomacy, military and
economic aid to nations
threatened by communism
“Client Wars”
• Will be a hallmark of
containment: The two sides
fight indirectly in third
countries: Against China in
Korea; against China and
the Soviet Union in Vietnam
Flashpoints
BERLIN
CUBA
East Asia
And even South Asia
• Where we
supplied and
funded Muslim
fedayeen, like
this one,
fighting the
Soviets in
Afghanistan
The Arms Race
A space race
Espionage
A propaganda war: A
North Korean poster;
an American film
A children’s war…
Would this be those children’s
future?