Cold War Quiz

The Cold War: A Period of Geopolitical Tension

• The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc.

• The conflict was based on the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945.

• The Western Bloc was led by the United States as well as a number of other First World nations that were generally liberal democratic but tied to a network of often Third World authoritarian states, most of which were the European powers' former colonies.

• The Eastern Bloc was led by the Soviet Union and its Communist Party, which had an influence across the Second World and was also tied to a network of authoritarian states.

• The first phase of the Cold War began shortly after the end of World War II in 1945. The United States and its Western European allies sought to strengthen their bonds and used the policy of containment against Soviet influence.

• Major crises of this phase included the 1948–1949 Berlin Blockade, the 1945–1949 Chinese Communist Revolution, the 1950–1953 Korean War, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 1961 Berlin Crisis, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and the 1964–1975 Vietnam War.

• Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, a new phase began that saw the Sino-Soviet split between China and the Soviet Union complicate relations within the communist sphere, leading to a series of border confrontations.

• In the 1960s–1970s, an international peace movement took root among citizens around the world, and movements against nuclear weapons testing and for nuclear disarmament took place, with large anti-war protests.

• By the 1970s, both sides had started making allowances for peace and security, ushering in a period of détente that saw the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the US opening relations with the People's Republic of China as a strategic counterweight to the USSR.

• Détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s was another period of elevated tension.

• In 1989, the fall of the Iron Curtain after the Pan-European Picnic and a peaceful wave of revolutions (with the exception of Romania and Afghanistan) overthrew almost all of the Marxist-Leninist regimes of the Eastern Bloc.

• The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy, and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially with themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare.

• The origins of the term "Cold War" can be traced back to an essay by George Orwell, and the term was first used to describe the specific post-war geopolitical confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States in a speech by Bernard Baruch in 1947.The Origins and Beginning of the Cold War

• The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations in 1939 for invading Finland after diplomatic attempts to move the Finnish border failed.

• The Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1940.

• The Red Army stopped the German Army at the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad became a turning point in the war.

• The United States provided the Soviet Union with huge quantities of weapons, ships, aircraft, rolling stock, strategic materials, and food through the Lend-Lease program, totaling $11 billion in materials.

• The Soviet Union sought to dominate the internal affairs of countries in its border regions and created secret police forces loyal to Moscow in countries it occupied during the war.

• The Allies disagreed about how the European map should look following the war, with the Western Allies seeking a security system where democratic governments were established as widely as possible, while the Soviet Union sought to dominate countries in its border regions.

• Churchill proposed the "percentages agreement" to divide Europe into respective spheres of influence, which was accepted by Stalin, and Roosevelt signed a separate deal with Stalin regarding Asia.

• Following the war, the Soviet Union effectively occupied Central and Eastern Europe, while strong US and Western allied forces remained in Western Europe.

• The Soviet Union laid the foundation for the Eastern or Soviet Bloc by invading and annexing several countries into the USSR, creating satellite states that followed orders from the Kremlin.

• The US established its own secret security force to prevent subversion in the Western bloc, which evolved into Operation Gladio.

• The US government's increasingly hard line against the Soviets was articulated in George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" from Moscow to Washington in 1946, which eventually shaped the Truman administration's Soviet policy.

• The "Iron Curtain" speech by Churchill in 1946 called for an Anglo-American alliance against the Soviets, and Stalin responded vigorously, dismissing the accusation that the USSR was exerting increasing control over the countries lying in its sphere and arguing that the Soviet Union was anxious for its future safety.The Cold War was a period of political tension between the Western powers, led by the United States, and the Eastern powers, led by the Soviet Union, lasting from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The US adopted a policy of containment to prevent the spread of communism, and the Truman Doctrine framed the conflict as a contest between free peoples and totalitarian regimes. The Marshall Plan provided economic assistance for all European countries willing to participate, including the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's alternative to the Marshall Plan became known as the Molotov Plan. The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major crises of the Cold War, preventing Western food, materials, and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries began the massive "Berlin airlift," supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions despite Soviet threats. The rearmament of West Germany was achieved in the early 1950s. Clandestine atomic spies played a major role in increasing tensions that led to the Cold War. All major powers engaged in espionage, using a great variety of spies, double agents, moles, and new technologies such as the tapping of telephone cables. The Soviet KGB was famous for its effectiveness. Espionage was used to sway and distort diplomacy. Active measures were "clandestine operations designed to further Soviet foreign policy goals," consisting of disinformation, forgeries, leaks to foreign media, and the channeling of aid to militant groups. In September 1947, the Soviets created Cominform to impose orthodoxy within the international communist movement and tighten political control over Soviet satellites through coordination of communist parties in the Eastern Bloc.The Cold War: A Summary

• The Cold War was a geopolitical conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, lasting from 1947 to 1991.

• The US implemented a containment policy, which aimed to stop the spread of communism through military alliances and economic aid to pro-Western governments.

• The Korean War was a significant example of the implementation of containment, with the US-led intervention in the war and the establishment of NATO as a result.

• The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the creation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955 highlighted the tension between the two superpowers.

• The US implemented the New Look policy, emphasizing the use of less expensive nuclear weapons to deter Soviet aggression.

• Kennedy implemented a new strategy known as flexible response, relying on conventional arms to achieve limited goals.

• The US and the Soviet Union competed for influence by proxy in the Third World as decolonization gained momentum in the 1950s and early 1960s.

• The US used the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to undermine neutral or hostile Third World governments and to support allied ones.

• The Soviet Union created an alliance with the newly formed People's Republic of China after Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army defeated Chiang Kai-shek's United States-backed Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist Government in China.

• Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 led to Nikita Khrushchev's rise to power and the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.

• The Rapacki Plan for a nuclear-free zone in central Europe was rejected by leaders of West Germany, Britain, France, and the United States, fearing it would leave the powerful conventional armies of the Warsaw Pact dominant over the weaker NATO armies.

• The Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.