Lesson 24 — Activity 1:
The Cold War


Warm Up


In this activity, you will understand the background and events that led to the Cold War and the influence it had on the world in the latter half of the 20th century.

As you learned in Theme 3, during World War II, Allied forces occupied Europe as they marched toward Germany. When the war was over, Allied forces left the nations of western Europe, which then returned to their own systems of government. The Soviet Union (USSR), the Allied nation that had occupied eastern Europe's nations, kept the nations it occupied under its control.

This separated Europe into communist Eastern Europe (shown in red on the map), controlled by the Soviet Union, and democratic Western Europe (shown in blue on the map), supported by the United States. The Iron Curtain, the name given to the dividing boundary, was guarded fiercely by both sides.


iron curtain     


The period from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union (now known as Russia) in 1991 is referred to as the Cold War. No armed combat occurred, but both sides argued publicly, spied on each other, built up large stocks of nuclear arms, and threatened each other. However, in several incidents, the possibility of actual conflict was very close.

The Conflicts


soldier and yellow sky
@gettyimages
     



The first conflict occurred over Berlin, the main city in Germany. Allied troops that had come from both the east and the west met in Berlin at the end of World War II. Berlin was located within East Germany, which was the region that the Soviet Union now controlled. In May, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked all road and rail access to Berlin from West Germany in an attempt to force the western powers out of Berlin. In 1948, the United States conducted the Berlin Airlift, the largest airlift the world has ever seen, to keep supplies moving into the city.


After almost one year, in June 1949, the Soviet Union abandoned its plan. To stop citizens escaping from East Berlin to a better life in West Berlin, the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. It divided the city into east and west until it was torn down in 1989.


Click on the Play button below to watch a video about why the Berlin Wall was built.


berlin wall
@public domain
 
Berlin Wall separating East Berlin
and West Berlin.

More conflicts ...


The United States came into conflict with some communist nations during the Cold War.

  • In 1950, United States troops formed the largest part of the United Nations forces that fought to keep communist North Korea from taking control of democratic South Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953, but Korea remains split into two countries.
  • In 1961, United States troops attempted to invade Cuba to remove the communist government that controlled that island nation. In 1962, the world was brought to the brink of nuclear war when US naval ships in the Atlantic Ocean blockaded a Russian fleet that was transporting materials to build nuclear missiles in Cuba. At the last minute, the Soviet Union backed down.
  • The Vietnam War occurred during the 1960s and 1970s when the US led an international force that attempted to stop communist North Vietnam, supported by China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union, from taking control of South Vietnam. In 1975, US troops withdrew and the capital city of Saigon was captured by communist forces. Today, Vietnam remains one nation under a communist government.


This conflict of ideas and beliefs spread to other regions of the world as the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to gain control in the developing nations in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Both sides provided support, mainly money and weapons, either directly or secretly to groups struggling to gain control within these nations. Sometimes, even corrupt governments or leaders were supported to ensure that the group that was friendly to the respective cause could stay in power. Each side was more concerned that a nation would have a government that was friendly to them than they were concerned with the kind of government.

This threat to world peace continued until the Soviet Union crumbled under pressures from within its own organizations and the realization of its more moderate leaders that they could no longer control all the nations that formed the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). One by one, nations that had been controlled by this communist government were able to regain their independent status. Many have returned to being democracies. With these events, the Cold War that had hung over the world for almost half a century had ended.

Self-check!

Try This!

Try the questions below on your own first, and then click on the tab to check your answers! You may look back at the lesson to find the answers.


True or False?

  1. During the Cold War, Europe was separated into communist eastern Europe and democratic western Europe.
  2. Eastern Europe was controlled by the United States.
  3. Western Europe was controlled by the Soviet Union.
  4. The Iron Curtain was the name given to the dividing boundary between the two areas.
  5. It was called the Cold War because no one actually fought against each other, however, there was a constant threat of war.




  1. True
  2. False (Eastern Europe was controlled by the Soviet Union.)
  3. False (Western Europe was controlled by the United States.)
  4. True
  5. True