THE COLD WAR HEATS UP

Unit 10 – Topic 2

A. Berlin Airlift (1948-1949)

Stalin ordered a blockade of West Berlin (inside Soviet-controlled East Germany) -- all supplies were cut off.

Operation Vittles - U.S. and Great Britain flew food and supplies into West Berlin to break the blockade for 11 months!

B. USSR exploded a nuclear device (1949)

US is not the only one with the bomb New threat of a nuclear war that

would destroy both countries

How do you think the USSR built a bomb so quickly?

Julius & Ethel Rosenberg

Alger Hiss

C. China became Communist (1949)

Civil war between Mao Zedong (Communist) and Chiang Kai-Shek (capitalists/nationalists). The capitalist Chinese flee to Taiwan

Mao’s Communist takeover increases American fears of communist domination of the world but …

China and the Soviet Union became rivals, not allies. In the 1970's, Pres. Nixon’s diplomatic mission to

Beijing exploited this division of the major communist powers

D. The Korean War

North Korea (Communist) invaded South Korea (Capitalist) (1950) Why did the US get involved? – to

contain communism American troops (in a United

Nations force) counterattacked deep into North Korea

Chinese troops entered on the side of North Korea

Could have become World War III Eventually ended with a stalemate

and a divided N/S Korea

E. Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President (1953)

New policy of “massive retaliation” to deter any nuclear strike by the Soviets.

Nuclear arms race leads to MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction