The Cold War-Reading

The Cold War

1945-1991

The Cold War was not a regular war. It was not fought with guns or tanks. It was fought with words. The Cold War pitted the United States, Great Britain, and their North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies against the Soviet Union and their Warsaw Pact allies. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a famous speech in 1946. He stated that an Iron Curtain split Eastern and Western Europe. Eastern Europe was communistic. Western Europe was democratic. The Soviet Union was a communist nation. Everyone had to share the nation’s wealth and government. The Soviet dictators controlled every aspect of the Soviet people’s lives. Only one political party, the Communist Party, was allowed in the Soviet Union. The Cold War almost became a hot war several times, but both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid an all-out war. Both countries were afraid this would start a nuclear war, which neither side would win and which could destroy civilization.

 In 1948, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin blocked all traffic to West Berlin. He would not let anyone in or out. Americans brought in supplies by plane. This was called the Berlin Airlift, and it saved the citizens of West Berlin. In 1950, war broke out in Korea between communist North Korea and democratic South Korea. The United States fought on the side of South Korea. At the same, the United States gave economic help to the countries in Southeast Asia. The war in Korea ended in 1953 soon after Dwight Eisenhower started his term as United States president.

In the 1950s Senator Joseph McCarthy began his search for communists in America. His investigations lasted for four years. Many men and women were accused of being communists. Most were not guilty of anything. Senator McCarthy made the charges to ensure his political power. After a while, most Americans realized McCarthy was accusing innocent people. In 1955, the Soviets organized the Warsaw Pact of communist countries. It was formed in response to NATO. Warsaw Pact members were the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The following year Hungary revolted against its dictator; Soviet troops, however, defeated the Hungarian rebels. In 1957, the United States and the Soviet Union were involved in the Space Race. The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth in 1957. This achievement increased the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. This competition became known as the “Space Race.”

In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States. People in East Berlin had been fleeing to West Berlin to escape the communist government in East Germany. In 1960 the Soviets built the Berlin Wall. It separated East and West Berlin. The wall was to stop East Germans from fleeing to the West. Over the next few years, the United States became involved with Cuba. The United States wanted to free the island from communist dictator Fidel Castro. The United States launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion. It was unsuccessful. In 1962, the United States learned Soviet nuclear weapons were in Cuba. The Soviets later agreed to remove these weapons. President Kennedy was assassinated the following year. His vice president, Lyndon Johnson, became president. Johnson was elected to a full term in 1964. He and Congress sent more troops to fight in the Vietnam War.

In 1968, two strong political figures, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, and President Kennedy’s younger brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, were assassinated. In November 1968, Richard Nixon was elected president. The following year, two Americans, Neil Armstrong, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, were the first humans to walk on the moon.

In 1972, the Watergate break-in sparked a chain of events that ended Nixon’s term as president. He resigned in 1974. Nixon’s vice president, Gerald R. Ford became president, and he lost the presidential election of 1976 to Jimmy Carter. During President Carter’s term, Muslim extremists in Iran took fifty-two United States citizens hostage. The hostages were not released until the day Carter left office. President Ronald Reagan began his term in 1981 and served two terms. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. He started perestroika, a program to restructure the Soviet government. He also began a period of openness with the West or glasnost. This pleased the United States. It meant the end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1989. Communist dictators were removed from power all over Europe, and the Soviet Union divided into many independent countries.

Answer the following questions based on the reading:

1. What is a "Cold War"? 
2. What was the Berlin Airlift? How did the conflict end?
3. What was the purpose of the Bay of Pigs Invasion? How did the conflict end?
4. When were the Iranian hostages freed?
5. What changes occurred in Europe as the Cold War ended?
6. What caused the Cold War to end?