Cold War Origins Review

The United States and the Soviet Union became rivals after World War II because:

• the Soviet Union immediately began developing nuclear weapons.

• the Marshall Plan failed to rebuild war-torn Europe.

• the two countries had political and ideological differences.

• the United States threatened to invade Soviet satellite states.

After World War II, the U.S. wanted to create the United Nations to prevent future wars, while the Soviet Union:

• wished to create a separate organization which they named NATO.

• wanted a buffer zone to protect the Soviets from future aggression from the West.

• wanted to allow democratic governments to form in Eastern Europe.

• wanted to focus on securing its borders between them and China.

True or False: The Soviet Union wanted to spread capitalism around the world while the U.S. main goal was to stop its spread around the world.

• True

• False

In his famous speech given after WWII, Winston Churchill stated that an 'Iron Curtain' had descended upon Europe. Which statement below best summarizes the point of his speech?

• The Soviets had built a wall around the city of Berlin to keep people from fleeing communism.

• Churchill was making reference to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany.

• Churchill was urging the free countries of the West to build a wall to keep the communists from fleeing to the West.

• Communism had spread over Eastern Europe and the democracies of the world could do nothing to remove it.

With the rise of Communism after World War II, U.S. President Harry Truman created a policy known as the Truman Doctrine. This policy stated that:

• the U.S. would combat any expansion of communism in Europe by using their vast nuclear arsenal.

• the U.S. would provide any assistance to all democratic nations under threat from communism.

• the U.S. would create a defensive pact known as the Warsaw Pact which would prevent the outbreak of another European war.

• the U.S. would invade the Soviet Union if they persisted in attempting to keep the Eastern European states under communist rule.

1949 was a very bad year for the United States for two main reasons: the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb and:

• the U.S. lost a major ally when Japan created a communist government in East Asia.

• Communist party in the U.S. won dozens of seats in the House of Representatives.

• Communists won the Chinese civil war and create a communist government.

• it was discovered that Soviets had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba.