Cold War: Origins and Key Events

📋 Course Outline

1. Cold War origins and Yalta-Potsdam
2. Containment and the Marshall Plan
3. Berlin Blockade and alliance system
4. Korean War to Sputnik
5. Cuban Missile Crisis and nuclear tension
6. Détente and Eastern Europe
7. Afghanistan and the end of détente

📖 1. Cold War origins and Yalta-Potsdam

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Cold War: A period of intense tension between the USA and the USSR without direct fighting because both had nuclear weapons.
• Ideological rivalry: A clash where the USA supported capitalism and democracy while the USSR supported communism and one-party rule.
• Yalta Conference: A 1945 meeting where post-war arrangements were agreed, including division of Germany and promises of free elections in Eastern Europe.
• Potsdam Conference: A 1945 meeting marked by disagreements and growing mistrust, with the atomic bomb and Soviet-backed communist governments shaping outcomes.

📝 Essential Points

• The USA and USSR avoided direct war because both possessed nuclear weapons.
• Stalin pushed for a buffer zone in Eastern Europe after WWII losses.
• At Yalta, Germany was divided into 4 zones and Berlin into 4 zones.
• At Yalta, free elections were promised in Eastern Europe and the United Nations was created.
• At Potsdam, wartime alliance tensions increased as Truman was more anti-communist and Stalin created communist governments in Eastern Europe.

💡 Memory Hook