U4

Question 1

What were the key ideological differences between the USA and the USSR after WWII?

Answer 1

USA → Capitalism, democracy, multi-party system, individual rights.
USSR → Communism, one-party state, command economy, state over individual.

Question 2

Q: Why did the USA and USSR distrust each other after WWII?

Answer 2

A: USA feared Soviet expansionism; USSR feared capitalist encirclement/imperialism.

Question 2

Q: What were Stalin’s aims in Eastern Europe after WWII

Answer 2

A: To create a buffer zone of pro-Soviet satellite states for security.

Question 3

What method did Stalin use to communise Eastern Europe?

Answer 3

Salami tactics → eliminating opposition slice by slice using intimidation, propaganda, and purges.

Question 3

What was the Long Telegram (1947)?

Answer 3

US diplomat George Kennan warned USSR was expansionist and paranoid; urged containment.

Question 4

Q: Why was the Truman Doctrine introduced?

Answer 4

A: In response to communist threats in Greece and Turkey.

Question 4

: What was the “Iron Curtain”?

Answer 4

: A metaphor for the division of Europe between communist East and capitalist West.

Question 4

What did Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech declare?

Answer 4

A: That Europe was divided between free West and communist East.

Question 4

Q: What did Truman declare in his Doctrine?

Answer 4

USA would support free peoples resisting “subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.”

Question 4

: What was the Marshall Plan?

Answer 4

A: $13 billion US aid program to rebuild Europe and prevent spread of communism.

Question 5

: Why was it significant? TRUMAN DOCTRINE

Answer 5

: Marked the start of containment, end of US isolationism, formalised opposition to communism.

Question 5

: What role did Truman play in early Cold War tensions?

Answer 5

Introduced Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, led Berlin Airlift, helped found NATO.

Question 5

Q: What triggered the Berlin Blockade?

Answer 5

Western creation of West Germany and currency reform (Deutsche Mark).

Question 5

Q: How did the USSR respond to the Marshall Plan?

Answer 5

A: Rejected it, called it “dollar imperialism,” and forced Eastern Bloc countries to refuse aid.

Question 6

: How did Stalin’s policies intensify Cold War tensions?

Answer 6

A: Created Eastern Bloc with salami tactics, set up COMINFORM, blockaded Berlin

Question 6

Q: What was its significance? MARSHALL OPLAN

Answer 6

Deepened East–West division; led to COMECON; tied Western Europe economically to the USA.

Question 6

: How did the West respond?

Answer 6

: Berlin Airlift → 277,000 flights supplying 2.3 million tons of goods. BERLUN BLCOKADE

Question 7

Q: What was COMECON (1949)?

Answer 7

A: Soviet economic alternative to Marshall Aid for Eastern Europe.

Question 7

Q: Define “Containment.”

Answer 7

A: US policy to stop communism spreading beyond existing borders.

Q: What was the “Iron Curtain”?

Question 8

BERLIN BLOCKADE Why was it significant?

Answer 8

First Cold War confrontation; showed US commitment; led to NATO (1949) and division into FRG (West) and GDR (East).

Question 9

What were the key agreements at Tehran (1943)?

Answer 9

: Second Front, USSR to fight Japan, vague German settlement, Polish border disputes.

Question 9

Q: What was COMINFORM (1947)?

Answer 9

Organisation to coordinate communist parties, ensure Soviet control, counter Western influence.. IT WASI SIGNIFICANT BECAUSETightened Soviet grip, standardised Stalinist policies, deepened East–West divide.

Question 9

In what year did the USSR successfully test its first atomic bomb?

Answer 9

: 1949.

Question 9

Why was Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech significant?

Answer 9

: Framed USSR as expansionist, shaped Western public opinion, boosted US–UK alliance.

Question 9

Q: How did Potsdam (1945) worsen relations?

Answer 9

Truman tougher than Roosevelt, atomic bomb secret increased Soviet mistrust, disputes over Eastern Europe.

Question 10

Q: What tensions arose at Yalta (1945)?

Answer 10

Stalin promised free elections in Eastern Europe (later broken), Poland’s borders shifted, divided Germany/Berlin.

Question 11

Q: What ended the US nuclear monopoly in 1949?

Answer 11

A: The Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb test.

Question 11

: What doctrine of deterrence emerged from the nuclear arms race?

Answer 11

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

Question 11

: Define MAD.

Answer 11

A: Mutually Assured Destruction — the certainty that both sides would be destroyed in a nuclear exchange, acting as deterrence.