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Cold War Questions - Leaderboard
Cold War Questions - Details
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71 questions
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| In 1965, Johnson sent 20,000 US troops to which Caribbean country to prevent a socialist government from taking control? | The Dominican republic |
| Which incident did Johnson use to argue for the deployment of US combat troops in Vietnam? | North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attacked US warships in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964. |
| What was ‘Rolling Thunder? | A sustained air attack by the USA on key military industrial targets in North Vietnam. This became the principal weapon used by Johnson in order to try and force the Communists to the peace table. |
| Which event demonstrated the danger of military confrontation in the nuclear age? | The Cuban missile crisis, moreover by the early 1970s the two sides had the power to destroy each other completely. |
| What were SALT I (1972) and SALT II (1979)? | Arms reduction treaties between the two sides that limited the number of missiles and bombers they could have. |
| Why did detente end abruptly and Cold War hostility resume in 1979? | The USSR invaded Afghanistan to support the country’s Communist government. |
| In what ways was Gorbachev different from his predecessor? | He concentrated on the country's internal problems; this led to perestroika and glasnost. |
| How did Gorbachev’s policies affect Soviet satellite states? | His reforms encouraged the people of eastern European countries to seek change and end communism within their own countries. |
| Who was Alexander Dubcek? | The Czech leader who wanted ‘communism with a human face’. |
| Dubcek's reforms focused on three main areas of Czech life. What were they? | Allowing minor parties to join the communist run government. Introduced greater democratic rights for the people. Allowing equal rights for Slovaks. |
| What was the major difference between the situation in Czechoslovakia 1968, and Hungary 1956? | The Hungarian government was anti-communist and anti-Soviet, but Dubcek wanted to remain on good terms with Moscow. |
| Why did Soviet and Eastern European leaders order the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968? | They feared that the Czechs would leave the Warsaw Pact and become allied with Western countries. |
| Vietnamisation was part of which doctrine? | The Nixon doctrine: the USA would help those nations resisting communism to ‘help themselves’ |
| Nixon wanted to ‘de-Americanise’ the war, why? | He had campaigned and narrowly won the 1968 presidential election on a promise to withdraw troops gradually from Vietnam during peace talks. |
| How did the US government plan to continue to support the Saigon government while US troop numbers were being reduced? | By transferring weapons and equipment to South Vietnamese forces so that Saigon could take over the running of the war. |
| What were the 5 major points of agreement reached in 1973 by the USA and North Vietnam following peace talks in Paris? | Cease fire throughout Indo-China. US forces to be withdrawn within 60 days. The freeing of American POWs. Elections to take place in South Vietnam. Neither side to launch another offensive against the other. |
| Why did the USSR place nuclear weapons on Cuba? | Cuba requested protection against the USA. Short range missiles on Cuba balanced the US long range missiles. To be used as a bargaining tool to remove US missiles in Turkey. |
| Why was the USA determined to see the removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba? | The presence of the missiles put the USA’s major east coast cities in range of nuclear attack. |
| What did President Kennedy agree to return in favour of removing missiles from Cuba? | Not to invade Cuba; to withdraw US missiles from Turkey. |
| Name the American and Soviet leaders involved with SALT. | Nixon and Carter USA, Brezhnev USSR. |
| What was the main achievement of the 1972 SALT agreement? | It limited the building up of middle range weapons for 5 years but did not reduce existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons. |
| What type of weapon did the 1979 SALT treaty limit? | Long range nuclear missiles, particularly those with multiple warheads. |
| Which event brought the SALT talks to a sudden halt? | The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. |
| Why was the USA opposed to Castro’s rule? | When he came to power Castro confiscated US-owned land and oil companies, and set up a Marxist regime. |
| Which event marked the first (failed) attempt by the US government to oust Castro from power? | The Bay of Pigs invasion (1961). |
| What did Castro’s friendship with Nakita Khrushchev encourage Moscow to do? | To send nuclear missiles and military personnel to Cuba; this led to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. |
| What did the US government hope a small landing on Cuba would lead to? | A popular uprising against Castro’s rule; this proved to be a disastrous miscalculation. |
| How successful were the landings at the Bay of Pigs? | The invasion was a dismal failure; Cuban forces quickly routed the poorly trained and badly equipped attackers. |
| The failure of the invasion led directly to which international crisis one year later? | The Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| The Eisenhower doctrine was modelled on which previous presidents doctrine? | The Truman Doctrine. |
| What did the Eisenhower doctrine state? | The USA would use economic aid and military force to intervene on behalf of any state threatened by Communism, |
| The Truman doctrine was primarily focused on European affairs. Was this the same with the Eisenhower doctrine? | No. Eisenhower was particularly interested in the Middle East and southeast Asia. |
| Was the Eisenhower doctrine a success for US foreign policy? | No. It was withdrawn in 1959 because it failed to gain Arab support. US intervention was seen by enemies as a form of ‘dollar imperialism’. |
| Which US president first used the term ‘domino theory’? | President Dwight Eisenhower. |
| What did US involvement in Vietnam initially consist of? | Between 1955 and 1959 the USA provided Ngo Dihn Diem (anti communist leader of South Vietnam) with $3 billion in aid. |
| Which European country also benefited from ‘domino theory? | France. By 1954 it had received $1.4 billion in US aid to help in the struggle against the Viet Minh. |
| What were the two main components of the policy of containment? | The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid. |
| How did President Truman intend to ‘contain’ the spread of Communism? | By supplying money, weapons and advisors to friendly states to help them prevent the expansion of the USSR. |
| During which European conflict was containment first implemented? | The Greek civil war; the USA provided the Royalist side with $400 million in aid. |
| In which two conflicts did the USA become involved as part of its policy of containment in the late 1940s and early 1950s? | The Berlin airlift (1948-49) and the Korean war (1950-53) |
| When and where did N.Khrushchev issue his condemnation of Stalin? | 1956 during his speech to the 20th Communist Party Congress. |
| What was Krushchev’s aim in introducing de-Stalinisation? | He wanted to bring about greater individual freedoms by discrediting Stalin. Khrushchev reduced the power of the secret state police and ordered the dismantling of many gulags. |
| Khrushchev’s idea of peaceful coexistence with the West rested on three principles. What were they? | War was not inevitable. In the atomic age, Marx and Lenin’s ideas were dangerously outdated. The USSR should support communist regimes in other countries through peaceful means. |
| The limits of de-stalinisation were demonstrated by the crushing of pro-democracy movements in which two eastern European countries? | Poland and Hungary. |
| Why did the Hungarians revolt against their government? | They were encouraged by Khrushchev’s suggestion from Moscow (secret speech) that the USSR would tolerate different types of communism. |
| What decision was made by moderate Hungarian leader Imre Nagy, that resulted in a Soviet invasion of the country? | He announced that Hungary would leave the Warsaw pact. |
| Did Western powers support the Hungarians in their fight for greater freedom? | No. They were unwilling to risk a war between the USSR and USA. Also, they were preoccupied with the Suez Crisis. |
| Name the leader of the PRC from 1949-1979. | Mao Zedong. |
| Why had the Soviets and Chinese communist government always been uneasy allies? | The Chinese were especially concerned with Khrushchev’s attacks on Stalin in the ‘secret speech;. |
| Which country benefited most from the Sino-Soviet split? | The USA. Both the USSR and PRC worked hard to improve their relationship with Washington. |
| How did the Brezhnev doctrine reveal a fundamental flaw in the Soviet claim that east European communism was unified? | The USSR had to invade Hungary and Czechoslovakia in order to stop them leaving the Warsaw pact. |
| Which group of workers founded the Solidarity movement and why? | It began in 1980 as shipyard workers protest against high prices and food and fuel shortages in a collapsing Polish economy. |
| How did Polish authorities react to Solidarity? | In 1982 the military government banned the union and imprisoned its leaders. |
| Why was 1989 a climatic year in Poland? | Free elections allowed Solidarity to win most of the seats in parliament. It was the beginning of the end for Communism in Poland. |
| Why was Berlin a flashpoint in East-West relations? | It was a gap in the Iron curtain which East Germans could leave for the West. |
| What did the Allies decide should happen to Berlin at the end of the Second World War? | It was to be divided between the UK, USA, France and USSR. |
| Who were the Vietcong? | Communist guerillas in South Vietnam. |
| Why were the Americans and South Vietnamese caught off guard by the Tet offensive? | It was launched during the Vietnamese New Year, or Tet holiday. Many soldiers were at home on leave. |
| What impact did the Tet offensive have on the American public? | The American people were deeply shocked; up to 1968 they had been told that the war was being won. |
| Tet was a decisive event. What did it push President Johnson to announce? | That he would not seek re-election as president. |
| Name the countries present in the Geneva meetings. | The USA, Britain, the USSR China and Vietnam. |
| Who were the leaders of North and South Vietnam? | Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem. |
| What was agreed at the Geneva Accords 1954? | Vietnam to be temporarily divided along the 17th parallel. Vietnamese and French forces to withdraw from positions that they held. Elections to take place in 1956. |