Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: _______________________

Cold War and Civil Rights Study Guide

Social Studies textbook pgs. 112-122

Cold War
Germany after WWII
- Germany was split up into 4 major sections, democratic allies controlling West Germany and
communist Soviet Union controlling East Germany

- Capital of Berlin, located in East Germany, also split into 4 major sections, West Berlin
controlled by democratic allies and East Berlin by communist Soviet Union (USSR/Russia)

- communism – system where the government owns the factories and natural resources and
controls the production of goods
- people are not free to make their own decisions

Cold War Begins

- “iron curtain” metaphor/phrase created by Winston Churchill

- imaginary line dividing western democratic countries with eastern communist countries

- Stalin and Soviet Union cut people from Eastern Europe off from the rest of the world causing
tensions to rise.

United States Soviet Union / USSR / Russia

- no longer believed in isolationism - communist/dictatorship country

- believed in containment, stopping the - wanted to spread communism throughout the

spread of communism world, gaining power

- militarism – began building up military, - militarism – began building up military,

especially nuclear weapons which is known especially nuclear weapons which is known as
as the Arms Race the Arms Race

- Joseph McCarthy: US Senator became

famous through accusing others of being
communists in the United States
- his false claims ruined peoples lives
Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: _______________________

Berlin Airlift and Berlin Wall

Berlin Airlift - Soviet Unit upset that they had to split Berlin up when it is
located in Eastern Germany, Soviet control
- to attempt surrender of control of West Berlin, Soviets
blocked railroad, waterways, and train to deliver supplies
- planes delivered supplies to West Berlin for 321 days before
the Soviets gave up and ended the blockade.

Berlin Wall - In 1961, Soviets decided to erect a wall and prevent people to
freely travel back and forth from East and West Berlin
- Soviets tired of people moving from Eastern controlled
communist side to democratic Western Berlin
- Families separated overnight, no long could travel back and
forth

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Warsaw Pact

- formed alliance with 12 nations to protect - in response to NATO, formed a defensive
each other against communist aggression alliance with its allies

Cold War Conflicts

- communism spreading across Asia, China becoming a communist country

- U.S. wanted to contain (containment) the spread of communism as they saw it as a threat

- U.S. concerned with “Domino Theory”, if one country became communist, then the next, and
the trend would continue like dominos falling in a game

Korean War Cuban Missile Crisis Vietnam War

- divided up after WWII,
communist North Korea,
South Korea friendly toward
US
- North communist attacked
South
- US learned communist Cuba
under Castro role, allowed
Russia launch pads for nuclear
weapons
- Vietnam divided into 2
nations, North Vietnam,
which was communist and
South Vietnam which was
friendly with US.
Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: _______________________

Korean War Cuban Missile Crisis Vietnam War

- Truman sent troops to stop
spread of communism
- Cease-fire agreement
reached, war has yet to
officially ended.
- Armistice Line is the 38th
parallel
- cease-fire: an agreement to
stop fighting
- John F. Kennedy placed ship - North Vietnam and
blockade preventing Soviet attacked South Vietnam
ships carrying missiles to get
to Cuba - US joined with S. Vietnam
to stop spread of
- blockade: surrounding an communism.
enemy’s territory in wartime
to keep people and supplies - 1st was US just provided aid
from passing. which later became military
support
- extremely close to war,
lasted 13 days before - violent war which ended in
agreement made cease-fire

Outcome: - US withdrew troops,

- Soviet’s removed missiles Vietnam fell to communist
- US agreed not to attack North two years later. Still
Cuba communist today
- Both countries limited
nuclear testing
- set up direct “hotline”
between governments

Civil Rights Movement

- segregation: forced separation of different racial groups

- Jim Crow Laws: laws and ordinances created by states, counties, and cities to keep whites
and minorities “equal” but separate.
Examples: African Americans had to ride in the back of the bus
- segregated schools, restaurants, bathrooms, drinking fountains
- voting rules, such as the ability to read
- whites were allowed to refuse service of minorities at restaurants
Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: _______________________
Brown vs. Board of Education
Montgomery Bus Boycott
March on Washington
Civil Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
Cesar Chavez
Civil Rights Movement
- Linda Brown was a young third-grader who had to cross a
train yard and go to a school a segregated school when one
was closer.
- Principal refused to let enroll her because of her race
- Thurgood Marshall represented Ms. Brown and the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in her favor stating schools cannot be
segregated and began integration into schools
- Thurgood Marshall later became Chief Justice of the US
Supreme Court
- Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the back of the
bus to a white man and was arrested.
- Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent protest and urged
blacks to boycott the buses.
- For almost one year, blacks refused to ride the bus, setting
up carpools to work.
- After losing a bunch of money, the bus company agreed to
end bus segregation.
- Eventually the supreme court ruled that you cannot
segregate public transportation in the city.
- boycott: to stop buying or using something as a means of
protest
- famous march of 250,000 in Washington, D.C.
- Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream”
speech
- marchers urged Congress to pass laws giving equal rights
to all people
- King always urged to protest in a peaceful nonviolent
manner
- act prohibited discrimination based on color, race, or
religion in places like restaurants, hotels, motels, theaters
- forced the desegregation of schools, or they would receive
no federal money
- Lyndon Johnson signed into law
- ended the practice of passing a reading test in order to vote
- Lyndon Johnson signed into law
- migrant worker who fought for the rights of people that
worked on American farms
- started the union United Farm Workers Association
Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: _______________________

Amendments
th
15 amendment - gave African-American men the right to vote
19th amendment - gave all women the right to vote
23rd amendment - gave citizens lived in the District of Columbia the right to vote in
presidential elections
24th amendment - banned the use of poll taxes in order to vote
26th amendment - amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18

Assassinations that Rocked America

- assassination: to murder a government leader, usually for political reasons
John R. Kennedy - assassinated while in a parade in Dallas, Texas
- his ideas and programs were continued in government
- With his assassination, television soon became the primary source
for news over the newspaper
Robert F. Kennedy - brother of John F. Kennedy, running for president
- was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan because of Kennedy’s support
for Israel
- caused a delay in the democrats’ nomination for president
Martin Luther King Jr. - assassinated on his hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee
- there was already a great deal of tension with the civil rights
movement, riots broke out across the United States

Technology and the Space Race

- during Cold War, United States and Soviet Union competed with space exploration

- Soviet Union was the first to have a satellite named Sputnik

- Soviet Union was also the first to put a man in space

- United States won the space race by being the first to land on the moon with Apollo 11
- Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, “One small step for man, one giant
leap for mankind.”

- Due to the space race, new technologies were brought to American homes and consumer
products-100s of useful products: communication, navigation, weather forecasting, smoke
detectors, cordless tools