{"id":10765,"date":"2017-11-02T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/hs\/?p=10765"},"modified":"2017-10-28T16:17:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T23:17:45","slug":"cold-war-apush-topics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/hs\/ap\/cold-war-apush-topics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cold War: APUSH Topics to Master Before Test Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cold War. It\u2019s a HUGE topic. It\u2019s been thoroughly realized and satirized in film, music, and television<\/a>, to varying degrees of success. But what is its significance (outside of making the United States and Russia forever frenemies), and what Cold War APUSH topics do you need to know for the exam? Keep reading to find out.<\/p>\n

First: a discussion about boundaries<\/h2>\n

I wasn\u2019t kidding earlier when I said that the topic of the Cold War is huge. There are lot of dates, names, and proxy wars to consider. (In fact, one of the most neglected proxy wars is the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

This being the APUSH exam, we can put some limits on what this blog post will address. This blog post will touch on the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The start of the Cold War<\/li>\n
  2. US policy of containment<\/li>\n
  3. Nuclear warfare<\/li>\n
  4. The Bay of Pigs<\/li>\n
  5. McCarthyism <\/li>\n
  6. The close of the Cold War<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Obviously, there are many, many other things that could have been included in this list. However, we have a finite amount of time and space. With that, let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n

    Cold War APUSH topic #1: The start of the Cold War<\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. After WWII<\/a>, the United States and the Soviet Union* were battling each other to have the dominant global ideology. Isolationism, as a foreign policy, is old news at this point: everyone wants to get in the game of global influence (which also gets into some nasty points of economic and cultural imperialism, as well).
      \n <\/li>\n
    2. This battle for dominance led to what is now called the Cold War. Some historians call this a \u201ccold war\u201d because the United States and the Soviet Union never directly fought each other (which would be, technically, a \u201chot war\u201d). However, there were plenty of proxy wars where the United States fought the Soviet Union (and vice versa) in other states and for other reasons. This was extremely bloody and violent in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Latin America at-large.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      *If you are confused by why the Soviet Union is called the Soviet Union in this blog post, please reference this article on the Russian Revolution<\/a>. <\/p>\n

      Cold War APUSH topic #2: US Policy of Containment<\/h2>\n

      One of the policies that contributed to this being a \u201ccold war\u201d between the Soviet Union and the United States was the idea of containment. Essentially, containment was the idea that while the United States would not actively oppose the idea of communism<\/a>, they would oppose the spread<\/strong> of communism. That policy lead to many of the proxy wars I mentioned earlier. The Vietnam War<\/a> is one of the most important proxy wars (to the United States) during the overall Cold War.<\/p>\n

      Cold War APUSH topic #3: Nuclear warfare<\/h2>\n

      This whole story would be relatively straightforward (and minor) if each country was just doing its own thing without any extremely deadly and world-changing weapons in their arsenal. <\/p>\n

      But remember WWII? The United States had dropped an atomic bomb \u2013 twice \u2013 and that changed things. <\/p>\n

      \"Cold
      \nThe mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Taken by       Bob Caron<\/a> from the Enola Gay.<\/p>\n

      Furthermore, nuclear technology was spreading, and the United States wasn\u2019t the only one who could strut around claiming to have the most advanced weaponry. This idea that every country had a bomb (and that each country needed a bomb to even be taken seriously) was the driving force behind nuclear proliferation. During the Cold War, the idea was that no one would actually use a nuclear bomb because of \u201cMutually Assured Destruction\u201d: if the United States sends a bomb to the Soviet Union, you can bet the Soviet Union will send one back, ergo no one sends a bomb. Still, it doesn\u2019t make the threat any less scary. And that threat was clearest during the Bay of Pigs.<\/p>\n

      Cold War APUSH topic #4: The Bay of Pigs <\/h2>\n

      There is so much to talk about with the Bay of Pigs that I thought this video might be more appropriate. Enjoy. <\/p>\n