The Cold War Quiz

After WWII, only two superpowers remained: the United States and the Soviet Union. Before World War II, the superpowers consisted of Europe, Japan, United States, and the Soviet Union because they were stronger than the rest of the nations. When Europe and Japan were affected negatively, only the Soviet Union and the United States remained as superpowers.

The United States was in the best condition, compared to the other nations, after World War II because they were hardly affected by it. America was not directly involved with the war; they just provided soldiers and supplies to their allies. However, they were affected with population even though little was done to them.

Mikhail Gorbachev was a new leader of the Soviet Union that came to power in 1985. The economy was already in bad shape from the war going on in Afghanistan. To avoid Cold War confrontations, he signed an arms control treaty with the Soviet Union and took his troops out of Afghanistan. Soon, he called for a glasnost, which is letting people share their feelings, without the communist government getting in the way. He also called for perestroika, which is restructuring the government and economy. He allowed farmers to sell their produce and his reforms made factory managers, rather than central planners.
However, his reforms were not very successful. Shortages became worse and the prices of goods soared. Factories started closing and people lost their jobs.

The Truman Doctrine was created by President Truman to help limit the spread of communism to the areas already under Soviet control. The Truman Doctrine has guided America for decades. It helped America resist Soviet expansion to other parts in Europe of elsewhere in the world.

The Warsaw Pact was opposing NATO during the Cold War, which was a communist organization.

By the time these nuclear weapons could be used, the United States and the Soviet Union decided to start the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). This was started in 1969 to limit the number of nuclear weapons held by both sides.

Konrad Adenauer is the correct answer because he was the leader of Western Germany after WWII and played a crucial role in the nation's rebuilding process. He implemented various economic reforms and policies that focused on rebuilding cities and factories. Additionally, the United States supported Western Germany through the Marshall Plan, which provided financial aid to help with the reconstruction efforts. Mikhail Gorbachev, Richard Nixon, and Fidel Castro are not relevant to this question as they were not leaders of Western Germany during this period.

There were many differences between West Berlin and East Berlin. West Berlin, which was democratic, had a lot of prosperity while East Berlin, which was communist, was dealing with people who were unhappy and job-less. Eventually, people who lived in East Berlin wanted to live in West Berlin and fled to escape communism. To seal the two sides off, East Germany built a wall in 1961 to stop the people fleeing. This led to people getting angrier and trying to find other ways around.

After WWII, Western European was dealing with a lot of hunger and poverty. This made them a possible ground for communist ideas. The communism could easily be established if the government felt the food should be distributed equally among all the people. To strengthen their democratic side, the United States offered the Marshall Plan. Under the Marshall Plan, America would provide food and economic assistants to Europe to help countries rebuild. Billions of dollars were used from American aid to help Europe recover quickly.

America helped Japan through their economic struggles by sending troops over to protect them from opposing nations. This helped them because Japan was able to work on their economics and they soon raised to the top.