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COLD WAR / 1945-1991

SUBJECT: ORIGIN 1945 FILE 002/13 // SECTION 02 — POSTWAR CONFIDENTIAL THE BREAK CODENAME // YALTA-POTSDAM May 1945 — the swastika falls in Berlin. By...

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SUBJECT: ORIGIN 1945 FILE 002/13 // SECTION 02 — POSTWAR CONFIDENTIAL THE BREAK CODENAME // YALTA-POTSDAM May 1945 — the swastika falls in Berlin. By August, Tokyo Bay surrenders. The victors meet, smile for photographers, and divide the world. Key sections include: COLD WAR; 1945 — 1991; THE BREAK; CONTAINMENT; THE YEAR EVERYTHING CHANGED; KOREA — THE FIRST HOT WAR; WARSAW PACT; CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS; VIETNAM — THE LONG DEFEAT; MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION.

Key sections

  • 01COLD WAR
  • 021945 — 1991
  • 03THE BREAK
  • 04CONTAINMENT
  • 05THE YEAR EVERYTHING CHANGED
  • 06KOREA — THE FIRST HOT WAR
  • 07WARSAW PACT
  • 08CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
  • 09VIETNAM — THE LONG DEFEAT
  • 10MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION
  • 11THE OTHER WAR
  • 12THE WALL FALLS
  • 13WHAT IT TAUGHT US
  • 14FURTHER ORDERS

Topics covered

cataloghistorycoldwar

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Slide outline
  1. 01COLD WAR
  2. 021945 — 1991
  3. 03THE BREAK
  4. 04CONTAINMENT
  5. 05THE YEAR EVERYTHING CHANGED
  6. 06KOREA — THE FIRST HOT WAR
  7. 07WARSAW PACT
  8. 08CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
  9. 09VIETNAM — THE LONG DEFEAT
  10. 10MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION
  11. 11THE OTHER WAR
  12. 12THE WALL FALLS
  13. 13WHAT IT TAUGHT US
  14. 14FURTHER ORDERS
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https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-history-cold-war
Category
History
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34.5 KB
Updated
2026-05-17
LLM text
https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-history-cold-war/llms.txt

Presentation Transcript

Detailed slide-by-slide text content extracted from this presentation.

Slide 01

COLD WAR

  • FROM: HQ
  • TO: ARCHIVE
  • EYES ONLY
  • FILE 001/13
  • DOSSIER // OPERATION FROST
  • 1945 — 1991
  • 46 YEARS // TWO SUPERPOWERS // ZERO DIRECT BATTLES
Slide 02

THE BREAK

  • SUBJECT: ORIGIN1945
  • FILE 002/13
  • // SECTION 02 — POSTWAR
  • CONFIDENTIAL
  • CODENAME // YALTA-POTSDAM
  • May 1945 — the swastika falls in Berlin. By August, Tokyo Bay surrenders. The victors meet, smile for photographers, and divide the world.
  • WEST: liberal democracy, market capitalism, US-led
  • EAST: Marxist-Leninist communism, command economy, Soviet-led
  • Germany cleaved in two. Europe: an iron curtain from Stettin to Trieste.
Slide 03

CONTAINMENT

  • SUBJECT: DOCTRINE12.MAR.1947
  • FILE 003/13
  • // SECTION 03 — POLICY
  • CODENAME // LONG TELEGRAM
  • George Kennan, US Embassy Moscow, cables an 8,000-word warning: Soviet expansion will not stop on its own. Truman declares it American policy "to support free peoples resisting subjugation."
  • $13B
  • Marshall Plan aid
  • 16 European nations
  • 1947
  • Truman Doctrine
  • Greece & Turkey
  • 1948
  • Berlin Airlift
  • 277,000 flights
  • CIA
  • Founded 1947
  • NSC-68 1950
Slide 04

THE YEAR EVERYTHING CHANGED

  • SUBJECT: ESCALATION1949
  • FILE 004/13
  • // SECTION 04 — 1949
  • CONFIDENTIAL
  • CODENAME // RDS-1 / FIRST LIGHTNING
  • 04 APR: NATO signed in Washington. 12 founding members pledge collective defense — Article 5.
  • 29 AUG: Soviets detonate RDS-1 at Semipalatinsk. The American nuclear monopoly: dead at age 4.
  • 01 OCT: Mao proclaims the People's Republic. China — lost.
  • By December, the calculus is permanent: both sides have the bomb.
Slide 05

KOREA — THE FIRST HOT WAR

  • SUBJECT: HOSTILITIES1950—1953
  • FILE 005/13
  • // SECTION 05 — KOREA
  • CODENAME // OPERATION CHROMITE
  • 25 JUN 1950: 90,000 North Korean troops cross the 38th parallel. The UN — led by the US — intervenes. China enters in October. Stalin sends planes flown by Soviet pilots in Korean uniforms.
  • ~3M
  • Total dead
  • incl. civilians
  • 36,574
  • US military KIA
  • 38°N
  • Final armistice line
  • same as start
  • DMZ
  • Still active
  • no peace treaty
  • The template is set: superpowers fight through proxies, on someone else's soil.
Slide 06

WARSAW PACT

  • SUBJECT: BLOC FORMATION14.MAY.1955
  • FILE 006/13
  • // SECTION 06 — 1955
  • CONFIDENTIAL
  • CODENAME // TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP
  • In response to West Germany joining NATO, the USSR formalizes its eastern empire. Eight countries, one military command, one capital that mattered: Moscow.
  • Members: USSR, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania
  • Doctrine: "Fraternal assistance" — the right to invade members who strayed
  • Used in anger: Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968
  • By 1955, Europe is two armed camps facing each other across barbed wire — 3,500 kilometers of it.
Slide 07

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

  • SUBJECT: DEFCON 216—28.OCT.1962
  • FLASH PRIORITYFILE 007/13
  • // SECTION 07 — 13 DAYS
  • CONFIDENTIAL
  • TOP SECRET
  • CODENAME // OPERATION ANADYR
  • A U-2 spy plane photographs SS-4 medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba — 90 miles from Florida. JFK orders a "quarantine." Soviet ships steam toward US Navy lines.
  • DAY 06: JCS recommend airstrike + invasion
  • DAY 12: U-2 shot down over Cuba
  • DAY 13: Khrushchev blinks. Missiles withdrawn. Secret deal: US Jupiters out of Turkey.
  • Vasili Arkhipov, Soviet sub officer, vetoed a nuclear torpedo launch underwater. One man.
Slide 08

VIETNAM — THE LONG DEFEAT

  • SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST ASIA1955—1975
  • FILE 008/13
  • // SECTION 08 — INDOCHINA
  • CODENAME // OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER
  • A communist insurgency, a domino theory, a quagmire. The US deploys 2.7 million troops over a decade. Drops more bombs than in all of WWII. And loses.
  • 58,220
  • US KIA
  • ~3M
  • Vietnamese dead
  • military + civilian
  • 7.5M
  • Tons of bombs
  • dropped on Indochina
  • 30.APR.75
  • Fall of Saigon
  • helicopter evacuation
  • Containment's limit: a peasant army with Soviet rifles can outlast a superpower's patience.
Slide 09

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION

  • SUBJECT: STRATEGIC FORCES1960s—1980s
  • SIOPFILE 009/13
  • // SECTION 09 — ARMS RACE
  • CONFIDENTIAL
  • CODENAME // M.A.D.
  • If both sides can destroy the other after absorbing a first strike, neither will strike first. The most expensive game theory experiment in human history.
  • ~70,000
  • Warheads at peak
  • combined arsenals, 1986
  • ICBM
  • 30 minutes
  • Moscow to DC
  • SLBM
  • Submarines: invisible,
  • second-strike guarantee
  • SALT
  • I (1972), II (1979)
  • arms-control treaties
  • Triad doctrine: bombers + land missiles + submarines. Decapitate one leg, the others retaliate.
Slide 10

THE OTHER WAR

  • SUBJECT: SOFT POWER1957—1980
  • FILE 010/13
  • // SECTION 10 — CULTURE
  • CODENAME // PROJECT VANGUARD
  • War by prestige. Whose science is better? Whose athletes? Whose music? Whose ideology gets the future?
  • 04.OCT.1957: Sputnik beeps overhead. America panics. NASA founded.
  • 12.APR.1961: Gagarin orbits Earth — first human in space.
  • 20.JUL.1969: Apollo 11. Armstrong steps onto lunar dust. The US wins the moon.
  • JAZZ DIPLOMACY: State Dept ships Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ellington abroad. Black music, American freedom.
  • 1980 / 1984: Olympic boycotts — Moscow then LA. Even the medals are political.
Slide 11

THE WALL FALLS

  • SUBJECT: ENDGAME1989—1991
  • DECLASSIFIEDFILE 011/13
  • // SECTION 11 — COLLAPSE
  • CODENAME // GLASNOST / PERESTROIKA
  • Gorbachev opens the system, hoping to save it. Instead it cracks. Once Eastern Europe sees the door is unlocked, everyone walks out at once.
  • JUN 1989: Solidarity wins Polish elections.
  • 09.NOV.1989: A confused press briefing. Berliners climb the Wall. Guards stand down.
  • 25.DEC.1991: Gorbachev resigns. The hammer-and-sickle lowers over the Kremlin for the last time.
  • 26.DEC.1991: The Soviet Union ceases to exist. 15 republics independent.
  • "The end of history" — Fukuyama, 1992. (He would later qualify this.)
Slide 12

WHAT IT TAUGHT US

  • SUBJECT: ASSESSMENTFINAL
  • FILE 012/13
  • // SECTION 12 — LESSONS
  • CODENAME // POST-MORTEM
  • The nuclear taboo held. Despite 70,000 warheads and a dozen near-misses, no weapon used in anger after 1945. Deterrence — or luck — worked.
  • Proxy wars were devastating. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, Guatemala. Tens of millions dead in places the superpowers never named on the map.
  • Institutions outlasted ideology. NATO, the UN, Bretton Woods, the EU's predecessors — built in the 40s, still here.
  • Open questions: Can a unipolar moment last? Does deterrence scale to many actors? Did we win — or did the USSR lose?
Slide 13

FURTHER ORDERS

  • END TRANSMISSION02.MAY.2026
  • ARCHIVEFILE 013/13
  • // SECTION 13 — REFERENCES
  • CODENAME // OPEN SOURCE
  • Selected reading and viewing for the curious analyst:
  • John Lewis Gaddis — The Cold War: A New History
  • Odd Arne Westad — The Cold War: A World History
  • Serhii Plokhy — Nuclear Folly (on the Cuban Missile Crisis)
  • Vladislav Zubok — A Failed Empire (Soviet perspective)
  • Documentary: CNN's Cold War (1998), 24 episodes
  • ▶ COLD WAR // OVERVIEW
  • ▶ CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
  • — END OF DOSSIER —
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