# COLD WAR / 1945-1991 Canonical URL: https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-history-cold-war Raw viewer URL: https://content.shipslides.com/d/catalog-history-cold-war/raw Category: History Slides: 14 Updated: 2026-05-17T20:55:54.926Z Tags: catalog, history, cold, war ## Summary 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. ## Slide Outline 1. COLD WAR 2. 1945 — 1991 3. THE BREAK 4. CONTAINMENT 5. THE YEAR EVERYTHING CHANGED 6. KOREA — THE FIRST HOT WAR 7. WARSAW PACT 8. CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS 9. VIETNAM — THE LONG DEFEAT 10. MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION 11. THE OTHER WAR 12. THE WALL FALLS 13. WHAT IT TAUGHT US 14. FURTHER ORDERS ## Slide Transcript ### Slide 1: COLD WAR - FROM: HQ - TO: ARCHIVE - EYES ONLY - FILE 001/13 - DOSSIER // OPERATION FROST - 1945 — 1991 - 46 YEARS // TWO SUPERPOWERS // ZERO DIRECT BATTLES ### Slide 2: 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 3: 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 4: 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 5: 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 6: 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 7: 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 8: 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 9: 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 — ## Related Decks - [Cold War Spies](https://shipslides.com/d/history-cold-war-spies) - [The Cold War](https://shipslides.com/d/history-cold-war) - [WORLD WAR II / 1939-1945 — Broadsheet Edition](https://shipslides.com/d/catalog-history-world-war-ii) - [World War I — The Great War](https://shipslides.com/d/history-world-war-i)