Events of the Cold War Trivia Quiz

Though Winston Churchill mentioned the idea of the "iron curtain" in his speech on March 05, 1946, he formally gave the speech the name "The Sinews of Peace". Churchill was between his two terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when he gave the speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in the United States.

When he mentioned "the iron curtain" separating Western Europe from Eastern Europe, he was not talking about a physical barrier, but a deepening ideological barrier between the democratic nations in the West and the communist nations in the East.

During World War II, Nazi Germany had been the common foe of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. After the war concluded, those nations plus France divided Germany into zones of control as part of the process of denazification. Over time, while the US, the UK, and France gradually reintegrated their zones, the Soviet Union kept theirs separate. This led to the establishment of West Germany and East Germany.

Berlin, the capital of Germany, was also divided into zones and became two cities: West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) and East Berlin. People in East Germany found West Berlin an easier escape route for those who wanted to leave. The Soviet Union set up a blockade (road, rail, and river/canal) around West Berlin as an attempt to get the allies to give up control of West Berlin. Only a round-the-clock airlift of supplies by the allies allowed West Berlin to remain under West German control.

Before World War II, Korea had been under the control of Japan. After the war, Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel between the United States and the Soviet Union to prepare it for full independence. Each nation took the opportunity to spread its ideology in "its" Korea.

After independence, attempts to unite North Korea and South Korea politically floundered. North Korea then tried a military solution by launching an attack on South Korea that was nearly successful before a United Nations force fought the war to a stalemate.

Until 1956, the Suez Canal was owned by a private company that had mostly British and French stockholders. In 1956, Gamel Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt, nationalized the company, and had Egypt assume direct control of the canal. A coalition of British, French, and Israeli forces attempted to retake control of the canal.

Heavy political pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union largely forced these nations to back down. The US did so, in part, to draw Egypt into its circle. Egypt, instead, would accept support from the Soviet Union in the upcoming years.

In 1962, the United States became aware of Soviet intentions to install a large number of nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. This was of concern to the United States, since the proximity of Cuba meant that the missiles could reach the eastern two-thirds of the United States. For several days, people in both nations thought nuclear war was imminent. Finally, a peaceful solution was found, where the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba and the US removed some of its missiles from Turkey (which lay close to the Soviet Union).

The US presence in Vietnam in the 1950s was relatively light and consisted mainly of "advisors". In July of 1964, a US naval ship that was sailing offshore of North Vietnam was attacked by forces from that country. This was the incident that caused the US Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the president authority to send additional troops into the Vietnam War.

This would lead to nearly a decade of heavy US involvement in that conflict.

Alexander Dubcek became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He attempted to reform Communism in Czechoslovakia and grant additional rights (what he called socialism with a human face) to the citizenry. The Soviet Union responded poorly to the proposed changes and joined other Warsaw Pact nations in invading Czechoslovakia to remove Dubcek from power.

SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Treatment. The treaty was an attempt by the United States and the Soviet Union to set limits on the size of their nuclear arsenals. The treaty was negotiated between 1969 and 1972. Although a second SALT treaty was developed by 1979, it was never ratified by either the US Senate or the Supreme Soviet and expired in 1985.

In 1975, Angola rather unexpectedly gained independence from Portugal and centuries of influence and colonial rule. The civil war broke out between two factions of the anti-colonial movement: the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the turned anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

The civil war lasted for over 25 years and casualties numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in order to support the the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and its Communist government. The invasion began a nearly decade of civil war in Afghanistan where significant portions of the population died or became refugees. The War became increasingly unpopular in the Soviet Union as the years progressed.

In February 1900 (in response to this invasion), President Carter announced the the United Nations were boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics (which were held in Moscow). Dozens of nations joined in the boycott. The Soviet Union responded by boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, along with fewer than 20 other nations.

In a formal sense, the United States responded to a formal request for aid from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Dissension had arisen within the People's Revolutionary Government (Communist) which had led Grenada since 1979. The United States also pointed out that several hundred US medical students were present on the small island. The invasion was disapproved of by the United Nations as a violation of international law.

The Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was formally a protest over the invasion of Grenada.

The Reykjavik Summit was one of a series of summits or meetings between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Ronald Reagan of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union met in the capital of Iceland to discuss arms limitations although the discussion sometimes veered into other areas including human rights. Though the talks were not successful, they eventually led to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987.

The Tiananmen Square protests were a series of student-led demonstrations in Beijing, the capital of China, and other locations. At times, the protestors numbered approximately one million people. Their demands varied, but included freedom of the press and speech, democracy, and greater accountability. Perhaps the best known image from this time is the lone man who faced down a tank.

The Chinese government sent in military forces to bring the protests to an end.

Germany had been a single country from 1871 to 1945 before dividing into East and West. Perhaps it was inevitable as the Cold War came to a conclusion and the Communist governments of Eastern Europe faced an increasing number of problems that the two Germanies would draw closer together. The beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a symbol of what was to come. October 3 would later become the holiday of "Unity Day" in Germany.

On a personal note, in 1990 I was a AP European History student in 12th grade. Our teacher gave us a map quiz on October 2, 1990, where we had to draw a map of Europe. We had to include East Germany (East Berlin) and West Germany (Bonn) on our maps.

Most accounts of the Cold War use the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 as an ending point. However, although the Soviet Union had broken into several independent nations, these nations were not able to apply to the International Olympic Committee to compete as separate nations in the 1992 Winter and Summer Olympics because of time constraints. Athletes from these nations instead competed as the "Unified Team" in 1992.

In a way, this is the end of the Cold War.