==The Cold War (continued from last lecture) ==
Let's begin by reviewing some key aspects of the Cold War that lasted from 1945 to 1991. It was "cold" in the sense that few shots were fired, but there was enormous conflict through espionage (spying) and even sporting events (such as the world chess championship and Olympics Olympic basketball finals in 1972, and the Olympic men's hockey finals in 1980).
First recall that in 1947 President Truman announced what became known as the Truman Doctrine to counter the growing communist threat: "Support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." Truman declared that assistance shall be "primarily through economic and financial aid." Also in 1947, a theory of "containment" became popular to keep communism from spreading beyond the Soviet Union. Despite this, communism continued to spread. As mentioned in the last lecture, in 1948 the United States joined in an alliance with Western European in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ("NATO"), to oppose communist countries controlled by the Soviet Union. Germany was split into West Germany (non-communist) and East Germany (communist), and when West Germany joined NATO in 1955 then the Soviet Union formed a "Warsaw Pact" in an alliance with Eastern European communist countries to offset NATO.