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korea is divided
korea is divided along the 38th parallel into a soviet-occupied north and an american-occupied south. north korea is first to invade the south in the summer of 1950. in the fall of 1950, the south fights back then china and north korea push UN forces to the 37th parrallel 1950-1951 -
NATO (north atlantic treaty organization)
the unted states, Canada and ten other countries formed a new military alliance called the NATO.members pledged to help one another if any of them were attacked. -
Communist Cuba
in the 1950s, Fidel Castro arganized an army rebellion against the corrupt dictator who then ruled Cuba. By 1959, Castro had led his querilla army to victory and set about transforming the country. -
Warsaw Pact
the Soviet Union responded by forming its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact,. it included the soviet union and seven satelities in eastern europe. -
HUNGARIANS TRY TO BREAK FREE FROM SOVIET CONTROL
1956Khrushchev sent tanks in to enforce obedience, and his successor, Leonid Brezhnev, did the same thing when Czechs challenged the soviets in the “Prague spring” of 1968. -
SPUTNIK I
1957, the government poured resources into science ad technology, launching Sputnik I, the first satellite -
berlin Wall
a massive exodus of low-paid east Germans, unhappy with communism, fled into West Berlin. to stop the flight, East Germany built a wall that sealed off West berlin. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
the soviet union shipped missiles to cuba. JFK demanded that they remove the missles. the october 1962 the united statesimposed a naval blockade on cuba. and for a week the world was on brink of a nuclear war -
cultural revolution
Mao launched the graeat proletarian cultural revolution.. the goal was to purge china of "borgeois" tendencies. -
vietnam of afghanistan
1979, the soviet union became involved in a long war in afghanistan, an Islamic country south of the soviet union. a soviet-supported afghan government had tried to modernize the nation. its policies included social reforms and land redistribution that would reduce the power of regional landlords. -
communism declines around the world
the defeat of communism in the soviet bloc effected communist countries from china to castor's cuba. many were already suffering economic declines by the 1980's as their command economies stagnated. some took a second look at free-market economics. few, however, made many concessions to democracy -
gorbachev tries reform
1985, a new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in the soviet union. he called fro Glasnost, or openness, he ended censorship and encouraged people to discuss the countries problems openly. he also urged perestroika, or restructuring, of the government and economy. this brought economic turmoil. -
soviet republics form into 12 independent nations
the remaining soviet republics seperated to form 12 independent nations, in addition to the 3 Baltic States. the largest or these was Russia, which had most of the population and territory of the former soviet union. -
chzechoslovakia splits
the slovaks and czechs peacefully agreed to divide czechoslovakia into the new nations slovakia and the czech republic
