-
Nuclear Arms Race part1
After WWII American was the only nuclear power. By 1949, however the Soviet Union also developed nuclear waepons. By 1953, both sides had developed hydrogen bombs, which are more destructive then atomic bombs. Both sides engaged in a race to match each ohter's new wapons. The result was a "balance of terror." Each side knew that the other side would itself destoryed if it launched it's weapons, still the world's people lived in constant fear of nuclear doom. -
NATO and Warsaw Pact
In 1949 U.S. Canada and 10 other countries formed a new military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Members pledged to help one another if any one of them were attacked. In 1955 the Soviet union responded by forming its own military alliance the Warsaw Pact. It included the Soviet union and 7 satellites in Eastern Europe. Unlike NATO the Warsaw Pact was often involked by the Soviets to keep its satellites in order. Europe was cemented into "east" and "west" blocs. -
Chinese Civil War part 2
Aftre the victory against the Nationalists the Communists conquered Tibet. In 1959 Tibet's most revered religious leader the Dalai Lama was forced to flee the country. Mao Zedong built a Communists one-party totalitarian state in the People's Republic of China. Communists ideology guided the government's efforts to reshape the economy and society that China had inherited from the dynastic period. -
Korean Conflict part 2
U.S.-led troops qickly captured Korea's north-south rail lines and cut off North Korean troops from their supply of food and ammunition. North Korean forces in the south soon surrendered. United Nations forces had advanced north along the border of China. In late November the Chinese and North Koreans forced United Nations troops back to the south. Finally in 1953 both sides signed an armistice. -
Chinese Civil War part 1
While support for the Communists grew, the Nationalists lost popularity. Many Chinese people also resented corruption in Jiang's government and the government's reliance on support from Western "imperialist" powers. They hoped that the Communists would build a new China and end foreign domination. Widespread support for the Communists in the countryside helped them to capture rail lines and surround Nationalist-held cities. -
Korean Conflict part 1
After Japan's defeat in WWII Soviet and AMerican forces agreed to divide Korea temporarily along the 38th paralle of latitude. However North Korea bacame a communists ally of the Soviet Union. The U.S. backed South Korea. Both leaders wanted to rule the entire country. North Korea troops attacked and soon overran most of the south. The U.S. then organized a United Nations force to help South Korea.Untied Nations forces stopped North Korea at the Pusan Perimeter. -
Soviet Union Falls
Collectivized agriculture remained so unproductive that Russia had to import grain to feed it's people.The Soviet command economy could not match Western market economies in producing consumer goods. Central economic planning led to inefficincy and waste. Consumer needs were often not met. The economies of the Soviet Union stagnated. The Soviet Union could not keep up with the U.S. in the arms race and in military preparedness. -
Chinese Civil War part 3
Opponents of the Communists were put down as "counterrevolutionaries." They were beaten, sent to labor camps or killed. To boost agriculture Mao at first distributed land to peasants. Soon however he called for collectivization in an atempt to increase productivity. From 1958-1960 Mao led a program known as the Great Leap Forward. He urged people to make a superhuman effort to increase farm and industrial outpu -
Communist Cuba part 1
Fidel Castro organized an armed rebellion against the corrupt dictator whothen ruled Cuba. By 1959 Castro had led his guerrilla army to victory and set about transforing the country known as th eCuban Revolution. He nationalized businesses and put most land under government control. In addition Castro severly restricked Cuban's political freedom. Critics of the new regime were jailed or silenced and hundreds of thousands fled to Florida. -
Period: to
Nuclear Arms Race part 2
In 1969 the U.S. and the Soviet Union began Stategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to limit the number of nuclear weapons held by each side. In 1972 and 1979 both sides signed agreements setting these limits. One of theses agreements limited anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) or missiles that could shoot down other missiles from hostile countries. -
Communist Cuba part 2
president John F. Kennedy supported an invasion attempt by U.S.-trained Cuban exiles. The Bay of Pigs Invasion quickly ended in failure when Castro's forces captured the invaders. The U.S. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba that remains in effect today. -
Berlin Wall
The city of Berlin was split into democratic West Berlin and communist East Berlin. In the 1950's West Berlin became a showcase for West German prosperity. A massive exodus of low-paid East Germans unhappy with communism fled into West Berlin. To stop the flight East Germany built a wall in 1961 that sealed off West Berlin. The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier topped with barbed wire and patrolled by guards. The wall showed that workers had to be forcibly kept from fleeding. -
Missile Crisis
The Soviet union sent nuclear missiles to Cuba. President Kennedy responded by imposing a naval blockade that prevented further Soviet shipmates. Kennedy demanded that the Soviet Union remove its nuclear missiles from Cuba, and for a few tense days, the world faced a risk of nuclear war over the issue. Finally Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviet missiles and the war was averted. -
Vietnam Conflict part 1
Ho Chi Minh continued to aid the National Liberation Front. On August 1 South Vietnamese commandos conducted raids on North Vietnamese islands in the Gilf of Tonkin. The following day the North attacked a nearby U.S. Navy destroyer the Maddox. Three days later sailors on teh Maddox thought that they had been attacked again.Believing that the attacks had been unprovoked Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. After the resolution was passed the U.S. began bombing targets in North Vietnam. -
Chinese Civil War part 4
The Great Leap Forward however proved to be a dismal failure. Bad weather added to the problems and led to a terrible famine. Between 1959-1961 as many as 55 million Chinese are thought to have starved to death. China slowly recovered from the Great Leap Forward by reducing teh size of communes and taking a more practical approach to the economy However in 1966 Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It's goal was to purge China of "bourgeois" tendencies. -
Chinese Civil War part 5
In response teenagers formed bands of Red Guards. Red Guards attacked those they considered bouregois. The economy slowed and civil war threatened. Finally Mao had the army restore order. -
Vietnamese Conflict part2
South Vietnam failed to defeat the communist guerrillas and their North Vietnamese allies. Guerrilla forces came out of the jungles and attacked American and South Vietnamese forces in cities all across the south. The communists lost many of their best troops and did not hold any cities against American counterattacks. The bloody Tet Offensive marked a turning point in public opnion in the U.S. -
Eastern European Independence part 1
Hungary expanded its economy. Hungarians bagan to criticize the communist government more openly. New political parties were allowed to form and the western boreder with Austria was opened. In Poland , economic hardships ignited strikes by shipyard workers, they organized Solidarity. The rigidly communist East German government banned Soviet publications. They blocked moves toward a market economy or greater political freedom. -
Detente
American and Soviet arms control agreement led to an era of detente (relaxation of tension) during the 1970's. The American strategy under detente was to restrain the Soviet Union through diplomatic agreements rather than by military means. The era of detente ended in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. -
Soviets in Afghanistan part 1
The Soviet Union bacame involved in a long war in Afghanistan. A Soviet-supproted Afghan government had tried to modernize the nation. Afghan landlords and Muslim conservatives charged that both polocies threatened Islamic tradtion. When these warlords took up arms against the government, Soviet troops moved in. -
Soviets in Afghanistan part 2
Battling mujahedin in the mountains of Afghanistan however proved as difficult as fighting guerrillas in the jungle of Vietnam had been for America. By mid-1980's the American government began to smuggle modern weaponry to the muhahedin. The Soviets had years of heavy casualites high costs and few successes. The struggle in Afghanistan provoked a crisis in morale for the Soviets at home. -
Nuclear Arms Race part 3
During the 1980's U.S. President Ronald Reagan launched a program to build a "Star Wars" missile defense against nuclear attack. Critics objuected that this program would violate the ABM treaty. Nonetheless, the two sieds signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1991. -
Eastern European Independence part 2
Communists government fall. When the Communsits lost power in 1989 some Slovaks bagan to call for independence. In 1992 the Slovaks and Czechs peacfully agreed to divide Czechoslovakia into the new nations of Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
