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Chinese Civil War
In the late 1940s, the Communists had gained control of 1/5th of the world's people. From 1958 to 1960, Mao led the Great Leap Forward in an attempt to increase farm and industrialization. Although, it turned out to be a miserable failure. Between 1959 and 1961, 55 million chinese had starved to death. In 1966 Mao launched the Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Finally Mao had the army restore order. -
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Nuclear Arms Race and Detente
In 1945 the US had created the first nuclear weapon. In 1949 The soviets had also created nuclear weapons. In 1953 they both had also developed hydrogen bombs which are more destructive then atomic bombs. Both sides had engaged a race to to match each others new weapons. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Orginization is the military alliance that was set up in 1949. Western European nations agreed to fight together in the event that any of them were attacked by the soviet union. The US was the strongest of the alliance. -
Korean Conflict
In 1950 Kim II Sung called for Korean troops to attack the south in which they invaded and took control of most of the land. The US formed a United Nations to he out South Korea. The US arrived behind enemy lines in September of 1950. The North Koreans had been forced to surrender. North Korea they had China get involved to bail them out. The war then turned into a stalemate which made both sides sign an armistice. South Korea lowly rebuilt its economy while North Korea remained poor. -
Vietnam Conflict
An unexpected Vietnamese victory at the bloody battle of Dienbenphu in1954 convinced the French to leave Vietnam. After 1954, Western and communist powers had agreed to tempararly seperate Vietnam. The US had devoloped the domino theory that Ho Chi Minh's determination to unite vietnam under communist rule would cause noncomunist governments to become communist. President Nixon negotiated the paris accord in January 1973. -
Vietnam Conflict Continued
America had agreed to remove their troops from the war and North Korea had agreed to stop sending their troop intop the south. -
Warsaw Pact
The warsaw pact was formed in 1955 to improve military coordination of the Communist countries of Europe.The Soviets kept large numbers of troops in other countries which made them the leader of the orginization. -
Communist Cuba
Fidel Castro organized an armed rebellion against the corrupt dictator who then ruled Cuba. Castro had led his guerrilla army to victory in 1959. He nationalized businesses and put most land under government control. -
Berlin Wall
East Germany built a wall in 1961 that sealed off West Berlin. The wall was concrete wall topped with barbed wire and patrolled by guards. This was a way to keep people from fleeing into West Berlin to escape communism. -
The Missile Crisis
The US had learned the the soviets were shipping missiles to Cuba. JFK demanded that the Soviet Union removed their missiles. October 1962, the US set up a navel blockade that prevented further Soviet shipments. On October 28 Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles. -
Soviets in Afghanistan
In 1979 the Soviet Union became involved in a long war in Afghanistan. When Afghan landlords took up arms against the government, Soviet troops moved in. Battling mujahedin, or muslims religious warriors, in the mountains of Afghanistan, proved as difficult as fighting guerrillas in the jungles of Vietnam had been for Americans. The American government had smuggled modern weapons to the mujahedin. This only made it harder on the Soviets to advance in battle. -
Soviets in Afghanistan Continued..
Gorbachev, the soviets new leader, had signed arms control treaties with thne United States and pulled his soviet troops out of Afghanistan. -
Eastern European Independence
Revolts had errupted in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere in the 1950's and 1960's. In the 1980's demands for change mounted again. Gorbachev would announce that he would not interfere with Eastern European reforms. In 1989 they held the first free elections in over 50 years. -
Soviet Union Falls
The war between the United States and the Soviets had officialy ended. The peoples fears of the Soviets growing in power did not prevail. The soviet communism was doomed and it was visiable to everyone. The Soviet Union had lost their Eastern European Countries and people had began to demand demacrtic reforms. Communist countries began to side with the demacratic countries to ese the tention.
