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FDR, Churchill and Stalin met to discuss the furture of Europe after World War 2. Satline agreed to help the US attack Japan after the collapse of Germany.
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Truman, Churchill and Stalin meet to decide how to deal with Germany and Japan. They all agreed that Japan must surrender or risk "complete and utter" destruction. Atomic bomb had successfully been tested on July 16.
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The United States drops the first atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima.
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U.S announces its intentions to occupy Japanese-held Korea south of the 38th parallel. The USSR to occupy the north.
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The United States drops the second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki.
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The UN meets for the first time to establish it's existence. The UN concsisted of 51 nations and it met in England.
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Churchill gave his “iron curtain” speech in March of 1946 at Fulton Missouri. In his speech he said an iron curtain (shadow) has decended upon Europe. Churchill’s main points were that there should be a US/UK agreement as part of the UN to resist and prevent any disturbances to world peace and that Stalin wants "not war but the fruits of war”, and if the allies stay strong and united they can counter any Soviet threat.
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Iran was the first site of dispute in the Cold War in 1945-1946. On March 10th Truman asked Russia to leave Iran. British and Soviet troops were in Iran since 1941 to protect oil reserves from the Germans. The US and Great Britain withdraw their troops but the USSR does not.
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Both Greece and Turkey were having Communist revolts in the 1947 and they asked the U.S to hrlp them defence themselves from Communist takeover.
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The Truman Doctrine stated that we as the US are obliged to help other nations. It is our duty to help them because they look to us for support. Truman asked Congress for $400 million tand US advisors/troops to help Greece and Turkey fight against communism.
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Hungary is taken over by the Communist government,
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U.S Secretary of State George C. Marshall delivered the histroic speech introducing the Marshall Plan which was for the economic recovery of Europe. The Marshall Plan consisted of doing the following: modernization of indutrial equipment, creation of sound currencies and national budgets, expansion of trade and increase in exports, increased economic cooperation among European countries, removal of restrictions in foreign trade, increase in production and improvement in transport systems.
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George Kennan writing anonymously in foreign affairs, articulates America's policy to block peacefully the expansion of soviet political and economic influence into vunerable areas around the world.
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The UN authorzed the creation of the State of Israel with both the US and the USSr voting in favor of it.
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The communist party took controld of the democratic nation of Czechoslovakia and made it a USSR puppet state.
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Israel declared its independence and 5 Arab states immediately invaded Israel with the goal of destroying the newly created Jewish state. The Arab states were defeated by Israel.
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Due to this Arab Israeli wat about 500,000 Arabs fled Israel and many remain refugees today hoping to return to their former homes. It is estimated that as many as 800,000 Jews were forced to leave Arab countries during the 1940s and 1950s. Most of the refugees were absorbed into Israel.
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The USSR imposed a complete blockade on railway, road and canal traffic leading to West Berlin from the allied German zone. No supplies of any type, including food, fuel and consumer goods, were allowed to enter West Berlin. Stalin wanted to starve the city into submission. This was done for two main reasons:
1) Stalin's desire to control all of Berlin
2) The allies London program of 1948 that called for a separate West Germany and currency reform. -
The Berlin Airflift lasted from June 1948- May 1949. The airlift would be used for keeping the city supplied with food, fuel, and consumer goods. Everything from coal to choclate was flown in by fleets of American and British cargo planes. President Truman made is clear that if a cargo plane was shot down it would mean war between the US and the USSR.
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The republic of South Korea is founded with its capital in Seoul.
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The communist Korean people's democractic republic (North Korea) is founded with it's capital in Pyongyang.
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1949 saw the formal establishment of two German nations. These nations were East Germany which was ruled by the USSR and West Germany which was an independent nation.
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NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization is formed. This Washington treaty was signed by 10 West European countries, the US and Canada. This was an alliance that brought together free and sovereign countries in order to create a collective security system.
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The Russians ended the Berlin Blockade.
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Russia tested it's first atomic bomb and became the second nuclear power.
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The communist won the Chinese Civil War and the people's republic of China is established with the USSR as its main ally. In the US "Losing China" became a political issue.
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President Truman approves the development of the hydrogen bomb. This new type of nuclear weapon is at least 100 times more powerful then the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945.
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The two greates communist powers (China and USSR) signed the Sino-Soviet Pact. This created a bilateral defense commitment and settled boundary issues. The USSR also agreed to providelimited aid to China.
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McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism."
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REAPPRAISAL OF AMERICA'S STRATEGIC POSITION BY THE NSC. THE DEFINITION FOR THE COLD WAR SHIFTED FROM POLITICAL TO MILITARY, POSTULATING A SOVIET "DESIGN FOR WORLD DOMINATION." NSC 68 CALLED FOR BOTH A BUILD-UP OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND FOR ENLARGED CAPACITY TO FIGHT CONVENTIONAL WARS WHENEVER THE RUSSIANS THREATENED "PIECEMEAL AGGRESSION." IT ALSO CALLED FOR A REDUCTION OF SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS AND OTHER SERVICES NOT RELATED TO MILITARY NEEDS AND FOR TIGHTER INTERNAL SECURITY PROGRAMS.
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Korean War begins. Stalin supports North Korea who invade South Korea equipped with Soviet weapons. The UN sent troops to fight the North Korean forces but the bulk of the soldiers came from the U.S.
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The communist North Koreans pushed the South Korean and unprepared U.S. armies all the way to Pusan in the south where they were finally stopped by U.S. firepower.
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UN troops advanced rapidly and entered North Korea in pursuit of fleeing enemy armies. On October 19, 1950 Chinese communists troops invaded North Korea and pushed the UN armies back south of the 38th parallel.
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The Korean War turns into a stalemate resembling the WW1 Trench Warfare.
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US intelligence begins receiving reports of USSR missiles in Cuba. A U-2 flight on August 29th confirmed the presence of surface to air missile batteries in Cuba. Thee missiles were designed to shoot down enemy aircraft. The missiles were aimed at the US and had the power of 50 atomic bombs in one missile. JFK chose to do a naval blockade to get the USSR to remove the missiles. Khrushchev gave in to U.S. pressure and removed Soviet missiles from Cuba for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba.
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First Hydrogen Bomb exploded by the US. The USSR exploded one in 1953.
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340 Vietcong guerrillas held off the combined assaults of more than 1500 South Vietnamese government troops near the small village of Ap Bac. Shooting down five American helicopters and withstanding M113 armored personnel carriers, infantry, artillery, and close air support, the VC withdrew in good order with few casualties, Ap Bac's warning signs, while understood by the lower-level advisors and thand the press, were lost on the senior American civil and military leadership.
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On July 27th 1953, after three years of fighting, an armistice was signed ending the Korean war. Korea remained divided at the 38th parallel. This was made easier to obtain after the death of Stalin in March 1953.
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SEATO (SOUTH EAST ASIA TREATY ORGANIZATION) was formed in 1954 as a defensive pact to defend the nations against communist attack. It was disbanded in 1975 after several members quit.
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In July of 1954 the Geneva Accords were signed dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel for two years until elections could be held to unify the nation. The north became communist while the south was supported by the U.S.
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Formed by the USSR to counter NATO in Europe. "Treaty of friendship, co-operation, and mutual assistance."
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The start of the Vietnam War. The US against the USSR and communsim.
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The U.S. supported a Catholic, Ngo Dinh Diem, who was hated by the majority of the South Vietnamese who were Buddhist. His misrule led to a small rebellion which grew into a major war in the early 1960’s. President Eisenhower sent a small training unit to help build Diem’s army in 1955.
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The art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics.
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Britain and France feared the closing og the vital Suez Canal by Abdul Nasser, the nationalist leader of Egypt. Thus, they decided on military action against him. which led to the Suez Crisis. Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt and seized the canal in October-November 1956. But had to retun it in 1957 under the pressure of the US.
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The people of Hungary rose up against the Communist imposed government. For a little while it looked like they would win. Then the Soviet tanks came in and ended the revolt.
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First ICMB launched by the USSR. In 1957 a new word entered the world’s vocabulary: ICBM, short for intercontinental ballistic missiles. These were nuclear bomb carrying missiles with ranges of over five thousand miles. No place on earth was safe from nuclear destruction.
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Russia lauches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to oribit the Earth.
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US finally gets an object in space and the space race is on.
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On Jan 1st, revolution of CUba finally overthrew the government.
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ON JANUARY 6TH FIDEL CASTRO BECAME PREMIER AND LATER COMMUNIST DICTATOR OF CUBA. MANY CUBANS FLEE TO THE U.S.
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A US U-2 Reconnaissance (spy) plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and the pilot was captured and put on trial.
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US breaks all diplomatic ties with Cuba because all US busineeses in Cuba are tken over by the Cuban government. Cuban exiles invade Cuba with the help of the US to overthrow Castro. Invasion was a failure and all of the Cuban exile force was either killed or captured by Castro's army.
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East Germany begins preparing to build the Berlin Wall. This wall was meant to keep Berlin and not let the US or other countries try to take Berlin from the USSR. The US was adament about freeing Berlin from the USSR.
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An organization of states that did not seek to align with the US or the USSR, but sought to remain neutral or independent.
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Vietnamese peasants were forced to build and move into these fortified villages to prevent contact with communist Vietcong guerrillas. 6800 were built by 1963. They were unpopular with the Vietnamese people and this along with other abuses by the South Vietnamese Saigon government caused many to support the communists.
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The National Liberation Front (NLF) was organized in 1960 by anti-Diem groups. The NLF was ultimately controlled by the North Vietnamese.Eisenhower’s military advisory and assistance group was replace by MACV (military assistance command Vietnam) under the command of General Paul Harkins. Over 11,000 advisors with modern weapons and aircraft were sent to help the South Vietnamese government. The number grows to 16,000 by November of 1963.
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An excuse for escalation. Information obtained after the fact indicated there was actually no North Vietnamese attack that night. A few days later, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the president authorization to wage war in Southeast Asia.
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In 1965 after Vietnamese Communist (Viet Cong) forces attacked several American bases LBJ authorized the "Rolling Thunder" campaign, the systematic bombing of North Vietnam. This bombing would continue off and on for the next seven years.
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LBJ announced in July 1965, U.S. troops would now engage in combat. He did not want to risk "losing Vietname" By the end of 1965 there were 180,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. This grew to 500,000 by the beginning of 1968.
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In the 1960s both the Soviet Union (A-35 anti-ballistic missile system) and the United States (LIM-49 Nike Zeus) developed anti-ballistic missile systems.
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MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) is a nuclear war strategy of both the U.S. and USSR. MAD means if either side starts a nuclear missile war they can be assured that both nations would be destroyed. It is a type of deterrence where both nations know no one can win a nuclear war.
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USSR crushed a democratic reform movement in Czechoslovakia.
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North Korean patrol boats captured the USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy intelligence gathering vessel and its 83 man crew on charges of violating the communist country's twelve-mile territorial limit. This crisis would dog the U.S. foreign policy team for 11 months, with the crew of the Pueblo finally gaining freedom on December 22.
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The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy outlined in 1968 which called for the use of Warsaw Pact forces to intervene in any Eastern Bloc nation which was seen to compromise communist rule and Soviet domination, either by trying to leave the Soviet sphere of influence or even moderate its policies.
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Ostpolitik was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) beginning in 1969.
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This was an attempt to set guidelines for dealing with nonaligned third world nations. The goal was to avoid another “Vietnam” type war.The stated goals were to promote democracy and economic development in nonaligned nations by providing foreign aid. In practice it supported many repressive unpopular governments. The U.S. furnished military and economic aid to any government that was pro-US and anti-communist.
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The Sino-Soviet split (1960–69) was the deterioration of political and ideological relations between the neighboring states of People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War.
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As chancellor of West Germany , Brandt developed his Neue Ostpolitik. Brandt was active in creating a degree of rapprochement with East Germany, and also in improving relations with the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern Bloc (communist) countries.
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To cool the arms race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. a series of strategic arms limitations talks were held from November 1969 to May 1972. This was the first agreement to place limits and restraints on some of their central and most important armaments.
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President Nixon extends the Vietnam War to Cambodia.
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President Nixon became the first president to visit the communist China. President Nixon was trying to improve the relationships between the US and China.
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Nixon’s plan of talking and bombing led to results in the Paris Peace talks which had been going on since 1968. With pressure placed on North Vietnam by both the USSR and China a final agreement/ceasefire was reached in January of 1973. The treaty allowed the U.S. to withdraw almost all of its troops.
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Cease fire in Vietnam between North Vietnam and United States
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U.S. supported coup overthrows Chilean government
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United States and Soviet Union sign peaceful nuclear explosions treaty limiting size and nature of underground nuclear tests.
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CSCE Helsinki Accords signed, pledging the United States and Soviet Union to accept European borders, protect human rights, and promote freer transnational trade and cultural exchanges.
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First US President to resign due to the Watergate Scandal.
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At the meetings both nations (US and USSR) agreed to work on a Salt II agreement limiting nuclear warheads and accept the post WWII borders in Europe. The USSR pledged to improve its human rights record.
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Unfortunately for South Vietnam the ceasefire agreement was just a prelude to a massive North Vietnamese invasion. It was all over by April of 1975, when communist forces entered the South Vietnamese capitol city of Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam was reunited under a communist government. The U.S. mission to protect South Vietnam had failed.
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In the Accords Israel agreed to withdraw from Egyptian land it had taken in the 1967 war. Egypt agreed to formally recognize Israel’s right to exist. Egypt became the first Arab country to recognize the nation of Israel.
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The new revolutionary Sandinista Nicaraguan government asked the U.S. for $75 million in aid. President Carter asked Congress for the money but they turned him down. Nicaragua then turned to the Communist world for assistance.
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In 1979, Islamic fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini seized control of Iran. He hated America calling it the ”Great Satan.” He turned Iran into a theocracy where religious bullies enforced harsh Koranic laws.
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The USSR invasion of Afghanistan. To punish the U.S.S.R. for their invasion of Afghanistan, Carter withdrew the Salt II treaty, stopped selling them grain, and declared a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics games. None of these actions had any impact on the Soviet invasion.
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Iranian Muslim fundamentalists seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran taking 66 hostages. They demanded the U.S. send them the Shah as the price for freeing the prisoners. Carter refused.Carter ordered the military to attempt a rescue. This resulted in a disaster when two U.S. aircraft collided, ending the mission before it got off the ground. 8 Americans were killed in the April 24-25, 1980 hostage rescue attempt.
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The U.S.S.R. threatened to send troops to Poland if the Polish government did not outlaw the Solidarity labor movement. Polish union leader Lech Walesa led workers on an illegal strike in January of 1981. They wanted the communist government to give workers a 5-day work week.
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In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to put an end to the PLO attacks. Israeli troops eventually forced the PLO to leave Lebanon. Israel pulled back but maintained a buffer zone in southern Lebanon for 22 years.U.S., Britain, France, and Italy sent troops to Beirut after a massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Lebanese Christian militias. The troops arrived in September 1982, to help keep the peace. Anti-government militias began shooting at the U.S. Marines.
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-Reagan announced the nation had undertaken a massive research effort to produce systems capable of destroying nuclear missiles in flight.
-These new weapons would be based in space on orbiting weapons platforms (satellites).
-The weapon systems would consist of either lasers or anti-missile missiles.
-Reagan's goal was to make nuclear weapons obsolete and avoid having to retaliate with our own missiles if the U.S.S.R. launched an attack.
-USSR opposed of development -
Soviet jet fighters intercept a Korean Airlines passenger flight in Russian airspace and shoot the plane down, killing 269 passengers and crewmembers. The incident dramatically increased tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.
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There was a suicide bombing on October 23,1983 at the BLT Marine Barracks. 241 Marines were killed in the explosion
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Soviet money and Cuban troops came to Grenada, and when they began constructing an airfield capable of landing large military aircraft, the Reagan administration decided to remove the communists and restore a pro-American regime. On October 25, U.S. troops invaded Grenada, killed or captured 750 Cuban soldiers, and established a new government. This invasion sent a clear message throughout the region the Reagan administration would not tolerate communism in its hemisphere.
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1) Glasnost (“openness”): this allowed open criticism of the Soviet government by individuals and media. 2) Perestroika (restructure): in this bold move he sought to introduce democracy and some capitalism into Soviet government and society.
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In 1986 the Reagan administration opened secret negotiations with the militant Islamic Iranian government. Iran was in a desperate war with Iraq and needed arms. We offered to sell them sophisticated weapons for their help in freeing U.S. hostages held by radical Islamic groups in Lebanon.
The money Iran paid for the weapons was given to the Contras who were fighting to overthrow the leftist Nicaraguan government. This was in violation of the Boland Amendment. -
The terrorist nation of Libya was attacked by U.S. forces in April of 1986. Late in the evening of April 15th and in the early morning of April 16th 1986, under the code name El Dorado Canyon, the United States launched a series of military air strikes against ground targets inside Libya.
Several targets inside Libya were hit including Qaddafi’s residence. Libyan terrorist activity was noticeably diminished after the attack. -
Berlin Wall is demolished and East Germany allows unrestricted migration to West Germany
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Hard-line Communists stage unsuccessful coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.
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Soviet Union is abolished and Boris Yeltsin elected as President of Russia
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The Cold War did technically end. However, it never actually ended. There is a contiuing tension and race existing in the world today.
