Week of May 2 - 6

Monday, May 2

Cold War

  • Second Red Scare
    • Causes
      • people being arrested, imprisoned, executed for spying
      • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
      • Iron Curtain
      • USSR detonating the atomic bomb
      • China becoming communist
      • Korean War - domino effect
      • Berlin Blockade
  • Alien Registration Act
    • made it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the US government
    • aimed at controlling communists
    • declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
  • Joe McCarthy
    • Wisconsin senator
    • goal was to weed communism out of the US government
    • caused panic to spread throughout the country
    • downfall
      • began when he started to investigate communism in the military
      • Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy now
      • Senate votes to censure him, i.e. strip him of his privileges
      • died of alcohol abuse in 1957
    • McCarthyism
      • accusing people without proper evidence
  • House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
    • went after directors and actors in Hollywood
    • believed that films were spreading communist propaganda
    • set up hearing to investigate the movie industry
  • US Test Hydrogen Bomb
    • 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb
  • Berlin Wall
    • people fled to West Berlin for freedom
    • USSR builds a wall in order to keep people in East Berlin
    • had to pass through checkpoints in order to legally enter West Berlin

Tuesday, May 3

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion
    • before we gave Cuba their naval base, they had to give us a naval base - Guantanamo Bay
    • invasion by anti-Castro Cubans to go in and overthrow Castro
    • these Cubans left Cuba after Castro came to power
    • trained by CIA
    • we didn't do it ourselves because it would look suspicious if the US did it - like a big country picking on a little one
    • we don't give them air cover
    • Cubans are all captured or killed
    • ultimately embarrasses Kennedy
    • victory for Soviet Union
  • Cuban Missile Crisis
    • US military upset with Kennedy
    • Cuba concerned we wanted to invade
    • Soviet Union sends missiles to Cuba for protection
    • Kennedy starts a quarantine of Cuba
    • goal: prevent Soviet Union from sending more missiles to Cuba
    • Solution
      • Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba
      • US promises to never invade Cuba
      • US would secretly remove our nuclear missiles from Turkey within six months
  • Soviets Invade Afghanistan
    • We support Afghanistan so they can fight communists
  • Ronald Reagan Becomes President
    • Ran on a very strong anti-communist platform
    • Soviets had just invaded Afghanistan
  • Perestroika and Glasnost
    • causes Soviet Union's downfall
    • gave more democracy, free elections, etc
  • Berlin Wall Comes Down
    • symbol of Cold War ending
    • East Germans decide to walk through the wall
    • mass crowds swarm and break the wall
  • Boris Yeltsin - President of Russia

Wednesday, May 4

  • Why did we win Cold War?
    • we had close ties with Allies and the USSR didn't
    • China started siding with us after 1972
    • the Soviet economy was in shambles whereas the US's was flourishing
      • huge deficit
      • high inflation
      • corruption
      • social problems
      • shortage of basic needs
    • strong anti-communist presidency of Reagan
    • Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform
      • Glasnost and Perestroika
      • admitted Soviet mistakes
      • took blame for Cold War
      • communist system had failed
      • allowed Eastern Europe to do what they want
    • Soviet mistakes
      • invasion of Afghanistan
      • ignoring social concerns
      • spent everything on military
  • Post Cold War
    • 90s - world seemed to be a much more peaceful place
    • no major threats to worry about
    • Clinton closes down numerous military bases around the country, reducing the size of the US military
    • 9/11 caught the US off guard
    • Warsaw Pact breaks up

Thursday, May 5

Key Terms Test over Cold War

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