Monday-
The Cold War (continued)
- The Second Red Scare
- 1947-1957
- Causes:
- 1. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Trial
- Found guilty of spying for the Soviets- executed in 1953
- 2. The Iron Curtain surrounding Eastern Europe
- 1945
- 3. The USSR detonating their atomic bomb
- 1949
- 4. China becoming communist in 1949
- 5. The Korean War starting in 1950
- Domino Effect
- 6. Stalin's actions in Germany- Berlin Blockade
- 1. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Trial
- Alger Hiss Trial
- 1950
- In 1948, Alger Hiss was accused of being a member of a Communist group whose purpose had been to infiltrate the US government
- Hiss maintained innocence throughout trials
- In 1949, the trial ended with a hung jury (8-4 in favor of conviction)
- The second trial began later in 1949 and found Hiss guilty
- Hiss's conviction was later upheld by the Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court
- In 1992, a former Soviet intelligence officer said that Hiss was not a Soviet spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria
- East and West Germany
- 1949-1990
- Germany was split into four zones (US, British, and French controlled West Germany) (USSR controlled East Germany)
- Berlin was also split into four zones
- Chiang Kai Shek v. Mao Zedong
- Mao created a civil war to try to overtake the government
- China invaded by Japan, Japan was defeated
- China went back to civil war, Mao wins
- Chiang Kai Shek and his people flee to Taiwan
- Taiwan is officially part of China, but has special circumstances
- Alien Registration Act of 1940 (Smith Act)
- Made it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the US government
- Required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government
- Approximately 215 people were indicted under the legislation, including alleged communists, Anarchists, and fascists
- Prosecutions under the Smith Act continued until the Supreme Court decision declared the law unconstitutional in 1957
- McCarthy and McCarthyism
- Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957) was a Republican Senator from Wisconsin
- In 1950, he gave a speech where he claimed to have a list of 205 Communists in the State Department (205 people in the government are communists)
- No one in the press actually saw the names on the list, but McCarthy's announcement made national news and caused panic throughout the country
- McCarthy became one of the most powerful people in the US
- Supporters of McCarthy
- 1. Republicans
- 2. Catholics
- 3. Conservative Protestants
- 4. Blue-collar workers
- 5. Joseph Kennedy and his family
- McCarthy's Downfall
- McCarthy's downfall finally began in October 1953, when he started to investigate "communist infiltration into the military"
- This was the final straw for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who realized that McCarthy's movement needed to be stopped
- In late 1954, the Senate voted to censure him for his conduct and to strip him of his privileges
- McCarthy died three years later from alcoholism
- McCarthyism
- The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence
- House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
- 1945-1975
- This organization went after directors and actors in Hollywood
- The committee believed that films were spreading communist propaganda
- They set up hearings to investigate the movie industry
- Hollywood Ten
- Ten biggest people who ran the movie industry
- Each man was found guilty and sentenced to spend a year in prison and pay a $1,000 fine
- Charlie Chaplain was blacklisted due to this
- US Test Hydrogen Bomb
- 1952
- 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb
- Set off on Bikini Island in the Marshall Islands
- USSR Launches Sputnik
- 1957
- Russian satellite, first satellite in space
- Yuri Gagarin
- 1961
- Russian
- First person in space
- This and the Sputnik caused the US to panic because the USSR was ahead of us
- Francis Gary Powers Shot Down in USSR
- 1960
- USSR shoots down a US weather plane (or so Eisenhower said)
- Eisenhower Embarrassment
- Khrushchev:
- "I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well...and now just look how many silly things [the Americans]" have said
- Francis Gary Powers was actually a spy for the US and his plane was shot down
- This was an embarrassment for Eisenhower because he was caught in a lie
- Berlin Wall
- 1961
- Why was the wall built?
- People were literally running to West Berlin to escape Communism
- The wall was built to keep people in Eastern Europe
- Brandenberg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie
- The only place to legally go from East to West Berlin
- Had to go through government officials
- Was a long process
Tuesday-
The Cold War (continued)
- Fidel Castro Overthrows Batista
- Overthrew the Cuban government
- Aligned his views with Russia
- Cuba was now in the Cold War
- Bay of Pigs
- An invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro Cubans (Cubans that left Cuba after Castro came to power and were trained by the CIA in Mexico) to try to overthrow Castro and his government
- CIA promised these Cubans that the US would provide air cover and air support
- Eisenhower came up with the idea, but Kennedy carried it out
- The invasion happened, but Kennedy decided to not give them air cover because he didn't want people to know that it was a US invasion
- All the Cubans are captured and killed
- We exchanged things with Cuba in exchange for these Cubans
- It was found out that the US was behind it
- It humiliated Kennedy because it failed miserably
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- October 1962
- Because of the failed invasion, Cuba was afraid we were going to attack them
- The USSR sent Cuba missiles because of this
- The US had pictures of Cuba's missiles
- US started to quarantine/blockade Cuba to prevent Cuba from getting more missiles
- Now the buildup of missiles had stopped, but there were still missiles in Cuba
- We were going to launch airplanes and go after their bomb sites
- The Compromise
- The Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba
- The US would promise never to invade Cuba
- The US would secretly remove our nuclear missiles from Turkey within six months
- Leonid Brezhnev
- Came to power after Khrushchev
- 1964-1982
- Détente
- 1970's
- Nixon Visits China
- Nixon Visits Moscow
- Peace lasted throughout much of the 70's
- Soviets Invade Afghanistan
- 1979
- The groups that fought against the USSR are now Al Qaeda and the Taliban
- The US helped these groups to try to stop the spread of communism
- Ronald Reagan Becomes President
- 1981
- Ran on a very strong anti-communist platform
- Soviets had just invaded Afghanistan
- Yuri Andropov
- USSR Leader
- 1982
- Konstanin Chernenko Takes Over
- 1985
- Mikhail Gorbachev Comes to Power in USSR
- 1985
- Perestroika and Glasnost
- 1985
- Perestroika- restructuring of the Soviet economy and political system
- More democracy
- Free elections
- Glasnost- more openness of the Soviet government and for it's people
- Free speech and press
- Berlin Wall Comes Down
- November 9, 1989
- People flocked to the wall, climbing on it, and breaking it
- Communism is Eastern Europe started to break apart
- Boris Yeltsin
- President of Russia
- 1991-1999
- Why did the US win the Cold War? Why did the USSR lose the Cold War?
- 1. We had close ties with out Allies and the USSR didn't
- 2. 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 (food, housing)
- 4. The strong anti-communist presidency of Reagan
- 5. Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform
- glasnost and perestroika
- admitted Soviet mistakes
- took blame for the Cold War
- communist system had failed
- allowed Eastern Europe to do what they wanted
- 6. Arms Reduction Talks
- SALT, INF, Reagan-Gorbachev meetings
- 7. Soviet Mistakes
- invasion of Afghanistan
- ignoring social concerns
- spent everything on military
Wednesday-
The Cold War (continued)
- Post-Cold War
- In the 1990's, the world seemed to be a much more peaceful place
- We didn't have any major threat to worry about
- President Clinton closed down numerous military bases around the country, reducing the size of the US military
- 9/11 caught the US off guard
- 1999
- Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary join NATO
- Putin
- New leader in Russia
- 1999-2008
- 2012-?
- Russia v. Ukraine
- 2014-2015
- Ukraine wanted to join the European Union but leader did not want to as he was Pro-Russia
- Ukrainian leader is forced out
- Russia moves troops in the Crimean Peninsula and annexes it after Crimean voters vote to approve annexation
- The United Nations declares this act by Russia as illegal
- Russia invades Ukraine to protect pro-Russians in Ukraine
- Cease-fire (Minsk 2) was signed in February, 2015
Thursday- Cold War Quiz
Friday- workday on decades project
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