Friday 5-21-10

[4Nathan]

Zack Harris is starting to present on the Berlin War Coming Up and Coming Down. The Berlin Wall was completely down in 1961. It used to have barbed wire up but people could easily go through those so the decided to build a permanent barrier. The Berlin Wall seperated East and West Berlin. It included guard towers along a concrete wall which circumcised a large open area. This was later referred to as the death strip. There were also anti-vehicle trenches, fakier beds,and many other defenses. The fakir bedss are basically a bed of nails that were positioned on both sides of the death strip. Before the wall came up 3.5 million eeast Germans crossed to West Berlin. From 1961 to 1989 almost all immigration was stopped. In 1989, things began to change in Eastern Germany. On November 9, 1989 the government said that immigration would be allowed to Western Germany. The final piece of the wall was officially removed on October 3, 1990.

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Tara is presenting on Nixon's visit to China. After World War II, the United States and Soviet Union's relationship started to deteriorate. The Soviet Union went after countries on the edge of communism like China. America felt that communism would be the downfall of schools and labor unions. Nixon was the first president to visit China. He arriced in China on February 21, 1972. He met with Mao Zedong. He visited Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. At the end of the trip the US and China issued the Shanghai Communique. It was a statement of foreign policy views. The United States agreed to pull all of its forces out of Taiwan. The biggest things that came out of this trip was that we finally recognized Communist China. The trip was televised for all eight days that Nixon was in China. Max Frankel received a Pulitzer Prize for covering the trip for the New York Times.

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Ashley is presenting on the 1970's peace attempts. Detente was a period of relaxation. It is a French word meaning the release of tensions. It was hoped that detent would build new relationships between the US, Soviet Union, and China. China wanted to go into detente because they were scared of what the US did during Vietnam. They also did not have as many weapons that the US had. The Soviet Union wanted to go into detente because they were spending money on weapons instead of household goods, which made there living conditions poor. They were also aware of their decreasing relationship with China. The United States wanted to go into detente because they realized that there were better ways to contain communism. They were also aware of how much in cost to make weapons. The United States also thought that a peaceful a relationship with the Soviet Union would be beneficial. Salt I was from 1969 to 1972. It stopped the number of ballistic missile launchers that already existed. The United States and Soviet Union trying to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Salt 2 began in late 1972 was a more long term agreement for reducing nuclear weapons. It took things farther than Salt 1. This treaty never passed because we didn't want to sign it after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.