May 20- May 24

[8 Tyann]

Monday - FInished all presentations and Bruns got back into The Cold War

Stalin Dies-1953

Peaceful Co-existence-After 1953

De-Stalinization-After 1953

Détente-1970’s

Mikhail Gorbachev Comes to Power in USSR-1985 (Last Leader of Soviet Union)  

Perestroika and Glasnost-1985 (Thowing people a bone) (Open up the government more) 

• 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

The First Berlin Crisis-Berlin Blockade/Airlift
(June 1948-May 1949)

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

• 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

 

Berlin Wall-1961

Berlin Wall Comes Down Nov. 9, 1989

Tuesdady - Started the Korean War 

The Korean Conflict: The Forgotten War 

Origins

 

• Korea was invaded and ruled by Japan from 1910 until 1945

• After WWII, Korea was split into two-North(USSR) and South(US) at the 38th parallel

• An election was going be held to eventually unify Korea
• The United Nations held an election in 1948.
• The Soviet Union refused to allow participation in the election in their occupied zone.
• Instead, they handed over power to the North Korean Communist Party under Kim IL-Sung.
• The South elected the nationalist exile Syngman Rhee.

 

 

• US government stated in January, 1950 that Korea was “outside of our defense perimeter”. What does this mean?

• This encouraged North Korea to be aggressive.

• South Korean President Syngman Rhee and North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung both wanted to reunite Korea under their own systems.

• Because of the US withdrawal, the North Koreans were the ones able to go on the offensive

 

• The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union were wary of a war in Korea.
• Mao and Stalin were concerned that it would encourage American intervention in Asia after just leaving.
• Kim was able to manipulate both Mao and Stalin into supporting their invasion of South Korea

 

The War Begins

• On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded the South.
• Using Soviet equipment, their surprise attack was very successful.
• Within days South Korean forces retreated.
• Seoul was captured by the North Koreans in early July.
• Eventually the South Korean forces, and the small number of Americans in Korea, were driven into a small area in the South(Pusan Perimeter)
• With the help of US supplies and air support, the South Korean forces managed to stabilize this area.
• Although more UN support arrived it looked as though the North could gain control of the entire peninsula.
• The invasion of South Korea came as a complete surprise to the United States.
• On hearing of the invasion, Truman agreed to use U.S. airstrikes against the North Korean forces.
• General Douglass MacArthur was put in charge of American forces in the Pacific.

 

 

• A demilitarized zone (DMZ) was established around it, which is still defended today by North Korean troops on one side and South Korean and American troops on the other.
• Newly-elected U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower fulfilled a campaign promise by going to Korea to find out what could be done to end the conflict.
• No peace treaty has been signed to date.

 

Results/Outcomes/Casualties

• The Korean War was the first armed confrontation of the Cold War, and it set a model for many later conflicts.
• It created the idea of a limited war, where the two superpowers would/could fight without using nuclear weapons.
• It also expanded the Cold War, which to that point had mostly been concerned with Europe.
• The total number of deaths, including all civilians and military soldiers from UN Nations and China, was about 2,000,000.
• US had 54,000 deaths.

 

The VIetnam Conflict 

The French Connection

• France had gained control of Indochina in a series of colonial wars from the 1840s until the 1880s.
• Vietnam was under Japanese control during WWII, although the Vichy French continued to serve as the official administrators
• After the Japanese surrender, the French fought to retain control of Vietnam against the communist Viet Minh independence movement, led by Ho Chi Minh
• After the Viet Minh defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the French withdrew, and the colony was granted temporary independence

Geneva Conference-1954

• Vietnam was split into a Northern and a Southern zone of Vietnam at the 17th parallel
• The North would be ruled by Ho Chi Minh, while the South would be under the control of Emperor Bao Dai.
• In 1955, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem became President of a new South Vietnamese republic

Geneva Conference

 

• The Geneva Conference (1954) set up elections that would unify the country by July, 1956

• These elections were never held because neither side wanted to lose

 

Who Fought?

• The United States Armed Forces
• The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN—the South Vietnamese Army)
• VS.
• The NLF, a group of South Vietnamese guerilla fighters(Vietcong)

The People's Army of Viet Nam (PAVN—the North Vietnamese Army, pronounced Pahvin)

 

Escalation 1957-1975

• Started with the deployment of military advisors to the South Vietnamese army
• Then started using special forces(Green Berets) for commando-style operations.
• Then regular troops were sent for defensive purposes only
• Finally, in 1964, regular troops were used for offensive combat
• Once U.S. troops were in active combat, escalation shifted to the adding of more and more US troops

The Tet Offensive-1968

• President Johnson and General William Westmoreland kept saying that with more troops we will win the war.
• Most Americans tended to believe this at first.
• The American public's faith was shattered, on January 30, 1968, when the enemy, supposedly on the verge of collapse, mounted the Tet Offensive in which nearly every major city in South Vietnam was attacked.
• Named after the lunar new year festival which is the most important Vietnamese holiday in South Vietnam.  
• Although we crushed the enemy militarily, the surprising huge offensive attack from an enemy that was supposedly almost defeated convinced many Americans that victory was impossible.

Anti-War

• Why were so many people against the war?
1. Tet Offensive
2. Pentagon Papers
3. Injuring/killing innocent people(My Lai Massacre)
4. Supporting a bad government in South
5. The power of the press

My Lai Massacre March 1968

 

• US soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese civilians

• The dead civilians included over one hundred children 7 and under

• Women were raped and bodies mutilated

 

How did people get out of serving?

1. Went to Canada or Sweden
2. Went to college(student deferment)
3. Got married
4. Medically unfit for service
5. Joined the National Guard or Peace Corps
6. Claimed to be homosexual
7. Being rich

Nixon and Vietnam

• Nixon called for the “vietnamization” of the war.
• “Peace with Honor”
• Gradually pull US troops out and train the ARVN to take our place in fighting the North.
• Expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia leading to college protests(Kent St.)
• On January 15, 1973, President Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
• The Paris Peace Accords were later signed on January 27, 1973 which officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

 

Peace???

• The peace agreement did not last.
• In March, 1975, the North invaded the South.
• The South was not strong enough and fell quickly.
• Saigon, the South’s capital fell on April 30, 1975.
• US did not live up to it’s promise to come to their aid if the North attacked.
• North Vietnam united both North and South Vietnam on July 2, 1976 to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
• Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Minh City in honor of the former president of North Vietnam.
• Vietnam is still communist today.

Vietnam Remembered

• Vets were not treated well upon their return to the US.
• The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial(The Wall) was built as a remembrance to those that died in the Vietnam War