The Berlin Crisis
- Berlin was entirely in the Soviet sector
- Three western controlled zones of Germany were united and grew in prosperity due to Marshal Aid(US, France, UK)
- The west wanted the east to rejoin, but Stalin feared it would hurt Soviet security
- In June 1948 Stalin decided to try to gain control of West Berlin which was deep inside the eastern sector
- He cut road, rail and canal links with West Berlin, hoping to starve it into submission.The west responded by airlifting in the necessary supplies to allow west Berlin to survive
- In may 1949 Russia admitted defeat and lifted the blockade
The Red Scare
- Many feared that communism was going to spread and take over the US
- McCarthy started accusing people of being communist
- McCarthy gave a speech where he claimed to have a list of 205 communists in the State Department
- nobody saw the list, but it caused panic throughout the country
- McCarthy became one of the most powerful people in the US
- in 1954 the Senate voted to censure him for his conduct and to strip him of his privileges
- McCarthy died 3 years later from alcoholism
Bay of Pigs
- Fidel Castro came into power in 1959
- US wanted to prevent Cuba from becoming communists
- plan was drafted under Eisenhower
- Kennedy wanted to make sure he was anti-communist
- he didn't want a communist country this close to the US
- US trained Cubans against communism to fight the communists
- US wanted to make it look like Cuba was in a civil war
- It failed miserably, Cuba then asks Russia to bring in Nuclear Missiles because they were scared of a US invasion
- was a huge embarrassment for Kennedy and administration
Berlin Wall
- 1961 the Soviets built the wall.
- They didn't want to because they didn't want people to turn away from Communism
- It was built to keep people on the Soviet side (East Berlin).
- There was a piece of land in between the two areas and there were gunman to shoot people that tried to escape.
- Fell in 1989.
- Checkpoint Charlie was the place you had to go through if you had to travel between the two sides.
Korean Conflict:The Forgotten War (Korean War)
- Origins of the situation
- 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 line
- An election was going to 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
- Results/Outcomes
- 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
- Vietnam War 1950-1975
- Beginnnings
- US wanted to stop the spread of communism
- the North Vietnamese wanted to be independent
- The French Connection
- France had gained control of Indochina in a series of colonial wars beginning in the 1840's and lasting until the 1880's
- During WWII, Vichy France had collaborated with the occupying Imperial Japanese forces
- 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 their former colony against the Biet Minh independence movement, led by Communist Party leader Ho Chi Minh
- After the Viet Minh defeated the French colonial army at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the French withdrew, and the colony was granted independence
- Geneva Conference 1954
- Vietnam was partitioned temporarily into a Northern and a southern zone of Vietnam at the 17th parallel
- The North was to 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
- The Geneva Conference set up elections to unify the country by July 1956
- Such elections were never held because neither side wanted to lose
- fought by US Armed forces, ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam), NLF (a group of South Vietnamese guerrilla fighters[Vietcong]), PAVN (The people's Army of Viet Nam, The North Vietnamese army)
- US Involvement (Escalation)
- in 1950's we sent a military aid to the French to fight the communists
- In early 1960's sent military advisers to advise South Vietnamese government to make sure they were strong enough to hold off the communists
- sent special forces for commando-style operations
- sent small amounts of combat troops for defensive reasons
- sent combat troops for offense
- Gulf of Tonkin
- Gulf near Viet Nam
- supposedly a couple US ships were attacked by North Vietnamese torpedoes
- Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving President Johnson the power to wage war in Viet Nam
- Tet Offensive
- 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
- Unpopular war
- Media
- Pentagon papers-mislead people how the war was going
- documents were leaked and New York Times published them
- Operation Rolling Thunder
- operation rolling thunder was the code name for the non-stop bombing raids in North Vietnam conducted by the US armed forces
- Its purpose was to destroy the will of the North Vietnamese to fight, to destroy industrial bases and air defenses and to stop the flow of mend supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
- Was not successful in destroying the will of the North
- we didn't invade for fear of a WW3
- Unpopular War
- Why were so many people against the war?
- Tet Offensive
- Pentagon Papers (confirmed that the government was lying to the people)
- Injuring/Killing innocent people (My Lai Massacre)
- Supporting a bad government in South
- The power of the press
- Kent St.
- Student protest about Nixon expanding the war into 2 other countries
- building burned by students
- National Guard trapped
- Students threw rocks at them
- Guard killed many students
- 11th worst school massacre
- My Lai Massacre March 1968
- US soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese civilians
- The dead civilians included fifty age 3 or younger, 69 between 4 and 7, and 27 in their 70's or 80's
- Women were raped and bodies mutilated
- Why were so many people against the war?
- How did people get out of serving?
- Went to Canada or Sweden
- Went to college (Student deferment)
- Got married
- Medically unfit for service(failed physical test)
- Joined the National Guard or Peace Corps
- Claimed to be homosexual
- Being rich
- De-escalation and "Peace with Honor"
- Nixon and Vietnam
- Nixon called for the "vietnamization" of the war
- "Peace with Honor"
- End war with heads held high
- 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. State)
- 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
- fighting stopped
- US would pull out of Vietnam
- North and South Vietnam would recognize each other's independence
- 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 Ming City in honor of the former president of North Vietnam
- Vietnam is still communist today
- Vietnam Deaths
- US: 58,202
- ARVN: 223,748
- NVA/VC: 1,100,000
- Nixon and Vietnam
- Why did we win the Cold war?
- We had close ties with our 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 (food, housing)
- The strong anti-communist presidency of Reagan
- Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform
- glasnost and perestroika
- more capitalism, more democracy
- admitted Soviet mistakes
- took blame for the Cold War
- communist system had failed
- Allowed Eastern Europe to do what they wanted
- New countries formed
- Slovenia
- Kroasia
- Baznia
- Serbia
- Montenegro
- Kosnio
- Arms Reduction Talks
- SALT, INF, Reagan-Gorbachev meetings
- glasnost and perestroika
- Soviet Mistakes
- Invasion of Afghanistan
- ignoring social concerns
- spend everything on military
- End of the Cold war
- In the 1990's, the world seemed to be a much more peaceful place
- President Clinton closed down numerous military bases around the country reducing the size of the US military
- 9-11 caught the US off guard
- Beginnnings
Assigned new project:
Post WWII President Partner Project.
Our President is...Richard Nixon
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