Assigned Blog for this week: Eisenhower. elections/results, non-cold war accomplishments, scandals/assassination attempts/other things. My part- accomplishments other than brown vs. board of edu.
Cold War notes:
The Cold War: 1945-1990 a political, strategic, and ideological struggle between the US and the USSR.
1917- Russia dropped out of WWI and signed a treaty with germany. Bolshevik Revolution (communist)
U.S. had Red Scare where we thought we might become communist. stopped immigration, deported radicals.
Comintern- (communist international)
Communism- practice: gov't ran by one dictator that has all of the power. theory: created by Karl Marx: poor people will rise up and overthrow the gov't and rich people, the gov't will go away and create a society where everyone will be equal and share. 5 communist countries- vietnam, n. korea, laos, china, cuba.
Democracy- people lead the gov't. usually elected.
Socialism- gov't controls businesses
Capitalism- people own businesses.
Causes of the cold war- different political systems, both thought their system was better and distrusted the others intentions. Stalin despised capitalism. Stalin broke his promise at the yalta conference: eastern europe became communist, we feared they would attack us, they feared we would attack them, USSR feared the atomic bomb. big problems in germany. USSR wanted communism to spread around the world. lack of communication and a lot of distrust.
Stalin lied to us at the Yalta conference, the country didn't have free election.
US Goals: wanted to promote open markets for US goods to prevent another depression, promote democracy throughout the world, stop the spread of communism.
USSR Goals: wanted to secure their borders and make sure they were safe. feared a strong germany. encouraged friendly gov'ts on their borders. Spread communism around the world.
Key terms:
Iron Curtain Speech- 1946. speech given by Churchill after he was not re-elected. said there was an "iron curtain" descending across europe. marks the beginning of the cold war.
Domino theory- 1950s-80s. US Gov't. if one region went under communism then other countries would follow. like a domino effect.
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