Russia couldn't do anything about it without starting a war with us, which is not what they wanted, so we made them look like fools. Berlin was split into two parts, East and West Berlin. The West side, controlled by the US and UK and France was like any other free country. People had rights, and they grew with the rest of the world.
On the east side controlled by Russia, people starved, they did not have many rights, and they were reduced to a country of poverty. Over two million people fled over to the west side. The Berlin Wall was built which effectively separated East and West Germany. The soviets shot anyone trying to escape. The wall did not come down until 1989.
d. The Red Scare--McCarthyism and HUAC- The first Red Scare was in the 20’s right after World War 1 when we feared that communism was taking over in America. People panicked and HAUC tactics were used in which people were investigated and pressured into giving names of communists. A lot of time the names were false.
McCarthyism was started by Joe McCarthy. This evil man was a Senator who conducted many witch hunt trials in the government. This meant that he would attack people who opposed him and who he thought were communist. He would accuse them of being communists and would conduct trials that would ruin the career of the victim. He accused people when he had no proper evidence.
e. Fidel Castro, Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis- Bay of pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis- Castro was a total anti American radical who also did not like the regime of Batista, the leader of Cuba. Fidel felt that Batista was a US puppet.
The 26 of July movement was when Castro rallied others into guerilla warfare against the Cuban government. Castro overthrew Batista and became the new leader of Cuba on January 8, 1959 and became the Prime Minister of Cuba on February 16, 1959.
The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt for the CIA to train Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and over throw Fidel Castro. It lasted four days and 176 people were killed. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever got to an all out nuclear war.
The soviets placed missile sites on Cuba because Cuba was so close to the US. This was a major threat the US. We considered attacking Cuba with air strikes followed by an invasion but we weren’t positive that we could destroy all the missiles before they fired them.
We quarantined Cuba. Quarantine is the same thing as a blockade. This stopped more weapons from reaching Cuba. The US and Russia finally made an agreement stating that the US would publicly promise never to invade Cuba and take out missiles out of turkey if the Soviets withdrew from Cuba. This ended the Cuban Missile crisis on Oct. 28. 1962
f. China- (This part was borrowed from Erin because I missed this day) After the Chinese Nationalist leader Sun Yat Sen died in 1925 Chiang Kai Shek became the leader of that party. Chiang started the Northern Expedition. He recruited warlords and armies. Chiang supported the Kuomintang (KMT). Chiang hated what the communists were doing. The Communists were pushed out by Chiang. Mao started his own force and communist society. Chiang arrested and executed hundreds of communists.
After the killing of the communists Mao formed an alliance with Zhu De and Lin Biao and they called it the Red Army. The Chinese Civil War began in April 1927. It was fought between the KMT and the communists. Both sides fought to transform China.
In 1934 Mao and the communists were surrounded and were forced to retreat and it was called the Long March. Many of the people retreated to regroup and attack again. In 1936 the Long March ended. The KMT and the communist party came together to fight in the Second-Sino Japanese War.
Chiang was held prisoner and was really forced to side with Mao. Soviet Volunteers, Germany, and the US helped China. Japan surrendered in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan was reclaimed. It was the largest Asian war. Chiang tried to get rid of the communists after the war, but the communists had massive support from the Soviet Union. The communist party defeated Chiang. The KMT government was forced to retreat to Taiwan. The Communist forces increased from 1 million to 4 million.
In 1958-1962 there was the great leap forward and the great famine. This was a campaign by the communists. Everyone in china had to be involved in steel making. Farmers left their crops. Millions of people starved and China became a poor nation. Mao was trying to modernize and industrialize their country like the United States which led to Forty million people starving to death.
In 1966 a cultural revolution was started by Mao. Communist Leaders went all different directions and it caused great chaos. Millions of innocent Chinese were killed or imprisoned. The red guards created chaos in the public.
They went around and beat people for protesting. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to get rid of all of the other communist leaders. He wanted to make sure to get rid of all the people that were betraying him and could betray him. Chaing and Mao vs eachother. Civil war against eachother. Mao wins. Chiang leaves to taiwan and created his own smaller government.
Tiananmen Square Massacre was in 1989 the killing of protestors. The people were protesting against the government and corruption and the conspiracies and the plans in the government and they wanted communism to fall like it did in Europe. After Mao died Xiaoping became the new president.
g. Nuclear Arms Race and Reductions- The Nuclear Arms race was a race between United States of America and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was mad at us because we had developed nuclear weapons during WW2 to fight the Axis. We made the bombs in the Manhattan Project.
The Nuclear Arms Race was a build up of nuclear weapons on both sides during the Cold War. People were afraid of Massive Retaliation. Massive Retaliation is when one side attacks another side and when the other side retaliates, you retaliate immediately with nuclear weapons so that they basically have no chance.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was a treaty between both sides that banned nuclear testing above ground. Both sides began testing nuclear weapons underground. People were getting afraid of the destructive potential that each side had with their nuclear weapons. Each side realized that we needed to improve relations and reduce nuclear weapon stockpiles.
h. How the Cold War Ended- The government in Afghanistan was facing some hard times. The government was in a position to be overthrown by rebels in the country. The government asked for the help of the Soviet Union to fight off the rebels.
The Soviet Union gladly came to Afghanistan, took control of nearly every major city, and they fought a long and exhausting war against the rebels. The Soviet Union was trying to take over the whole country but they could not defeat the rebels. The rebels put up a major fight using guerilla warfare.
The United States aided the rebels and Afghanistan government to throw out the soviets by supplying weapons and other instruments of war. The country of Afghanistan was horribly ravaged from all of the bombing by the Soviets. Millions of civilians were killed. After years of fighting, the Soviet Union could do no more and they were in tremendous debt. They pulled out and soon collapsed.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced Perestroika and Glasnost. This was the Russian way of announcing recovery, restructuring, and reform. This was very draining on the Soviet Union because it gave much more rights to people and the government was losing authority. The US put a lot of pressure on the Soviet Union and before long the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia was left with most all the nuclear weapons.
There was a large amount of conflict and fighting in the country of Yugoslavia. It was eventually broken into the seven present day countries which we know as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Czechoslovakia- Velvet Revolution, peaceful protest by students led to downfall of Communist Czechoslovakia. Czech political parties weren't very prominent in Slovakia and the other way around. People thought this meant they should split, it was done peacefully.
The Baltic States became Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These were the first countries to begin to oppose communism and try to gain independence. This had a reverse domino affect and more countries wanted to leave communism. June 1940 Red Army occupied these countries, rigged elections for only pro-communist politicians so they would win. The Singing Revolution was on Aug 23, 1989 about 2 million people held hands forming a 600 kilometer long chain across the three countries, Baltic Way. Countries regained independence in 1990 and 1991. Soviets recognized it on Sep. 6, 1991.
The Soviets wanted to have a buffer zone between them and the Germans. They always feared that the Germans would get revenge and invade again. Loosing the Baltic States began to make the Soviet Union vulnerable again. Invasion in Afghanistan also lead to their downfall. Commonwealth of Independent States Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It is not a peace keeping organization by itself but it does send people.
Fall of Communism- Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of the USSR between 1985 and 1991. The Soviet Union consisted of Russia and the 14 satellite countries surrounding them. Iron Curtain speech was given by Churchill talking about communism. Gorbachev- Final Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991. His main goal was to bring the Soviet Union back to power since the economy was falling apart.
He tried many ways to reform the Soviet Union with policies like Glasnost. Soviet Arms Race- Soviet Union was stockpiling weapons in case a war with the US broke out. Since the Soviet Union was socialist, the government chose what was created. The Soviet Union focused money into creating weapons and only made enough regular goods for people to just get by. Years of Soviet military buildup caused problems domestically.
The USSR lost the arms race to the Americans. They had not advanced in many areas other than weapons. War never broke out between the US and the USSR because both sides had nuclear weapons. Both sides used the nuclear weapons as a defensive strategy. Glasnost- gave more freedom of speech to citizens.
Caused many repressed beliefs about the Soviet Unions government to become more widespread. There were many public rallies and meetings. Berlin Wall- Separated East and West Germany from each other. Represented the separation between democracy and communism. Boris Yeltsin- the first president of Russia on June 12, 1991. He tried turning the socialist command economy to a free market economy. This was not popular
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