Today Amanda went first and her topic is China Becomes Communist. Chiang Kai-Shek was a leader of China, he wasn’t a very good leader though, they struggled with a falling economy. Another leader took over who was communist, Mao Zedong, but the US still considered Chiang Kai as the leader because the other leader was communist. When Japan invaded China, Mao asked the communist party to help defend. After they defeated Japan the communist party took over. Oct 1, 1949. Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong fight each other for the power to be leader. Mao eventually wins and Chiang Kai flees to Taiwan. After China became communist there was a cultural revolution that occurred. Mao Zedong wanted to have everyone work together and everyone be equal, peasants, educated people, and workers. It didn’t work because people couldn’t get along and they thought the other people were wrong and they were right. China and the Soviet Union didn’t get along very well. Mao and Stalin had different philosophies. The Tianamin Square was a protest led by students and intellectuals. Hu Yaobang was a guy who believed in political reform. People wanted their freedom back, they thought that since communism was falling in Europe it would fall in China too. China is still communist today.
Megan finished her presentation next. NATO was set up after WWII, it was designed to stop the spread of communism, Western Europe. De-Stalinization started after Stalin died and Nikita took over. He wanted to get rid of everything that Stalin did. He took down all the statues and monuments that represented Stalin. It ended in 1964 when Nikita wasn’t in power anymore. Nikita was more open to the US, the US liked him because we hated Stalin. Peaceful Co-existence was between the SU and the US, Nikita wanted to be able to live in peace and make peace with the US. He attended meetings in the US to talk about this idea. They didn’t want to go into nuclear war. This was all before the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Ashley went next and her topic was the Story of the Berlin Wall. Nikita had the wall built in 1961 to separate the East and West. The Berlin Wall went all the way around the West side of Berlin. The East side of Berlin was communist and West it was democracy. The wall was 10 to 15 ft high, there were patrols, guard dogs, machine guns, and barbed wire. Reagan wanted Gorbachev to take down the wall, in 1989 they did it and there was a passage between the two sides for the first time in 28 years. East and West Germany reunified and the New Germany was democratic and not communist. 2.6 million people were fleeing from East to West Germany and they couldn’t have that so they built the wall.
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