Nuclear Arms Race
many people feared outcome of civil war depended on quantity of nuclear weapons
we made H-bomb, then russians built H-bomb, fear of sheer power made us both back off, 2500 times more powerful than Hiroshima
B52 bomber, could fly 6,000 with nuclear bomb, we had gov't funding unlike russia
JFK announced program to build nuclear war shelters, pamphlets on how to survive nuclear war
MIssiles, russians had more missiles less quality, we had less missilies better quality
Fidel Castro and the Bay of Pigs
invasion by US of Cuba, kill Castro, overthrow Cuban gov't, failure
Castro came to power by overthrowing Batista gov't, came to power 1959, made oil deal with Russians (made us mad), stepped down from power in 2006
CIA began recruiting troops for a year, recruited anti-Castro Cubans in Miami, Cuba suspected invasion
April 16/17 false invasion, then began to unload troops, not many casualties, unsuccessful
Promised air support to Cuban soldiers
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, US, Canada, Western European allies, defensive alliance set up after WWII
Destalinization and Peaceful Coexistence
Nikita Krushchev comes to power, preaches peaceful coexistence with US
Berlin Wall
post war Germany was split into 4 zones (US, GB, France, SU), Berlin located into Soviet section but was split into 4 zones also, SU didn't agree with reconstruction like the other 3, SU had plans to undermine British zone and figured we'd drop out and they could have it all
berlin airlift, disagreements, stalin blocked off eastern portion, the rest of us dropped supplies into the eastern part, people started leaving the eastern part to go to the west, german border was set up to reduce emigration, construction started august 13, 1961, concrete posts barbed wire, added to wall
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