United States vs. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A political, strategic and ideological struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945-1990. Spread throughout the world-Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Bolshevik Revolution - Overthrowing the government in Russia and adding other countries.
Lenin - Leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. He wanted to dissolve the government and give it to the people. Lenin died before he was able to give them the power.
Stalin - Takes it in a different direction. He rules by fear, kills people he doesn't trust. There are purges where he kills military leaders. Collectivization is taking over farms. Nationalization is taking over businesses. Five year plans are setting goals in order to increase output so the economy would be better. Took fifteen years to achieve their first five year plan.
Causes of the Cold War - Different political systems. United States based on democracy. capitalism, and freedom. USSR is based on dictatorship, communism, and control. The Red Scare-1919. Both countries thought their system was better and distrusted the others intentions. Stalin despised capitalism. Distrust during WWII. Stalin breaking his promise to allow free elections at the Yalta Conference. Americans fear a communist attack (Red Scare) and USSR's fear of a US attack. USSR's fear of the atomic bomb. USSR's actions in there German zone. USSR's goal to spread communism around the world.
Post WWII/Cold War Goals for US - Wanted to promote open markets for our goods to prevent another depression. Promote democracy throughout the world. Policy of containment (stop communism).
Post WWII/Cold War Goals for USSR - Wanted to create greater security for itself (lost tens of millions of people in WWII in Stalin's purges, feared a strong Germany). Establish strong defensive borders. Encourage friendly governments on its borders. Spread communism.
"Iron Curtain" - A speech given by Winston Churchill. He said that an iron curtain has ascended on the continent of Europe. Communist Europe and democratic Europe.
Domino Effect - If one country goes to communism, other countries will too.
Policy of Containment - Contain communism
Truman Doctrine - two years after WWII is over, the British were helping the Greek government fight against communist guerrillas. They appealed to America for aid and we responded with the Truman Doctrine. Greece received large amount of supplies.
Marshall plan - Giving money to Europe to help them after WWII. Helping Europe to recover economically would provide markets for American goods, benefiting our businesses. A prosperous Europe would be better able to resist the spread of communism.
Brinkmanship - 1950's and 1960's. Nikita Khrushchev. It was a foreign policy where we would go to the brink of war so they would give in. Talk tough and act tough.
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty organization. It is the United States alliance with western Europe. NATO was a defensive alliance.
Warsaw Pact (1955-1991) - Soviet Union and eastern Europe is a defensive alliance.
CIA vs KGB - Central Intelligence Agency - 1947-present. Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti - committee for State Security - 1954-1991.
Stalin died in 1953.
Nikita Khrushchev - 1953-1964. He started talking about peaceful Co-existence-After 1953. De-Stalinization where he undid all of the terrible things that Stalin did. Stopped killing people and took down some of the statues.
Detente - Easing of tensions during the 1970s
Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power in 1985.
Perestroika and Glasnost - 1985 - Reconstructing of the Soviet economy and political system (more democracy, free elections). Free speech and press.
Nuclear Weapons - USSR's first nuclear test in 1949.
Nuclear Power Treaties - Nuclear test ban treaty - John F. Kennedy signed a ban on above ground nuclear bomb tests. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 prevented countries that already did not have nuclear weapons to make them but it allowed them to use nuclear energy. SALT I treaty in 1972 reducing the amount of nuclear weapons.
Ballistic Missile Defense System - Program is designed to counter any nuclear missile attack on the US or allies.
United Nations - 1945. Worldwide peace keeping organization.
The first Berlin Crisis - Berlin Blockade/Airlift (June 1948 - May 1949) - Berlin the capital of Germany was split into four sections. Stalin does not like the fact that he does not have the entire city. He blockaded the city. We dropped supplies by airplane.
The second Red Scare - It was in 1947 to 1957. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial. The Iron curtain, the USSR testing their nuclear bomb, China becoming communist, the Korean War started in 1950 - Domino effect, Stalin's actions in Germany.
Chiang Kai Shek vs. Mao Zadong - They fought in a civil war. They both fight against the Japanese attack. Mao Zadong won.
Alien Registration Act of 1940 - Made it illegal to overthrow the US government.
Senator Joe McCarthy - He claimed he had a list of people who were communist in the US government. He was given power to find them. It started accusations of a lot of people. In 1954 he was censored by the Senate.
USSR Launched Sputnik in 1957 which was before we had gotten anything into space.
Yuri Gagarin - First person in space from the Soviet Union in 1961.
Francis Gary Powers Shot Down in USSR in 1960. Eisenhower lied and said it was a weather plane.
Berlin Wall - Soviet Union built a concrete barrier between West Berlin and East Berlin. They did this because people were leaving East Berlin to go to West Berlin.
Fidel Castro Overthrows Batista - In 1959 in Cuba he aligns with the Soviet Union.
Bay of Pigs - A water invasion of southern Cuba. The CIA trained Cubans that did not like Castro to eventually launch an attack to take back Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the United States to be known for the attack. Kennedy promised air support. The invasion was not successful and fails miserably. Castro knew about the attack, and none of the other Cubans helped them.
Cuban Missile Crisis - In October of 1962, the United States finds out that the Soviet Union gave Cuba missiles. There were missiles that could reach almost our entire country. Hours before we were going to bomb the launch sites and invade, there was a deal struck. Bobby Kennedy made a deal with the Soviets that they would remove their missiles from Cuba. The United States would promise never to invade Cuba. The United States would secretly remove our missiles from Turkey in six months.
Leonid Brezhnev took over for Khrushchev. 1964-1982.
Nixon Visited China for the first time and opened relations with China and we recognized communist China. Nixon visited Moscow as well.
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan in 1979.
Ronald Reagan becomes president in 1981.
Berlin wall comes down in November 9, 1989.
Boris Yeltsin becomes the president of Russia from 1991-1999.
Why did we win? - We had close ties with our Allies and the USSR did not. China started siding with us after 1972. The Soviet economy was in shambles whereas the United States was flourishing. The strong anti-communist presidency of Reagan. Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform (glasnost and perestroika, admitted Soviet mistakes, took blame for the cold war, communist system failed, allowed Eastern Europe to do what they wanted). Arms reduction talks. Soviets invaded Afghanistan, ignored social concerns, spent everything on military.
1990s were peaceful, did not have any major threat to worry about. 9/11 caught us off guard.
Korean War - If South Korea went to communism then others would follow. 1950-1953. Japan controlled Korea from 1910 to 1945. After WWII, Korea was split into two at the 38th parallel. An election was going to be held to unify Korea. The Soviet Union did not want to take part in the election because they felt it would be rigged. Kim Il-Sung. North Korea invaded and took most of the country. The United Nations came in and took almost all of Korea over. China then attacked and basically got it back to the way it was before they attacked. Two million total deaths.
MacArthur was fired by Truman.
North Korea struggles in everything and South Korea is flourishing.
Vietnam War - Vietnam was in French Indochina. Vietnam was split into North and South. There was supposed to be an election but it did not happen. First we sent military advisers and then we sent special forces. We sent defensive troops over. In 1964 we sent regular troops that would be used for offensive combat. We kept sending more troops.
The Tet Offensive in 1968 - Tet is a day of relaxation for the Vietnamese people. They launched a massive offensive and caught us by surprise. The Pentagon Papers were leaked to the press and the government was not telling the truth about the war. The power of the press. My Lai Massacre is where United States soldiers killed 504 civilian women and children.
Vietnamization - We pulled out of the war in 1973. The next year the north invades the south and takes it over.
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