Week of May 1st - May 5th - Blogs

Monday: Notes

Cold War
- Political, strategic and ideological struggle between the US and the Soviet Union from 1945-1990
Causes
- Different political systems
  - US is based on democracy, capitalism and freedom
  - USSR is based on dictatorship, communism and control
- The Red Scare - 1919
- Both thought their system was better
- Stalin breaking his promise to allow free elections at the Yalta Conference
- Americas fear of communist attack and USSR fear of a US attack
- USSR fear of atomic bomb
- USSR goal to spread communism around the world
Goals for US
- Wanted to promote open markets for US goods to prevent another depression
- Promote democracy throughout the world, especially in Asia and Africa
- Stop the spread of communism
  - Policy of Containment
Goals for USSR
- Wanted to create greater security for itself
- Establish defensible borders
- Encourage friendly governments on its borders
- Spread communism around the world
Truman Doctrine
- US gave military supply to Greece to fight communists
Marshall Plan
- Plan after WWII to give bullion dollars to European countries to rebuild
NATO
- Defensive alliance by western nations
- First peacetime alliance in US History
- America, Canada, Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, etc.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
- 1970
- "Prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapon technology"
- "Promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy"
- "further the foal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament"
Ballistic Missile Defense System,
- Program is designed to counter any nuclear missile attack on the US or allies
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
- Banned all nuclear testing
International Atomic Energy Agency
- Watchdog organization
- Makes sure countries are following rules of nuclear power
INF Treaty
- Eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and nuclear missiles
START Treaties
- Strategic Arms Reduction Treat
  - Largest and most complex arms control treaty in history
  - Resulted in removed of about 80% of nuclear weapons
- Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty
  - Between US and Russia
  - Stockpile of both deployed and reserve nuclear weapons was to be cut in half by 2012
- New START
  - Signed by Obama and Russian President Medvedev
  - Number of strategic nuclear missile launchers will be reduced by half
Berlin Wall
- High security
  - Dogs
  - Patrol
  - Barbed wire
  - Guns
Bay of Pigs
- In Cuba
- Didn't want communist leader close to US
- CIA trained people in Mexico to take out Castro
- Didn't want it to look like US took them down
- Fails
- Kennedy didn't give air support like promised
- Castro found out about it
- Made Kennedy look bad
  - Embarrassment for administration and military
The Compromise
- Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba
- US would promise never to invade Cuba
- US would secretly remove our nuclear missiles from Turkey within six months
Why did we win?
- Had close ties with Allies and USSR didn't
- China started siding with us after 1972
- Soviet economy was bad
  - US was better
    - Huge deficit
    - High inflation
    - Corruption
    - Social problems
    - Shortage of basic needs (food, housing)
- Strong anti-communist presidency of Reagan
- Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform
  - Glasnost and perestroika
  - Admitted Soviet mistakes
  - Took blame for Cold War
  - Communist system failed
  - Allowed Eastern Europe to do what they wanted
- Arms Reduction Talks
  - SALT, INF, etc.
- Soviet Mistakes
  - Invasion of Afghanistan
  - Ignoring social concerns
  - Spent everything on military
Post Cold War
- In 1990's, world seemed peaceful
- No major threats to worry about
- Clinton closed down numerous military bases aroun country
  - Reduced size of US Military
- 9/11
  - Caught US off guard
Korea
Origins
- Korea was invaded and ruled b y Japan from 1910 to 1945
- After WWII, Korea was split into two - North and South
- Election eventually held
- Soviet refused to participate
MacArthur fired
Cease-fire established on July 27th, 1953 near the 38th parallel
Vietnam

Tuesday: Notes

Wednesday: Notes

Thursday: Notes

Friday: Notes

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