Week of May 2-6

Monday-

Cold War Stories Continued
- The Second Red Scare-1947-57
  - Causes:
    - 1. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Trial
      - Found guilt of spying for the Soviets-executed in 1953
- East Germany and West Germany-
- Chiang Kai Shek vs. Mao Zedong
  - Mao Zedong won
- Alien Registration Act of 1940(Smith Act)
  - made it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Government
  - Required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government
  - approximately 215 people were indicted under the legislation including alleged communists, anarchists, fascists
  - Prosecutions under the Smith Act continued until the Supreme Court decision declared law unconstitutional in 1957
- Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy-McCarthyism
  - Joseph McCarthy(1908-1957) was a republican senator from Wisconsin
  - In 1950 he gave a speech where he claimed to have a list of 205 communists in our country
- McCarthy's Downfall
  - McCarthy's downfall finally began in October 1953, when he started to investigate "communist infiltration into the military"
  - This was the final straw for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who realized that McCarthy's movement needed to be stopped
  - In late 1954, the Senate voted to censure him for his conduct and to strip him of his privileges
  - McCarthy died three years later from alcoholism
- McCarthyism
  - The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence
- House Un-American Activities Committee-HUAC-1945-1975
  - This organization went after directors and actors in Hollywood
  - The committee believed that films were spreading communist propaganda
  - They set up hearings to investigate the movie industry
  - Hollywood Ten
    - Each man was found guilty and sentenced to spend a year in prison and pay a $1,000 fine
  - Blacklisted Directors/Actors/Actresses
    - Charlie Chaplin
- US Test Hydrogen Bomb-1952
- USSR Launches Sputnik-1957
- Yuri Gagarin-1961
  - from the Soviet Union
  - Caused U.S. to panic
  - JFK's moonshot speech
  - First man in space
- Francis Gary Powers Shot Down in USSR-1960
- Eisenhower Embarrassment
- Berlin Wall-1961
  - Checkpoint Charlie
- Fidel Castro Overthrows Batista
  - Leader of Cuba
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
  - Government was concerned to have a soviet allie close to us
  - Wanted to take out Castro but Kennedy didn't want it to look like the US did it
  - Trained Cubans that didn't like Castro
  - Promised Cubans air support
  - All the trained ones were killed or captured
  - Traded baby food to get the captured one back
  - Embarrassment for President Kennedy
  - Didn't give air support
  - Didn't take down Castro
- Cuban Missile Crisis-October 1962
  - 13 day crisis
  - Closest we ever came to nuclear war
- The Compromise
  - The Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba
  - The US would promise to never invade Cuba
  - The US would secretly remove our nuclear missiles from Turkey within six months
- Leonid Brezhnev-1964-1982
  - Took office after Khrushchev
- Detente-1970's
  - relaxations of tensions
- Nixon visits China
- Nixon visits Moscow
- Soviets invade Afghanistan-1979
- Ronald Reagan becomes President
  - Ran on a very strong anti-communist platform
  - Soviets had just invaded Afghanistan
- Yuri Andropov-USSR Leader-1982
  - died within the same year
- Konstantin Chernenko Takes Over-1985
- Mikhail Gorbachev Comes to Power in USSR-1985
- Boris Yeltsin-President of Russia-1991-1999
- Why did the US win the Cold War?
  - 1. We had close ties with our allies and the USSR didn't
  - 2. China started siding with us after 1972
  - 3. The Soviet economy was in shambles whereas the US's was flourishing
    - Huge deficit
    - High inflation
    - Corruption
    - Social Problems
    - Shortage of basic needs(food, housing)
  - 4. The strong anti-communist presidency of Reagan
  - 5. Gorbachev's willingness for change and reform
    - Glasnost and Perestroika
    - Admitted Soviet mistakes
    - took blame for the Cold War
    - communist system had failed
    - allowed Eastern Europe to do what they wanted
  - 6. Arms Reduction Talks
    - SALT, INF, Reagan-Gorbachev meetings
  - 7. Soviet mistakes
    - invasion of Afghanistan
    - ignoring social concerns
    - spent everything on military
- Post Cold War
  - In the 1990's, the world seemed to be a much more peaceful place
  - We didn't have any major threat to worry about
  - President Clinton closed down numerous military bases around the country reducing the size of the US military
  - 9-11 caught the US off guard
- Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary Join NATO-1999
- Putin New Leader in Russia-1999-2008 and 2012-??

Blogs

Week of May 2-6

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