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NATO
The NATO is a military alliance between several North Atlantic states like the United States, Canada, and ten other countries. Members pledged to help one another if any one of them was attacked. This was to safeguard them from the presumed threat of the Soviet Union's communist. As time went on other regions later joined the alliance. -
Chinese Civil War
In 1949, the communists gained control of one fifth of the world's people. Communist forced Mao Zedong to lead a civil war against Nationalists headed by Jiang Jieshi.These battles went on untilMoa's forces swept to victory and set up the People's Republic of China.The Nationalist that survived fled to the island of Taiwan, off the coast of China. After decades China was finally under Communist control. After their victory communist conquered Tibet in 1950. In 1959, Dalai Lama was forced to -
Chinese Civil War (continued)
leave the country. To help things out Mao did something called collectivization, and he was forced pooling of peaseat land and labor in an attempt to increase productivity. He lead this program from 1958 to 1960 and it was known as the Great Leap Forward. This was a plan to help inprove things, but it ended up being a failure. In 1966 Moa launched the Great Proletarian Culture Revolution. The goal of this was to purge China of "bourgeois" tendencies. -
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Nuclear Arms Race (continued)
In 1972 and 1979 both sides signed an agreement that set these limitations. One agreement was limited anti-ballistic missiles. These were missiles that could shoot down other missiles from hostile countries. They did this limitation to help protect people, and they new if they didn't do this it could provoke a renewed arms race. The other agreement was to freeze existing number of weapons held by each side. In the 1980's President Ronald Reagan launched a program to build a "Star Wars" missile -
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Nuclear Arms Race (continued 2)
defense against nuclear attack. But people said this would violate the ABM treaty. In 1991, the two sides signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. -
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Nuclear Arms Race
Nuclear Arms
In 1949 the Soviet Union had also developed nuclear weapons. In 1953 both sides had developed hydrogen bombs. They wanted to reduce the threat of nuclear war, the to sides met up and evently came up with an agreement. In 1969, the United States and the Soviet Union began Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to limit the number of nuclear weapons held by each side. -
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Communist Cuba
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Eastern European Independence (continued)
started to fall. -
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Korean Conflict (continued)
brought in. In november, the United Nations forces had advanced north to yalu River. In November the Chinese got involved and helped the North Koreans. They forced the united Nations back down to the 38th parallel. The war ended up being a stalemate, and in 1953 both sides signed an armistice, which was an end to fighting. -
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Korean Conflict
Korean conflicts
This was called the "heroic struggle" to reunite Korea. Both leaders wanted to rule the entire country. North Korean troops attacked in June of that year and over powered most of the south. Then the United States helped South Korea out. These troops arrived in early July. They continued to advance but in August the United Nations forced them to stop along the Pusan Perimeter. In September of 1950 more troops were -
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Communist Cuba (continued)
This is the most serious cold War conflict in the Western Hemisphere. In 1950s Fidel Castro organized an armed rebellion against the corrupt dictator who then ruled Cuba. By 1959 Castro had led his guerrilla army to victory and set about transforming the country. This is known as the Cuban Revolution. He made many changes to help make things better. Cuba went to the Communist side. -
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Eastern European Independence
Eastern European IndependenceIn 1988 and 1989, under public pressure the commnist government allowed greater freedom. With this freedom new political parties were allowed to form, and the western border with Austria was opened. This all happened in Hungary. For poland the organized an independent labor union. There were many fallowers on this. For East Germans in 1988, they moved towards a market economy and greater politicial freedom. With all this freedom given to the people it all back fired and the Communist government -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw pact is a mutual-defense alliance between the Soviet Union and seven satellites in Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was often invoked by the Soviets to keep its satellites in order. With the Warsaw Pact it cemented the division of Europe into eastern and western blocs. In the east the Soviet's dominated countries in the Eastern Europe. For these countries they were communist, but in practice and dictatorship they were like the Soviet Union. For the West they were the Western -
Warsaw Pact (continued)
democracies and this was led by the United States. -
Soviet Union Falls
The hope of Soviet power growing didn't come true.There was a lot of visible weaknesses in the Soviet system. When Stalin had his victory brought few rewards to the Soviet people. Stalin continued to fill forced labor camps with "enemies of the state." Under Nikita Khrushchev Soviets were given freedom of speech and government critics were freed from prison and labor camps. This made some shift to how things were done.But he remained committed to a command economy. In 1956 Hungarians wanted to -
Soviet Union Falls (continued)
break free of Soviet control but Khrushchev sent tanks in to enforce obedience and didn't allow them to do this. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a big part of the Cold War. The city of Berlin was split into democratic West Berlin and communist East Berlin. The Wall was built to stop the fleet of east Germans into west Berlin. These people were fleeting from there because they were unhappy with the communism ways. When they were done with the wall it was a massive concrete barrier, it was topped with barded wire, and patrolled by guards. This wall showed that workers were far from enjoying a communist paradise. -
Missile Crisis
On 1962, the Soviet Union sent Nuclear missiles to Cuba. President Kennedy responded to this and placed a naval blockade that prevented further Soviet shipments. Kennedy demanded that the Soviet Union should remove the Nuclear missiles from Cuba. Because of this happening the world faced a risk of nuclear war over this issue. Finally Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviet missiles, and the war was then averted. -
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Vietnam Conflict
Vietnam Conflict
They saw this as a golbal cold war. They developed the domino theory, and this was if a communist had a victory in South Vietnam this would cause noncommunist governments across Southeast Asia to fall to communism. At first the United States only sent supplies over for the war, but later on they sent thousands of troops. In August North Vietnamese attacked a nearby U.S. Navy destroyer. A few days later -
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Vietnam Conflicts (continued)
they thought they were getting attacked again. So President Johnson reported the attack to Congress without saying the doubts about the second attack. Then Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The U.S. began bombing targets in North Vietnam. After that more than 500,000 Americans were committed to war. Now it was all just war. There were many growing caualties. There was a start to many people opposing to war because they wanted an end to lossing lives. Then the U.S. withdraws with -
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Vietnam Conflict (continued 2)
their troops. Then we negotiated with the Paris Peace Accord in January 1973. This was to stop our involvement with the war. Two years after we got out of this war North Vietnam Wins the war, and the conquered South Vietnam. -
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Detente
Detente
SInce the American and Soviet arms control agreements this led to an era of detente. This is also known as the relaxation of tension during the 1970s. The strategy that Americans had was to restrain Soviet Union through diplomatic agreements rather than by military means. This era ended in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. -
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Soviets in Afghanistan
Soviets in Afghanistan
In 1979, the Soviet union became involved in a long war in Afghanistan. A Soviet-supported Afghan government had tried to modernize the nation. Armed men were known as warlords. When the warlords took up arms against the government the Soviet troops moved in.They battled mujahedins and this was very difficult. In the mid-1980s the American government began to -
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Soviets in Afghanistan (continued)
smuggle modern weaponry to the mujahedin. The Soviets had many casualties, high cost, and very little success. The struggle in Afghanistan provoked a crisisin morale for the Soviets at home.
