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Nuclear Arms Race
In 1945 the United States had Nuclear bombs. Then in 1949 the Soviet Union had then developed Nuclear weapons also. Soon, both of them had developed hydrogen bombs in 1953. Both sides raced to match each others' updated weapons. None of the weapons were used though, because each side knew they'd be destroyed. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a new military alliance where these following countries agreed to help one another if attacked. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy, United States, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and West Germany. -
Chinese Civil War
Mao Zedong won the support of China’s peasant population. In 1950 communists captured Tibet and in 1959 Tibet’s leader Dalai Lama was forced to flee country. Mao created many ‘plans’ to try to increase production but they turned out to be complete failures. From 1959- 1961 around 55 million Chinese people died from starvation. Then in 1960 the Soviets decided to remove all aid from China. In 1966 Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural revolution to purge China of bourgeois -
Korean War
In North Korea, dictator Kim II Sung became a communist ally of the Soviet Union. In South Korea the US backed the dictatorial and a non communist leader was appointed; Syngman Rhee. Both of these leaders wanted to rule the entire country. In June of 1950 North Korea invaded the South, gaining tremendous areas of land. The United States came to help defend the south, but then Chinese troops were sent to defend the north. -
Korean War Continued..
To end the attack, the United Nations stepped in to push North Korea back at the Pusan Perimeter. In 1953 the north and the south Koreas signed an armistice to end all fighting. To this day North Korea and South Korea are split on the 38th parallel line of Latitude. -
Warsaw Pact
This Pact was formed to improve military coordination in Communist countries across Europe. The Soviets dominated the organization. The eight countires included in this pact were; Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. -
Communist Cuba/ Missle Crisis
When Fidel Castro won his victory, he wanted to change Cuba as a country. He put everything under government control, and started importing things (believed to be nuclear bombs) from the Soviet Union. In 1961 president John F. Kennedy ordered an invasion. The 'Bay of pigs' was a failure so US formed a blockade to stop Soviet Boats from getting to Cuba. On October 28, 1962 supremier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missles from Cuba. -
The Berlin Wall
This Wall was built to seperate the democratic East Berlin, and the Communist East Berlin. It was a massive concrete wall topped with barbwire and patrolled by gaurds. -
Vietnam Conflict (2)
Us president Johnson reported this attack to congress, and on August 7, they passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which allowed the president to take all measures to stop further aggression in southeast Asia. The US began bombing North Vietnam, and imported 500,000 American troops. Then the Guerrilla war began. Rebels living in South Vietnam, usually peasants who were against South Vietnam. In 1968 Guerrilla forces came out of hiding to attack American and South Vietnam troops. -
Vietnam Conflict
Many people believed that a communist victory in South Vietnam would cause the non communist government across southeast Asia to fall into communism. Ho Chi Minh was determined to have Vietnam under communist rule. He aided the National Liberation Front- aka the Viet Cong which was communist rebels trying to overthrow the South Vietnam government. On August 1, 1964 South Vietnam invaded North Vietnam's islands in the Gulf of Tonkin, attacking a US navy destroyer- Maddox. -
Vietnam Conflict (3)
It was a very unexpected attack because it occurred on the Vietnamese New Year; Tet. As the war drug on, many US soldiers were either prisoners of war, or missing in action. Due to amount of losses and casualties, the Vietnam war was supported less and less in the US. In the end, president Nixon decided to withdraw US troops and stop American involvement. He then created the Paris Peace Accord in January of 1973 to stop the fighting. 2 years after US withdrew their troops, NV conqured SV -
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Detente
This was the time of relaxation from tension. People thought that since many countries were gaining nuclear weapons, that the world was going into full out war. This 'time of relaxation' was ended in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. -
Soviets in Afghanistan Cont..
He wanted to avoid and confrontations in the Civil War so he signed Arms Control Treaties with the US and removed all of his troops from Afghanistan -
Soviets in Afghanistan
Soviet supported Afghanistan government tried to modernize the nation, many people disliked this, and when warlords took up arms against the government, Soviets then became involved in a war in Afghanistan. Battling Mujahedin (muslim religious warriors) was difficult. By mid 1980s American government was smuggling modernized weapons to these warriors. The Soviets were faced with years of many casualties, high cost, and few successes. In 1985 Milail Gorbacheu came came to power in the SU
