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In 1985, the USSR began to change its policies. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and brought some changes:
-Disarmament treaty was signed so the USA and the USSR agreed to remove medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe within 3 years.
-Gorbachev announced the immediate reduction of the weapons stockpile and the number of troops in the soviet armed forces.
The Cold War was ending -
In 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected president of the USA and the period of détente ended. The USA developed nuclear missiles which could be launched from almost anywhere. They also developed the Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars) for using laser weapons to shoot down soviet missiles from space.
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In South Vietnam there was a group called the Vietcong. President Johnson was determined to keep south Vietnam communist free.He began a bombing campaign of North Vietnam. The offensive resulted in the loss of thousands of American lives. President Nixon wanted to finish the war quickly. American troops were gradually withdrawn from Vietnam. Instead the US started training the South Vietnamese to fight the Vietcong. Saigon had been captured by the Vietcong. The Americans were defeated
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In 1972, the USSR and the USA agreed to limit their nuclear weapons and they signed the strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement. They planned more arms limitation but the USA
refused to sign the SALT 2 agreement after the soviet invasion of Afghanistan. -
He stopped all Khrushchev’s reforms. His external policy switched from coexistence to tension with the USA
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In 1961,President Kennedy authorized an invasion of Cuba by rebels trained by the CIA, but they were defeated. After this invasion Castro put Soviet missiles were shipped to Cuba which could be used to attack US cities. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba. All soviet ships would be stopped and earched to prevent further missiles being transported to Cuba. On the last minute Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba only if the US promised not to place missiles in Turkey
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The Democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the president in 1961 and tensions with the eastern bloc were reduced.
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It constituted the creation of the European Economic
Community (EEC) or Common Market. Its main objectives were the free movement of people, goods, services, and capitals by suppressing the customs duties among the member countries. It was signed by West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. -
He began a process of De-Stalinization to fight the abuse of power of cult of personality of the previous leader. Khrushchev allowed some level of freedom and speech. The relations with the capitalist bloc enhanced a lot in this period. However there were some critical moments due to Cuba or Berlin.
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The "military tie" led to the opening of negotiations that would conclude in July 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, with the Armistice in Panmunjong. In it was agreed a new line of demarcation that meanders around the 38th parallel.
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It involved the creation of the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC) It was signed by France, Western Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It created a free-trade area for coal and steel in the signing countries. -
The multinational troops of the UN, in practice the American army under General MacArthur, quickly recovered the lost ground and on October 19 took Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. But North Korea, in 1951 conquered Seul.
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A blacklist was drafted with all those likely communist sympathizers within the USA. It is the so-called McCarthyism or Witch-Hunt.
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Japan was defeated and Korea was divided into North and South Korea. On June 25, 1950, Kim Il-sung's troops crossed the 38th parallel and advanced south, devastating South Korean forces, who were only able to retreat around a Pusan.
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In 1949 two new states were formed: the German Federal Republic
(West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic. The frontier between Eastern and Western Europe had been drawn in Berlin. -
In 1949, the Western Powers formed NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) against the communist threat. The Eastern Bloc formed the Warsaw Pact (1955).
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It was an agreement that was signed by Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg in order to remove customs and to promote free movement of capital, goods, and workers.
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The Western allies (the USA, Britain and France) ag
reed to a single government in their zones.
The Soviet Union was opposed to these moves. Stalin
wanted to keep Germany as weak as possible so he decided to blockade Berlin
