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Period: to
Post War Foreign Era
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Arms Race
August 6, 1945-July, 1945
The Arms Race was involved with both the MAD and the SALT. The MAD being the Mutually Assured Destruction and the SALT being the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty which were a series of treaties where the US and USSR agreed to begin limiting the number of nuclear weapons their country held. -
Truman Doctrine
A doctrine, first used in Greece and Turkey, which vowed to provide aid to support and to contain the spread of communism. $400 million had been given in aid to Greece and Turkey. It was also the first open acknowledgement of the cold war. -
Marshall Plan
On June 1947, Secretary of State George Marshal proposed a U.S. program of massive aid to rescue Europe from hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Over the next 4 years 16 European countries received $13 billion in U.S. aid. -
Creation of NATO
Defensive alliance founded by ten western European nations, the U.S., and Canada to deter Soviet expansion in Europe as a result of the Berlin blockade increasing Western Europe’s fear of Soviet aggression. This was the 1st time peacetime military alliance which maintained more than 500,000 troops. -
Korean War
Japan had taken over Korea and ruled it out for 35 years until August 1945. When WWII had ended and Japan had surrendered to the Soviets (North of the 38th parallel) and to America (South of the 38th parallel) Korea developed into 2 different nations; North Korea became communists and South Korea became democratic. An attack against South Korea from North Korea occurred on June 25, 1950, and with only 500 U.S. troops in South Korea Americans sent troops, planes, and ships over. -
Vietnam War
November 1, 1954- April 30,1975
Fought between North Vietnam (supported by the USSR, CHINA, and North Korea) and South Vietnam (supported by the U.S. and allies: Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and Philippines). After France and the Viet Minh signed the Geneva Peace Accord, the VM became gov of North Vietnam while South Vietnam fell under the leadership of Bao Dai. -
Space Race
A race between the U.S. and the USSR to see who could land a man on the moon and bring him home safely. Neither parties were confident they would succeed so they made the agreement not to allow weapons on the moon. -
Launching of Sputnik
The first artificial satellite to orbit the earth was the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1. This led to the space race between the U.S. and USSR as well as increased spending in education. -
Bay of Pigs Invasions
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro by Cuban peasants which led to massive Cuban migration in Florida. Starting on March 1960, Eisenhower gave the CIA permission to secretly train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. JFK approved the mission nine days into his presidency which turned out to be a disaster in April, 1961, due to 1,200 Cuban exiles which were met by 25,000 Cuban troops backed up by Soviet tanks and were soundly defeated. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Castro had a powerful ally in Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev, who had promised to defend Cuba with Soviet weapons. The flow of Soviet weapons, during the summer of 1962, increased greatly. This includes nuclear weapons.
