-
-Truman went to Congress and asked for $400 million to aide Greece's and Turkey's governments from not being overthrown by the USSR. Congress accepted and thankfully Greece and Turkey stayed free.
-This lead to the U.S. realizing they had to contain communism at all costs because the USSR will stop at nothing to get another country to adopt communism. -
-10 famous Hollywood members were publicly against the HUAC and the way they investigated suspects. Due to that suspicion, they were jailed and banned from working on Hollywood projects; they were then known as the Hollywood 10.
-This shot the credibility of Hollywood and even resulted in declining business. Overall, it took the thunder out of Hollywood until this practice was discontinued in the 60's and the Hollywood 10 were released. -
-The U.S. wanted to invest into non-communist countries so they could prosper after a war-ravaged Europe. As well as show to the Iron Curtain that unlike them, they were getting much more support as compared to the USSR's aid.
-Besides helping non-communist European countries blossom, it also helped increase trade and friendliness in Europe itself. The side effects of this could be seen with the formation of European agreements than eventually evolved into the European Union. -
-The USSR wanted to control all of Berlin, so they closed off West Berlin to the outside, including supplies. Due to this, the Allied Powers had to send in shipments by massive amounts of flights coming and going to West Germany. By 1949, the USSR gave up and freed West Germany because their blockade failed.
-This is significant because it showed how mean the Soviet Union is and what they will do to get what they want. As well as how the Allies can persevere through the USSR's foul play. -
-Wanting to have Europe stay together and block out communism, the US and many West European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty bringing them into the NATO. They stayed together throughout the war and even to the present.
-This brought together Europe militarily and made sure no more European countries would be turned to communism. It also inspired the USSR to the same with the Warsaw Pact and be ready militarily for an attack from the West. -
-Alger Hiss was a successful Johns Hopkins and Harvard graduate and worked in the U.S. government. He was so far up that he even worked on the first New Deal. He was later convicted and tried (twice) of being a Soviet spy, which he was.
-This made the public weary about Soviets infiltrating the government and had everyone doubting each other. This even got into the the head of high government officials saying that communists had gotten into the highest raking posts of the government. -
-After WWII Korea was split into the communist North and the capitalist South. Once a capitalist reunification had failed, war started and Truman offered to help, but without consulting congress. By the time the war ended, the borders were almost the same as when it started.
-Like as said before, the war barely changed the borders and the likelihood of unification; which still primarily exists today. It did create a large amount casualties from the Koreas and China. -
- After WWII, cities began to overflow with people and cars. People then thought to expand away from the cities, in the suburbs. This was only possible because of how cars were able to connect the cities and the suburbs, even when being so far away. Mostly younger couples moved to these new suburbs, but sadly they were not exempt from segregation. Realtors preferred WWII veterans over African Americans, even when they had the money to live there.
-
-Once WWII production lines had ceased operations, they were moved to more consumer goods; one of those being the car. Cars were popularized by a huge amount with the creation of highways and the accessibility of cars becoming greater. As said before, they were used to bridge the gap between the cities and suburbs with cars being the glue that holds them together. Like TVs, the ownership of a car increased dramatically at the start of the 60's due to the factors stated before.
-
-In the 1950's, country and blues came together to form rock and roll. It had existed far earlier than when it had came on to the cultural zeitgeist, but Elvis was to change all that. He brought rock and roll into the ears of everyone, giving other black singers like Fats Domino, Little Richard Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley the credit and recognition they deserve. This continued until the end of the 50's when many of the greats had either died or stopped playing rock and roll.
-
-At first, TVs weren't seen as anything special, but the more and more people got them throughout the 50's, they had exploded in popularity and use. They were able to broadcast political events like the election, similar to how radio was used when that was popular. They also were able to report on news relatively quickly than reading about it in tomorrow's paper. The biggest thing was the eventual use of them to showcase the horrors of the Vietnam War.
-
-Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were accused of giving nuclear secrets and were given the death penalty because of it. They were some of the only people during the Cold War to actually be executed from being a communist; most were just given long or even life sentences.
-As stated before, this was one of the only times that an alleged communist was sentenced to death. It set a precedent that if there were any spies for the USSR out there, they would be punished and encourage others to out them. -
-A peace treaty after the French trying to take over Vietnam split the country into two separate countries by the 17th parallel. It also called for democratic elections to be held in 2 years. The U.S. didn't sign it because they knew the communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, would win.
-This showed how much the U.S. believed in the domino theory and was willing to do anything to get there. Once everyone chose their sides, the Vietnam War would start and go on for ages. -
-The deciding battle for France's recolonization attempt against Vietnam. The Vietminh were successful in destroying France's airfields and regaining Dien Bien Phu. By then the Geneva Peace Accords were in order and France's presence was gone.
-This conflict gave an end to this recolonization attempt and set the stage for the Geneva Peace Accords and for Ho Chi Minh to gain popularity to make the US to not support Vietnam's elections. Once again, Vietnam would be the epicenter of conflict. -
-When Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal for oil profits, Israel, the UK, and France wanted to take over the Canal for themselves after years of Egypt toying with the canal. Egypt was backed by the USSR and the fighting lasted around a year until the US threatened the Israeli side to stop and they did.
-This was big for the the UK and France because their power was questioned by the US. This also caused future conflicts between Egypt and Israel, including the canal being shut down for 10 years. -
-After the area around the Suez Canal heated up and almost caused WWIII, he asked for increasing cooperation with anti-communist countries near the region. He was hoping this would dissuade countries from turning communist and prevent similar conflicts like this.
-This showed that the U.S. was observant about its surroundings and wanted to prevent communism through pressure rather than conflict. It lead to help being given to Lebanon a year later and provide aid to non-communist countries. -
-In 1957, the USSR launched the first satellite in space, Sputnik. This sparked the Space Race and the creation of NASA a year later. The competition of communism also penetrated space exploration. They competed for the first man in orbit, first man in space, and the crown jewel, the first man on the moon. By 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon and this effectively ended the space race.
-
-In 1959, Castro and Guevara overthrew the nationalist government and aligned with the Soviets. Eisenhower wanted to overthrow him, so he trained Cuban exiles to invade. The problem was that it was launched in 1961, with Kennedy, so he downscaled the invasion, failing within a week.
-This showed Cuba that Kennedy was soft and weak, so they could do whatever they wanted and he would not interfere with his plans. More importantly, it lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost started WWIII. -
-Since so many East Germanites were leaving, the USSR had to build a wall overnight so no more people would leave. The USSR said it was due to undermine the "fascist state of West Germany", when in reality it was from the previous reason stated.
-This further split West and East Germany leading to the death of almost 200 people across its lifespan and even the separation of families. It further showed how far the USSR wanted to prove themselves superior to the West. -
- In 1962, the Soviets sent over ICBMs to Cuba, which the U.S. saw with U2 spy planes. Kennedy, not wanting WWIII, blockaded Cuba which technically was a military action, but he called it a "quarantine". After many tenuous events, they both agreed not to touch Cuba and remove nuclear weapons from allying countries. -It made the world realize that nuclear war could happen even when no one wants it and any action can lead to war. This also created a telephone line that bridges Moscow and DC.
-
-After 2 ships stationed near Vietnam were allegedly fired upon, Johnson used this as the formal declaration into the previous Vietnam conflict to prevent the spread of communism. The legitimacy of the attacks have been questioned over the years, but either way, it swayed the House and Congress to agree with Johnson.
-It's pretty obvious, but this was official declaration into Vietnam and ignited this drawn out conflict. It showed the U.S. was steadfast on preventing the spread of communism. -
-During the holiday of Tet, NV launched attacks on many SV cities, including the US Embassy. They were also hoping to inspire SV to betray the US. After many long battles and casualties, the US and SV stayed together and no betrayal of the US happened.
-This is remarked by many as the turning point of the war for the fact that the US downscaled their involvement in Vietnam. As well as many more people becoming skeptical in the point of this war. Even LBJ didn't want to run for a second term. -
-The Charlie Company was sent to a village called My Lai to destroy a large group of VC soldiers. Upon arriving, the village had no soldiers and only 3 weapons. The Captain didn't care and ordered the over 500 unarmed civilians to be murdered and this was covered up until released by a pilot who had heard of the massacre.
-By the time this happened, Nixon was withdrawing more troops and this further decreased the popularity of the war. It also showed how fractured the military was at this point. -
-Nixon announced US forces would be invading Cambodia, when just 2 years earlier he said he would end the conflict. This sparked more protests against the war and Nixon himself in some cases. At Kent State, Ohio National Guard were deployed and they eventually shot and killed 4 students.
-This further unpopularized the Vietnam war and made protesters worried they would also be shot. Some even believed that this was the beginning of the end of Nixon with his broken promise to end the war. -
-The Pentagon Papers were documents that housed all the information on Vietnam from 1945-1967. Daniel Ellsberg, a worker at the DoD, felt the information on the documents should be seen by the public. He photocopied the documents and gave them to the NYT. They published articles and even won a SCOTUS Case because the US gov thought it violated national intelligence.
-The release of the documents confirmed the suspicions of Vietnam to the public and reaffirmed the press' 1st Amendment right. -
-After many times when a president has declared war without contacting Congress and many drawn out conflicts, Congress wanted to check the president by having certain rules in place to prevent the president from being too much of a war monger and have Congress convene on decisions.
-This has... well... not worked too well because most presidents have either gone around it or the effects of the Act are never triggered. Conflicts like El Salvador or Kosovo are proof this hasn't worked too well. -
-In 1973, the US, NV, the VC, and SV all signed the Paris Peace Accords to end the war and declare a ceasefire. The terms were the US would pull out all forces and both V's would pull out troops from Laos and Cambodia as well as not initiate any forces.
-This obviously ended the war and finally pulled out the US from one of the most bloody and pointless conflicts in US history. They had to admit defeat and just 2 years later, the S would be taken over by the VC and NV. -
-After the US was left in political disarray from the Watergate Scandal, NV thought it would be a good time to take over SV. It took a bit of effort, but after 5 months they had taken over SV and the US did nothing.
-For the first time (or if you want to count NK then 2nd), communism prevailed over democracy. NV was never going to abide by the Accords, so it was only a matter of time for NV to invade again. It also showed where the US drew the line since Congress never agreed to send troops.