Post World War Two

Policy by Truman (and Reagan, etc.) to contain communism to soviet union and not allow its westward spread

Manhatten project tests first atomic bomb

Set up CIA, DOD, NSC (National Security Council), and a peacetime draft

Gov saw communist conspiracies behind civil wars in Europe & Asia, led to suspicions of Communists at home

Sent $400 million dollars toTurkey and Greece in military aid to prevent communism from spreading there

Stalin cut off US access to West Berlin
Aerial drops of resources supplied Berliners
Stalin could not shoot the planes down and eventually ended the highway blockade

Designed to extend containment policy on an international level with other nations

Economic aid to prevent Europe communism

US was only country with A-bomb until Soviets developed one
Then the US built an H-bomb and the Soviets followed

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allies (US, British, French, Canadians, etc.) against communists, specifically Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact

Unofficial beginning of the arms race
Came as a surprise to the US
Speed came from spies inside development teams in the US

Republican senator from Wisconsin
Charged 205 state department workers w/being Communist; rode the wave of paranoia and anticommunism to make himself powerful
-bashed democrats and the wealthy with “gloves-off” unsupported accusations to keep the attention on himself and to discredit Truman
-a senate committee finally held televised hearings on Commie infiltration in the army in 1954, and McCarthy was seen as a bully by millions; republicans and democrats censured him
“Three years later, McCarthy died a broken man.”

North Korea and (later) China vs. South Korea and the U. N.
War started b/c US was trying to stop communism from spreading to South Korea
EFFECTS:
In the strategy of the cold war, Truman’s containment policy in Korea worked (stopped communism, no world war)
Provided an excuse to expand the military, create new jet bombers, and placing more troops in overseas bases
Republicans used the war stalemate to hammer the democrats

Americans were convinced spies gave nuclear secrets to Russia
FBI traced a spy ring to Julius and Ethel Rosenburg in New York
Were executed for the crime after a controversial trial

MacArthur was a general in the Korean War (had his good moments and his incredibly stupid ones)
Called for “expanded war” (bombing/invasion of China)
His statements got him in trouble b/c they criticized Truman’s “limited war,” so he was put on trial for insubordination after MA refused to stop complaining
MA came home to public support

Main step towards long range missiles for Russia programs in the Arms race between Russia and America
Basically the first "NASA "

American pilot flew a spy plane across Russia taking pictures of nuclear test sites then got shot down and captured, but was released

Kennedy used C.I.A. agents to train Cuban rebels to stage a coup against Cuba
Failed

Wall that divided up Germany into east and west east
Erected under Communist control by Soviet Russia

Cuba got nuclear weapons from Russia which threatend America and pushed towards nuclear war

War between North and South Vietnam
US got involved in order to support containment policy

Joint resolution that the United States Congress passed in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Gave Johnson the right to employ military force in Southeast Asia

Tension between Russia and America got to boiling point due to actions made by both countries to support their sides of Vietnam

After JFK’s death Nixon and George Wallace campaigned for presidency
Nixon won

Military effort in Vietnam War, North Vietnam attack south Vietnam and America counterattacked

Policy as result because of Tet Offensive

Trained and equipped the South Vietnamese so US troops could leave

continued SALT I
reduced the manufacturing of nuclear weapons between the US and Soviet Union

Paris Peace accords
armistice agreed after several weeks of B-52 bomber attacks, the US withdrew troops and received over 500 POW's
Also promised a cease-fire and free elections, but did not end the war between the two Vietnams

Strategic Defense Initiative
proposed high-tech system of lasers and particle beams to destroy enemy missiles before reaching US territory
Critics stated the program would escalate the arms race and could be overwhelmed by the building of more missiles

Mikhail Gorbachev
openness to end political repression and move to greater political freedom

Mikhail Gorbachev became the new Soviet leader
introduced two new reforms - glasnost and perestroika

Mikhail Gorbachev
restructuring Soviet economy by introducing some free-market practices

Communist governments began falling apart
Began in Poland, 1989 with the election of Lech Walesa
Then Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania fell
Communists were forced out of East Germany after protesters tore down the Berlin wall

prodemocracy students demonstrate in Beijing, China
Communist government crushed the demonstration with tanks under the cover of night, killing hundreds