Week 3 Cold War Journals

Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union.

MAD - 1960’s

Mutually Assured Destruction is a concept in nuclear warfare. During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union both had enough nuclear weapons to annihilate the other. Because of early detection systems, submarine launched missiles, and automatic computerized missile launches in case of the command structure being taken out, no matter who fired first the other side could fire back, even if the missiles had already hit. Basically, there was no way to "win" a nuclear war. You could kill them, but they would kill you. Because of this, neither side wanted to start a war, because that way they survived. It's one of the big reasons the two never had a nuclear war.

Vietnam War - 1965-1975

The war ended in April 1975 when the North Vietnamese took Saigon and the South Vietnamese government fell. The US part of the war ended with the truce in Jan. 1973. It took about 4 1/2 years to work out a settlement for the US to withdraw. American support personnel and embassy staff was in Vietnam until the very end until the North Vietnamese were taking over. There are dramatic pictures of helicopters getting American workers out and hundreds of South Vietnamese who worked for the Americans trying to scramble onto helicopters before the North Vietnamese got to them.

Détente - 1969-1979

The Cold War went on for a half a century as the two most powerful militaries ever assembled faced each other in Central Europe. Both sides had the capability to deal enough destruction to end life on this planet as we know it. Each side was armed with something like 30,000 nuclear weapons, any one of which was capable of leveling an entire city. Think about this for a moment. These two alliances were implacable enemies. Mistrust, espionage, dirty tricks and deceit characterized every interaction. Europe had been the site of three major wars in the sixty years before the start of the Cold War. If you looked at capabilities and history, there was no rational reason to believe that a "hot war" would not eventually break out from the Cold War.

Salt negotiations - 1972

The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties refers to two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties between the Soviet Union and the United States—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. There were two rounds of talks and agreements: SALT I and SALT II. SALT II later became START. Negotiations started in Helsinki, Finland, in 1969 and focused on limiting the two countries' stocks of nuclear weapons. These treaties have led to START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). START I (a 1991 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union) and START II (a 1993 agreement between the United States and Russia) placed specific caps on each side's number of nuclear weapons.

Iranian Revolution - 1979

Defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, gigantic national debt,disgruntled military, the Shah's closeness to Western powers, Westernization including the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, extravagance, corruption, elitism, failure to watch Islamist leaders like Ayatollah Khomeini, repression, despotism, economic failure, antagonizing formerly apolitical Iranians by established a one-party state, overconfidence, preoccupation with being a leader during the oil crisis and neglecting his own country's needs, underestimation of opposition, failure to prepare, the personality of the Shah which caused him to suppress opposition, charisma and success of Khomeini, overconfidence of secular forces, cycle of mourning that kept anti-Shah momentum alive, cleverness of Khomeini and his followers, policies of the American leaders that made the Shah look like a puppet, failure to detect the for coming revolution and OPEC policies that discourage infighting and unintentionally put Khomeini in a good position for revolution.

Week 2 Cold War Journals

Korean War - 1950-53

The Korean War took place from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. Korea had been divided after World War II, when Japanese control ended. The northern part was occupied by Soviet troops until 1948 and the southern part by Americans until 1949. Efforts to reunify Korea failed, and the divided regions became independent countries. The Korean War began when communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 and captured the capital Seoul. The United Nations Security Council voted to aid South Korea, and the United States led the peacekeeping forces. China and USSR supported North Korea. Although 20 other nations eventually became involved in the war, the Koreans saw it primarily as a civil war between the north and south. The armistice line north of the 38th parallel along the battle line ended the fighting, but Korea has remained divided into North Korea and South Korea for decades since.

Hydrogen Bomb Created / Arms Race - 1952

The hydrogen bomb was built because it is more powerful than the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb was the type used on Japan and as bad as those were, hydrogen bombs are even more powerful. Nuclear weapons are very controversial. Most countries want them but they don't want anyone else to have them. The US claims the reason they developed such powerful weapons is a deterrent. The idea is no one will dare attack you if you have such weapons.The reason that the cold war never went hot, in other words all out fighting between Russia and the West was because both sides had loads of nuclear weapons of all kinds pointed at each other. This was known as "mutually assured destruction". In other words if one side started something they could destroy the other but would be destroyed themselves.

Warsaw Pact - 1955

Warsaw pact was offensive and defensive military force that was under control of Soviet Union. The USSR had pretty much thorough control of the organization and there was never equal footing or partnerships. The territories of the Western Warsaw Pact members, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany and Hungary, was intended as a staging area for the Soviet troop build up and carry invasion into the heart of the Western Europe while the socialistic countries would provide necessary logistics and supplies lacking permanently in the USSR. At the same time, the treaty obligated to suppress any country desire to leave a communist paradise as it had happened to Czechoslovakia in 1968. Either way, the existence of the Warsaw pact unified Red Army military control over various local state military that had various degree a loyalty to the cause of communism and the USSR all together.

De-stalinization - 1956

Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in 1953. The central Soviet strongmen at the time were Lavrentiy Beria (in charge of the Ministry of the Interior), Nikita Khrushchev (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party) and Georgi Malenkov (Premier of the Soviet Union). De-Stalinization spelled an end to the role of large-scale forced labor in the economy. The process of freeing Gulag prisoners was started by Beria, but he was soon removed from power. Khrushchev then emerged as the most powerful Soviet politician. At a speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences to the closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU, February 25, 1956, Khrushchev shocked his listeners by denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and cult of personality. He also attacked the crimes committed by associates of Lavrentiy Beria. The worldwide culmination of de stalinization process came on November 1, 1961, when cities, institutions, everything associated with Stalin's name was renamed to its original names.

Sputnik - 1957

This spacecraft, the first of a series of spacecraft used to investigate the means for manned space flight, contained scientific instruments, a television system, and a self-sustaining biological cabin with a dummy of a man. The spacecraft was designed to study the operation of the life support system and the stresses of flight. The spacecraft radioed both extensive telemetry and prerecorded voice communications. After four days of flight, the reentry cabin was separated from its service module and retro rockets were fired, but because of an incorrect attitude the spacecraft did not reenter the atmosphere.

U-2 Incident - 1960

The United States had a small fleet of 'spy planes' which were essentially flying cameras which flew at high altitude over potential 'enemy nations' taking photographs with cameras using film. This was in an era when satellites with such a purpose as telecommunications were basically a dream. During one of several flights over the Soviet Union one of these planes was shot down. The United States military, while being tight-lipped about this event at the time, actually indicated they believed the plane was flying at too high an altitude for a defence system to shoot down using any ground based device. It was actually believed there was the possibility the missile hitting the plane may have been an attempt at a space shot which just happened to collide with the plane. There was an outcry from the USSR due to the fact the United States had been caught initiating unwelcome flights over Soviet airspace.

Berlin Wall - 1961

The Berlin wall was built because East Germany was hemorrhaging people, especially skilled workers, professional people and the educated. The wall was to keep them, and people from other satellite countries from fleeing. The enemies of the people were flooding into the East Germany with a view to destabilise it. They were causing anti-communist agitation among the workers and the brave soldiers of the fraternal countries. The capitalists were also attempting to flood East Germany with worthless Deutschmarks, the wall was built to keep out these currency speculators.

Week 1 Cold War Journals

The Iron Curtain

The iron curtain happened after world war II and split Germany into 2 countries. One side was ruled by Germany and the other side was ruled by the USSR. It was significant to the USSR because it gave them a small amount of power in Germany, and also they were closer to the German troops. It happened because there was unresolved tension after the war, and USSR and Germany couldn't come to an agreement, and that's why the Iron Curtain happened to split the two sides apart.

The Iron Curtain Speech

Winston Churchill made the Iron Curtain speech to go against the USSR, it was talking about that the USSR should leave the communist side of Germany, and sort of leave them alone and let them become one country again. The speech was liked by a lot of people, and supported by the U.S. president, who completely agreed with Churchill and what he said.

The Long Telegram/Containment - 1946

The point of the Containment Policy was for the United States during the Cold War to keep Communism from spreading. Also if they failed then the domino effect would occur and eventually, more and more countries would fall to Communism. This is the reason the US fought in the Vietnam War and the Korean War.The Long Telegram was a message sent by George Kennan Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow outlining his opinions and views of the Soviets. This telegram lead to the Clifford-Elsey Report and the telegram and report were combined into a report called Sources of Soviet Conduct. This report was published as what was called the X Article and it became the public face of the American foreign policy in the Cold War, even though Kennan himself has noted that he felt that he was misunderstood.

The Truman Doctrine - 1947

the Truman Doctrine (1947) was designed to support anti-communists and resist the spread of communism. Initially, it stated that the United States would support both Turkey and Greece with economic and military aid, preventing them falling into the Soviet sphere. It offered support to all countries that declined communism, attempting to contain it, and ultimately end it. The Truman Doctrine also included Marshall Aid, which was money that was offered to all European countries for rebuilding. The Soviet-controlled countries of the Warsaw Pact had to decline this "capitalist" money. In an address to Congress, President Truman said, "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure.

The Marshall Plan - 1947

On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. When World War II ended in 1945, Europe lay in ruins: its cities were shattered; its economies were devastated; its people faced famine. In the two years after the war, the Soviet Union’s control of Eastern Europe and the vulnerability of Western European countries to Soviet expansionism heightened the sense of crisis.

The Berlin Airlift/Blockade - 1948 - 49

The airlift was the supply of Berlin by air. On 24 June 1948 Russia blocked all land access to the city. This lasted until 11 May 1949. At the end of WWII Germany was occupied with each allied nation getting a section. Berlin. then the capital was also shared out among the allies though it was deep in the Soviet occupation zone. The Soviets made a number of attempts to gain control of the city. They tempted people with ration cards and similar favors. When that didn't work they started limiting access into and out of the allied sections of the city. The blockade of the city left the allies with few options. They didn't want to fight their way into Berlin but also didn't want the blockade to continue. The city would then be dependent on the Russians and would effectively be under their control.

Soviet get the A-Bomb - 1949

At a remote test site at Semi palatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name "First Lightning." In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. The atomic explosion, which at 20 kilotons was roughly equal to "Trinity," the first U.S. atomic explosion, destroyed those structures and incinerated the animals. According to legend, the Soviet physicists who worked on the bomb were honored for the achievement based on the penalties they would have suffered had the test failed. Those who would have been executed by the Soviet government if the bomb had failed to detonate were honored as "Heroes of Socialist Labor," and those who would have been merely imprisoned were given "The Order of Lenin," a slightly less prestigious award.

Creation of NATO - 1949

Truman made it clear that the US did not want war over Berlin, but neither would we back down to attempted Soviet expansion. Stalin ended the blockade. This was just one of the causes of the reasons for the creation of NATO. The Cold War was entering a new phase in the late 40's. In April, Canada, the United States, and nine European nations signed a treaty that created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was the first peacetime military alliance in US history. The NATO nations promised to consider an attack against any one of them as grounds for going to war together to stop the aggressor nation. It was a warning to Soviet Russia that the free nations of the West were willing to fight to prevent any further communist expansion. In reply, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, an alliance of the nations of Eastern Europe that the Soviets controlled.

China Becomes Communist - 1949

China became communist because it wanted its own values, and differences. And it didn’t want to be seen as owned. In 1949 China became a communist country.People's Republic of China became a communist nation because of its previous weak democratic government. Chinese government wanted to control the country by itself without having others to interfere. The communist government wanted China to become a strong nation and not to become under control by other countries(Ex: Great Britain and japan used to control China). The communists were came from Soviet Union, they might believed that Soviet Union became a strong nation because of its communism policy.