The Cold War By: Kaliyah Estrich & Alana Webster
After WWII, the USSR started to spread communism. The US feared that most of the world would fall to communism if they did not intervene. This started a 45 year long rivalry between the 2 superpowers called the Cold War. The US adopts the containment plan, a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. It represented a middle-ground position between détente and rollback.
The iron curtain across Europe, Germany was divided, and the city of Berlin was divided. It was like an "iron curtain" because of the separation of the Democratic West from the Communist East. Germany was divided after WWII at the Yalta Conference. The capital city of Berlin was also divided among the Allied powers. This was a sad situation because families were separated and didn't see each other for years. This was also a problem because the democratic section was in the middle of the Soviet Communist section.
The Arms Race was a competition between the USA and USSR for the best, most powerful weapons in the world. A major event in the arms race was The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was led by a communist named Fidel Castro. Cuba and the Soviet Union allied themselves together. The US creates a plan to overthrow Castro's government with the help of Cuban refugees called the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The US was easily defeated by Cuban forces, this embarrassed the US and strengthened Fidel Castro. The USSR began to build missile bases in Cuba scaring the Americans for fear of attacks. US president JFK announced that American war ships would blockade any Soviet ships carrying missiles. He also warned that the US would launch a nuclear attack if they fired missiles. Soviet Leader, Nikita Khrushchev, agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba, and the US agreed not to invade Cuba.
During this time, China was involved in an Civil War. Two sides developed: Nationalist, led by Chiang Kai-Shek, and the Communist led by Mao Zedong. These two forces fought and it was won by the Communists, even though the US gave Chiang Kai-Shek millions of dollars. China became a Communist nation under Mao Zedong and was known as the People's Republic of China. He took over industries and businesses and created government-run farm. Famine spread through China and food production decreased.
Korea was divided at the 38th parallel of latitude. North Korea was communist was communist and backed up by the Soviets, and the south was democratic and backed by the US. The Soviets wanted all of Korea to be communist. In June of 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to take over the country. In an attempt to save the democratic Korea, the United Nations sent in an international force into Korea to push the communist side of Korea out of democratic Korea. The United Nations regained South Korea by March of 1951. MacArthur (leader of United Nations) wanted to attack China, but President Truman disagreed and fired MacArthur. North Korea and South Korea ended up signing a truce. The Korean War ended, and Korea is still divided today. (North-Communist & South- Democratic)
Vietnam was a former French colony, and it was divided into two sections. North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh, was communist and backed up by the Soviet Union. South Vietnam led by Ngo Dinh Diem was democratic and backed up by the US. Many South Vietnamese distrusted Diem and joined the Vietcong, a Communist Guerilla group supported by North Vietnam. They thought that if they if they made the US communist then other nations in Southeast Asia would also become communist. The US later passed the Gulf of tonkin Resolution which would allow the US to bomb enemies within their area. Back at home, people were protesting against the war because they didn't think that they should be fighting. The US were still trying to do everything that they could to get South Vietnameses to come to democracy, but they never did. The US were captured for trying to change South Vietnam, and they signed a cease-fire and decided to bring our troops home.
It all started when a policy called detente was invented, and it meant relaxation of tensions. US President Richard Nixon traveled to China, and the Soviet Union reached out to the US. The US and the Soviet limited nuclear weapons for the US and Soviet Union. All the tensions between the US and the Soviet Union were starting to simmer down, and they weren't trying to fight the US anymore. Later, Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader, and he was rebuilding and gave the people more rights. He gave factory owners more freedom in their stores. East Germany opened up the Berlin Wall, and they reunited Germany. Russia got a new president, Boris Yeltsin, and they tried to take over the government but were unsuccessful. Soon, all Soviet Republics started declaring their independence. Russia's government started succeeding, and the Soviet Union ended.
THE END TO THE COLD WAR....