Week 2

Carl Faust

Alvarado

Period 2

Korean War - 1950-53 (Ch. 17.3)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
USSR supplies weapons to North Korea USSR assumes that the US won’t intervene NK invades South Korea on the Standoff at the 38th Parallel NK pushes all the way to the bottom of the Korean peninsula US intervenes the US and SK reclaim Seoul and push all the way up to the Chinese border China gets involved the NK-SK border is pushed back to about the 38th parallel an armistice is reached, and fighting ends the war does not technically end	North Korean and Soviet arrogance about their power over South Korea and the United States the United States pulled out troops from South Korea because they did not feel an invasion was likely, making them more vulnerable to be invaded the USSR wanted to spread communism to more areas, and the Korean peninsula was ripe for a proxy war the North Koreans were eager to take the land away from their Southern neighbors, so funding from the USSR was just icing on the cake	this was one of the first major proxy wars of the Cold war represented the first bloody battles between the ideologies of capitalism and communism whoever came out as top dog in this war would be considered the more powerful country and the most dominant ideology the fighting continues all the way to today the relationships between North and South Korea has been strained to a breaking point for the past 60 years as a result

Hydrogen Bomb is created/Arms Race - 1952 (Ch. 17.1)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
the Soviets build their own A-bomb in 1949, and as a response, the US exploded their much more powerful hydrogen bomb in 1952 the Soviets made their own hydrogen bomb not much after this was a major expansion in the nuclear arms race brinkmanship - the willingness of each side to bring go to the brink of war	the US and the USSR wanted to defend their national interests neither was actually interested in going to war whoever waved the bigger gun would be dominant since the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb in 1949, the Americans felt it necessary to build something more powerful to give them the edge and to prevent the USSR from getting ahead H-bomb was created	this was the beginning of the arms race, which would continue all the way until the 80s and arguably the 90s as well this arms race destroyed the economy of the Soviets and reduced the standard of living in the USSR to terrible conditions man now had the power to destroy the Earth several times over if there was global nuclear warfare science was taking huge steps in terms of progress during this era to produce the new weapons each nation required

Warsaw Pact - 1955 (Ch. 17.1)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
USSR saw NATO as  threat to their national security formed their own alliance with their neighboring countries Warsaw Pact established the alliance between the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, among others established the Iron Curtain Berlin Wall	the USSR was scared by the alliance of NATO, because many of the western European nations aligned with Britain and the US posed a major threat to them if they ever decided to mobilize their armies with the threat of nuclear war, it helped to have a buffer of nations between you and the enemy with the war of ideologies still raging, the USSR was looking for more countries to share their communist ideas	it separated Eastern and western Europe it established the area around Russia as communist and anti-American it revealed the true attitudes of countries like China about the USSR it heightened tensions between American and Soviet leaders, and lots of trash talking ensued in their respective speeches the Iron Curtain was established, as well as the Berlin wall

De-Stalinization - 1956 (Ch. 17.5)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
Khrushchev becomes the leader of the Soviet Union immediately denounces Stalin he announced a policy of de-Stalinization, to erase the country’s memory of Stalin’s regime monuments of Stalin were demolished inspired anti-communist movements in the satellite nations of the USSR started “peaceful competition” between the USSR and capitalist nations	Stalin’s regime had terrified the satellite nations of the USSR his regime ruined relationships the USSR had with China and other communist countries because of his wolf-like hunger for land with his death, the world wanted to fix what he had wrought in eastern Europe Kruschev was a new, young leader, much more lenient on workers’ rights and USSR global relations he wanted the citizens to forget about Stalin	this was a major turnaround for the attitude of the USSR under Stalin, eastern Europe lay in fear and protest of what Russia may do next now with the USSR opening up and its leader publicly denouncing the actions of their previous dictator, there was hope for rebuilding the USSR assuming de-Stalinization had never been implemented, there was a high possibility of a third world war before the century’s end

Sputnik - 1957 (Ch. 17.1)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
the USSR launched the first unmanned spacecraft into space this was the first benchmark in the space race it eventually burned up on re-entry the US was perpetually reminded of its presence it released a radio “beep” every couple of seconds	with the arms race underway, there was desperation on both sides to prove their superiority the USSR saw the potential of proving their scientific advantage over the US since nothing was likely to happen on the warfare front, there needed to be another race for the two nations to compete in eventually prompted the establishment of NASA in America and the cosmonaut programs in Russia	this was the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth this kicked off the space race scientific advances in the US and USSR regarding space exploration accelerated to an extreme pace the US eventually did “win” the space race by reaching the moon in a manned space flight

U-2 Incident - 1960 (Ch. 17.1)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
the US was paranoid of the USSR having spies in their countries US also thought that they were way behind in the arms race they sent U-2 planes to fly way above the range of any anti-aircraft missiles and take pictures of every square inch of the USSR we discovered that we were in fact way ahead in the space race eventually, a U-2 plane was shot down over Russia this could be considered an act of war however, the US did not respond to the shooting down of the plane, because their relations with the USSR had just begun to pick up with Khrushchev in office	we were paranoid of what the USSR was doing, and we thought that we were already way behind the US wanted to see if they were behind in the arms race the USSR did not like us spying on them in restricted airspace the USSR was tired of being spied we didn’t react to the shooting down of the U-2 plane because we were afraid of starting a nuclear war	this represented how the US and USSR relations were in terms of politics and in terms of actions in politics the US and the USSR had just begun talking again, and political agreements seemed imminent to be made however, on the paranoia front, there was incidents such as the U-2 plane shooting, where military response seemed possible, but very unlikely

Berlin Wall - 1961 (Ch. 17.5)

What happened	Why it happened	Why it is significant
with the Warsaw Pact in place, the USSR was putting up the “Iron Curtain” between them and the rest of Europe the USSR established the Berlin Wall to separate East Berlin from West Berlin no one was allowed to enter or leave, or at least the border control was extremely strict it was a symbol of how the Iron Curtain separated communist Europe from the rest of the world ideologically the wall was eventually demolished under Gorbachev “Mr. Gorbachev; tear down this wall!” - Ronald Reagan	to separate east (communist) from west (capitalist) Berlin it was part of the Warsaw pact and the “Iron Curtain” initiative, as it was referred to by the American politicians it was to prevent the west Berliners from entering east Berlin and bringing capitalism with them and vice versa about capitalism it was demolished eventually near the end of the Cold War after a nuclear arms reduction was agreed upon between Reagan and Gorbachev	it was a symbol of how divided the world was on the warring ideologies of communism and capitalism it’s demolition gave hope to millions about repairing the world structure it marked the end of the Cold War (arguably)