Unit 7 The Cold War

1950’s -1960’s Cold War

Space Race• The U.S. and Soviet

Union competed for influence and power among the nations of the world and in space!

• Both began to develop technology for the exploration of space!

Sputnik 1• 1st space satellite was

launched by the Soviet Union in 1957!

• Americans felt as though they had fallen behind in science and technology.

• The Federal government began to invest money in public education for the 1st time. (The National Defense Education Act.)

ICBM

• What if the Soviet Union could make an ICMB?(intercontinental ballistic missile)

• They could “nuke” us from space…….

• FEAR! People built bomb shelters.

Brinksmanship

• Under the leadership of President Eisenhower the policy of “Brinksmanship” was created.

• The U.S. would be willing to go to the brink of nuclear war as a response to Soviet aggression around the world. No appeasement!

MAD

• Mutually Assured Destruction

• Brinksmanship would only work if the Soviet Union knew that we were willing to destroy the world as we know it………

• Both the U.S. and the USSR would destroy each other with nuclear weapons.

NASA

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Civilian, not military space program to compete with the Soviet space program.

• President Kennedy set the goal of going to the moon!

Yuri Gagarin

• Soviet cosmonaut and 1st man to orbit the earth! (they are winning)

Alan Shepard

• 1st American into space!

Apollo 11

• July 20th 1969 the U.S. put a man on the moon! We won the space race to the moon.

• "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

1956 Hungarian Revolution

• In 1956 Hungarian’s tried to overthrow the Soviet backed government.

• The Soviet Union sent in its tanks and crushed the rebellion in bloody street fighting.

• This became another symbol of Soviet oppression.

Nikita Khrushchev

• After the death of Stalin a new leader Khrushchev took control of the Soviet Union from 1953 -1964.

• He denounced Stalin and attempted reforms in an effort to make life better for the average citizen.

• Khrushchev was forced out after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Fidel Castro

• Communist revolutionary in Cuba. Overthrew the Batista government and turned Cuba into a communist nation.

Cuban Revolution

• After Castro took power he suspended elections, jailed and executed opponents. The government nationalized all media and industry.

• Cuba was now a communist outpost 90 miles from the U.S.

John F. Kennedy • Elected President in 1960 as a

strong anticommunist.• Young, wealthy, WWII vet,

Harvard graduate, Pulitzer prize winning author.

• “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty”

Bay of Pigs• 1960 CIA planned

invasion of Cuba by anti Castro Cuban exiles.

• The invasion was a disaster, Castro’s army defeated the invasion.

Cuban Missile Crisis • The Soviet Union had been

building Nuclear missile sites in Cuba. In October 1962 an U.S. spy plane discovered the sites.

• President Kennedy ordered a navy blockade of Cuba moving the world to the edge of WWIII.

• Soviet ships turned around and returned to the USSR after we promised to not invade Cuba in the future.

Domino Theory• If one nation falls to

communism then like a row of falling dominos other nations will follow!

• Used by President Eisenhower and others to motivate the U.S. to fight the spread of communism in faraway nations around the world.

Ho Chi Minh• Communist leader of

North Vietnam.• Had been working for

Vietnam’s independence from the French since WWI.

• Now he will be trying to get South Vietnam to join North Vietnam making ONE Vietnam.

Vietcong• North Vietnam was

communist, and it’s leader was Ho Chi Minh.

• People who lived in South Vietnam who wanted to join North Vietnam were called Vietcong. (Vietnamese Communists)

• Vietcong are the people the U.S. were trying to kill in the war.

Agent Orange

• Agent Orange was used to kill the jungle foliage and expose VC hiding places.

• Has cancer causing Dioxin in it. (bad for American GI’s and Vietnamese people)

Selective Service System• The draft! • People felt that the local

draft board system was unfair to poor and working class who were not in college.

• Now a lottery would be used, if your birthday was called you got drafted!

• No college deferments!

Tet Offensive

• This massive attack was the turning point in the Vietnam War!

• In 1968 the war was looking like a stalemate, & President Johnson is not going to run for reelection!

The Fall of Saigon• January 1973 the U.S.

signed an agreement and withdrew American forces.

• April of 1975 North Vietnamese Army units captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam.

• North and South Vietnam were united under a communist government……