Cold War - Mutually Assured Destruction

Dwight Eisnehower 1952

• republican

• still livng in the New Deal ideas

  • having larger government

• Military Officer

• Isn’t driven by war

  • has seen what war can do and wants to avoid it

Deterrence

Eisenhower endorses deterrence. Focsoused on ways to avoid war. He stockpiles loads and loads of nuclear weapons, if they have so many weapons then the Soviets won’t attack. The weapons he piles HAVE to be nuclear so the USSR won’t attack. The U.S. makes a weapons department to moniter the quality and quantity. And they create a Hydrogen bomb that is worse than an atom bomb. USSR also creates a hydrogen bomb in 1953.

The Space Race

Soviets put the first Stalite “Sputnik” into Space. The U.S. panics because they are behind the USSR in devlopment. So the U.S. create NASA

John F. Kennedy

• Democrat

• was in the HOR for 2 terms

• 1 term Senator

• Focsous on Foregin policy concerns

• Reminds of: Jefferson, Wilson, Truman, Winthrop

• Trying to Echo Truman and fight against the rise of Communism

Cuba Communism

Communist Fedil Castro came to power in 1959 after he kicked out Batsita. The U.S. is very scared because communisam has enterd the Western Hemisphere. Kennedy feels that he needs to overthorw Castro to get him out of power. He needed to get Castro out but make it seem like it was Cubans idea.

Bay Of Pigs Invasion 1961

The U.S. CIA set up a station in Florida because a lot of Cubans moved there to escape communisam. They tell the Cubans to go the the BOP and start shooting, they give the Cubans little to no traning. Castro flies over and shots all of the returning Cubans. Cuba becomes the new center of confrentation betwen USA and USSR. Castro stays in power and Soviets intensify.

Construction of Berlin Wall 1961

Kroshev knows that people want to leave and his communist ides suck. His soloution is to build a wall around West Berlin that prohibits people from east to enter it. The wall goes up fast but they first put up barbed wire. As the wall went up people wonderd if Kennedy would do anything but he didn’t. “A wall is better than a war”. Kroshev putting up the wall shows that he can understand boundaries.

Problems in Germany

Kennedy thinks that everything is ok but then hears that weird thing are happening in Germany. Germany was divided in West and East. West Germany is inhabiting the Western ideals while Eastern basically has no freedom. Berlin is in East Germany.

Cuban Mistle Crisis October 1962

USSR places nuclear weapons on Cuba. The U.S. is scared theyre trying to look defensive while avoiding war. Kennedy admistration makes blockade and say if USSR keeps sending weapons to Cuba then they have to respond. K-admistration tells U.S. citizens to prepare themselves for nuclear war. The Soviets shoot down a U.S. spy plane. Kroshev is willing to take the mistles off of Cuba and Kennedy takes his mistles off of Greece and Germany.

Nuclear Ban Treaty 1963

Bans testing of Nuclear Weapons but doesn’t ban the devlopment or having them. Allows for testing underground not in air land or water. Both sides use testing as an intmidation tactic.

Lyndon Johnson

• Democrat

• Very insecure about his masculinity

• Lots of ambition

• Creates the Great Society: ends Jim Crowe, trys to end sexism, improves education

• Hero of the democratic party

• aligns himself with Kennedy and uses him as a modle

Vietnam Background

Fight independence war in France lead by Ho Chi Min. Right after they gain their indepenence Veitnam has a civil war, and U.S. provides aid to the anti-communists movemnets

Goldwater and Johnson

Goldwater has lots of crituqes on Johnson. Belive that Johnson is trying to negotiate with communists. Says Johnson is weak and tired. this makes Johnson tighten up on communism

Gulf of Tonkin incident August 1964

2 U.S. ships in the gulf of Tonkin were attacked (Johnson says) unprompted. Johnson wants to act agresivly which helps him against Goldwater. Revaled in the 70’s that Johnson launched an attack against Vietnam before they attacked the 2 ships. Johnson wants to launch a 6-week bombing campagin in Vietnam

Opperation Rolling Thunder

Use of Napalm Bombs which are hard to remove with water. U.S. tries to target the Military bases but they hit civilans aswell. U.S. is trying to clear out all of the forest and jungles in Vietnam, hoping to expose the North Veitnmese.

Agent Orange

was an Herbicide that was very cercegenic. It was meant to kill all of the vegitation. But it also affected the American military, caused Cancer and hurt limbs.

North Vietnamese Tacits

They used 2 militarys in the War. The normal Army and The Viet Cong

Viet Cong

Inspired by Chainman Mao. A group of common everyday indivudals that support communisam. They recurited in villages they recurited old people, women and children. Created a blurry line for the U.S. militray to see the difference between Civilan and army.

War sprials for Johnson

He only wanted this to happen for 6 weeks but it’s exceeding it. He thought that throughout that there would be no concequences for the Americans. He sent in ground troops to Vietnam. He diluted Americans saying that USA was technically superior to Vietnam meaning that they would win no matter what.

Search and Destroy

The U.S. military goes into villages and rounds up the people that live in the Vietnam villages. They interagatted every person that lived there with the help of South Vietnam. They take people from The Veit Cong and put them into prisioner of war camps. They then sent the civilans to refuge camps so that the military could search the villages for weapons. After the searched the villages they would destry them so that no one from the VC could come back. But the VC set up booby traps for the USA.

The Home Front death tools and drafts

They need a lot of people for the warso they start a draft. It was lottery system where they had 366 bingo balls and pulled it out with a spefic date on it and when your birthday was drawn thats the order of the draft that youre in. They had to take a test to see if they could go to the army. people cheated by getting private doctors note.

War goes from bad to worse

Tet offensive was a temporary truce for the holiday in vietnam. NV placed a suprise attack on the Americans they smuggled weapons in with the holiday decorations. It resulted in a loss for the NV but put a blunder on the USA army. People started noticing that Americans were being hurt and nothing had been acomplished in a long period of time. The anti-war movement started to build up.

Walter Cronkites opinion

Walter was a news anchor who got permission to read an editorial on his opinion about the war. He said it was clear that the U.S. wouldn’t be able to win the conflict. He said that the Johnson admistration needs to withdraw troops and create a negotiation stragey. Protests start to arise and the pressure leads Johnson to no run for the next election.

Eisnerhower Doctorine 1957

Concerned about the growing influence of the nationalists in the region and their close ties with the USSR. Said that America will provide economic or military assistance to any middle eastern nation threatend by armed agression. U.S. emerged as the srongest Western Power.

The Six Days War

In the Mid 1960’s. Isreal had a nuclear weapon program. The Palestine Liberation Organization was created. and the PLO began terriosts attacks against Isreal, Isreal retaliates and attacks places where they suspect the PLO to be. Isreal seized control of the Gaza Strip. President Johnson convinces Iserali gov’t to stop accapting a cease fire. They tell them that if they don’t stop then they will have to deal with the USSR. The war ends on 6/11