U.S. History Assessment #7 - The Cold War (Topic 2)

Dwight Eisenhower

• Party?

• Career (know it generally)

• What did he want? (2)

• How did he hope to achieve this? (2)

• Republican (President, 1952-1960)

• Career: Military officer, Supreme Allied Commander during World War Two responsible for planning Operation Torch and the D-Day invasion

• Worldview: Wanted to deter Soviet Expansion/likelihood of war between the two nations through

  • Buildup of nuclear arsenals

  • Fostering of anti-communist alliances

The Soviet Possession of Nuclear Weapons

• What did the US do to try to get the upper hand?

• What did the USSR do in turn to that?

• What did these events show?

• The U.S. monopoly on nuclear weapons ended in 1949 when the USSR successfully tested an atomic bomb

• The advice coming out of NSC-68 is that the United States now needed to seek a new weapons advantage against the USSR

• The US decides it needs to invent an even more powerful weapon

• The US invents the hydrogen bomb which is 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb BUT the Soviets develop their own hydrogen bomb in 1953 *showed difficulties in gaining the upper hand*

The Soviet Possession of Nuclear Weapons

• What was the significance of the series of events/events?

• What did this mean for the people? (3)

• What did this cause the creation of?

• This creates Mutually Assured Destruction: both nations possess large nuclear stockpiles

  • National and local governments prepared citizens for a Soviet nuclear attack on the US

  • Citizens built fallout shelters

  • Cities + school practiced building evacuations + drills

  • Construction of the Eisenhower Interstate System

    • 41,000 miles of highway connected US cities

    • Highways served as a means to evacuate cities during a potential nuclear attack

The Space Race

• What started it?

• [1957] the USSR used its first ICBM to launch Sputnik (first satellite into space)

The Space Race

• What did the US do in return? (3)

• There was now a missile gap + the US has fallen behind, so the US 

  • Increasing nuclear weapons production

  • Passing the National Defense Education Act in 1958 to promote math, science, and technology education and to fund university research

  • Creating the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 

John F. Kennedy

• What party?

• Main context about him?

• What were his ideals? (2)

• Democrat

• First young, Catholic president & assassinated in his 3rd term, born in MA, served in WWII, rep for MA, senator for MA

• Ideals:

  • Foreign affairs: Soviet Union confrontations → rather than using containment, he wanted to talk and negotiate with the USSR

  • In promoting the vision of America, cost is not an issue, America is the best

Key Cold War Events of the Kennedy Presidency (4)

• Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961

• Construction of the Berlin Wall 1961

• Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 1963

Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961

• Context/US thoughts

• Communist Fidel Castro came to Cuba + was supported by the Soviets who were growing expansionist policies and were gaining a foothold in Latin America

• US felt threatened bc Cuba is close to Florida

Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961

• What does the US do about their opinion + how did it end?

• Kennedy decides to push Castro communism + Soviets out of Cuba through CIA missions

• CIA recruits Cuban exiles in Florida to launch a coup against Castro → it fails

Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961

• Signifigance?

• How does it impact Kennedy’s opinions domestically?

• Significance:

  • Cuba will become a new center of confrontation between the US & USSR (Soviet’s intensify their commitment to the country + US fear/anxiety over Cuba intensifies)

    • Castro remains in power

  • Kennedy becomes skeptical of CIA covert operations + his military advisors

Construction of the Berlin Wall 1961

• What were the vibes of West vs. East Germany/Berlin?

• Who created the wall and why?

• After the creation of West and East Germany, the two countries developed very differently → people began moving from East Berlin to West Berlin

  • West G/B = economic growth + prosperity

  • East G/B = economic stagnation, shortages of food, currency is weak

• Stalin controls East Germany, thus, everywhere surrounding West Berlin, he ends up building a wall which stopped immigration → anyone that wanted to pass through would be shot

Construction of the Berlin Wall 1961

• Signifigance?

The wall is a sign to Kennedy that maybe Kruchev is not as violant and crazy as he thinks → the wall shows that they’re not expanding + he is okay with communist boundaries

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• What started this

• US efforts + Soviet fight backs (2)

What started it:

• Americans found out that the Soviets build launch-pads for nuclear missiles on Cuba + are sending boats with missiles to Cuba

US efforts + Soviet fight backs

• US blockades Cuba → Soviets ignore blockade

• US threatens invasion of Cuba + try to use a spy plan → Soviets shoot down US spy plane

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

• How did it end?

• What actions were made? (3)

• Signifigance

• Secret communications between Khrushchev and Kennedy resolve it

• Actions

  • Missiles are removed from Cuba, missiles are removed from Italy and Turkey (US public is not told the last part)

  • Moscow-Washington Hotline is established

• Significance: Soviets + US come close to fighting (the closest they ever will)

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 1963

• What did it entail?

• What caused this?

• US + USSR agreed to stop all test detonation of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, space, and under water (underground testing is still permitted)

• Kenney + Khurshchev realizes they had come dangerously close to nuclear war

Kennedy’s American University Speech (3)

• Bombs can only destroy and never create

• To think that peace isn’t real is a defeatest belief → if we think this that means we think that war is inevitable

• Stockpiling weapons instills fear

Lyndon Johnson

• What party

• What impacted his foreign policy actions a lot

• Democrat, committed to containment

• Foreign policy actions were shaped by his personality: needed to appear masculine + tried to appear “tough on communism”

The Cold War in Asia

• What was the US thinking?

• Why were they thinking this? (2)

• There was a fear that communism would spread rapidly throughout Asia

  • Mao and the CCP came to power in China in 1949

  • Kim Il Sung came to power in North Korea

• Domino Theory: Theory held by the US that communism would spread out of China

• Communism needed to be contained in Asia 

Vietnam: Background

• After Korea, the next flare-up of communism in Asia was in Vietnam → Vietnam was a French colony from mid-1800s to 1954

• France ousted after defeat by the Vietnamese in the First Indochina War in 1954

• [1954] The Geneva Peace Accords provided for the temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel

  • North Vietnam: communist regime, supported by the USSR and the PRC, led by of Ho Chi Minh.

  • South Vietnam:  Republican government, led by President Ngo Dinh Diem.

• US involvement: Truman = $ to the French, Eisenhower = props up Diem (South Vietnamese authoritarian), Kennedy = Sends military advisors