Nuclear Arms Race

• In 1944, USSR tests its first atomic bomb which sent shockwaves throughout the West

• US first hydrogen bomb in 1952, USSR tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1953

• set of a concept called MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction

• the invention of the intercontinental ballistic missile

• DEW line in Canada

• nuclear submarines

• In 1996, throughout the world, there were 40,000 warheads equivalent to 1 million Hiroshima bombs

USSR in the 1980s

• the economy was floundering, morale was low

• alcoholism and absenteeism

• weak leaders

• wars in Afghanistan

• Regan (US) and Thatcher (UK) teamed up to reduce Soviet influence in Eastern Europe

• 1985, Gorbachev was the leader and wanted to reform communism. People were free to share ideas and introduce capitalist policies

Communist China

• after the communists took over, Mao wanted to industrialize China quickly into a communist economy - Great Leap Forward

• agriculture cultivization meant taking farmland from farmers and giving it to other people

• led to a great famine; tens of millions of people died

• Mao was criticized which led him to implement the cultural revolution

• Mao instituted scare tactics; neighbors reporting on one another, people getting arrested and treated terribly

Space Race

• Sputnik, the first satellite in 1957 (USSR)

• Race to be the first for each new achievement

• first dog in space was russian, Laika

• first man in space, first woman in space, space walks, space station

• Man on the moon, 1969

Korean War

• Communist (NK) Kim Il-Jung invaded democratic SK with the help of USSR

• UN group intervened under General McArthur who was overseeing Japan

• he captured Seoul back but pushed north of the 38°

• China sent armies to defend NK

• Eisenhower became president of USA and negotiated peace

• marks a shift in cold war policy

Vietnam War

• “The first tv war”

• awful pictures of death and war on tv

• people would watch the news and see all kinds of death in front of them