The Cold War

==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

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==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

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==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

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==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

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