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

==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