Cold War

• Dates to remember:
  • 1945-1991: Cold War
  • 1948: Israel established
  • 1949: NATO established
  • 1950-1953: Korean War

Vietnam War

• 1965: First U.S. combat troops sent to Vietnam

• 1973: Cease-fire agreement

• 1975: Final U.S. combat troops withdrawn

• Douglas MacArthur stated that the Communist threat is global, with advances in one area threatening destruction in others.

• MacArthur believed that appeasing communism in Asia would undermine efforts to halt its spread in Europe.

• The Cold War was primarily a political war with occasional armed conflicts, driven by the differing ideologies of the U.S. and the Soviets.

• The Iron Curtain is the name used by Churchill for the tyranny in Eastern Europe.

• Nations under Soviet domination after WWII included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, & Yugoslavia.

• The Truman Doctrine stated that the U.S. would employ resources to prevent the overthrow of any democracy through outside influence.

• George Catlett Marshall was a U.S. general and Truman's secretary of state.

  • The Marshall Plan extended $13.3 billion credit to Europe for post-WWII recovery.

• The Point Four Program was Truman's foreign aid plan, appropriating $34.5 million in assistance to underdeveloped countries.

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established for mutual defense between the U.S., Canada, and 10 Western European countries.

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of NATO in the early '50s.

• The Warsaw Pact (1955) was a Soviet mutual defense treaty with its puppet nations in Eastern Europe, formed in response to NATO.

• The Berlin Airlift was a response to the Soviet blockade of Berlin, where Americans and their allies airlifted supplies to save West Berliners, lasting from June 1948 to Sept 1949.

• The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had a democratic constitution and representative government.

  • Konrad Adenauer was the 1st chancellor of West Germany.
  • Ludwig Erhard was Adenauer's minister of finance.

• Nikolay A. Bulganin was the Soviet premier from 1955-1958.

  • At the Geneva Summit, Bulganin met with Western leaders to demonstrate a Soviet shift from active aggression to peaceful coexistence.

• Nikita Khrushchev was a Soviet leader who gained support by the end of the ‘50s.

• Francis Gary Powers was the pilot of a U.S. spy plane shot down over Russian territory.

• The Berlin Wall was created by East Germany's Communist government to hinder Western influence in Berlin and prevent residents from escaping to the West, during the JFK administration.

• Atoms for Peace was Eisenhower's plan to use atomic energy as a type of power source.

• The arms race was the race for nations to possess both atomic and hydrogen bombs.

  • The International Atomic Energy Agency is the UN response to the arms race, designed to control all uses of atomic energy and address threats to world peace.

• Henry A. Kissinger was Nixon's secretary of state, promoting détente (foreign policy to lessen hostility for better negotiations).

• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) I were Nixon & Kissinger's arms limitation talks, resulting in a treaty between the Soviets & the U.S., signed by Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet premier).

• SALT II was the agreement for further reduction of nuclear warheads & missiles, signed by Carter & Brezhnev in 1979.

  • Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviets.
  • The Senate refused to ratify the treaty.

• Guam became U.S. territory in 1950.

• The Jones Act of 1916 extended suffrage to the Philippines, allowing Filipinos to elect a senate & assembly.

• The Tydings-McDuffie Act provided that the Philippines would become independent in 1946.

  • The Republic of the Philippines became an independent nation in 1946.

• Douglas MacArthur was the supreme commander of Allied occupation in Japan.

• The Japanese Peace Treaty Conference was signed between Japan & 47 enemy nations.

• The 38th parallel served as the partition between the two Koreas.

Korean War

• 1950: North Korea invaded South Korea

• Seoul is the South Korean capital, reached by North Koreans

• The Pusan Perimeter marks the furthest point south of North Korean advance into South Korea

• The Landing at Inchon was where Gen. MacArthur landed near Seoul

• Red China's intervention prevented UN forces from driving Communism from Korea

• MacArthur requested permission to bomb Chinese bases & supply lines to N. Korea

• Omar Bradley: [Fighting with China] would involve us in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy said.

• Omar Bradley was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and recommended MacArthur's removal.

• Truman removed MacArthur from command.

• ended with armistice

• Communist takeover of China

  • Chiang Kai-shek was the Nationalist Chinese leader.
  • Mao Zedong was the Communist leader who began fighting against Chiang several years before the Japanese invaded China.
  • Nationalists & Communists formed an alliance when Japan invaded. Nationalists did most of the fighting. The U.S. aided Nationalists before and during WW2.
  • After the war, the civil war resumed.
  • Mao was well-able to fight.
  • With an American-sponsored armistice, Soviets pulled out of Manchuria for Communists to use as a base.
  • Gen. Marshall, a U.S. envoy, tried to create a coalition government in China.
    • Chiang refused, doubting Communists could be trusted, and recommended withdrawal of U.S. support from Nationalist China (Jan '47).
    • The United States refused to support Chiang.
    • Chiang was easily beaten by Soviet-backed Communists and retreated with Nationalists to Formosa (modern Taiwan).
  • Kinmen & Matsu are islands off the coast of China, occupied by the Nationalists in 1954.

• The Formosa Strait: U.S. naval & air forces occupied this area so the two islands could receive supplies.

  • Mao died in 1976.

• The Age of détente is symbolized by Nixon's goodwill tour of Red China (helped open trade relations).

• French Indochina was under French control until 1940.

  • Laos became an independent state in 1949.
  • Cambodia became independent in 1953.
  • The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam into Communist North & capitalist South to provide for democratic elections of one government in 1956.

• Ngo Dinh Diem was the South Vietnamese president, killed in a coup attempt [CIA-approved - Kennedy intended him to be exiled not killed].

  • North Vietnamese: Diem was one of the strongest individuals resisting the people and Communism.
  • Everything that could be done in an attempt to crush the revolution was carried out by Diem... The coup d'etat on 1 November 1963 will not be the last.”

• Ho Chi Minh was the Communist Vietnamese leader during the Vietnam War.

• The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was a U.S.-led defensive alliance to resist Communist aggression & expansion, proved ineffective weakened by lack of Asia's three largest non-Communist nations: India, Indonesia, & Japan.

• Viet Cong were Communist guerillas who helped North Vietnam.

• Green Berets were a special U.S. Army unit that aided South Vietnamese in their struggle against Communist aggression.

• Laos & Cambodia suffered Marxist terrorism and subversion.

• Vietnam War was America's 1st no-win war.

  • The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution provided legal justification for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
  • Marines - LBJ sent 1st U.S. combat troops sent to Vietnam
  • William Westmoreland commanded U.S. forces in South Vietnam
  • The Tet Offensive (1968) was a surprise attack by North Vietnamese across South Vietnam, a military victory for the U.S. but perceived by the media as a failure and a turning point of the war.
  • The My Lai Massacre occurred when one U.S. unit massacred hundreds of innocent civilians.
  • A cease-fire agreement was signed by the U.S. & North Vietnam.
  • Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital, fell to Communists in Apr. 1975.
  • Cambodia & Laos, Southeast Asian countries, fell to Communism after Saigon's fall.

• Puerto Rico became an organized U.S. territory.

  • The Jones Act of 1917 granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship.
  • Operation Bootstrap was a Puerto Rican economic campaign to increase industrial output.

• Fulgencio Batista became dictator of Cuba in 1952.

• Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista in 1959, having organized the 26th of July Movement in Mexico.

• JFK's policy towards Cuba aimed to isolate the Castro regime and aid Cuban attempts to overthrow it.

• The Bay of Pigs was a U.S.-trained force of exiled Cuban freedom fighters that invaded Cuba, and it failed.

• The Cuban Missile Crisis was a days-long crisis between Soviets & Americans over supplying Cuba with offensive missiles.

• Pres. Carter negotiated the surrender of U.S. control of the Panama Canal Zone in 1977.

• The Republic of the Congo, previously the Belgian Congo, was particularly susceptible to Communism because Belgium had never prepared them for independence or democracy.

  • Patrice Lumumba was the pro-Soviet premier of the Congo.
  • Dr. Paul E. Carlson was a U.S. medical missionary who was taken hostage and killed in the Congo.
    • Paul Carlson stated, “In this century more people have died for Christ than died in the early centuries, which we think of as the days of martyrs.”

• Carter's foreign policy built on the concept of human rights, meaning the U.S. wouldn't support authoritarian regimes, even if they opposed Communism.

• Apartheid refers to racial segregation in South Africa.

• The Eisenhower Doctrine gave Eisenhower congressional approval to combat Communism in the Middle East.

• Gamal Abdel Nasser was the Egyptian president who supported terrorist groups and frequently raided Israeli settlements, condemning the new state of Israel.

  • The Aswan High Dam ('50s-‘60s) was a project on the upper Nile River under Nasser.

State of Israel

• Established as a haven for Jews

• The Six-Day War in 1967 saw Israel prevent an invasion by Egypt, Jordan, & Syria, resulting in the humiliation of the Arabs and Israel gaining the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, & West Bank

• The Yom Kippur War (1973) was between Egypt & Israel, where Israelis drove back the Egyptians.

• The Camp David Accords (1978) were a Carter-negotiated agreement between Israel & Egypt.

  • Anwar Sadat was the Egyptian president during the accords.
  • Menachem Begin was the Israeli PM who met with Carter and Sadat.
  • This marked the first time in 2,000 years that Jews and Arabs had negotiated a peace treaty.

• The United Arab Republic was a union between Egypt & Syria in 1958.

• Iraq saw Arab nationalists seize power.

• Lebanon had a UAR sponsored revolt.

• OPEC is a monopoly designed to control the supply and price of oil, greatly increasing oil prices in the ‘70s.

  • The Arab oil embargo saw Arab nations unite to cut off all oil exports to the U.S.

• The Trans-Alaska Pipeline was built by the U.S. to extract oil from AK in response to OPEC.

• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was an Iranian shah deposed by revolutionaries in 1979.

• Ruholla Khomeini was an Islamic revolutionary and ayatollah of Iran (Muslim religious leader).

  • The Iran hostage crisis involved Iranian rebels capturing the U.S. embassy, taking 66 Americans hostage in 1979, and holding 52 of them for 14 months.
  • The hostages were released only after Carter was out of office.