Introduction to Cold War:
The Origins of the Cold war were started specifically because of the Soviet Union. After the World War Two ended, they had a second wartime meeting, Yalta being the first and Potsdam being the second, which involved Stalin, U.S. President Truman, and British Minister Clement Attlee. During this meeting, Stalin disliked the new leaders that replaced U.S. President Roosevelt and British Minister Winston Churchill because the previous leaders had set a deal with Stalin and Stalin had a good alliance with them. The deal was that Stalin would be allowed to gain some some land in which the promise wasn't kept. Also, since the US dropped the both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs on Japan it sparked new violence between the Soviets and the Allied breaking the alliance because the Soviets also wanted the atomic bombs. From this, NATO was formed to contain communists and the Warsaw Pact was because NATO was formed.
Revolutions:
During the Cold War there rise revolutions. The three well-known revolutions was the Velvet, Cuban, and Chinese Cultural Revolution:
Cuban Revolution
The Revolution was led by Fidel Castro. While he became the new leader, he kicked out people who didn't agree with him. The U.S. decides to leave Castro and his followers alone. But the U.S. supported Batista who was kicked out by Fidel Castro. The U.S. didn't want to aggravate Fidel Castro because if the U.S. did anything that would have annoyed Castro, he would've attacked the U.S.. In the late 1950s, the support and Castro's revolution grew. This is due to the fact that Castro's revolution became successful and his bad treatment towards the non-supporters of Castro. From this, the U.S. wanted to stop Castro or replace him. There were almost more than 100 failed assassination attempts on Castro. Since Castro got full control of Cuba, the U.S. prospective changes. Castro like the idea of the communist party and allied with others like the Soviet Union. Castro received atomic missiles from the soviets which increased their alliance. The U.S found out what the soviets did and the fact that Castro wanted to become communists so the U.S. launches the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 1961.The Bay of Pigs invasion failed and to this day Cuba remains successful.
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The Chinese Cultural Revolution
Communism had took over China and a new leader raised who was named Mao Zedong who lead the revolution. Mao wanted to take back authority from the government and give it to the youth known as the "Red Guards". The "Red Guards" are supposed to lead their country into becoming strong again. The soviet union heard about what Mao Zedong did and supported his revolution but the U.S. supported the Chinese nationalists led by Jiang Jieshi. Mao Zedong created the idea "Great Leap Forward" which was another plan to make china better. In order for this to work, Mao forced people into collective farms. Different Families would have to work on the same land, raise their kids in the same nurseries, sleep in the same area, eat in the same dining rooms and not get any money. From this, there were 20 million dead people because of the bad conditions. So the "Great Leap Forward" plan failed. Mao realized that it was happening, so he stop the alliance with the Soviets and still continues he strict rule over the Chinese people and watching his people suffer. His rule ended when he died in 1976, but the people today still worship him and follow his guidelines.
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Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution started because of University students. It started in November One day in November, thousands of university students gathered in the
Czechoslovakia Capital Prague, to celebrate International Students' Day. The reason behind this protest was to honor their nations and make their nation noticeable. Although, this protest led to the most important events of their history. From the protests came violence. The only way that the violence would end was that the riot police didn't want the protesters to escape. So they blocked off the escape routes and abused them by using violence. The result from this revolution was that communism ended in Czechoslovakia. |
Hot Spots:
There were to many major wars during the cold war, but there were two major wars that stood out. They were the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Korean War
Before Korea had their own war within their country, they were being controlled by Japan since Japan wanted to imperialize other countries, which included Korea. After World War 2, japan surrendered. When Japan surrendered, Korea was split into two. The U.S. go the southern part of Korea while the Soviet Union got the northern half. From this, was created the "38th Parallel" which still exists today. From the split, Kim II Sung was the North Korean Leader, and Syngman Rhee was the South Korean Leader. The Soviets wanted North Korea to have full control of the country, so they supplied them with lots of weapons, airplanes, money and tanks. The South Koreans found out that North Korea are being supplied so they decided to go to war with them. The U.S. forces didn't want to get involved. Later on July, 1953 the UN and North Korea sign a cease fire, which is known as a long time out. During the war there were 4 million deaths and after the war the 38th parallel became the border.
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Vietnam War
Vietnam was being controlled by France during World War 2. The Vietnam War was unique and different becasue they weren't fighting for communism, they were fighting for independence. Also, most of Vietnam were nationalists. A Vietnamese Nationalist Ho Chi Minh leads a rebellion against the French by using guerrilla wargare. Ho Chi Minh was influenced by other european countries fighting for their independence. But Ho Chi Minh was sentenced to death but he manages to escape. In 1954, France surrenders to Ho Chi Minh because he used the guerrilla warfare in which the French couldn't handle. Since Vietnam is communist, the United States decides to get involved because of the Truman Doctrine. The Geneva Accords splits Vietnam in half. From this, The North was being controlled by Ho Chi Minh and the South was being controlled by an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. The Vietnam War caused many bad outomes. For Example, Gulf of Ton kin resolution, Operation rolling thunder, and the bombing of Cambodia.
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The End of the Cold War:
In 1985, A new leader rose in USSR. His name was Mikhail Gorbachev. He was the last leader of the Soviet Union before it collapsed. Gorbachev had made major changes. They were restructuring and Openness. President Ronald Reagan had created many alternatives. One of Reagan's policy was to start a massive military buildup to dismantle the U.S.S.R.
President Reagan wanted to let it be known that any war against the West would not be won. Also, another of Reagan's plan for an SDI system was not successful. But, there was one benefit of this failure was that the U.S. had better technology than the USSR, meaning that the USSR was losing economic wise.More policies of Reagan's kept on coming pushing Gorbachev to step down and end the Cold War. Then the Soviet Union since then had been demolished. |
Who started the Cold War:
In my belief, the U.S. started the Cold War. I believe that they started the Cold War because they dropped two atomic bombs in Japan. One being "Hiroshima" and the other "Nagasaki". Ever since they dropped the Atomic Bombs the whole world wanted the same power, Including the Soviets. The Soviet Union wanted the power so much they broke an alliance with the U.S. and decided to help other countries who wanted to become communists so they can defeat the U.S. forces. This time was called the "Nuclear Age". Everyone was striving for power which was either capitalism or communism.
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