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Period: to
The 50s
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End of WW2 Conferences
Yalta: The Allied Powers agree to meet to come to terms to end WW2. FDR, Stalin, and Churchill agree to occupy Germany and oversee free and fair elections.
Potsdam: The Allied Powers meet again, this time with Truman as the us representative. They'll agree to occupy war torn Europe until it's considered stable.
These 2 conferences are significant to the overall cold war because they demonstrate the breakdown of the us soviet relationships and began the tension as they laid out differing goals. -
The Marshall Plan and The Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan: The US would provide Marshall aid to restore the post war Europe to proper infrastructure and economic status.
Truman Doctrine: The US would provide military assistance to democratic nations to protect from totalitarian attack.
These 2 acts are significant to the Cold War because they provide a reason for the increasing tensions between the soviets and the us as the soviets would see these actions as a declaration of war. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Berlin Blockade: An attempt by the soviets to keep the Allies out of berlin and therefore abandon it. It was a 13 foot wall that was 96 miles long, and also made of 2 separate walls.
Berlin Airlift: The allies response of sending supplies by plane every sixty seconds. Meaning the soviets could not combat and dispel the operation.
This increased the tension between the soviets and the U.S. by making it plainly clear what the soviets goal was, and how it undermined the authority of the U.S. -
U2 incident and NATO v. Warsaw pact
U2 incident: a US reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing a summit conference to fail.
NATO v.s. Warsaw Pact: the eastern and western bloc that had opposing views, mainly due to communism.
This increased tensions through the fear of communism spreading to america which prompted a resistance on part of the U.S. -
Korean War
Korean War: war between north and south korea due to arguments over territory, the US supported the south which was against communism and opposed the north who was for communism.
This further increased tensions by also instilling a fear of the spread of communism to america and would cause the U.S> to adopt a policy of containment. -
Civil Rights Movement Begins
Civil Rights Movement: brown v. board where the supreme court ruled that segregation of students in schools was unconstitutional, little rock 9 when 9 african american students were blocked from entering a college by the governor and were aided by the national guard, the murder of emit till where a young boy was horribly tortured and killed on false accusations, and rosa parks staged event wherein she would not let a white person take her seat on the bus. -
2nd Red Scare Begins
Red Scare: The red scare was the propaganda used by the U.S. to instill the fear of communism in americans and had its largest impact on hollywood, which would influence the types of films and promotional materials produced by hollywood. The red scare was significant because it fueled american patriotism against the communist nations and influenced pop culture for a while. -
Period: to
The 60s
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HUAC, Joseph McCarthy, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
HUAC: started in order to investigate citizens for practicing communism.
Joeseph McCarthy: falsely accused many people in the government of practicing communism secretly.
Julius and Ethel Rosenburg: a couple suspected of giving nuclear bomb plans to the soviets. They would ultimately be found guilty and sentenced to death.
This further increased tensions between the americans and the immigrants by way of suspicion and allegation which more often than not turned out to be false. -
Vietnam War Begins
Vietnam War: the U.S. got involved in the vietnam war due to the supposed prevention of the spread of communism. This was under the superstition of the domino theory:country fell to communism the countries around would too. The gulf of tonkin resolution gave president johnson permission to do whatever he deemed necessary to stop the spread of communism.
This further increased tensions by once again instilling the fear of the spread of communism, now incorporating the idea of the domino theory. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis: an issue of U.S. missles being present in turkey and italy and soviet missiles being located in cuba. The bay of pigs was the U.S.s failed attempt to overthrow fidel castro. JFK placed a naval blockade all around cuba in order to keep soviet ships from delivering any more nuclear weapons to cuba.
This further increased tensions through the introduction of multiple nations having nuclear weapons and the proximity of said nuclear weapons to one another. -
Great Society
Great Society: Johnsons fight against poverty that included a push civil rights. It includes a ban against discrimination in the civil rights Bill of 1968 and access to voting with the VRA. It also addressed inequality in education and healthcare access through Headstart and Medicare/Medicaid. The great society was significant because it cut poverty and represented the 60s liberalism. -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer: a project started to allow as many african american voters as possible. This included many things, such as the introduction of non violent protests such as the sit in movement. It also include the single largest organised march in history, that being the march on washington, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This further increased tensions between the african americans and the whites as many white people did not want the african americans to have equal rights still. -
Period: to
The 70s
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Sun Belt migration
Sun Belt Migration: following WW2 americans moved toward the sunbelt in the south and west for the pleasant conditions and the improving economy.
This decreased tensions as the americans had a better situation now that would allow them to live without worrying about something like poverty or anything of the like. -
Civil Rights movement expands
Civil Rights Movement: the civil rights movement also began to expand to multiple other groups of minorities such as american indians, women, homosexuals, and hispanics. This would paint the civil right movement in a better light and also as a result of the amount of people now part of the movement they would be able to achieve much more than when they focused only on one or two main groups. -
Environmental movement begins
Environmental Movement: rachel carsons novel SIlent Spring served to completely change us policy on the use of pesticides, which also led to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The three mile island further pushed the movements agenda as at the three mile island nuclear plant the reactor had a meltdown which led to a vast amount of deaths and for the surrounding area to become highly irradiated. -
Womens Rights Movement begins
Womens Rights Movement: in the decision of roe v wade the supreme court ruled that in the constitution the right to abortion has its roots. Title IX prohibited schools from using sexual discrimination to keep women from enrolling. The ERA decisions were made past deadline and so ultimately the amendment failed to be passed.
This decreased and furthered tensions by now allowing women to have more freedom within society which many men did not approve of, though many did approve of that. -
Detente
Detente: the process of subjugating and lowering geopolitical tensions nationally in order to prevent war. Started with Nixons visit to china which was done in order to undo the years of isolation between the countries. The salt treaties also limited the number of nuclear weapons each nation could hold during both times of war and time of peace.
This decreased tensions through the aforementioned lessening of geopolitical tensions and by the limit of nuclear weapons. -
Watergate Scandal
Watergate Scandal: nixon's attempt to cover the governments involvement in the DNC break-in in washington.
This further increased tensions by making american citizens start to question the government and whether or not the country should be ran by them. -
Nixon and the end of the Vietnam War
Nixon/End of Vietnam War: Nixon withdrew troops from vietnam after the prospect of victory became visibly unattainable. Nixon attempted to bomb the north vietnamese supply line but ultimately gave the wrong coordinates which resulted in cambodia being bombed and therefore bringing cambodia into the war as well.
This further increased tensions by now having failed to prevent the north vietnamese from taking over south vietnam as well as now bringing cambodia into the war. -
Carter Administration
Carter Administration: a main point of president carter's administration was the influence of stagflation, which was high inflation combined with high unemployment. The iran hostage crisis was a year in which 66 us citizens were held hostage in iran. The camp david accords were a peace treaty between israel and egypt.
This further increased tensions between the us and the various other countries, but also lowered tensions by having israel and egypt make peace. -
Period: to
The 80s
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Fall of the Berlin Wall
Fall of the Berlin Wall: president Reagans memorable speech gave the key message and purpose behind it with one line “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and so it was done. The SDI failed as reagans idea was based on the futuristic technology of star wars which was not capable at the time, which is also why it coined the name the star wars defense initiative.