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1947 - 1991: Formation of Eastern Bloc (1)

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1947 - 1991: Formation of Eastern Bloc (1)

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Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, portions of Czechoslovakia and Eastern Germany were occupied by the Soviet Union by the end of WW2, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin (1878-1953); this was a buffer zone from German aggression, but wasn't disbanded after the War. This came to be referred to as the "Eastern Bloc". These countries, as well being under the control of the Soviet Union militarily and politically, adopted Communist ideology in all aspects of life. China, Yugoslavia, and Albania also adopted Communists governments in the 1940s. The Eastern Bloc fell apart as countries sought to leave, Mikhail Gorbachev's (1931– ) regime saw the dissolution of the final remnants of the coalition.

-zahra

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The Vietnam War was the result of the cold war between The United states which have supported South Vietnam and The Soviet Union And China Which supported North Vietnam.The desire to contain the spread of communism in Southeast Asia was a major Factor in the major involvement Vietnam.The war involved intense fighting between North Vietnamese communist forces,Known as the Viet Cong and The US supported South Vietnamese government.The Us military Became heavily involved,sending troops and resources to support South Vietnam.The war started in November 1,1955 and ended April 30 ,1975 with the fall of Saigon.The US involvement escalated in the 1960's with significant troops development and increased combat operations.The Vietnam War had far reaching consequences,including the loss of many lives,both sides and significant damage to Vietnam infrastructure. The war ended with the fall of Saigon in !975 leading to the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule.The Vietnam War had a lasting impact on US foreign Policy,Military strategies and public opinion shaping subsequent conflicts and approaches to intervention.

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The Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal event during the Cold War, taking place in October 1962 between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. The U.S.-Soviet tensions were already high due to the ongoing Cold War.

In response to American missiles stationed in Turkey and Italy, the Soviet Union, under Nikita Khrushchev, decided to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to counterbalance the U.S. nuclear advantage.Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba welcomed Soviet assistance as a deterrent against U.S. aggression.In early October 1962, U.S. surveillance discovered Soviet missile installations in Cuba.President John F. Kennedy announced the discovery to the world on October 22, 1962.The U.S. imposed a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of missiles and demanded the removal of the existing missiles.For thirteen tense days, the world stood on the brink of nuclear war as the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in intense diplomatic negotiations.Both sides reached a resolution through backchannel negotiations, with the Soviets agreeing to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for a secret agreement with the U.S. to remove missiles from Turkey and an assurance not to invade Cuba. The crisis highlighted the dangers of nuclear brinkmanship and led to increased communication between the U.S. and Soviet Union to prevent future crises.The Cuban Missile Crisis is often regarded as the closest the world has come to nuclear war during the Cold War, serving as a wake-up call for both superpowers to pursue detente and arms control measures.The Cuban Missile Crisis had far reaching implications for international relations, nuclear arms control, and the strategies of both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

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1945 - 1949: Postwar Occupation & Division of Germany (2)

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1945 - 1949: Postwar Occupation & Division of Germany (2)

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After WW2, the nation-state founded by Otto von Bismarck in 1871 lay in ruins, and was occupied by foreign armies. As the civil administration of Germany lacked authority, the Allies (victors of WW2) divided Germany into four zones, each of which would be governed by one of the Four Powers—the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The zones were controlled by the Allied Control Council (ACC), a council made of the four supreme commanders of the Allied Forces which was meant to make decisions unanimously or make none at all, but in practice lacked any executive authority of its own, leading the Allies to often make decisions in their own interests. The French and Soviet occupiers generally sought to extract/recover as land as possible from Germany; while the United States was most invested in the establishment of Germany as traditional liberal democratic system (likely due to their view of the Communist USSR as a threat, and therefore Germany as a ‘potential ally’) and Britain, lacking their own ambitions, would come to merge their territory with the United States’ by early 1947, into one economic area—the “Bizone”.

-zahra

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1948 - 1949: Berlin Blockade/Berlin Airlift (3)

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1948 - 1949: Berlin Blockade/Berlin Airlift (3)

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Though the Berlin was deep within the Soviet zone of divided Germany, the city was split into four between the Allies. The Soviet Union, like all the occupiers, feared unified Germany but, more than that, feared the Capitalist influence of the United States and its allies wanted; this fear wasn’t unfounded, as after talks failed, in June 1948, a Six Power Conference (Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and US) was held without the Soviet Union to draft a constitution for a new West German state and led to the creation of the ‘Deutschmark’ currency for the three allied zones. The USSR, led by Stalin, refused to accept this and cut off Berlin from the rest of the world. This blockade occurred before winter, so the Soviet Union planned to apply pressure to make the three allies give up on West Germany, if only to save the 2.5 million residents who only had five weeks worth of food. This proved unsuccessful, when the allies were able to, by air, deliver more than the needed thousands of tons of aid in an unprecedented airlift. The only way to stop the airlift was to shoot down American—and otherwise European—planes, which would be basically declaring all-out war. Facing defeat, Stalin changed positions and agreed to end the blockade in exchange for a meeting of a Council of Foreign Ministers. This meeting, held May 12 1949, was unsuccessful. This was the first time in the Cold War that the former ‘Allies’ were in open conflict.

-zahra

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Not to be conflated with the (arguably ongoing) Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Revolution was a smaller conflict with roots reaching before WW2. The Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) clashed since the 1920s, ceasing only to fight off the invading Japanese, and resuming hostilities after WW2. Despite later propagandized idealism, the KMT had borne the brunt of the Japanese aggression and the Communists had an advantage in their force being relatively untouched. The war began after the breaking down of peace talks in 1946, with the Soviets backing the CCP and their ‘natural enemy’, the United States, backing the KMT. After a series of confrontations and failures by the KMT, Beijing fell to the CCP in 1949; Chian Kai-Shek, his remaining army, and 2 million refugees fled to Taiwan and fought back from outlying islands at the Battle of Kuningtou. In 1950, the Communists captured Hainan Island, the lines ossified and the Chinese Communist Revolution ended. For the next 20 years, Mao’s Communist People’s Republic of China would not be allowed to replace the Nationalist Republic of China as the veto-wielding permanent member in the UN Security Council, due to the West. Further, the Chinese Communist Revolution led to the formation of a Communist state with the potential to rival the Soviet Union in the Communist World; which would be proven real, with the Sino-Soviet split.

-zahra

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Spearheaded by George Marshall, the ‘architect of victory during WW2’ who was held in great esteem and appointed Secretary of State by President Truman, the Marshall plan was a giant plan to aid in the economic recovery of sixteen nations in western Europe, including Germany, which were in the brink of famine due to the widespread destruction of WW2. These nations received $13 billion in aid, in the form of food, staples, fuel, machinery and later industrial investment, leading to great success, the formation of the North Atlantic alliance and what is known as the ‘European Union’. It was announced in a speech to Harvard in 1946, and ended in 1951.

-zahra

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Many people in Cuba were unhappy with the social and racial inequality, the corruption, and the oppression of Fulgencio Batista’s regime, which had been propped up by the United State in a 1952 coup d’état; many people supported the revolutionary Fidel Castro, from Communists to catholic dignitaries. The United States had been long disillusioned by Batista’s leadership, but was nonetheless negatively impacted by Castro’s revolution, since Americans had large financial stakes in Cuba’s industries and banks. The lack of definitive support from the United States led to Castro turning to the Soviet Union for the assistance of a superpower, which was provided after a brief period of hesitation (50 million in 1960 $), and later declaring himself a Marxist-Leninist. The Soviets received an invaluable geographic point at which to spy and threaten the United States at, at the time a turning point in the Cold War. Diplomatic ties were cut between the United States and Cuba in January 1961. The Bay of Pigs, an invasion meant to rouse civilian support against Castro, failed miserably. The Cuban missile crisis followed shortly in October 1962, marking a period of escalating tensions. Castro was never overthrown, despite heavy American intervention and many issues.

-zahra

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A proxy war between the United States and Soviet Union, the Korean War—often called the “Forgotten Conflict”—had roots in the division of the Korean Peninsula at the 38th parallel after repulsion of the imperial Japanese at the end of WW2. Divided cleanly in half, the North was drenched in Communist ideology, led by Kim Ill-sung, while the South made ground on developing a democracy; despite this, both types of Koreans wished for a once-again unified Korea, beneath the banner of their ideological choosing. It would be the North Koreans who struck first, in a blatant invasion of the south on June 25, 1950. A series of battles and skirmishes followed, North Korea supported by the Soviet Union and later, after being ignored, China, and South Korea fighting on with the backing of the United States and UN: Heartbreak Ridge (1951), White Horse (1952), Triangle Hill (1952), and Pork Chop Hill (1953). Upwards of 700,000 people died on each side—the North is generally considered hit harder, but no information is freely nor honestly given by the parish state—and no formal peace treaty was ever signed, though an armistice went into effect and a gigantic 250-mile-long demilitarized zone had since been built at the border.

-zahra

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The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall is a significant event in history that symbolized the division between East and West during the Cold War.

The division of Germany into East Germany (controlled by the Soviet Union) and West Germany (allied with NATO) after World War II.

The mass exodus of East Germans to West Germany through Berlin, seeking political freedom and better living conditions.

The Soviet Union's desire to stop the brain drain and halt the flight of skilled workers from East to West.The construction of the Berlin Wall began on August 13, 1961, by the East German government to prevent defections to the West.

Families and friends were separated overnight as the wall cut through neighborhoods and streets, becoming a physical and ideological barrier.The wall was fortified over the years with guard towers, barbed wire, and a no man's land to prevent escapes.Internal pressures within East Germany for political reform and economic improvements.Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in the Soviet Union, which indirectly influenced change in Eastern Europe.On November 9, 1989, a misunderstanding led an East German official to announce that travel restrictions to the West were lifted, leading to a surge of people crossing the border.Joyous scenes followed as East and West Berliners came together to celebrate the newfound freedom and unity.Over the following months, the physical dismantling of the wall began, symbolizing the end of the division.The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War and paved the way for the reunification of Germany in 1990.The reunification was officially completed on October 3, 1990, signifying the end of the division imposed by the wall and representing a victory for democracy and human rights.

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The Bay of Pigs invasion was a significant event in the history of U.S.-Cuban relations during the Cold War. The rise of Fidel Castro's revolutionary government in Cuba after overthrowing dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

The subsequent nationalization of American assets by the Cuban government, which led to deteriorating relations between Cuba and the United States.The CIA's plan to overthrow Castro's regime by training and arming Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and trigger a popular uprising against Castro.The Bay of Pigs invasion took place on April 17, 1961, when a brigade of around 1,400 Cuban exiles, trained and funded by the CIA, landed on the southern coast of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.The invasion was met with strong resistance from Castro's forces, who were well-prepared and quickly defeated the exiles within three days.The failure of the invasion was partially attributed to miscommunication, lack of air support, and the expected rising up of the Cuban population against Castro, which did not occur.The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) orchestrated the Bay of Pigs invasion under the Eisenhower administration and carried it out during John F. Kennedy's presidency.

Around 1,400 Cuban exiles, known as Brigade 2506, participated in the invasion with the hopes of overthrowing Castro.The revolutionary leader of Cuba, Castro thwarted the invasion and used it to solidify his power and strengthen ties with the Soviet Union.The Bay of Pigs invasion was a resounding failure. The invading force was defeated, captured, or killed, leading to embarrassment for the United States and the Kennedy administration.The event solidified Castro's hold on power in Cuba and pushed him further into the arms of the Soviet Union, ultimately leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.The Bay of Pigs invasion highlighted the limitations of covert operations and had long-term implications for U.S.-Cuban relations, shaping the geopolitics of the region during the Cold War.

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The Soviet war in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet-Afghan War, was a conflict that took place between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen from 1979 to 1989.The Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan in December 1979, primarily to prop up the pro-Soviet government in Kabul, which was facing resistance from various Afghan rebel groups.The instability in Afghanistan following a series of coups and the rise of anti-communist sentiments led the Soviet Union to intervene to prevent the collapse of the Afghan government.The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979, with Soviet forces entering major Afghan cities and capturing key locations.The Afghan resistance, known as the mujahideen, waged a guerrilla war against the Soviet troops using tactics like hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.The conflict became a protracted and bloody war, marked by heavy casualties on both sides and significant destruction across Afghanistan.The war also saw the emergence of the Taliban and other extremist groups, which later played a significant role in Afghan history.The Soviet Union officially withdrew its forces from Afghanistan in February 1989, ending the nine-year-long conflict.The war had a devastating impact on Afghanistan, leading to widespread destruction, loss of life, and displacement of civilians.The power vacuum left after the Soviet withdrawal contributed to the further destabilization of Afghanistan, eventually leading to a civil war and the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s.This conflict had far-reaching consequences, not just for Afghanistan but also for the Soviet Union and the global geopolitical landscape during the Cold War era.

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The Tiananmen Square Massacre, also known as the June Fourth Incident, was a tragic event that took place in Beijing, China, in 1989.

The protests in Tiananmen Square were initially sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party leader who was seen as a reformer.The demonstrations evolved into larger pro-democracy protests, with students and citizens calling for political reforms, greater freedoms, and an end to corruption.

The protests in Tiananmen Square began in April 1989, with students and other groups gathering to demand political change, democratic reforms, and an end to government corruption.As the protests grew in size and intensity, the Chinese government declared martial law and ordered the military to crack down on the demonstrators.On June 3-4, 1989, Chinese troops and tanks moved into Tiananmen Square, opening fire on unarmed civilians and using force to clear the square.

- The violent crackdown resulted in a significant loss of life, with estimates of the death toll varying widely but likely numbering in the hundreds, if not more. The pro-democracy protesters, including students, intellectuals, and citizens from various walks of life, played a central role in the demonstrations.

The Chinese government, led by the Communist Party and paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, ordered the military crackdown on the Chinese military, specifically units of the PLA, were deployed to suppress the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.The Tiananmen Square Massacre had a profound impact on China, leading to a significant tightening of political control, increased censorship, and the suppression of dissent.Many protesters were arrested, and some were executed, while others fled into exile.Internationally, the events at Tiananmen Square led to condemnation of China's human rights violations and isolated the country diplomatically for a time.The Tiananmen Square Massacre remains a sensitive and heavily censored topic in China to this day.

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Fall of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union faced severe economic challenges, including inefficiencies in centralized planning, shortages of consumer goods, and a declining standard of living for the population. Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) aimed to reform the Soviet system but inadvertently led to increased political freedoms and demands for more significant changes.Various republics within the Soviet Union started pushing for greater autonomy and even independence, weakening the central government's control.Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika allowed for more openness and restructuring within the Soviet Union, leading to increased calls for political reforms.The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia declared their independence from the Soviet Union, setting the stage for other republics to follow suit.In August 1991, hardline Communist Party members attempted a coup to remove Gorbachev from power, but the coup failed in the face of popular resistance.

Following the failed coup and amid growing calls for independence, the Soviet republics started declaring their independence, leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.As the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika played a significant role in the reforms that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.The President of the Russian Federation at the time, Boris Yeltsin played a crucial role in resisting the August coup and later became a key figure in Russia's transition away from the Soviet era.Leaders of the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, and other Soviet republics played important roles in pushing for independence and contributing to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.The culmination of these events was the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. This led to the emergence of independent states from the former Soviet republics, marking the end of the Cold War era and the dominance of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.