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November 9 1989, Gorbachev renounce the Brezhnev doctrine, after a massive public demonstrations in east and west germany, the berlin wall fell on the date. 1991 coup d'etat in Russia, the Military arrested G. President Yeltsin rescues him, and he gains power. Symbolizes the end of the Cold War. As soon as democratic elections were announced in Hungary there was a mass movement of East German citizens through Hungary to West Germany.

As a result, the East German government was forced to announce much greater freedom of travel for East German citizens. As part of this decision, the East German government announced that East Germans would be allowed to cross the border with West Berlin. The day the Berlin Wall fell, thousands flocked to checkpoints in Berlin Wall and the border Guards let them pass.

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The Korean War was sparked by the desire of North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union to establish a communist state in the Korean Peninsula. North Korea's invasion of South Korea sparked the conflict, prompting the US to intervene to contain the spread of communism and prevent North Korea from gaining full control. General Douglas MacArthur led American troops in the war, but Truman fired him due to concerns about China's potential attack. MacArthur's ambitions to extend the war into other countries and cause further problems were met with resistance from China.

The war ended with an armistice between the US, China, North Korea, and South Korea. The conflict fueled US fears and led to intervention in Vietnam to prevent North Korea from regaining control, allowing them to become a world power. The US's involvement in the Korean War was driven by its desire to contain communism and prevent North Korea from gaining full control over the Korean Peninsula.

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In a 1964 speech, Winston Churchill declared that an "iron curtain" had descended across Europe, dividing Germany and Europe into two hostile camps. This was a call to war with the Soviet Union, and the Iron Curtain was a physical and ideological division that represented Europe's post-World War II view.

East of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to or influenced by the former Soviet Union, including Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania.

"We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. If the Western Democracies stand together in strict adherence to the principles of the United Nations charter, their influence for furthering these principles will be immense and no one is likely to molest them."

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The Warsaw Pact (Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance) was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance between Communist countries in East Europe to counter the threat of Capitalism in Europe. It had a great effect as a military deterrent on any of the European nations seeking war against other nations to further the spread of the ideals it supported.

It created a joint command for armed forces set up a political committee to coordinate the foreign policies of the members increased soviet control financially damaged in the USSR troops were stationed across Europe

Original members

USSR
Poland
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Romania
Bulgaria
Albania
East Germany

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SALT 1, a series of talks between the United States and the Soviet Union, aimed to control armament. It consisted of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Basic Principles Agreement, and Interim Treaty.

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons. Missile states were only allowed at 2 sites in each country and each country should have a maximum of 100 missiles.

The Basic Principle Agreement laid down rules for the conduct of nuclear warfare. It banned the placing of nuclear warheads on the sea bed. It set out steps for avoiding a nuclear war.

The Interim Treaty was a temporary agreement only in place until 1977. It placed restrictions on the number of inter-continental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles each country should have. The Soviet Union was allowed more ICBMs, as the USA secretly developed Multiple Independently-Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs), but didn't admit this to the USSR and so they appeared to be making very generous concessions.

Negotiations began in Helsinki in 1969, leading to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an interim agreement. However, the treaty was not ratified by the United States Senate due to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The agreement expired in 1985 and was not renewed.

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Soviet society had stopped growing as a result of totalitarian policies banning political dissent. Soviet economy was inefficient and unproductive (central planning system). Mikhail Gorbachev was a progressive leader who hoped to lead the USSR in a modern direction. Glastnost was the Soviet Union's plan to allow more political freedom in the 1980's. Soviet-US arms race became too costly. President Reagan ended detente and his administration approved the most expensive military buildup in peacetime history. The cost was $2 trillion. The US economy could "take the hit" of increased spending for defense, but the USSR economy couldn't.

In August 1991, hard-liners staged a coup against Gorbachev. Hard-liners were frustrated with the loss of the communist party's power, the failing economy, and the loss of control over Eastern Europe. They demanded Gorbachev's resignation and tried to solve the problems with tanks and troops. Gorbachev was placed under arrest. Boris Yeltsin mobilized support against the coup.

The coup failed and Gorbachev was reinstalled to power within 3 days. However, he knew that he had lost control of the USSR. After the failed coup, the Baltics demanded independence and many other republics followed. By December 1991, all 15 republics had declared independence. After nearly 709 years, the USSR collapsed and Gorbachev resigned. Yeltsin led the formation of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).

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The space race played a significant role in the Cold War, a period of tension between the USA and USSR. Walter Lippmann, an American reporter and political commentator, introduced the concept of the Cold War, which was a battle over ideology. The Space Race demonstrated the world's best science, technology, and economic systems. In 1961, President Kennedy announced his goal to be the first to put a man on the Moon within a decade, citing it as important for the country and the Western world.

In Operation Paperclip, the USA smuggled German scientist Van Braun, a Nazi and SS member, into the USA. This controversial move was met with controversy and backlash. In 1967, a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test, resulting in the deaths of three astronauts. The hatch door, intended to secure the astronauts and atmosphere, was too tough to open under these circumstances.

On July 16, 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins set off on the Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt. The mission took three days, and Armstrong had to land the module manually in the Sea of Tranquility due to malfunctions.

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Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union were the key players. In April 1961, a group of Cuban exiles organized and supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency landed on the southern coast of Cuba in an effort to overthrow and remove Fidel Castro as the leader of Cuba. Fidel Castro was the Communist leader of Cuba. In 1962, Cuba (a communist country off the coast of Florida very close to the U.S.) allowed the Soviet Union to come into the country and place nuclear missiles aimed at the United States. This happened after Fidel Castro took over.

President Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba and prevented Soviet ships from reaching Cuba. Finally, the Soviet Union removed the missiles when the U.S. promised not to attack Cuba. It is the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. The crisis was resolved with negotiations that removed Soviet missiles from Cuba and U.S. missiles from Turkey. Kennedy ordered a blockade to be formed around Cuba.

This prevented Soviet ships from coming in. Both the Soviet Union and the US realized that if they had a huge nuclear war, no one would win. They tried to relax relations and set up a hotline so they could communicate more easily. The US has missiles in Turkey, so if the Soviet Union tried to nuke the United States with their missiles in Cuba, the United States would retaliate with their missiles positioned well within the distance of the Soviet Union.

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The Potsdam Conference led to divisions in Germany and European countries between the US and the USSR. Stalin's Iron Curtain prevented invasions from the West, and the zones of occupation in Germany turned into lines of division. The US/Britain fought for the unification of Germany, while Russia consolidated its grip on Eastern Europe, supporting communist regimes. The US refused to help Russia rebuild, removing factories and plants from Eastern Europe.

The Containment Policy, supported by Dean Acheson, General George C. Marshall, and George Kennan, was an informal declaration of cold and proxy wars against the USSR. The Marshall Plan aimed to extend economic power in Europe to halt the Soviet Union's expansion, offering extensive aid to all nations, including Russia. The USSR withdrew from the plan, while Western European countries accepted and revived their industries.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization promised US protection of Western European people as they recovered economically. Russia's land blockade of West Berlin forced Truman to keep military troops there, and airlifts of supplies were dropped by the US to West Berlin. In 1949, the Soviets gave in without violence, ending the Cold War crisis. The US focused on unifying its armed services and creating new institutions for military and diplomatic strategy after WWII.

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John F. Kennedy was the 35th president from 1961 until he was assassinated in 1963. Killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was an ex U.S. Marine who lived in the Soviet Union. He came back to the U.S. one year before he killed JFK and a local police officer, J.D. Tippit. JFK was beginning his campaign trail to be elected again for a second term. Nobody knows why Oswald killed JFK, except for Oswald, who was slightly mentally unstable. The President's murder made the country fear what they would do next without their president. It made people feel unsafe and scared.

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On August 5, 1963, representatives of the United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater, or in the atmosphere. Caused by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Signed by USA-Kennedy, USSR_Khrushchev. It was the first step to take control of the use of nuclear weapons-open discussion on limited weapon production.

President Kennedy signaled a commitment to the USSR in speaking of June 1963- arguing that both superpowers needed to focus on their common interests. It was seen as an important first step in slowing down the arms race by controlling the development of nuclear weapons. It was designed to stop radioactivity from spreading, stop nuclear weapon testing in the atmosphere, disincentivize the protection that nuclear weapons provide.

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President Johnson's goal for U.S. involvement in Vietnam was not to win the war but to bolster South Vietnam's defenses until South Vietnam could take over. Ho Chi Minh had been asking the U.S. to support him against the French, but the U.S. did not want to contradict their policy of containment, as Ho Chi Minh was communist. Instead, they began aiding France in 1950.

The Vietnam War was a prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify Vietnam under a communist government and the U.S. attempting to prevent the spread of communism. Ho Chi Minh bribed them with military secrets of the Japanese, but the U.S. resisted due to their dedication to their foreign policy of containment. The U.S. believed that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, all would fall, causing a domino effect. Therefore, the U.S. decided to support France, not Ho Chi Minh, as he was a communist.

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The Open Skies Program aimed to allow each country to fly over the other and take high-level reconnaissance photographs, with the goal of trust. Russia rejected this idea, but Eisenhower expected it. The Soviets had a totalitarian government with a spy network dating back to the 30s. They built a U2 spy plane, with pilots given cyanide pills and given 30 seconds to evacuate before the plane self-destructed. The US kept this secret, and Russians worked to develop similar systems.

A flight from Turkey to Siberia failed, and the US was hesitant to allow flights. The Soviets improved their missile shooting capabilities, and the CIA asked if they could send another plane. Francis Gary Powers' plane was shot down over Russian soil, and Russians claimed it was a weather balloon. The US denied this, and Russians paraded Powers around Red Square to show Americans they had known all along.

Eisenhower refused to apologize for the flight and promised the truth would eventually come out. He made a speech stating he knew all about the flights and approved everyone. In Vienna, Eisenhower, Khrushchev, DeGaulle, and Eden met to discuss the situation. Khrushchev interrupted Degaulle's speech, demanding an apology from Eisenhower. Eisenhower refused, stating that both countries were guilty of spying on the US. DeGaulle, a tall French leader, welcomed everyone to France and told Eisenhower, "We don't know what he's going to do. Whatever he does, we're with you."