-
1985 BCE
The USSR could not afford the increasing militar spending
The USSR could not afford the increasing militar spending In 1985, the USSR began to change its policies. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and brought some changes:
• disarmament treaty was signed so the USA and the USSR agreed to remove medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe within 3 years.
•Gorbachev announced the immediate reduction of the
weapons stockpile and the number of troops in the soviet armed forces. The Cold War was ending and the USSR began to reform -
1964 BCE
increased troop numbers
in South Vietnam there was a group called the Vietcong that wanted the South and the communist North to join. President Johnson was determined to keep south Vietnam communist free, so he increased troop numbers from 23.000 in 1964 to 500.000 in 1967. He began a bombing campaign of North Vietnam. The offensive resulted in the loss of thousands of American lives (14,000 in 1969), most of whom were young men. The war was very expensive and public opinion soon turned against the -
1962 BCE
Cuban missile crisis
Cuba, which was only 100 miles away from the USA, h
ad been ruled by a military dictator, Batista,
since 1940. He allowed American businessmen and the
Mafia to make huge profits in a country
where most people lived in poverty. In 1956, a rebe
l named Fidel Castro attempted to overthrow
the government, but was defeated and forced into ex
ile. In 1959, Castro began a
guerrilla
war and
soon marched on Cuba ́s capital, Havana, and overthr
ew the government. -
1954 BCE
Vietnam War
Chinese support helped to establish a Communist gov
ernment in North Vietnam. South East Asia had been controlled by France, but French forces were completely defeated by the North
Vietnamese in 1954 (Dien Ben Phu). By the Geneva Agreement of 1954 France withdrew from Indochina, losing their Empire. -
Period: 1950 BCE to 1953 BCE
Korea 1950-1953
Before the Second World War Korea was a colony of J
apan. Japan was defeated and Korea was
divided into North and South Korea along the 38th
parallel. The North was communist and the
South was under the
influence of the USA and had an anti- communist dic
tatorship -
1949 BCE
two new states were formed
the German Federal Republic
(West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic. The frontier between Eastern and Western Europe had been
drawn in Berlin. -
the USSR and the USA agreed to limit their nuclear weapons
in 1972, the USSR and the USA agreed to limit their nuclear weapons and they signed the strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement (SALT 1). They planned more arms limitation but the USA refused to sign the SALT agreement (in 1979) after the soviet invasion of Afghanistan -
President Nixon wanted to finish the war quickly.
President Nixon wanted to finish the war quickly. American troops were gradually withdrawn from Vietnam. Instead the US started training the South Vietnamese to fight the Vietcong. As a result they began heavy bombing of North Vietnam and Cambodia. In 1973 a ceasefire was arranged. -
Saigon (the South capital) had been captured by the Vietcong.
By 1975 Saigon (the South capital) had been captured by the Vietcong. The Americans were defeated for several reasons:
•US bombs killed a lot of civilians.
•Vietcong guerrillas were very skillful soldiers. American troops were not used to fight in the jungle.
•North Vietnam had the support of China and the Soviet Union.
• American public opinion turned against the war.
• The Vietcong treated the South Vietnamese well and gained their support -
Ronald Reagan was elected president of the USA
In 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected president of the
USA and the period of détente ended.
The USA developed nuclear missiles which could be l
aunched from almost anywhere. They also
developed the Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wa
rs) for using laser weapons to shoot down
soviet missiles from space -
the fall of the Berlin Wall
was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989.Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992.
