Essential Question:
Why didn’t the Cold War cause World War III?

Chinese Revolution o Communists vs. Nationalists o Communist leader: Mao Tse-tung (Zedong) o Communists defeated Nationalists (1949)
 People’s Republic of China
 Nationalists fled to Taiwan

Mao was dictator until his death (1976)

United Nations Security Council o 5 Permanent members

United States, Britain, France, Soviet Union, China

Veto Powers

Korea o Divided at the 38 th parallel

North Korea = communist
 South Korea = capitalist o Korean War (1950-1953)

North Korea invaded South Korea

The UN (United Nations) declared a Police Action

The US led UN forces o Motivated by containment and the domino theory

Commander of UN forces o MacArthur

China entered the war and helped North Korea

MacArthur wanted to use atomic bombs o Truman refused his request o MacArthur publicly criticized Truman o Truman fired MacArthur

Eisenhower was elected President in 1952 o Negotiated a peace settlement

Border almost identical to before the war (38 th parallel)


Berlin Wall o Built in 1961 by the Soviets o Separated capitalist West Berlin from communist East Germany o Symbol of the divide between East (communist) and West
(capitalist) in the Cold War

Cuba o Fidel Castro

Took control of Cuba in 1959

Established a communist government
 Seized American-owned property and businesses in Cuba
 Dictator until 2008 o U.S. trade embargo against Cuba began in 1960 o Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)

Failed attempt to overthrow Castro’s communist regime o Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962)
 Photographs from American U-2 spy planes showed
Soviet nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba

90 miles from Florida
 Kennedy’s reaction:

Naval blockade

Secret negotiations with Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev

End to the crisis:

Soviets agreed to pull missiles out of Cuba

US agreed not to invade Cuba and to pull missiles out of Turkey

Prevented World War III o Many Cuban immigrants in the US (mostly Florida)

Vietnam War (1965-73) o North Vietnam = communist
 Led by Ho Chi Minh o South Vietnam = capitalist

US supported South Vietnam because of Containment and the Domino Theory o Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) gave President Lyndon
Johnson (LBJ) authority to send troops o Communists used guerilla warfare

o Americans were young and inexperienced o Tet Offensive (1968)

Surprise attack by the communists during the New Year celebration
 Communists proved that US was not winning the war

Americans began to mistrust the government’s claims about the war o Home Front

Television helped turn public opinion against the war

Many protested the war and the draft

Kent State University (1970) o 4 students were killed during a protest

26 th Amendment

Voting age changed from 21 to 18 o Paris Peace Accords (1973)

The US agreed to withdraw all troops from Vietnam o In 1975 North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam
 All of Vietnam became a single, communist nation o Many Vietnamese fled the country and came to the US o President Bill Clinton normalized US relations with Vietnam in
1995

The Cold War Ends o Ronald Reagan

Supervised the most expensive arms buildup in history
($2 trillion)
 The Soviet economy was unable to keep up with
Reagan’s arms race
 Speech in Berlin (1987)
 “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” o Mikhail Gorbachev
 Last leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)

Glasnost and Perestroika

Reforms that brought about the [unintended] fall of communism and the end to the Cold War o Berlin Wall

Anti-communist protests in October 1989 in East
Germany

Wall opened and dismantling began on November 9


Symbolic end to the Cold War
 Germany reunified into a single nation in October 1990 o Fall of the Soviet Union (1991)

Broken up into 15 independent nations

Official end of the Cold War