Key Terms: The End of the Cold War
Questions To Consider:
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How did the Vietnam War and Détente period reshape the Cold War?
What factors contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold
War?
What are the legacies of the Cold War?
The Vietnam War (1954-1975)
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Division of North and South Vietnam (1954)
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The Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations (1954-1963)
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Assassination of John Kennedy (November 1963)
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The Johnson Administration and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 1964)
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The “Daisy” Ad (November 1964)
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Escalation and Operation Rolling Thunder (March 1965-November 1968)
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Tet Offensive (January 1968)
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My Lai Massacre (March 1968)
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1968 Presidential Campaign
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Richard Nixon and Vietnamization
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Paris Peace Accords (1973)
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Watergate (1974) and the fall of South Vietnam (April 1975)
Détente and the Thawing Cold War (1970-1979)
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Sino-Soviet Split (1960)
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Nixon’s Visit to China (February 1972)
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Diplomatic Breakthroughs
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Third World Interventions
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The Oil Crises and Stagflation
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Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979)
The Second Cold War (1980-1989)
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The New Conservatism of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher
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Strategic Defense Initiative/”Star Wars” (March 1983)
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Able Archer Exercises (November 1983)
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Weak Soviet Leadership
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Rise of Mikhail Gorbachev (March 1985)
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Perestroika & Glasnost
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Chernobyl Disaster (April 1986)
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Reykjavik Arms Control Summit (October 1986)
Collapse of the Soviet Empire
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Anti-Communist Movements in Eastern Europe
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The Revolutions of 1989
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Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989); Re-Unification of Germany (October 1990)
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Dissolution of the Soviet Union (December 1991)
Legacy of the Cold War
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America and the “New World Order”
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China and Economic Transformation
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Proliferation and the Global Arms Trade
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Environmental Legacies of the Cold War
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The Continuing Nuclear Age
Accompanying reading for this topic in textbooks:
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Robert McMahon, The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction – chapters 7 & 8
Jussi M. Hanhimäki & Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A History in Documents and
Eyewitness Accounts – chapters 7, 15-19
Melvyn Leffler & Odd Arne Westad, Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol 2.,
“Crises and Détente”, & vol. 3, “Endings”
CNN Cold War Episode for this topic:
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Episode 11 - Vietnam
Episode 16 – Détente
Episode 20 – Soldiers of God
Episode 22 – Star Wars
Episode 23 – The Wall Comes Down
Episode 24 – Conclusions, 1989-1991
For Further Reading:
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John Prados, Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975 (2009)
Mark Moyar, Truimph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 (2009)
James Willbanks, The Tet Offensive: A Concise History (2006)
Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 (2008)
Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist
Establishment (2009)
Lawrence Wittner, Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear
Disarmament Movement (2009)
Stevan Allen, Roaming Ghostland: The Last Days of East Germany (2009)
David Hoffman, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its
Dangerous Legacy (2010)