Main Events of the Cold War

Major Cold War Events:

ARMS RACE – The Soviet Union and the USA were in a race to develop bigger and better weapons, starting with the atomic bomb.
- both countries had big piles of weapons that they didn’t use because the other side had just as many weapons and any attack would end in total destruction.


SPREAD OF COMMUNISM – all of Eastern Europe except Albania and Yugoslavia were under the control of soviet dominated communist governments.
-Albania was communist, but became independent, and didn’t allow the Soviets to control them.
-Yugoslavia was also communist, but the leader, Tito, refused to give in to Stalin.

THE KOREAN WAR – After WWII, the USSR and the USA divided Korea in two. The North part became communist, and the south was somewhat democratic. The North Koreans invaded the south, hoping to make one big communist Korea, so the US and the UN sent in forces to fight them back. Then the Chinese sent troops to help the North Koreans. Fighting continues from 1950 to 1953, when fighting stops, and both sides are back to their original positions. (see p. 727 in the textbook)

Eastern European Protests -
Poland – after protests, the Communist party tried to break away from the USSR, but backed down because they were afraid of being invaded. (1956)
Hungary – after revolts, Hungary was declared a free nation and tried to have free elections. The Soviets attacked and re-took control of the country
(1956)
Czechoslovakia – Novotny, a communist put in power by Stalin, was forced to resign after a rebellion in 1968. A new leader relaxed strict policies and promised eventual democracy, but the country was invaded by the USSR and the movement was crushed.
-Prague Spring – Czechoslovakia’s brief period of
democratic happiness


CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS – After Castro took power in Cuba, he allied with the Soviet Union, JFK approved a plan to send Cuban exiles (people who fled from Cuba after Castro took over) into Cuba to start a revolt that would cause Castro to lose power. The invasion failed, and the exiles were killed or arrested when they landed. This was known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
After that, the USSR sent nuclear missiles to Cuba, where they were set up and aimed at the US. (This was a response to the fact that the US had missiles in Turkey aimed at the USSR).
In 1962, the USA set up a blockade (where they wouldn’t allow any ships, supplies, etc to get to Cuba) to keep a ship filled with Soviet missiles from reaching Cuba. The US and USSR worked to reach and agreement, and finally decided that the if the US promised not to invade Cuba, the USSR would remove its missiles from Cuba.
This is the closest the two countries came to nuclear conflict during the war.

VIETNAM WAR – began as a response to the “domino theory” that if one Asian country became communist, all of them would follow.
North Vietnam was communist, and South Vietnam had a ruler put in place & supported by the USA. When Ho Chi Minh’s forces and communist groups in S. Vietnam started trying to take over, the US sent troops to help fight Communism. Eventually, the US withdrew their troops, and all of Vietnam became communist.