AP World History: The Cold War

1. AP World History: The Cold War Period 6 1900 – the Present “From Stettin in the Balkans, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lies the ancient capitals of Central and Eastern Europe.”- Sir Winston Churchill, 1946

2. Creation of the UN “The name "United Nations", coined by US President FDR was first used in the Declaration by United Nations of Jan 1, 1942, during WWII, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers... In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco… to draw up the UN Charter... The United Nations officially came into existence on Oct 24, 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the USSR, the UK, the US and by a majority of other signatories.” https://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/

3. The Creation of Israel, 1948 On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day. Although the US supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, President FDR had assured the Arabs in 1945 that the US would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region. The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region. Great Britain wanted to preserve good relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political and economic interests in Palestine... In May 1946, Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced persons into Palestine and in October publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state. Throughout 1947, the UN Special Commission on Palestine recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On November 29, 1947 the UN adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain a corpus separatumunder international control administered by the UN... The State Department [however], concerned about the possibility of an increasing Soviet role in the Arab world and the potential for restriction by Arab oil producing nations of oil supplies to the United States, advised against U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews… [and] about the possibility of an all-out war in Palestine as Arab states threatened to attack... Despite [the] growing conflict… Truman ultimately decided to recognize the state Israel. http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel

5. Truman Doctrine 1947 “In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman's address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War. In February 1947, the British government informed the United States that it could no longer furnish the economic and military assistance it had been providing to Greece and Turkey since the end of World War II… Truman requested $400 million in assistance for the two nations. Congress approved his request two months later… Truman's address outlined the broad parameters of U.S. Cold War foreign policy: the Soviet Union was the center of all communist activity and movements throughout the world; communism could attack through outside invasion or internal subversion; and the United States needed to provide military and economic assistance to protect nations from communist aggression.” – www.history.com

6. Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947 Excerpt “…It is necessary only to glance at a map to realize that the survival and integrity of the Greek nation are of grave importance... If Greece should fall under the control of an armed minority, the effect upon its neighbor, Turkey, would be immediate and serious. Confusion and disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East. Moreover, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war. It would be an unspeakable tragedy if these countries, which have struggled so long against overwhelming odds, should lose that victory for which they sacrificed so much. Collapse of free institutions and loss of independence would be disastrous not only for them but for the world... Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East. We must take immediate and resolute action. I therefore ask the Congress to provide authority for assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948... In addition to funds, I ask the Congress to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey, at the request of those countries, to assist in the tasks of reconstruction, and for the purpose of supervising the use of such financial and material assistance as may be furnished...”

7. Marshall Plan 1948 Although the United States provided nearly $11 billion in aid to several European countries between 1945 and 1947 through the United Nations Relief and Recovery Administration, funds were haphazardly distributed and failed to deal with European-wide economic needs. On June 5, 1947, at a Harvard commencement, Secretary of State George C. Marshall set forth the basic principles of American policy in rebuilding Europe. "It is logical," stated Marshall, "that the United States do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy," continued Marshall, "is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.“ Marshall suggested that European countries in need of aid should join in drawing up a program for presentation to the United States. This led to the creation of the European Recovery Act (ERA) which passed September 23, 1947. –www.cia.gov Secretary of State George Marshall

8. Creation of the CIA “The Soviet Union took an increasingly hostile view of the Marshall Plan, refused East Bloc participation, and called it an "imperialist ploy" for the enslavement of Europe. In September 1947, the Soviets founded the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM), which ordered party members to mobilize against the Marshall Plan. French and Italian Communists, in particular, responded by staging strikes and intensive propaganda campaigns. Washington's increasing concern over Soviet behavior was one of several factors that lead to passage of the National Security Act of 1947, creating the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in September. One of the NSC’s first acts was to grant CIA authority to conduct covert action and to assign the Agency the task of countering Soviet activities…” –www.cia.gov

9. Post WWII Germany

10. Berlin Blockade and Airlift 1948 - 1949 “As WWII came to an end in 1945, the Allied powers held peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam to determine how they would divide up Germany’s territories. The agreements split the defeated nation into 4 “allied occupation zones”: They gave the eastern part of the country to the Soviet Union and the Western part to the U.S. and UK. In turn, those nations agreed to cede a small part of their territories to France.... This occupation of Berlin, governed by the multipower agency “Kommandatura”, began in June 1945. In 1946 the Americans and the British combined their 2 sectors into a single “Bizonia,” and the French were preparing to join as well. In 1948, the three western Allies created a single new currency (the Deutsche Mark) for all of their occupation zones—a move that the Soviets feared would devalue the already hyperinflatedReichsmarks that they used in the east. The Russians were also concerned about a unified West Berlin: a capitalist city located right in the middle of their occupation zone... The Soviets withdrew from the Kommandatura and began a blockade of West Berlin to starve the western powers out of Berlin. If West Germany was to become its own country, they argued, then Berlin, located more than 100 miles from its border, could no longer be its capital. On June 15, 1948, the Soviet authorities announced that the Autobahn, the highway connecting western Germany to Berlin, would be closed indefinitely “for repairs.” Then, they halted all road traffic from west to east, and barred all barge and rail traffic from entering West Berlin. Thus began the blockade of Berlin. As far as the western Allies were concerned, withdrawal was not an option. “If we withdraw,” said the American military commander, “our position in Europe is threatened, and Communism will run rampant.” Using military force risked turning the Cold War into an actual war—[therefore] the Allies would supply their sectors of Berlin from the air. Allied cargo planes would use open air corridors over the Soviet occupation zone to deliver food, fuel and other goods to the people who lived in the western part of the city…

11. Berlin Blockade and Airlift Continued… …This project, code-named “Operation VITTLES” was known as the “Berlin airlift.” The Berlin airlift was supposed to be a short-term measure, but it settled in for the long haul as the Soviets refused to lift the blockade. For more than a year, hundreds of American, British and French cargo planes ferried provisions from Western Europe to the Tempelhof (in the American sector), Gatow (in the British sector) and Tegel (in the French sector) airfields in West Berlin. At the beginning of the operation, the planes delivered about 5,000 tons of supplies to West Berlin every day; by the end, those loads had increased to about 8,000 tons of supplies per day. The Allies carried about 2.3 million tons of cargo in all over the course of the airlift. Life in West Berlin during the blockade was not easy. Fuel and electricity were rationed, and the black market was the only place to obtain many goods. Still, most West Berliners supported the airlift and their western allies. “It’s cold in Berlin,” one airlift-era saying went, “but colder in Siberia.” By spring 1949, it was clear that the Soviet blockade of West Berlin had failed. It had not persuaded West Berliners to reject their allies in the West, nor had it prevented the creation of a unified West German state. (The Federal Republic of Germany was established in May 1949.) On May 12, 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade and reopened the roads, canals and railway routes into the western half of the city. The Allies continued the airlift until September, however, because they wanted to stockpile supplies in Berlin just in case the blockade was reinstated. Most historians agree that the blockade was a failure in other ways, too. It amped up Cold War tensions and made the USSR look to the rest of the world like a cruel and capricious enemy. It hastened the creation of West Germany, and, by demonstrating that the U.S. and Western European nations had common interests (and a common foe), it motivated the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance that still exists today.” www.history.com

12. Berlin Airlift, June 1948

13. The Arms Race The Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb in 1949. Now there were two nuclear superpowers! The first Soviet atomic test “RDS-1”, 1949

14. Mao’s Revolution 1949 “On October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which broke out immediately following WWII... Japanese surrender set the stage for the resurgence of civil war in China. Though only nominally democratic, the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek continued to receive U.S. support both as its former war ally and as the sole option for preventing Communist control of China. U.S. forces flew tens of thousands of Nationalist Chinese troops into Japanese-controlled territory and allowed them to accept the Japanese surrender. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, occupied Manchuria and only pulled out when Chinese Communist forces were in place to claim that territory. In 1945, the leaders of the Nationalist and Communist parties, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, met for a series of talks on the formation of a post-war government. Both agreed on the importance of democracy, a unified military, and equality for all Chinese political parties. The truce was tenuous… by 1946 the two sides were fighting an all-out civil war… Although the Communists did not hold any major cities after WWII, they had strong grassroots support, superior military organization and morale, and large stocks of weapons seized from Japanese supplies in Manchuria… Early in 1947, the ROC Government was already looking to the island province of Taiwan… as a potential point of retreat... In October of 1949, after a string of military victories, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the PRC; Chiang and his forces fled to Taiwan to regroup and plan for their efforts to retake the mainland…In August of 1949, the Truman administration published the “China White Paper” which explained past U.S. policy toward China based upon the principle that only Chinese forces could determine the outcome of their civil war. Unfortunately for Truman, this step failed to protect his administration from charges of having “lost” China. ” http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev

15. Mao’s Revolution 1949 Continued…

16. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “NATO’s essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. POLITICAL - NATO promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defense and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict. MILITARY - NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty - NATO’s founding treaty - or under a UN mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations. http://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/#basic

17. Warsaw Pact 1955 “The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. The Warsaw Pact, so named because the treaty was signed in Warsaw, included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. The treaty called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force and it set up a unified military command under Marshal Ivan S. Konev of the Soviet Union. The introduction to the treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact indicated the reason for its existence. This revolved around "Western Germany, which is being remilitarized, and her inclusion in the North Atlantic bloc, which increases the danger of a new war and creates a threat to the national security of peace-loving states." This passage referred to the decision by the United States and the other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on May 9, 1955 to make West Germany a member of NATO and allow that nation to remilitarize. The Soviets obviously saw this as a direct threat and responded with the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact remained intact until 1991. Albania was expelled in 1962 because, believing that Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev was deviating too much from strict Marxist orthodoxy, the country turned to communist China for aid and trade. In 1990, East Germany left the Pact and reunited with West Germany; the reunified Germany then became a member of NATO. The rise of non-communist governments in other eastern bloc nations, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, throughout 1990 and 1991 marked an effective end of the power of the Warsaw Pact. In March 1991, the military alliance component of the pact was dissolved and in July 1991, the last meeting of the political consultative body took place.” www.history.com

19. Premier Nikita Khrushchev “About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether we (Soviet Union) exist. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it our not, history is on our side. We will bury you.” - 1956

20. Sputnik and the Start of the Space Race, 1957 “History changed on October 4, 1957, when the USSR successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth... While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. In October 1954, the International Council of Scientific Unions adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched to map the Earth's surface. In July 1955, the White House announced plans to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite... The Sputnik launch changed everything... Its size was more impressive than [the one proposed by the US]. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika... On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite… eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft. The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958...” http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/

21. The Space Race Continued… Laika, the Passenger of Sputnik II Sputnik 1, Launched 1957

22. Explorer I

23. The Korean War 1950 - 1953 Since the beginning of the 20th century, Korea had been a part of the Japanese empire, and after World War II it fell to the Americans and the Soviets to decide what should be done with their enemy’s possessions. In August 1945, two young aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel. The Russians occupied the area north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its south. By the end of the decade, two new states had formed on the peninsula. In the south, the anti-communist dictator Syngman Rhee (1875-1965) enjoyed the reluctant support of the American government; in the north, the communist dictator Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) enjoyed the slightly more enthusiastic support of the Soviets. Neither dictator was content to remain on his side of the 38th parallel, however, and border skirmishes were common. Nearly 10,000 North and South Korean soldiers were killed in battle before the war even began. Even so, the North Korean invasion came as an alarming surprise to American officials. As far as they were concerned, this was not simply a border dispute between two unstable dictatorships on the other side of the globe. Instead, many feared it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world. (In fact, in April 1950, a National Security Council report known as NSC-68 had recommended that the US use military force to “contain” communist expansionism anywhere it seemed to be occurring, “regardless of the intrinsic strategic or economic value of the lands in question.”)…

24. The Korean War Continued… As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the US readied its troops for a war against communism itself. At first, the war was a defensive one–a war to get the communists out of South Korea–and it went badly for the Allies. The North Korean army was well-disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped; Rhee’s forces, by contrast, were frightened, confused, and seemed inclined to flee the battlefield at any provocation. Also, it was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and desperately thirsty American soldiers were often forced to drink water from rice paddies that had been fertilized with human waste. As a result, dangerous intestinal diseases and other illnesses were a constant threat. By the end of the summer, President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), the commander in charge of the Asian theater, had decided on a new set of war aims. Now, for the Allies, the Korean War was an offensive one: It was a war to “liberate” the North from the communists. Initially, this new strategy was a success. An amphibious assault at Inchon pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. But as American troops crossed the boundary and headed north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, the Chinese started to worry about protecting themselves from what they called “armed aggression against Chinese territory.” Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) sent troops to North Korea and warned the US to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war.

25. The Korean War Continued… This was something that President Truman and his advisers decidedly did not want: They were sure that such a war would lead to Soviet aggression in Europe, the deployment of atomic weapons and millions of senseless deaths. To General MacArthur, however, anything short of this wider war represented “appeasement,” an unacceptable knuckling under to the communists… in March 1951, MacArthur sent a letter to Joseph Martin, a House Republican leader who shared MacArthur’s support for declaring all-out war on China–and who could be counted upon to leak the letter to the press. “There is,” MacArthur wrote, “no substitute for victory” against international communism. For Truman, this letter was the last straw. On April 11, the president fired the general for insubordination. In July 1951, Truman and his new military commanders started peace talks at Panmunjom. Still, the fighting continued along the 38th parallel as negotiations stalled… after more than two years of negotiations, the adversaries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953. The agreement allowed the POWs to stay where they liked; drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide “demilitarized zone” that still exists today. Causalities:The Korean War was relatively short but exceptionally bloody. Nearly 5 million people died. More than half of these–about 10 percent of Korea’s prewar population–were civilians. (This rate of civilian casualties was higher than World War II’s and Vietnam’s.) Almost 40,000 Americans died in action in Korea, and more than 100,000 were wounded.

27. The Korean War Continued… A Korean Woman on the run from an America plane

28. The Suez Crisis 1956 - 1957 “[In 1954 Egypt] had begun pressuring the British to end their military presence (which had been granted in the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty) in the canal zone. [Egyptian President] Nasser’s armed forces also engaged in sporadic battles with Israeli soldiers along the border between the two countries… Supported by Soviet arms and money, and furious with the US for reneging on a promise to provide funds for construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, Nasser ordered the Suez Canal seized and nationalized. The British… sought the support of France (which believed that Nasser was supporting rebels in the French colony of Algeria) and Israel (which needed little provocation to strike at the enemy on its border) in an armed assault to retake the canal. The Israelis struck first, on October 26, 1956. Two days later, British and French military forces joined them… Behind schedule, but ultimately successful, the British and French troops took control of the area around the Suez Canal. However, their hesitation had given the Soviets time to respond. The Soviets… supplied arms from Czechoslovakia to the Egyptian government beginning in 1955, and eventually helped Egypt construct the Aswan Dam on the Nile River after the US refused to support the project. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev railed against the invasion and threatened to rain down nuclear missiles on Western Europe if the Israeli-French-British force did not withdraw…. [Eisenhower] warned the Soviets that reckless talk of nuclear conflict would only make matters worse… However, Eisenhower also issued stern warnings to the French, British and Israelis to give up their campaign and withdraw from Egyptian soil… The US threatened all three nations with economic sanctions if they persisted in their attack. The threats did their work. The British and French forces withdrew by December; Israel… in March 1957. In the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, Britain and France found their influence as world powers weakened…The 120-mile Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, took 10 years to construct and opened in 1869..” –www.history.com

30. The Suez Canal Today

31. The Aswan Dam The Aswan Dam benefits Egypt by controlling the annual floods on the Nile River and prevents the damage which used to occur along the floodplain. It provides about a half of Egypt's power supply. The resulting reservoir was named for the former president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

32. U2 Spy Incident 1960 “Anxious to avoid a surprise nuclear attack, US President Eisenhower was growing increasingly nervous over rapid Soviet technological achievements. By 1954, the Soviets had demonstrated a thermonuclear bomb as well as the means to deliver it with their long-range jet-powered Bison bomber. Could a Soviet ICBM be far behind?... He needed answers about Soviet intentions.. a high-flying reconnaissance plane was Eisenhower’s only hope. In late 1954, Eisenhower approved project AQUATONE; a plan for the CIA to develop and deploy a long-rage spy plane capable of flying, beyond the reach of Soviet interceptors and surface to air defenses. Fortunately, development of a plane ideally suited for the task was already well under way... Clarence Kelly Johnson’s design, essentially a jet-powered glider, utilized a single engine and could carry its civilian pilot and camera in excess of 70,000 feet unarmed, unmarked and, so it was hoped, undetected by Soviet air defense radars... In the early summer of 1955, deserted Groom Lake (later known as Area 51) in Southern Nevada was chosen as the U2 flight testing site... The first U2 flew at Groom on August 4th, 1955, a mere 8 months after contract approval, on time and under budget. U2s under CIA control began over flights of Soviet territory in July, 1956.” http://www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/u2_incident.asp

33. U2 Spy Incident 1960 American Francis Gary Powers in front of his U-2 spy plane. The pilot was captured by the Soviets in 1960 after his aircraft crashed in Russia.

34. U2 Spy Incident 1960 Continued…

35. The Berlin Wall, 1961 Two days after sealing off free passage between East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities begin building a wall--the Berlin Wall--to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War--a literal "iron curtain" dividing Europe… On the night of August 12-13, 1961, East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin, and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the border was drastically reduced. The West, taken by surprise, threatened a trade embargo against East Germany as a retaliatory measure. The Soviets responded that such an embargo be answered with a new land blockade of West Berlin. When it became evident that the West was not going to take any major action to protest the closing, East German authorities became emboldened, closing off more and more checkpoints between East and West Berlin. On August 15, they began replacing barbed wire with concrete. The wall, East German authorities declared, would protect their citizens from the pernicious influence of decadent capitalist culture. During the rest of 1961, the grim and unsightly Berlin Wall continued to grow in size and scope, eventually consisting of a series of concrete walls up to 15 feet high. These walls were topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, machine gun emplacements, and mines. By the 1980s, this system of walls and electrified fences extended 28 miles through Berlin and 75 miles around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East Germany. The East Germans also erected an extensive barrier along most of the 850-mile border between East and West Germany. In the West, the Berlin Wall was regarded as a major symbol of communist oppression. About 5,000 East Germans managed to escape across the Berlin Wall to the West, but the frequency of successful escapes dwindled as the wall was increasingly fortified. Thousands of East Germans were captured during attempted crossings and 191 were killed. In 1989, East Germany's communist regime was overwhelmed by the democratization sweeping across Eastern Europe. On the evening of November 9, 1989, East Germany announced an easing of travel restrictions to the West, and thousands demanded passage though the Berlin Wall. Faced with growing demonstrations, East German border guards opened the borders. Jubilant Berliners climbed on top of the Berlin Wall, painted graffiti on it, and removed fragments as souvenirs. The next day, East German troops began dismantling the wall. In 1990, East and West Germany were formally reunited. - www.history.com

36. The Berlin Wall Construction of the Wall at Berlin's central PotsdamerPlatz square on August 18, 1961. A boy sitting on the shoulders of another child peers at the Liesen street in Wedding, West Berlin, over the wall towards the eastern part of the city Aug. 23, 1961.

37. Khruschev Embraces Castro, 1961

38. The Bay of Pigs, 1961 “In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The U.S. government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union… The CIA developed a plan during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. President Eisenhower approved the program in March 1960. The CIA set up training camps in Guatemala, and by November the operation had trained a small army... José Miró Cardona led the anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the US. A former member of Castro's government, he was the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, an exile committee. Cardona was poised to take over the provisional presidency of Cuba if the invasion succeeded. Despite efforts of the government to keep the invasion plans covert, it became common knowledge among Cuban exiles in Miami. Through Cuban intelligence, Castro learned of the training camps as early as October 1960... Shortly after his inauguration, in February 1961, President Kennedy authorized* the invasion plan… The landing point at the Bay of Pigs was part of the deception. The site was a remote swampy area on the southern coast of Cuba, where a night landing might bring a force ashore against little resistance and help to hide any U.S. involvement. Unfortunately, the landing site also left the invading force more than 80 miles from refuge in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, if anything went wrong. *There is some evidence that JFK had not been briefed about the plan until it was too late, and he was coerced into “approving” it.

39. The Bay of Pigs Continued… The first mishap occurred on April 15, 1961, when eight bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields. The CIA had used obsolete World War II B-26 bombers, and painted them to look like Cuban air force planes. The bombers missed many of their targets and left most of Castro's air force intact. As news broke of the attack, photos of the repainted U.S. planes became public and revealed American support for the invasion. President Kennedy cancelled a second air strike. On April 17, the Cuban-exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. Cuban planes strafed the invaders, sank two escort ships, and destroyed half of the exile's air support. Bad weather hampered the ground force, which had to work with soggy equipment and insufficient ammunition. Over the next 24 hours, Castro ordered roughly 20,000 troops to advance toward the beach, and the Cuban air force continued to control the skies. As the situation grew increasingly grim, President Kennedy authorized an "air-umbrella" at dawn on April 19—six unmarked American fighter planes took off to help defend the brigade's B-26 aircraft flying. But the B-26s arrived an hour late, most likely confused by the change in time zones between Nicaragua and Cuba. They were shot down by the Cubans, and the invasion was crushed later that day. Some exiles escaped to the sea, while the rest were killed or rounded up and imprisoned by Castro's forces. Almost 1,200 members of Brigade 2056 surrendered, and more than 100 were killed.

40. The Bay of Pigs Continued… The brigade prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, as the United States negotiated a deal with Fidel Castro. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy made personal pleas for contributions from pharmaceutical companies and baby food manufacturers, and Castro eventually settled on $53 million worth of baby food and medicine in exchange for the prisoners. On December 23, 1962, just two months after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a plane containing the first group of freed prisoners landed in the United States. A week later, on Saturday, December 29, surviving brigade members gathered for a ceremony in Miami's Orange Bowl, where the brigade's flag was handed over to President Kennedy. "I can assure you," the president promised, "that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Havana.“ The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Determined to make up for the failed invasion, the administration initiated Operation Mongoose—a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy. The plan included the possibility of assassinating Castro. Almost 50 years later, relations between Castro's Cuba and the United States remain strained and tenuous.” http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx

41. Fidel Castro speaks with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces

42. The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 “In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the USSR on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy… met in secret with his advisors to discuss the problem…. Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address. No one was sure how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to the naval blockade and U.S. demands. But the leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the US not to invade Cuba.In a separate deal, which remained secret for more than 25 years, the US also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the missile crisis was over, the arms race was not. In 1963, there were signs of a lessening of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. In his commencement address at American University, President Kennedy… called for a strategy of peace that would make the world safe for diversity. Two actions also signaled a warming in relations between the superpowers: the establishment of a "Hotline" between the Kremlin and the White House and the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on July 25, 1963… President Kennedy told Americans in June 1963, "For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.“ ‘http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx

43. The Cuban Missile Crisis Continued… In 1962, American intelligence agencies photographed Soviet nuclear missile installations in Cuba.

44. The Nuclear Threat From Cuba

45. The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963 “Each of the Parties to this Treaty undertakes to prohibit, to prevent, and not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion, or any other nuclear explosion, at any place under its jurisdiction or control: (a) in any other environment if such explosion causes radioactive debris to be present outside the territorial limits of the State under whose jurisdiction or control such explosion is conducted… resulting in the permanent banning of all nuclear test explosions, including all such explosions underground… (b) in the atmosphere; beyond its limits, including outer space; or under water, including territorial waters or high seas…”

46. The Vietnam War 1965 - 1973 U.S. first involvement in Vietnam began when they financially supported France in the first Indochina War from 1946 under President Eisenhower. The French defeat in Dien Bien Phu led to a peace conference in Geneva in July, 1954 which resulted in splitting the former French colony Indochina into 3 separate countries; Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The last was also temporarily divided along the 17th Parallel into the Communist North Vietnam and the anti-Communist South Vietnam until a nationwide election would be held to unify the country. However, in 1956, South Vietnam backed by the American refused to hold the election. To support the South’s government, 2,000 military advisors were sent to Vietnam under President Kennedy – which rocketed to 16,300 in 1963. By 1960, the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) had begun to crush the South Vietnamese government. In 1964, after an alleged attack on two U.S. Navy vessels, the Gulf of Tokin Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress giving President Johnson authorization to use military forces in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. combat troops was sent to Vietnam a year after that. The number of troops exceeded 200,000 at the end of the year and peaked at 540,000 in 1968. In the same year, a surprising and massive attack known as the “Tet Offensive” threatened U.S. position in both South Vietnam and its home town, and therefore was widely considered as a turning point of the Vietnam War. In 1969, President Richard Nixon proposed the so-called “Vietnamization” which gave South Vietnamese forces greater responsibility in fighting the war while still receiving American aid as well as air and naval support if required. However, the 1972 Easter Offensive put a big question mark on the policy’s effectiveness, suggesting that the South Vietnam forces could not wage a full-scale war against the North’s without considerable support from the U.S. In 1970, the war was escalated into Vietnam’s neighbors as Nixon attempted to destroy Viet Cong supply bases to the South in Laos and Cambodia. That, however, provoked tremendous anti-war protests in the U.S. and all around the world, which had been started since the Tet Offensive and My Lai massacre in 1968. In January 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed establishing a ceasefire and allowing prisoners of war exchange following U.S. force withdrawal from Vietnam. The accord officially ended the U.S. and its allies’ direct involvement in Vietnam despite its continued support for South Vietnam until the end of the war. Eventually, the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War and Vietnam was reunified as a communist country. http://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-summary/#sthash.52UO4Q1F.dpuf

47. The Vietnam War 1965 - 1973

48. The Vietnam War Nov 26, 1965 “The most controversial cover for LIFE magazine, which usually steered clear of controversy. Paul Schutzers captured this image of a Viet Cong prisoner gagged and bound, being taken prisoner by American forces during the Vietnam War. Photography and news coverage like this helped to turn the American public against the Vietnam war.” -www.vietnamwarfacts.org

49. The Vietnam War, 1967 August 29, 1967, An Lao Valley, South Vietnam. U.S. forces in members Cavalry Division No. 1 is a collection of child prisoners from the cellar of the ground zero after the attacks and military helicopters.

50. The 6 Day War, 1967 In 1967, Syria intensified its bombardment of Israeli settlements across the border, and Israel struck back by shooting down six Syrian MiG fighters. After Syria alleged in May 1967 that Israel was massing troops along the border, Egypt demanded the withdrawal of the U.N. from the Israel-Egypt cease-fire lines of the 1956 conflict. The U.N. peacekeepers left on May 19, and three days later Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli shipping. On May 30, Jordan signed a mutual-defense treaty with Egypt and other Arab states… With every sign of a pan-Arab attack in the works, Israel launched a preemptive strike. On June 5, the Six-Day Warbegan… By June 8, the Egyptian forces were defeated, and Israel held the Gaza Strip and the Sinai to the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, Jordan began shelling Israel, provoking a rapid response... Israel overran the West Bank and on June 7 captured the Old City of East Jerusalem. The chief chaplain of the Israel Defense Forces blew a ram's horn at the Western Wall to announce the reunification of East Jerusalem with the Israeli-administered western sector. To the north, Israel bombarded Syria's fortified Golan Heights... On June 11, a U.N.-brokered cease-fire took effect, and the Six-Day War was at an end… The U.N. Security Council called for a withdrawal from all the occupied regions, but Israel declined, permanently annexing East Jerusalem and setting up military administrations in the occupied territories… [A major term for Israeli negotiation is the recognition of the nation of Israel, which most Arab nations have refused to do.] Egypt would eventually negotiate and make peace with Israel, and in 1982 the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in exchange for full diplomatic recognition of Israel. Egypt and Jordan later gave up their respective claims to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to the Palestinians, who beginning in the 1990s opened "land for peace" talks with Israel. The East Bank territory has since been returned to Jordan. In 2005, Israel left the Gaza Strip. Still, a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement remains elusive, as does an agreement with Syria to return the Golan Heights.