Cold War
1970 -1991
Vietnam: Why Did We Care So Much About A Small Jungle Country in Southeast Asia?
The Domino Theory•Domino Theory - The belief held by the US that if one state or region fell under the influence of Communism, then the surrounding areas would follow.
U.S Involvement in Vietnam
• Eisenhower will send advisors to assist the South Vietnamese
• President Kennedy will send even more troops to assist the South Vietnamese but is concerned about the lack of leadership of President Diem
• President Johnson, using the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the bombing of a U.S. airbase in Vietnam will increase the U.S. involvement including “boots on the ground”
Vietnam
• Election of 1968, Nixon promises to end the war
• He increases bombing• By the 1970s, American opposition to Vietnam
is extreme• 1974 U.S. troops are pulled out of Vietnam• April of 1975, the South fell to the Communist
North
Détente
• During the 1970s, Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will successfully work to thaw tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union
• Nixon will be the first American President to visit communist China
Cold War Events: "Space Race"(1955-1972)
The U.S. and Soviet Union competed for supremacy in spaceflight capability.
Greatest Soviet Spaceflight Achievement: The Launching of Satellite "Sputnik" (October 1957)
Greatest U.S. Spaceflight Achievement: Apollo 11 lands on the moon (July 1969)
Sputnik 1
U.S. Moon Landing: 1969
1) Mikhail Gorbachev Leads Russia Out Of The Cold War (1985-1991)
- Became Soviet Leader in 1985
- Recognized that Communism was not working!
- Perestroika : Gorbachev's plan to restructure the Soviet Union's politics & economy
End of The Cold War (1989-1990)
•During the 1980s, the Soviet Union entered a state of rapid decline. •The Soviet Union fell apart, and •This helped bring an end to the Cold War:
Destruction of the Berlin Wall (1989)
The Fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized The Fall of Communism