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The Eastern Bloc was formed to ensure that the Eastern countries; Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, would still stay communist. This was in direct response to the formation of NATO to form structure within the eastern communist countries. The formation of the Eastern Bloc was assured by the treaty called the Warsaw Pact signed on May 14th, 1995. The Eastern Bloc later crubles due to countries inside the pact trying to break free, and Soviet Union attempting to bring them back. In 1989, the Eastern VBloc officially ended.
Within the last few months of WWII, Germany was divided into four parts in order for four countries to manage each part: the US, the UK and their allies, France, and the USSR. This was to keep the threat down of another war being started in Germany. This was also to strip away Germany's powers to keep the country under control.
The Berlin Blockade was an event where the US, UK, and France wanted to force negotiation with Germany about the future of Germany. After a conference with the allies, Stalin, the leader of the USSR, believed that pressuring West Germany for a renegotiation would be the best idea. Stalin decided to go through with this plan and applied pressure to Berlin on the night of June 23rd-24th by cutting off rail and road links. This plan was combatted by allied countries' airships of food, coal, and other supplies being sent to Berlin. Stalin wanted to avoid war so he didnt shoot them down.
The Chinese Communist Revolution started in 1946 because of the open war between the Communist Party of China and Kuomintang (KMT), also knownn as Chinese nationalists. With the end of the second war, there were tensions between both groups from the breakdown of peace talks and hostilities. The Chinese Communist group was backed by the Soviet Union while the KMT was backed by the United States. This civil war was mainly started by difference in political opinions and seperation. There was also inner corruption that spurred on the war. In 1949, Mao Zedong officially named the People's Republic of China a reality after the fall of Beijing, and the revolution ended.
After WWII, many parts of Europe were struggling with famine, transportation infrastructure, buildings in ruin, and the large death count. The United States was the only major world power that wasn't struggling after the war, so the US assisted with financial aid across the continent of Europe. The architect of victory during WWII, George Marshall, got appointed to become Secretary of State where he, along with a few others, came up with the Marshall Plan. On June 5th, 1947, Marshall gave a public speech where he shared his plan to rebuild the economy and spirits of Western Europe by the revitalization of national economies.
In 1959, Fidel Castro led a revolution in Cuba which directly effected the US's economy since they owned a large part of Cuba's railroad system, telephone/power industries, and large markets. In this revolution, Castro was aiming to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who was oppressive, corrupt, and inefficient. The US gave $10 million in military assistance to the dictatorship 8 years prior to the revolution, before knowing the dictator's ways. The US also put themselves in a neutral position. Castro turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. A while after Soviet technology and weapons came to Cuba, Castro established himself as a Marxist-Leninist in Decenber 1961.
The Korean war started when Communist North Korea invaded the southern, democratic Korea from June 1950 to July 1953. Not wanting another communist power, the United Nations with the United States troops helped South Korea resist, This war was started by the wanting to unite the two countries into one, but one side was strictly communist while the other was democratic. This caused the North to want to unite the countries under communist ideologies, and North Korea invaded south on June 25th, 1950. In 1953, an armistice came into effect, and both countries agreed to create a demilitarized zone along the front, and the two countries would stay separate.
The Vietnam War started in 1959 until April 30th, 1979. This war revolved around nationalist forces attempting to unify the country under communism, and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism. Even before the actual war began, there was fighting in Vietnam from French colonial rule when Japan invaded parts of Vietnam in 1940. When the communist leaded, Ho Chi Minh, returned to Vietnam, he planned to remove French and Japanese occupiers. He created his own government, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in 1945 and established an independent Vietnam. The French didn’t want to lose their colony so they fought back. After the French lost, the US came to contain the spread of communism. US troops and Vietnam troops both fought, the Vietnam troops causing a great amount of damage and showing the US troops how strong they were. When Nixon. e came president, he took out US troops and allowed South Vietnam to fight on their own. Eventually, in 1979, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam became a communist country once again.
The Soviet Union was discovered building surface to air missile launch sites in early September 1962. There was also an increase in the number of Soviet ships going to Cuba, presumably carrying weapons. The president, John F Kennedy, warned Cuba that offensive weapons were not tolerated and the United States wouldn’t allow them. The Cubans still installed the surface to air missile launch sites, which put Kennedy in a difficult situation. Kennedy feared that with these new problems arising, he would lose the democratic party. This is most likely the driving factor of Kennedy restricting the flights of the U-2 planes to Cuba. December 27, a CIA agent overheard that Cuba now has nuclear weapons. Evidence was also shown in the U-2 spy plane photographs. After a few discussions, the main choices of actions were to do nothing, negotiate, invade, block off Cuba, bomb the missile bases, or use nuclear weapons against Cuba/the Soviet union. The final choice was a naval blockade. The Soviet Union was angry in response and accused Kennedy of creating a crisis to win over the democratic party. After long discussions, the United States and Soviet Union came to an agreement and formed the plan so that another crisis like this one wouldn’t happen.
On August 12, 1961 before midnight, East German workers, guarded by troops, constructed concrete blocks and Wood barriers and barbed wire fences blocking Boulevard streets and alleys in the heart of the city of Berlin, along with the perimeter nearing the communist state of East Germany. And April 13th, the wall was done and Berlin has been divided into a western, capitalist area and a democratic, West Germany and eastern, communist Germany. The Berlin wall became a strong symbol of the Cold War. It spread far past East Berlin and had a high wall for potential escapers. The fence was heavily guarded by dogs, specifically German Shepherd‘s. Almost 300 Germans died trying to flee from the wall and thousands of more faced arrest and imprisonment. About 5000 citizens succeeded in escaping from false papers, swimming through our way, or digging tunnels beneath the terrain. East Germany started facing some problems and East Berliners besieged the border post with west Berlin. A while after, the wall had fallen overnight with the city and world celebrating its fall. This showed how Berlin was reunited.
In 1959, after Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba, John F Kennedy Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the CIA to trade Cuban exiles for an invasion on their land. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people along with the military would support this invasion, which would eventually lead to Castro being overthrown and the establishment of a non-communist government. This plan was approved and the CIA set up training camps in Guatemala. Even though this plan was supposed to remain covert, it became common knowledge amongst Cuban exiles in Miami. Because of this Castro learned of the training camps being held and the press made statements and reports on this. The original plan was to call airstrikes against Cuban airbases and to launch a surprise attack. The main force would advance across the island and the United Revolutionary Front would send leaders to establish a provisional government. The CIA painted the airstrikes to look like Cuban Air Force planes but the airstrike did not prove as effective as it was meant to be, and they would have to be a second airstrike. The news heard of the attack, they spread photos of the repainted US planes which became public and showed the American support of the invasion. On April 17, Cuban forces started to fight back against the invaders. Over the next 24 hours, Castro ordered troops to advance towards the beach with the invasions to continue to strike back. Castro won against the troops and caught them as prisoners of war. These prisoners remained in captivity for 20 months, and the United States made a deal with Castro. On December 23, 1962, a plane containing the freed prisoners landed in the United States and a week later their surviving brigade members gathered for a ceremony in a promise to free Havana in the future.
During the Cold War, people had a constant fear of a nuclear war breaking out because Russia and the United States had nuclear weapons that could destroy the whole world. On December 7, 1979, Soviet informants to the African Armed Forces relayed information for maintenance of crucial equipment. Telecommunication links to areas outside of Kabul were severed and isolated the capital in large numbers. Large numbers of airborne Soviet forces joined the ground troops and landed in Kabul on December 25. The president was moved to touchback palace, which was seen as more secure and safe from possible deaths. Amin requested Soviet military assistance to northern Afghanistan on December 17. These troops are dressed in Afghan uniforms and occupying major government, military, and media buildings in Kabul including the presidential palace. There were over 100,000 total Soviet force soldiers in Kabul. With the Soviets occupying the cities, the Mujahedeen divided into small groups to escape the control. There was heavy fighting in neighboring cities and they were under siege by the mujahedin. The Soviets broke up the seizures but as soon as they left the resistance would return. After constant fighting, the US viewed this conflict as an integral Cold War struggle in which the CIA provided assistance to the anti-Soviet forces through Pakistani intelligence services. The Africans were supported by other countries with the US and Saudi Arabia offering the greatest financial support. In the last phase, so we are chips prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan and they hardly engaged in offensive operations. Their main purpose was to defend against Mujahedeen raids. The Soviets symbolically and did their presents with the victory in the withdrawal was executed peacefully. This ensured a safe passage.
The Tiananmen Square Massacre was a response to the protest from the People's Republic of China in 1989. Students came together for a movement about Hu Yaobang, who was the General Party Secretary for the Chinese Communist Party. He was forced to resign in 1987 after many protests. He was very popular with people, especially students, because he worked to try to make the government give more freedom to the people. When he died in 1989, many people attended his funeral and started petitions .to reverse the verdict that took him out of office, in order to keep his legacy. These petitions/protests escalated and ended with some people being violent with police. On June 2nd, military action was taken to clear Tiananmen square, and resulted in the military fighting back and shooting into the crowds. This action was criticized all around the world, and in 2012, China banned the topic.
The Soviet Union tied to create a unified, centralized socialist state but the Soviet Union was also struggling with managing their economic system-- which only got worse after the arms race with the United States. By 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power, the country was already struggling heavily economically and politically. Gorbachev decided to install a reform plan that gave citizens more freedom, but this turned on his when citizens used their freedom of speech to heavily criticize his plans and ideas for reformation. The Soviet Union started to fall on the outer, non-Russain areas in 1897 before spreading to the entire union. Gorbachev tried some final attempts to bring the union together before he was kidnapped in a coup d'etat. On August 19th, 1991, it was brodcasted that Gorbachev was sick and wouldn't be able to govern anymore. The Soviet Union fell soon after because there was nothing more that could be done to save the union. By January 1992, the Soviet Union officially ended, by popular demand.