Week 2

Korean War - 1950-53
The Korean war happened because the North Korean leader wanted to invade South Korea. North Korea with the help of The Soviet union, went and attacked non communist south Korea by crossing the 38 parallel. The US then sent help to the South Koreans and the two sides just pushed back and forth between the 38th parallel. Then in the end no peace is ever agreed on but the two sides do agree on the Korean armistice agreement. This was important because it was a defeat against communists countries.

Hydrogen Bomb is created/Arms Race - 1952
The Arms race was the race between the two super powers (US and Soviet's). Both countries wanted to develop the best weapons and they also wanted to deter the other from lunching their nuclear weapons. Because of the Arms Race the Hydro bomb was made. The bomb was created by The soviets in order to one up the US. The bomb was more deadly and powerful than the one dropped in Hiroshima. The arms race and the hydro bomb were important because they both lead to a balance of terror which meant that people lived in constant fear of nuclear war.

Warsaw Pact - 1955
After the Us and the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed, The soviet Union began to see this organization as a threat. So in 1995 he formed his own alliance called the Warsaw Pact. The members of this club were among the Soviet union, East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Warsaw Pact was important because it gave way to a world divided by two rival camps.

De-Stalinization - 1956
After Stalin died Nikita Khrushchev came into power. He denounced Stalin for all the wrong he did, like killing and jailing loyal Soviet citizens. He began the policy called destalinization, which meant purging the country of Stalin's memory. Destalinization was important because it it
lead to peaceful competition with capitalist states.

Sputnik - 1957
Sputnik was the first artificial satellite lunched by the Soviets. It remained in orbit until January 4 1958 when it burned up coming through earths atmosphere. Sputnik was created because the soviets so that they could prove to be the best super power. After sputniks success the soviets decided to launch II, which carried a dog named Laika which became the first live organism in space. AT this point the Soviets were winning the space race which angered and frightened many Americans. The US believed that this was a major step for the soviets to get closer to a nuclear war. This not only was important because it lead to the creation of NASA but also to the US being first on the moon which meant winning the space race.

U-2 Incident - 1960
Around 1955 5 years before the incident, Eisenhower proposed the idea that in order to protect each others territory from surprise nuclear attacks, the US and the Soviet union should be a allowed fly over each others territory. The soviet union however, didn't like this idea so the CIA decide to secretly spy over the soviet union using planes called U-2's. But then that same year in May the Soviets shot down one of the U-2 planes and its pilot, Francis Gary, who the soviets captured. This incident led to higher Cold War tension.

Berlin Wall - 1961
The Berlin wall was the wall that divided east and west Europe. It happened because people from the east were moving to the west and so the soviet union decided to build a wall to prevent people from leaving communist east. It's significant because it showed the democratic tension between the soviets and the US.