Week 3

Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a nuclear face off between the Soviet Union and the US. After an American spy plane discovered the 41 missile sites that were secretly built by Khrushchev in Cuba, president John F. Kennedy demanded the removal of the missiles. Also, in order to prevent the soviets from installing more missiles he announced a naval blockade of Cuba. All this put the Soviet Union and the US on a collision course. Before it escalated to a nuclear war, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles only if the US agreed to not invade Cuba.

MAD – 1960s
MAD was mutually assured destruction, and it said that countries would be at peace because they new that if they attacked that the other country would attack back and it would lead to a huge war. It was important because it was a way of keeping the peace during a time of lots of tension. It also lead to countries creating more and more weapons in order to be equal with each other.
Vietnam War - 1965-1975
The Vietnam war was a war between the Vietnamese and the french colonies. The Vietnamese wanted freedom and so the communist and nationalist Vietnamese joined to fight against the french armies. The US decided to help out the French but soon the French's major loss at Dien Bien Phu, made the US believe that Asia was a raising threat. This war lead to the division of Vietnam into The south which was anti-Communist and the North which was communist. Then later once the south surrendered to the North Vietnam became whole again.

Détente - 1969-1979
The policy known as Detente happened because the US was trying to back away from the policy of direct confrontation that it had with the Soviet Union. The policy lessened Cold War tensions and it also replaced brinkmanship under Nixon. The move towards detente happened because Nixon wanted to deal with other nations in a flexible and more practical manner. This policy lead to a political shift for the country and it represented a personal reversal as well. It also lead to less tension between the two superpowers.

SALT Negotiations - 1972
After president Nixon visited communist China he visited the Soviet union. Their he had a series of meetings known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT for short. There Nixon and Brezhnev signed the SALT I treaty. The treaty was a five year agreement that limited the submarine- launched missiles each country could have and also the number of intercontinental ballistic a country could have.

Iranian Revolution - 1979
During the Cold War the shah, with support from the US, westernized his country. Shah Mohammad rules lead to many Iranian revolts which made him face overwhelming oppositions that eventually forced him to flea Iran in 1979. Khomeini then came back to power and his foreign policy was the hatred of the US since they supported the shah. Then with the ayatollahs consent a bunch of young Islamic revolutionaries seized the US embassy. These revolts lead to the overthrow of Iran's monarchy and established Islamic Republic.

USSR invades Afghanistan - 1979
After the Soviets influence began to increase in Afghanistan and then in the 1970's a Muslim revolt threatened to weaken Afghanistan's communist regime. This then lead to the USSR invading Afghanistan. Even though the Soviets planned to go in and out in quickly that was not the case. The soviets were quickly in trouble because they were outnumbered by the rebel forces, which were supported by the US. This invasion later lead to the internal unrest and economic problems of the Soviet Union.