Chapter 27
West Berlin was a “Western Island” of prosperity in the midst of a relatively poor East Germany People wanted to escape the Communist repression and poor economic conditions West Berlin was the main escape route By August 1961, over 10,000 East Germans had fled in a single week East German government had to take action as the population loss was causing economic problems Berlin Wall
On Aug 13, 1961, East German leaders ordered streets torn up and temporary road blocks built. They halted all road and train traffic between East and West Berlin Work began at once on a permanent concrete block wall 15 ft high topped with barbed wire, flood lights, machine gun towers, minefields and vicious dog patrols Wall stretched 28 miles through the city and another 75 mile stretch around West Berlin to separate To reach the Wall, East Berliners had to cross a wide open area called the “death strip”
In 1959, Fidel Castro comes into power in Cuba and sets up a Soviet supported totalitarian regime. A socialist regime with communist contacts so close to mainland U.S. was considered a threat to the security of the U.S. President Kennedy finally decided on a CIA plan to have exiled Cuban fighters to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Purpose of the invasion was to cause a revolt against Castro. Bay of Pigs
The invasion was a disaster, started on Sunday April 16 and by that Wednesday, the exiled fighters were surrendering. After the failed invasion, Soviet Union sent advisors to Cuba In 1962, the Soviets began to place nuclear missiles in Cuba Missiles were an answer to the nuclear missiles the U.S. put in Turkey. (a border state to Soviet Union)
The U.S. was not willing to allow nuclear weapons within such close distance to the mainland. In October 1962, Kennedy got word that Soviet ships were delivering missiles to Cuba Kennedy quickly set up a blockade to prevent the ships from reaching Cuba. Soviets agreed to remove nuclear missiles from Cuba if U.S. agreed not to invade Cuba. Kennedy agreed A hotline between U.S. and Soviet was set up so the superpowers could communicate easily in times of crisis Cuban Missile Crisis
Vietnam was a French colony Communist leader Ho Chi Minh seized power in most of Vietnam in August France seized the southern part of Vietnam For years they fought without much success against the communist forces. In 1954, France agreed to a peace treaty that divided Vietnam into two parts. Communist North and non-Communist South. Both sides agreed to hold elections in two years to form a single government. Vietnam
The U.S. aided South Vietnam and the spread of Communism The VietCong( South Vietnamese Communist guerrillas supported by the North) were on the verge of capturing the entire country in early President Lyndon Johnson sent increasing numbers of troops to Vietnam starting in U.S. policy makers believed in the Domino Theory- if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, then they all would like dominoes
Despite the massive superiority in equipment and firepower of the U.S., the U.S. couldn’t defeat the North Vietnamese. In 1973, Nixon reached a peace agreement with North Vietnam that allowed the U.S. to withdraw its troops. Within two years, Vietnam was unified by Communist armies from the North
The domino theory was proved unfounded. A split between communist China and the Soviet Union put an end to the Western idea that there was one form of government that was led by Moscow Under Nixon, U.S. resumed relations with China, New nations in Southeast Asia managed to avoid Communism. By the end of the Vietnam war, a new era in American-Soviet relations had begun to emerge.
Cuban Missile Crisis Vietnam Berlin Wall