Social Science sec 3
What event led Washington to pull the plug on Diem in 1963?
A wave of anti-government protests, which involved dramatic scenes of orange-robbed Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire On November 1, a group of South Vietnamese generals carried out a successful coup and murdered Diem Kennedy was dismayed by Diem's killing but had little time to reevaluate American policy in South Vietnam. Just three weeks after the coup, Kennedy was shot and killed, leaving Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to sort out the deteriorating Vietnamese situation.
How did the US react to the failed Hungarian uprising?
Although pro-Democratic rhetoric was broadcasted over Radio Free Europe, the Eisenhower administration did nothing to help the Hungarian rebels (in truth little could be done). It underscored that US officials had come to accept the Soviet Union's domination of Eastern Europe as an unhappy feature of Cold War stability. Khrushchev's blunt exercise of Soviet power, which closely followed Stalin's foreign policy playbook, also signaled limits of de-Stalinization
Ngo Dinh Diem
Anti-communist Catholic who succeeded emperor Bao Dai and lead the Republic of Vietnam in the South Ho Chi Minh's Communist party ruled the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North Fear of communist takeover in the South led Eisenhower to secretly funnel money, military supplies, and CIA advisers to bolster the authoritarian Diem government
Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)
Applied Truman's previous pledge to defend independent nations from Communism explicitly to the Middle East A year later the US Marines landed in Lebanon to prevent the toppling of a pro-American government
Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA)
Brigade of Cuban commandos along with the Soviets, triumphed in civil war immediately following the end of Portuguese rule in 1975 Two years later, Somalia, a Soviet ally, invaded neighboring Ethiopia, which had recently come under the control of a Marxist-Leninist junta known as the Dergue. The Soviets intervened on the side of the Ethiopian revolutionary regime, which successfully drove the U.S.-backed Somalis out of the Ogaden peninsula with the aid of Cuban troops.
Though it was historic, Khrushchev's American sojourn produced little tangible diplomatic progress despite several days of one-on-one talks with Eisenhower at the presidential retreat __________________ . The two leaders agreed to meet again, or at least to the possibility of meeting again, at the __________________________ the following year to discuss the Berlin situation.
Camp David Four Powers Summit in Paris
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Charismatic Arab nationalist and leader of Egypt's military government He attended the Bandung conference and left determined to chart an independent course for his nation and rid the Middle East of the last vestiges of European colonialism Nasser embraced non-alignment and looked to play the superpower rivals against each other. He sought economic aid for large scale development projects like the Aswan High Dam, a massive hydroelectric dam on the Nile. From the Soviets, he sought arms and other manufactured goods.
Deng Xiaoping
China's premier who was invited when the Carter administration moved to officially recognize the People's Republic of China in spite of its dubious human rights records; visited the US in 1979 following the full restoration of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington on New Year's Day.
Ho Chi Minh
Communist leader that renewed his longstanding call for independence in a declaration quoted directly from Thomas Jefferson after the liberation of Vietnam from Japan in 1945. Truman, despite America's wartime support of Ho's fight against Japanese occupation, chose to double down on U.S. support of French colonialism in Vietnam, echoing Woodrow Wilson's rejection of Ho's first petition for Vietnamese self-determination at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference. Ho Chi Minh belonged to the Communist Party and studied Marxist revolution at Moscow's Communist University for the Toilers of the East in the 1930s. As Minh embraced armed struggle to oust the French, the Eisenhower Administration poured billions of dollars of aid into propping up French rule.
By 1954, when French forces surrendered at the battle of ______________________, the United States was paying _____% of the war's costs
Dien Bien Phu; 80 Eisenhower then sent American troops, the defeated French were forced to accept Vietnamese independence
New Look
Eisenhower's Cold War strategy where covert action was orchestrated by the CIA
Roswell Garst
Enterprising farmer who met Soviet agronomists touring Iowa in 1955; outlined virtues of his proprietary drought-resistant hybrid corn He traveled to the Soviet Union and charmed Khrushchev with his charming, folksy, direct manner who agreed to purchase 5000 tons of Garst's hybrid kernels, persuaded that it can jumpstart Soviet agricultural production An eager convert to the cult of corn, Khrushchev became a fanatical evangelist, recommending that corn be planted even in the barren land of Siberia. Khrushchev insisted that corn would fuel the Soviet Union's bid to "catch up and overtake America" Local officials went through absurd lengths to artificially fulfill the Soviet leader's challenge to boost, meat, milk, and butter production
For decades, an oppressive military dictatorship headed by _____________________ had ruled Cuba with the support of Washington.
Fulgencio Batista
Iranian Hostage Crisis
Happened at the same time as a failed rescue mission that killed 8 American servicemen, reinforced by a popular narrative that Carter was a weak and ineffectual leader The American hostages were finally freed on January 20, 1981, the same day that Reagan was sworn into office.
Secret War
In March of 1969, Nixon authorized a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia in the hopes of crippling North Vietnamese supply lines that ran through the neutral nation. The following year Nixon briefly deployed American troops in Cambodia, marking the latest chapter of the Secret War that raged in Laos since 1964 In 1969 alone, the U.S. dropped more bombs on the tiny impoverished nation of Laos than it did on Japan during the entirety of World War II. The CIA relied on the Hmong people, an ethnic minority spread across Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, to serve as the vanguard of its anti-communist fighting force during the Secret War. After the American retreat from the region, thousands of Hmong refugees emigrated to the United States, where they established vibrant communities.
Prague Spring
In an echo of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, Czechoslovak citizens seized on Dubček's words to call for reforms far beyond the limited scope endorsed by the government. Writers, filmmakers and rock musicians contributed to a burst of creativity that flowed from temporary removal of state restrictions on cultural productions. At the same time, the Czechoslovak press, freed from official censorship, published pointed criticism of the Soviet Union that alarmed Moscow. Brezhnev feared that the subversive spirit of the Prague Spring might spread to other Eastern Bloc nations and lost patience with Dubček's inability to reign in the snowballing liberalization of Czechoslovak society. Dubcek ordered a full-scale invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 20-21. While seventy thousand fled to the West, less than one hundred were killed during the Soviet invasion and occupation. Dubcek was officially removed from power the next year and was replaced with a hardliner who redoubled political repression of artists and dissidents within Czechoslovakia.
As the Soviet Union looked to build and strengthen ties with various Arab nations, the United States drew closer to the Jewish state of ________________, which Washington viewed as a key bulwark against the spread of Communism in the area
Israel
What were the Dulles brothers's positions?
John Foster Dulles was the Secretary of State. Allen Dulles was the director the the CIA.
What did the United States do in response to Prague Spring?
Johnson, by then a lame- duck president, was preoccupied with Vietnam and a wave of popular unrest that culminated in a bloody riot outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago just five days after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Americans were once again shown y a passive that the United States accepted the Soviet's sphere of influence in Eastern Europe While the events of 1968 might, at first glance, appear to have widened the distance between the United States and the Soviet Union, they actually set the stage for détente. Despite their tough talk, the Soviets could ill- afford a repetition of the Prague Spring. Deteriorating relations with China further raised Brezhnev's interest in improving relations with the United States.
Nixon's expansion of the war and the continuing draft reignited antiwar protests. In 1970, massive demonstrations rocked hundreds of college campuses. At ____________________ in Ohio, National Guard troops fatally shot four student protestors in a tragedy that reverberated across the country.
Kent State University
Cultural Revolution
Massive violent campaign launched by Mao Zedong to root out alleged counter-revolutionary elements from the Chinese society that crippled the state and left nearly 1 million Chinese citizens dead
Alexander Dubček
New head of the Czechoslovak Communist party in April 1968; Issued a platform that embraced personal expression, individual liberty, and freedom of the press. Dubcek's program of "socialism with a human face" meant to assuage popular demands for reforms while maintaining the party's dominant role and upholding Czechoslovakia deference to the USSR
When the Soviet Union and China officially recognized Ho's provisional government, what did they also do?
Provided military training, aid, and logistical support to Minh's Viet Minh fighters
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)
Resolution authorized by Congress that gave Johnson the power to utilize "all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the United States and to prevent further aggression". It essentially gave Johnson a blank check.
In the province of _____________, such desperate attempts included secret smuggling of cattle long distances and making taxes payable in meat.
Ryazan Such tactics only produced one-sixth of the promised quota, the provincial boss committed suicide.
Brezhnev Doctrine
Soviet formally issued doctrine that affirmed the Soviet Union's absolute right to intervene with nations where communism has come under threat
Why was Iran economically and strategically important to the US?
The Middle Eastern nation shared a border with the Soviet Union and was oil-rich
Domino Theory
Theory that predicted that a communist victory in one nation would produce a cascading effect causing their neighboring countries to fall to communism like a lined up row of dominoes Followed by Kennedy, Eisenhower, and McNamara In Southeast Asia, US officials feared that a communist victory in South Vietnam would strengthen the Communist Pathet Laos while emboldening China's regional aspirations This fear led the US to support the deeply unpopular and increasingly corrupt Diem regime
Why did the US struggle to reconcile its democratic and anticolonial traditions?
They had a desire for stability and a alliance with Britain and France, the world's 2 largest imperial powers American policy makers struggled to distinguish strains of anticolonial nationalism from doctrinaire communism. As a result, they frequently backed unpopular, authoritarian regimes in the name of anti-communism
T/F? Despite failure to end the war (in his first term), Nixon was re-elected in 1972
True
While Carter and Brezhnev managed to come together in ____________ to sign a SALT II treaty agreement in June of 1979, the US senate delayed its ratification
Vienna
Gary Powers
Was the U-2 Spy Plane pilot that was captured by the Soviet Union (survived the crash) In a massive propaganda coup, Powers publicly apologized after admitting he was convicted of espionage by a soviet court and imprisoned for 2 years
The message of nonalignment alarmed ____________________, especially the presence of the Chinese premier at Bandung
Washington US officials viewed China's burgeoning influence on new states and independence movements throughout Asia as a major threat. The lives of 1.6 million people were at stake. Secretary of State Dulles warned, "the world ratio as between communist dominated peoples and free peoples would change from a ratio of two-to-one in favor of freedom to a ratio of one-to-three against freedom" In zero-sum thinking, nonalignment represented a threat to American interests
Secret Speech
Where Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, addressed a closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress in Moscow to denounce Stalin and accused of betraying Leninism through his murderous campaign of terror. He detailed the former General Secretary's crimes. According to official Soviet commission, during the purges of mid to late-1930s Stalin's orders led directly to the arrest of 3.5 million and summary execution of 688,503 Soviet citizens Others endured officially sanctioned torture, which was widely used to extract false confessions from those accused by paranoid Stalin of participating in an array of anti-Soviet plots Khrushchev upended the heroic image of Stalin that official Soviet propaganda promoted even after his death in 1953. He denounced Stalin as the true traitor. The Secret Speech did not remain a secret for long
In the American federalist system of government, the _______________ branch traditionally sets the nation's foreign policy.
executive This was true with detente. It was planned and executed by the White House without consultation with Congress, or at times the State Department
Since the nation's independence in 1898, the Caribbean island of Cuba, has remained closely linked politically, economically, and militarily to the United States. Just about 90 miles south of Florida, Cuba supplied the US with millions of tons of ____________ annually
sugar Havana's nightclubs and casinos served as a playground for wealthy American business tycoons, tourists, and gangsters
The Vietnam War's financial cost was estimated at _____________________ per year and there were significant American casualties, more than __________ troops were killed in 1967 and 1968 alone, leading to a steep decline in public support for the war.
$3.6 billion; 28,000
As decolonization accelerated in the _________________________________,a series of civil wars, revolutions, and proxy conflicts reorientated the Cold War away from Europe to nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
1950s and 1960s At the same time, the rise of China and Cuba inspired a new wave of Marxist rebellion in Asia, Latin America, and Africa A growing ideological divide between China and the Soviet Union eventually led to a complete rupture between the one-time allies Leaders of the former colonized world also looked to strategically benefit from the US-Soviet rivalry while attempting to chart an independent path
How many delegates were there at the inaugural Afro-Asian Conference (1955)?
28 The Conference was at the Indonesian city of Bandung Neither the Soviets nor Americans were invited were invited India's Jawhal Nehru, Indonesia's Sukharno, and others called for unity among former colonized people and advocated for nonalignment. Nonalignment was essentially a declaration of neutrality Non-aligned states would not join formal security alliances with the US or USSR but would maintain diplomatic ties with both The Bandung conference signaled how the bi-polar world of the early Cold War was rapidly giving way to a more complex multi-polar landscape that US policy makers remained woefully unprepared to navigate
By 1960, Soviets only had _____ operational IBCM missiles.
6
In late December 1979 ___________________ Soviet troops streamed into Afghanistan to prevent the total collapse of the nation's Marxist regime.
75,000
Viet Cong AKA National Liberation Front
A full-blown communist insurgency that waged a relentless guerilla campaign coordinated from North Vietnam with support from both China and the Soviet Union By 1960, the US-backed Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) was on the brink of collapse. Kennedy steadily poured resources, increasing the number of American advisors from 600 to 16,000 in his first 2 years of office.
How did Hungary react to Khrushchev's Secret Speech?
A long-simmering popular surface arose. Many Hungarians reasoned that if Stalin's terror was criminal, then almost identical political repression carried out by Hungarian Stalinists must also have been criminal In late October, popular demonstrations erupted and rapidly escalated into an uprising against Soviet domination Angry students knocked down statues of Stalin and striking workers clashed with Red Army soldiers in the streets of Budapest. Hungarians wanted a wide range of democratic reforms
Americans viewed neutrality as an invitation for Soviet meddling distrusted Lumumba. How did the Belgians view Lumumba's pledge to return Congo resources?
As a fundamental threat to their continued plundering of Congo wealth. Within weeks of independence, Lumumba's idealistic vision for Congo suffered a serious blow when rebels in Katanga, backed by Belgian mining interests and elite paratroopers, announced the secession of the mineral-rich province from the Republic of Congo. Lumumba appealed to the UN to send peacekeepers to help retake Katanga. UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold agreed to send troops but forbade them from entering civil war. Lumumba traveled to Washington DC to seek American assistance but was rebuffed by State Department officials. He then went to the Soviets, who agreed to provide military and economic assistance to the Congo. Nkrumah, Lumumba's closest African ally, sent 2,340 soldiers to join the UN peacekeeping force, the largest contribution of any nation and nearly one-third of the entire force
Detente
Broad deescalation of the Cold War, a central pillar of US foreign policy and tasked Henry Kissinger with triangulating strategy between Washington, Beijing, and Moscow Kissinger explained that the ultimate objective of detente was to improve America's clout and flexibility to becoming closer to both Communist giants Domestic instability in China, the Soviet Union, West Germany, and the United States also provided leaders in each nation with a powerful incentive to pursue détente.
Operation AJAX (1953)
CIA operation to undermine Mossadegh (he seemed like a powerful figure that needed to be removed from power) by bribing local officials, disseminating propaganda, organizing protests, and arming anti-government forces By the end of August, pro-American Shah Reza Pahlavi successfully ousted Mossadegh. It saved Iran from falling into Moscow's orbit and provided American corporations access to Iran's oil. In long-term it removed a democratically elected, popularly favored leader in favor of a corrupt dictator, which damaged America's reputation among Iranians and sowed the seeds for the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979
How were the relations between Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union/ Khrushchev?
Castro then moved to nationalize the Cuban economy and expressed interest in negotiating trade and arms deals with the Soviets and Eastern Bloc. Castro charmed Khrushchev and other top Soviet officials, who saw versions of themselves reflected in the passion and idealism of the Cubans. "We felt like boys again!" one former Bolshevik later gushed. Khrushchev provided Castro with whatever assistance they needed.
De-Stalinization
Caused directly by the Secret Speech; Domestic reforms as Khrushchev attempted to rehabilitate Soviet Marxism-Leninism by distancing the ideology from the murderous ideology of Stalin This was a calculated risk that benefited Khrushchev personally. Placing the blame entirely on Stalin absolved Khrushchev from his own responsibility and allowing the premier to consolidate power base by marginalizing old guards like Vyacheslav Molotov It was like a Pandora's box- the indictment of Stalin invited a wider interrogation of Stalinism, which fully infected all of the nations in the Soviet orbit by 1956 News of de-Stalinization quickly reached Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe, igniting hope that genuine liberalization and reform could be achieved
The Southeast nation of Vietnam had a long history of foreign domination. In ancient times it was conquered by the _______________. In the late 19th century, it fell under _____________ colonial rule.
Chinese; French
Helsinki Final Act (1975)
Congressional intrusions irritated Kissinger and threatened to derail détente. Finnish capital of Helsinki hosted a 35 nation summit on European security and cooperation The Helsinki Final Act was the conference's concluding resolution and endorsed the "universal significance of human rights and fundamental freedoms" Brezhnev's signature provided ammunition to critics of détente who wanted to hold the Soviets accountable for domestic human rights abuses.
Members of the Congress, especially those in the (Democratic/Republic) majority flexed their constitutional privileges to interrupt Nixon's diplomatic agenda
Democratic From 1972 to 1974, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a staunchly anti-Communist Democratic Senator from Washington, steadfastly worked to add an amendment to a proposed U.S.-Soviet trade agreement that required Moscow to allow long persecuted Soviet Jews the freedom to emigrate, mostly to Israel. The Soviets backed out of the trade deal but not before imposing an exit tax on would-be emigrants, exposing the limits of Nixon and Kissinger's unilateral approach to detente. Jackson also inserted himself into the SALT negotiations by securing a Congressional resolution requiring future arms control agreements to implement strict numerical equality.
Sino-Soviet Split
Diplomatic rupture between the 2 largest communist nations (China and the Soviet Union) Began in 1958 when Mao Zedong broke from the Soviet model of economic growth during the intense period of intense crash industrialization known as the Great Leap Forward Mao believed that he was the rightful leader of world Communism and did little to hide his disdain from Khrushchev, whom he saw as weak and undisciplined. He openly questioned the Soviet leader's dedication to Marxist revolutionary principles, especially in the Third World. Moscow's support of India, a non-Communist nation that shared a contested border with China, served as an additional provocation. Khrushchev's conciliatory overtures did nothing to ameliorate Mao's hardening stance, and the alliance had mostly disintegrated by 1964, when Khrushchev fell from power in the Soviet Union. In 1969, when a border skirmish in Central Asia nearly flared into war between China and the Soviet Union, Sino-Soviet relations hit a new low. Nixon viewed these developments with interest and sensed an opportunity to play the former allies against one another in order to achieve international stability and end the Vietnam War.
Suez Canal
Economical vital manmade waterway linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas Nationalized by Nasser on July 26, 1956, less than a week after Americans broke off foreign aid talks. This was thought to deliver a strong rebuke to Egypt's former colonial masters and pressure the United States to reconsider the refusal to fund the Aswan Dam The Eisenhower Adminstration urged caution, but Britain, France, and the young state of Israel ignored Washington's advice and launched a coordinated invasion of Egyptian territory in late October, weeks before the presidential election The British Prime Minister Anthony Eden deliberately hid this attack from Washington as a fundamental betrayal of trust undergirded the 2 English-speaking nations and as disrespect of American leadership This provided the Soviets a perfect cover to ruthlessly suppress a popular uprising in Hungary. Washington and Moscow jointly condemned the Suez invasion Eisenhower pressured Britain and France to halt the invasion and withdraw troops to allow a UN peacekeeping force to monitor the ceasefire and return possession of the canal to Egypt In less than a month, the US delivered a humiliating blow to Britain's international standing, accelerating the pace of decolonization and asserted American dominance of the Western alliance The Suez Crisis cemented the demotion of Britain and France to the status of junior partners in the U.S.-led Cold War coalition.
Geneva Conference (1954)
Established a temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel The Geneva Accords scheduled national elections for 1956 to establish the government of an independent and unified Vietnam. American officials feared the Communists would win the election, resulting the partition into 2 hostile nations
Operation PBSUCCESS (1954)
Forced Arbenz to flee the country after resigning office. During this mission, CIA agents helped train rebel forces, ran a radio station that broadcasted propaganda, and escorted military junta into the capital Although intelligence reports showed no direct connection between Arbenz and Moscow, many officials celebrated the liberation of Guatemala from Communism Guatemala suffered decades of repressive military rule and brutal civil war that destabilized and devastated the country. The US intervention fueled longstanding resentment against the US in Latin America that ironically helped future communist movements (like the Cuban Marxist revolutionaries)
Patrice Lumumba
Former postal clerk and trade union leader that became Congo's first Prime Minister He initially sought to keep the nation out of Cold War power struggles, which he believed artificially pitted developing nations against each other and perpetuated European domination. "We are going to make Congo the focal point of development of all Africa," Lumumba declared at his inauguration, adding" we are going see to it that the soil of our country really benefits its children." His foreign policy drew direct inspiration from the Non-Aligned Movement
Lyndon B. Johnson
Grew up in rural Texas, earned a reputation as a master political operator in the US He also viewed Vietnam through a zero-sum prism of international Cold War competition and the domestic partisan politics of anti-communism Two days after becoming president, Johnson fatefully declared, "I am not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went."Johnson relied on dubious reports that North Vietnamese patrols had fired on a U.S. destroyer to push for congressional authorization to respond with military force. Defeated his Republican opponent by a landslide in November 1964
Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
Havana and Moscow's closeness prompted Eisenhower to sever diplomatic ties with Cuba in January 1961 and impose heavy sanctions aimed at crippling the Cuban economy. The CIA was directed to plot the assassination of Castro while preparing for anti-Castro exiles to launch an invasion of Cuba Kennedy was debriefed by the CIA and military officials of these plans. To prove his foreign policy mettle, the president failed to properly vet the operation and became an ill-conceived, poorly planned disaster On April 17, a brigade of Cuban exiles landed on the island's Southern coast. This force was meant to spearhead the invasion, which planners believed would inspire a full-blown popular uprising against the Castro regime. Instead, in less than twenty-four hours, Castro's military thwarted the clumsy attack and routed the poorly prepared exiles. In total, 140 died in the botched invasion and 1,189—nearly all of the remaining men—were taken prisoner. Castro's victory solidified popular support for his government and allowed himself to be viewed as a heroic defender of the Cuban people from American imperialism It was humiliating for Kennedy but stiffened his resolve to get rid of Castro. He doubled down on covert operations (including exploding cigars, psychological warfare, and sabotage) aimed at destabilizing Cuba. At the same time, Cuba moved firmly into Communist camp as Castro looked at the Soviet Union to safeguard revolution and Cuban sovereignty.
Describe Nixon's trip to China.
He arrived in Beijing on February 21, 1972, becoming the first US president to visit China. While his trip rankled some of his conservative members of his own party, it won bipartisan support and hailed as the "week that changed the world". Nixon jumped at the opportunity to play peacemaker and insisted on taking sole charge of the negotiations with Zhou. Finding common cause in the shared desire to limit Soviet influence in Asia, Nixon and Zhou concluded their talks with a joint statement in which the United States recognized Taiwan as part of China and expressed its willingness to withdraw troops from the contested island in the future. It accepted future Chinese control of Taiwan, representing a reversal of decades of American support for the island's national government and undercut an existing defense treaty with Taiwan. Both nations established unofficial embassies and named envoys, a big step toward normalizing U.S.-Chinese relations. Trade, travel, and cultural exchange between the two nations further reduced tensions. Nixon's 1974 resignation was because of a cover-up of his re-election campaign's bungled burglary of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate Hotel imperiled détente, his signature foreign policy accomplishment.
How did Johnson handle the South Vietnam situation?
He expanded American commitment as it escalated to a full-blown war. In 1967, US planes dropped more than 226,000 tons of explosives on North Vietnam while American troops stationed at South Vietnam approached 500,000. Despite possessing vastly superior economic and military resources, the United States was unable to impose its will in Vietnam to secure a decisive victory. Instead, the war settled into a bloody stalemate that critics likened to a "quagmire," a sucking pit of quicksand nearly impossible to escape. Fear of appearing weak on communism led Johnson to dramatically escalate American military involvement in Vietnam and prevented him from extricating the US from an unwinnable war
What did Carter do in response to the invasion of Afghanistan?
He pulled SALT II treaty from Senate, ended American exports of grain, technology, and manufactured goods to the Soviet Union, and froze trade and cultural exchanges. When the Soviets failed to meet Carter's deadline for withdrawal, the president announced that the United States would boycott the upcoming 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Carter also began to funnel military support to the Afghan mujahideen rebels. The Soviets, convinced that the war would be short-lived, insisted that the invasion was a simple extension of the Brezhnev Doctrine and refused to back down. Détente was dead. Carter's stern opposition to the Afghanistan invasion earned him some support from conservatives critics
How did Khrushchev quickly clash with Kennedy?
He reissued his Berlin ultimatum at the Vienna summit in 1961 Kennedy asked Congress for an additional $3.2 billion in defense spending With Moscow's blessing, East Germans began building a permanent barrier in Berlin that would stem the tide of refugees fleeing to the West The Berlin Wall dashed hopes for German reunification but also removed a source of conflict
Khrushchev in the United States
He waited for an official invitation for years. He mingled with movie stars and relished red carpet treatment at various events held in his honor. He bristled questions and fumed when security concerns thwarted his Disneyland planned visit.
Antiwar movement
In the late 1960s, mass protests erupted in cities and on college campuses across the United States where opposition to the draft and political radicalism flourished. On October 17, 1967 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, student activists staged a sit-in to disrupt Dow Chemical Company recruitment, which was known for making saran wrap and supplying the military with napalm (flammable jelly widely used in American bombing raids that produced horrific injuries). Antiwar protestors accused Dow of facilitating war crimes. Students chanted "Down with Dow" as local police dressed in riot gear forcibly removed students and fired tear gas into the crowd. Organization Students for a Democratic Society attacked Vietnam as an unjust war. Less than a week after the Madison protest, as many as 100,000 protestors marched from Washington memorial to the Pentagon. People tried to avoid the draft that compelled American men to serve in Vietnam. Some young men burnt their draft cards or fled to Canada. Boxer Mohammad Ali went to prison instead of participating in a war that was believed to be morally bankrupt Religious leaders joined the movement. In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr gave an impassioned speech condemning the Vietnam War. He declared that "If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read 'Vietnam' " That same year Catholic priest Phillip Berrigan and 3 other Christian clergies broke into a Baltimore government building and poured blood on draft files. While out on bail, Berrigan accompanied his brother Daniel, a Jesuit priest, to the draft office of Cantonsville, Maryland where they removed hundreds of draft records and set them on fire with homemade napalm By 1968, the Vietnam War had become the single most divisive force in American society, tearing communities, families, and the nation itself apart.
Where were the first CIA interventions staged at?
Iran and Guatemala
Mohammad Mossadegh
Iranian Prime Minister elected in 1951 who had a plan to nationalize Iran's oil industry, which at the time was dominated by British-owned, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Mossadegh, an ardent nationalist, viewed foreign control of Iran's natural resources as a form of colonialism infringed on Iran's national sovereignty As tensions between Iran and Great Britain escalated, Mossadegh was rumored to be actively courting Soviet aid in 1953
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Khrushchev responded to Castro's pleas with the suggestion to send nuclear missiles to the island to further American aggression. The real missile gap ended up placing the USSR at an enormous disadvantage. Castro agreed and Soviets secretly began construction of missile sites in the summer of 1962 that would place some 80 million Americans living in Southeastern United States (roughly between Houston and Baltimore), within reach of nuclear rockets On October 14, U-2 planes captured images of the sites and confirmed that there were 16 to 32 missiles that would be operational within a week US ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson showed the UN delegates the aerial photos. A few military airstrikes were called for but Kennedy called for quarantine or a naval blockade of Cuba in a nationally televised address on October 22. Nearly 96 million Americans, two-thirds of the nation's total population. Kennedy also warned the Soviets that any missile launch would be met with the full power of the American nuclear arsenal.
From the late nineteenth century, when ____________________ claimed the territory as his personal colony, the people of the central African nation of the Congo suffered immensely under Belgian rule.
King Leopold II The tiny European nation extracted enormous wealth from the Congo using brutal forced labor techniques to harvest vast quantities of natural rubber, which was turned into tires for the nascent automobile industry. The near genocidal atrocities committed by Leopold's forces at the height of the rubber boom gave way to equally brutal conditions endured by workers in the nation's various mines.
"Virgin Lands" campaign
Led nearly 2 million Soviets to move to remote regions in Central Asia and the Soviet east to grow wheat on massive state farms. This offered an idealistic solution to the nation's perennial food shortage. In the face of technical challenges by unforgiving climate, the campaign failed to increase agricultural output and resulted in significant and lasting environmental damage.
Leonid Brezhnev
Life-long party man that rose to rank of major-general during WW2 then took over as the first secretary of the Communist party in 1964 after Khrushchev was forced to step down by officials concerned with his increasingly erratic leadership The Politburo (Soviet policy makers) hoped Brezhnev's steady hand could restore order to the Soviet system at home and abroad. Brezhnev delivered domestically by turning the Soviet Union into "a country of remarkable, though somewhat deadening calm."
Ayatollah Khomeini
Muslim cleric who inspired a popular 1979 revolution and toppled the secular, but increasingly oppresive regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi (who was for a quarter of a century, a key regional ally of the United States) Six weeks before Soviet tanks arrived in Kabul, radical students affiliated with Khomeini's Islamic Revolution had stormed the American embassy in Tehran and taken the staff hostage. Fifty-two captives were held prisoner inside the embassy for a total of 444 days, fueling a crisis that dominated the nightly news and badly damaged Carter's already faltering reelection campaign.
Tet Offensive (1968)
Northern Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front (NLF) launched series of coordinated attacks on cities and American military bases throughout South Vietnam during the Vietnamese New Year holiday of Tet It failed militarily and resulted in heavy losses for the Communist forces and shattered faith in the war effort Images on television such as the fervent assault of US embassy in Saigon, with the Johnson's administration's claims, showed that American was winning the war In the wake of Tet, CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite broke from the show's usual format to directly address the American people. "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past," Cronkite candidly observed, before sharing his personal conclusion that "the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could." Johnson had lost Cronkite, and with him a sizable chunk of the American people. Faced with freefalling approval ratings, the defection of his top national security advisors, and primary challenges for the Democratic Party nomination, Johnson announced in late March that he would not seek reelection and intended to open peace negotiations with the North Vietnamese.
American National Exhibition (1959)
Opened by Vice President Nixon in Moscow's Sokolniki Park This exhibition presented a case for capitalism's supremacy over communism through consumer goods like color TVs and Pepsi cola Khrushchev agreed to tour the exhibit with Nixon on July 24, on the eve of its official opening. As the two leaders entered the kitchen of a model equipped with sparkling new appliances, they began a now-famous exchange known as the Kitchen Debate that was partially captured by the trailing camera crews. Nixon explained that an average American worker could afford the ranch style home and directed Khrushchev's attention to the brand-new washing machine, which he said made life easier for American women. Khrushchev, whose pride and near pathological inferiority complex made him loathe to acknowledge the increasingly pronounced gap in the standard of living enjoyed by citizens of Western democracies and the Soviet Union, insisted that Soviet visitors would not be impressed. They had the same sort of things, he claimed, and besides, unlike in the United States, all Soviet citizens were provided housing as a basic right. Nixon playfully praised Khrushchev's pugnacity and then used the debate itself as evidence of the value of "a free exchange of ideas" between the two nations and pitted American materialist consumerism against Soviet dialectical materialism
Imre Nagy
Ousted reformist who whose return was demanded and party officials rushed to install as Prime Minister in attempt to placate protesters during de-Stalinization In a series of national radio addresses, Nagy pledged restore multi-party rule and called for complete withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary He also announced Hungary's exit from the Warsaw Pact and called on the UN to preserve its newly declared neutrality
Paris Peace Accords (1973)
Peace treaty between the North Vietnamese, NLF, and South Vietnamese; secured by Kissinger Terms included a cease-fire, prisoner exchange, and complete withdrawal of American troops While Kissinger and his co-signatories were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, the treaty did not establish a lasting peace. Without the backing of the US military, Communist forces overwhelmed the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and triumphantly seized the capital of Saigon in 1975. As Saigon burned, helicopters rescued the last remaining personnel from the roof of the US embassy. It belied Nixon's claim to have achieved "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Around 58,000 died. Historian estimated between 3 to 4 million Vietnamese killed over the course of fighting, at least half of whom were civilians
The New York Times and The Washington Post published portions of the ______________________, a classified review of the Vietnam War obtained by former Defense Department official Daniel Ellesburg
Pentagon Papers It revealed that multiple administrations misled Congress and the American people about the true state of military progress in Vietnam. It deepened disillusionment with the longest-running war in American history
In __________________, the Communist Party's top official died from a heart attack after reading a transcript of Khrushchev's speech
Poland A wave of popular protests in Poland led the party to expel several other Stalinists from its ranks and restore Wladislaw Gomulka, who had been imprisoned from Stalin's purges, as its leader. Gomulka deftly headed off a Soviet attempt to reverse his appointment and prevented a planned Soviet military intervention by convincing Khrushchev that he had no intention of challenging Soviet hegemony in his country
Jacobo Arbenz
Populist left-leaning military officer of the small Central American nation of Guatemala who was elected in 1950 He pledged to institute dramatic land reforms- 2.5% of Guatemalans controlled 70% of the nation's lands- and began to expropriate uncultivated lands, including US owned United Fruit Company The Dulles brothers, which both had close ties to the United Fruit Company, feared that Arbenz's land redistribution represented the first stage of Communism that could spread to other regions, if left unchecked
Kwame Nkrumah
Prime Minister of Ghana Met Lumumba at the 1958 All-Africa Peoples Conference held in Accra, Ghan's capital, and the 2 became fast friends and ideological kindred spirits Lumumba became an ardent supporter Nkrumah's vision of African unity and his (Nkrumah's) policy of "positive neutrality" in the Cold War By eschewing any direct alliance with the United States or the Soviet Union, Lumumba hoped to provide Congo with maximum flexibility in its foreign relations and trade.
Who was the president after Johnson? What was their strategy?
Richard Nixon. He had a "secret plan" during his campaign to end war in Vietnam. Like Johnson, he wished not be viewed as soft on communism His strategy was Vietnamization. With National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, Nixon hoped that Vietnamization would shift the bulk of fighting to the Southern Vietnamese army, allowing for the withdrawal of American troops. This failed bring resolution to the war and left the Nixon administration to use peace-talks. Nixon also attempted to intensify the American military assault to pressure the North Vietnamese to engage in serious negotiations. Since a self-sufficient South Vietnam capable of defending itself was an unlikely prospect, Nixon sought merely a "decent interval" that would allow the United States and his own administration to save face before Saigon fell to Communist forces. Nixon also embraced what he termed the madman strategy, in which he encouraged Kissinger to promote an image of the president as reckless and willing to resort to nuclear weapons among his North Vietnamese interlocutors. The ploy, which proved ineffective, required actions in order to be credible.
Earlier in 1979, Carter ruled out American military intervention in Nicaragua, where the _____________ , Marxist-Leninist rebels with close ties to Cuba, overthrew the nation's authoritarian leader Anastasio Samoza, who had previously enjoyed strong support in Washington.
Sandinistas In Central America, Africa, and the Middle East, American power seeming to be receding while its strength enemies expanded
Strategic Arm Limitation Treaty II (SALT II)
Second round of arms control negotiation Domestic distractions of the Watergate scandal prompted Nixon's resignation from office in 1974, rendering the talks stillborn.
Of all the natural resources that Congo possessed, the nation's extremely high-grade uranium deposits assumed immense strategic value in the age of atomic weapons. Uranium ore from Congo's ____________________________ supplied the scientists of the Manhattan project with key radioactive fuel necessary for the construction of the first atomic bombs.
Shinkolobwe mine After WW2, the US continued to secretly extract large quantities of uranium from Congo, which were more concentrated than alternatives in North America Congo remained America's single largest source of uranium into the 1950s. In 1951, the United States obtained seventy-five percent of its total uranium supply, some 2,792 tons, from the Congo. U.S. reliance on a single resource was so heavy that officials established close ties to the controversial white minority-ruled Republic of South Africa, which they predicted would become the "principal future source of uranium." Congo's Katanga region remained a major geopolitical prize in the burgeoning Cold War, as the Americans, and their Belgian allies, worried about Congo's mines falling into communist hands. These concerns were amplified by the uncertainty introduced by the end of colonial rule. After 2 years of unrest, Congo won independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I)
Soviet-American détente got off to a rocky start when bilateral arms control talks stalled almost immediately after commencing in the fall of 1969. SALT I was agreed by Nixon and Brezhnev in 1971 in Moscow. It attempted to preserve a balance of power in the nuclear arms race by restricting the use of defensive missiles and freezing the existing number of offensive missiles for a period of 5 years In a statement of "Basic Principles," the two sides also pledged to exercise "restraint" and work toward the prevention of nuclear war by adhering to a shared code of conduct. While SALT I had little practical effects, it was important because it demonstrated the possibility of Soviet-American cooperation on issues of mutual concern It established a direct line of communication between Washington and Moscow and a framework for working through complex issues. The treaty also validated Kissinger's strategy of triangular diplomacy, as Nixon's visit to China in 1972 had undoubtedly spurred the Soviets to finally commit to an arms treaty.
U-2 Incident
Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane that was photographing Soviet missile sights , erasing any goodwill Khrushchev's visit had generated The plane was designed to fly at high altitudes and evade radars. Eisenhower first initiated the aerial reconnaissance missions in 1956 which yielded valuable intelligence on the anemic state of Soviet's nuclear program The Eisenhower administration badly played it off by initially asserting that the plane was conducting meteorological research but strayed off course
What did the Soviet intervention with Lumumba lead the United States to do?
The CIA was given a green-light to assassinate against the Congolese leader while backing a military coup in September led by Joseph Mobutu, Lumumba's trusted chief of staff. Lumumba fled but was captured by Mobutu's troops two months later. Mobutu turned the prime minister over to his political enemies in Katanga, who tortured Lumumba before murdering him in cold blood. Many African leaders viewed both the United States and the United Nations as complicit in Lumumba's brutal death. Lumumba became a martyr and a symbol of anti-colonial resistance around the world. President Kennedy continued Washington's support of Mobutu, whom he publicly credited with preventing the spread of communism in Congo, while privately conceding that the new Congolese regime was deeply corrupt and authoritarian. After Kennedy's own assassination, President Johnson committed significant American resources to keep Mobutu in power after a widespread rebellion nearly toppled the dictator in 1964.
Who were the candidates for the 1960 US election? Who won?
The U-2 incident amplified Cold War tensions and made Eisenhower less popular Democratic candidate John F Kennedy, a young Senator from Massachusetts, criticized the Eisenhower administration's management of the Cold War. His main argument was the claim that a growing "missile gap" threatened American national security Republican candidate Richard Nixon, who was Vice President before, was not accustomed of having to defend his anti-communist credentials or prove foreign policy toughness. Both candidates endorsed a robust, muscular Cold War strategy and there was little separation between the men's assessment of the state world affairs In November, Kennedy narrowly defeated Nixon in one of the closest gaps. At 43 years old, Kennedy would be the youngest president in history and first Catholic president to occupy the nation's highest office. Kennedy, aware that many viewed him as a foreign policy novice, boasted that his administration was the "best and the brightest"
What was the United State's second step of detente?
The United States had refused to recognize the People's Republic of China in 1949 and two decades later still lacked normal diplomatic relations with the world's largest communist nation. Nixon, who spent much of his political career derailing the Red China, shocked his own cabinet members by suggesting a bold "opening" of China. Over the next three years, Nixon and Kissinger dutifully worked through intermediaries and backchannels to gauge Beijing's receptiveness to a thaw in U.S.-China relations. The first breakthrough came in the spring of 1971, when the U.S. national table tennis team accepted an invitation to play a series of exhibition matches in China. The team's 8 day visit entralled the American public and helped humanize Communist China. Unlike other iconic Cold War sporting events like the 1972 World Chess Championship and the 1980 Winter Olympic Games that highlighted competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, ping-pong diplomacy emphasized sportsmanship as a potent symbol of international goodwill. It showed friendship over competition. The Chinese team was a powerhouse, the top-ranked team in the world. Its roster drew from six million registered players, the best of whom had trained twelve hours a day in state-sponsored sports academies since the age of six. The U.S. team, by contrast, was ranked 28th and was comprised mainly of teenagers whom the press would briefly transform into global celebrities. The crowds, packed with ideologically trusted Red Guards and conscripted soldiers, applauded on cue when a light flashed in the stands. During their off time, the young Americans visited the Great Wall and met with premier Zhou En-Lai while a flock of reporters documented their every move. "A ping pong ball has cracked the bamboo curtain," a New York Times editorial declared. The trip was a resounding success and paved the way for Nixon's subsequent visit, in which the president would square off in a strategic ping-pong match with the Chinese leadership.
What was the downside of America's Cold War foreign policy: in the name of anti-communism?
The United States was willing to support undemocratic and abusive regimes, severely damaging its reputation in Africa and to the rest of the world. Washington celebrated when a coup toppled Kwame Nkrumah's regime while the Ghanaian leader was on a state visit to China in 1966. The fall of Lumumba and Nkrumah demonstrated how difficult it was for African leaders to maintain a policy of neutrality or non-alignment in the Cold War.
Jimmy Carter
The democratic candidate elected after Ford in 1976 Devout evangelical Christian and former peanut farmer who rose from political obscurity In his first inaugural address, Carter embraced a return to the idealistic internationalism of Woodrow Wilson pledged to put individual human rights at the center of US foreign policy Carter's moralism was a direct rejection of the amoral realism championed by Kissinger as well as an attempt to inject American foreign policy with a noble sense of purpose after the trauma of the Vietnam War. To Soviets, Carter's human rights rhetoric represented an unwelcome intrusion into its international affairs and a violation of the spirit of detente Carter's lack of foreign policy experience blinded him to the serious and practical consequences of his human rights agenda on fragile US-Soviet relations
What did the Soviets do on November 4 when the international community focused on the Suez Crisis?
They had tanks roll into Budapest and crush the rebellion 20,000 Hungarians died from fighting. 22,000 were arresting for participating in the "counter revolution", including Nagy who was executed 2 years later A large number of survivors became refugees, historians estimated that 200,000 Hungarians fled to the West in the wake of Soviet invasion
Cuban Revolution (1959) and Fidel Castro
Young rebel Fidel Castro fashioned a motley crew of revolutionaries, students, and peasants into an effective guerilla fighting force after returning from exile From the rugged Sierra Maestra Mountains, Castro's army marched to the capital, where they finally toppled the deeply unpopular Batista regime on January 1, 1959. Castro was the son of a wealthy planter and former law student. His preference to dress in olive-green fatigues and combat boots, along with his tall height and unkempt beard made him a striking figure. The Cuban revolution was reclassed as a Marxist uprising. Castro's primary ideological identification was a strongly anti-imperialist nationalism After taking power, Castro was arrested and brutally punished Batista loyalists, which drove many moderates to seek refuge in the United States
Soviet meddling in the Horn of Africa appeared to Carter and his hawkish national security advisor ____________________ to portend the launch of a broad offensive in the Third World.
Zbigniew Brzezinski This threatened superpowers to return the superpowers to an era of disastrous regional proxy war
Several excruciatingly tense days followed as Kennedy's national security team hunkered down in the newly built Situation Room. Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother and _______________________ , scrutinized Khrushchev's letters for clues into his mindset and eventually drafted a settlement that resolved the conflict on October 28. What was in the settlement?
attorney general Khrushchev agreed to remove missiles from Cuba in exchange for a public declaration from the United States that it would not invade the island. Historian's praised Kennedy's handling of the Cuba Missile Crisis and his team for averting a potentially catastrophic war.
Congress created the CIA in 1947 to _______________________ as part of Truman's broad-based national security initiative
coordinate and streamline American intelligence gathering Under Eisenhower, the CIA greatly expanded capabilities and became the preferred instrument for American intervention in foreign nations. The total number of covert operations surged from 309 in 1949 to 2,812 in 1952. During this same period, the yearly budget for clandestine activities grew from $4.7 million to $82 million An expanded CIA offered Eisenhower a way to wield American power discretely while circumventing Congress and avoiding public scrutiny According to a high-ranking official, the CIA would become " a government within a government, which can evade oversight of its activities by drawing the cloak of secrecy about itself"
Despite continued U.S. efforts to undermine and economically and politically isolate his government, Fidel Castro ruled Cuba for another half-century, and __________________ remains the First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party to this day.
his brother Raul
Jewish emigration along with the plight of high-profile Soviet dissidents, like the recently expelled Nobel- prize winning novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn, helped revive _____________________ as an issue of central importance to U.S. foreign policy.
human rights
By the same token, the Suez crisis signaled ____________________________ in Middle Eastern affairs
increased American involvement The region of increasingly vital strategic interest to the United States, primarily because of its rich oil deposits By thwarting the invasion of Europe, Eisenhower was not declaring sympathy with Nasser or Arab nationalism
At the height of the Cold War with desires to counter Soviet influence trumped concerns regarding the CIA's ______________________
lack of transparency With many documents declassified, historians could now get a better picture of US covert operations If a government appeared to drifting toward the Soviet Union or Marxist ideology in general, the officials sounded the alarm. The CIA overthrew democratically elected governments that were too pro-Soviet or insufficiently pro-American and installed US-friendly autocratic regimes in their place
On November 10, 1958, Khrushchev gave an ultimatum, giving France, Britain, and the US six months to demilitarize West Berlin and ______________________________________
negotiate directly with East German government for access to the city He did this because he felt that US and NATO would not risk World War III for half a city and the steady stream of hundreds of thousands of East Berliners fleeing to the West each year added urgency to his gamble. Eisenhower held firm and readied plans to defend West Berlin with nuclear weapons if necessary, a reflection of the "New Look" policy
The U-2 incident spoiled the Four Powers Summit and led Khrushchev to steer Soviet foreign policy in a more confrontational direction At the UN in October, Khrushchev interrupted a speech critical of the Soviet Union by ______________________________________________
repeatedly banging his shoe on the table before him
In the 1980 election, Carter lost in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan, who vowed to _____________________________________
restore America's global prestige
The successful launch of Sputnik I led Khrushchev to trumpet scientific and technological superiority over the United States. He also claimed that for Soviet engineers, making missiles was like making ____________________ and boasted that new IBCMs allowed him to target virtually any point on Earth.
sausages When Western dignitaries met with Khrushchev, he was fond of listing cities he would vaporize if provoked In reality, the Soviet Union's weapon systems paled in numbers and capabilities in comparison to the United States. The bluster was pure-bluff, but it nevertheless unnerved America and NATO allies.
In a nationally televised address, President Carter condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as a ___________________________ and warned the American people that Moscow stood poised to extend its influence from Central Asia to the Middle East, imperiling the world's oil supplies.
violation of international law