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Wars and Conflict

Wars

Timeline

**__Causes:__**
- The deteriorating relationship between Washington and Moscow. - Germany is split into four "occupation" zones. - The Soviet Union expanded its area of control into Central Asia, North Korea and the Middle East - The Soviet Unions attempt to spread communism. - The fear of entering another World War. (Soviets fear that US had atomic weapons) - Countries used threats as weapons.

**__Major Players:__**
- The Soviet Union - The United States

**__Major Events:__**
- June 24, 1948 - May 12, 1949 - The Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union wanted control over all of Berlin. To try and do so, they cut off all railways and roads that led to their section of the city. The Western Allies responded by creating the "Berlin Airlift" that dropped supplies down to the people in West Berlin, totaling a whopping 13 million tons of food by the end of the blockade. Realizing that the blockade was useless and getting them nowhere, the Soviets took it down in May of 1949. This was one of the first conflicts during the Cold War that resulted in casualties. - 1950 - China turns communist - October 4, 1957 - Sputnik was the first-ever artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, launched by the Soviet Union. This would be the first of many satellites to follow from the Soviet Union. When the United States discovered this plan and it's already success, the "Space Race" began. - May 1, 1960 U-2. U-2 is a special kind of American spy plane. This incident involved one of ours being shot down while flying over the Soviet Union, while keeping surveillance of the Soviet government. This event cut deeply into the already deteriorating relationship between the United States and The Soviet Union. - April 1961 - The Bay of Pigs Invasion. The CIA attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro under President Kennedy. The Cuban armed forces, however, held up their own - defending themselves and ending the "invasion" in three days. - 1961 - Building of the Berlin Wall. Built by the German Democratic Republic, the wall was built to separate East and West Germany from each other and included many defenses. The wall stopped almost all immigration in the area. - October 16, 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis. With Fidel Castro's approval, the Soviet Union installed secret missiles in Cuba. When President Kennedy was informed, he announced that if any missile attack from Cuba would be taken as an attack from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union claimed to have "peaceful intentions" and offered to take the missiles down if the United States agreed not to invade Cuba. They offered again to take them down if the United States would agree to take down their missiles set up in Turkey. The United States took the first offer and on October 28, Khrushchev stated that the missiles would be dismantled and returned to the USSR. - 1989 - The Falling of the Berlin Wall. The people were not okay with this major separation and as the soviet government popularity faltered, the East German government gave the people permission to cross into West Germany, even West Berlin. Both sides of the wall flooded with excited Germans and slowly the wall began to chip away. The official date of the wall coming down was October 3, 1990.

**__The "End" :__**
- After 46 years, with mostly cold, and some hot periods, the Cold War came to an end with the fall of the Soviet Union. The people of the USSR grew very tired of the communism hierarchy and with their economy declining with war costs, they had to chose to try and keep their country going to keep control in Eastern Europe. They decided to try and reform the USSR and lost power in Eastern Europe, which quickly escalated to the Berlin Wall coming down, anti-communist regimes and eventually the official fall of the Soviet Union.

**__The Aftermath:__**
- Atomic weapons were one major outcome of the Cold War. With both sides using threats as weapons, both needed the arsenal to back it up. The US and the Soviets both ended the war with many new weapons. - Because of economic weakness caused by the Cold War, the Soviet Union collapses. - East and West Germany were united and the Berlin Wall is taken down. - Soviet republics gain independence since their fall. - With the USSR gone, the United States becomes the only world super power.

__**Podcast:**__

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Sources