Cold War

1970 -1991

Vietnam: Why Did We Care So Much About A Small Jungle Country in Southeast Asia?

The Domino Theory•Domino Theory - The belief held by the US that if one state or region fell under the influence of Communism, then the surrounding areas would follow.

U.S Involvement in Vietnam

• Eisenhower will send advisors to assist the South Vietnamese

• President Kennedy will send even more troops to assist the South Vietnamese but is concerned about the lack of leadership of President Diem

• President Johnson, using the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the bombing of a U.S. airbase in Vietnam will increase the U.S. involvement including “boots on the ground”

Vietnam

• Election of 1968, Nixon promises to end the war

• He increases bombing• By the 1970s, American opposition to Vietnam

is extreme• 1974 U.S. troops are pulled out of Vietnam• April of 1975, the South fell to the Communist

North

Détente

• During the 1970s, Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will successfully work to thaw tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union

• Nixon will be the first American President to visit communist China

Cold War Events: "Space Race"(1955-1972)

The U.S. and Soviet Union competed for supremacy in spaceflight capability.

Greatest Soviet Spaceflight Achievement: The Launching of Satellite "Sputnik" (October 1957)

Greatest U.S. Spaceflight Achievement: Apollo 11 lands on the moon (July 1969)

Sputnik 1

U.S. Moon Landing: 1969

1) Mikhail Gorbachev Leads Russia Out Of The Cold War (1985-1991)

- Became Soviet Leader in 1985

- Recognized that Communism was not working!

- Perestroika : Gorbachev's plan to restructure the Soviet Union's politics & economy

End of The Cold War (1989-1990)

•During the 1980s, the Soviet Union entered a state of rapid decline. •The Soviet Union fell apart, and •This helped bring an end to the Cold War:

Destruction of the Berlin Wall (1989)

The Fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized The Fall of Communism