The Climax of the Cold War

• Soviet split with China in 1960 became a complete break, occasional fighting.

• In the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev was forced to back down to Kennedy.– Kennedy won the propaganda war over the Berlin

Wall.– Khrushchev replaced by Leonid Brezhnev – Brezhnev years were a period of détente between

the USSR and the United States.

• Both the US and the USSR continued to develop nuclear weapons– … but signed nonproliferation agreements to limit

number of nations with nuclear weapons.

• Early 1970s superpowers held Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks.

• Nixon sought Soviet help in negotiating a “peace with honor” in Vietnam.

• Dubcek, leader of Czechoslovakia in 1968, instituted reforms called “Prague Spring.”– Decentralized government, more free speech, and

talk of an opposition party.

• Brezhnev Doctrine allowed use of force to keep Warsaw Pact together.– Brezhnev sends troops to Prague, ousts Dubcek

and rescinds reforms.

1968• January – March, North Vietnamese “Tet Offensive”

• January – August, “Prague Spring”

• 4 April Assassination of Martin Luther King

• May Sorbonne riots• Wide-spread strikes and civil unrest in France

• 6 June Assassination of Robert Kennedy

• 20–21 August Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia

1969

• 20 January Richard Nixon becomes President• Begins negotiations with North Vietnam in

summer• Begins “Vietnamization”

• 8 August Tate-Labianca Murders

• 15 – 18 August Woodstock

• 6 December Altamont

• 1972 - US combat troops out of South Vietnam– “Easter Invasion” repelled by South Vietnam with

US help.

– November - Nixon reelected with 60.67% of vote (Third highest in US history)

– 17 June: Watergate break-in– 19 June: Connection made to the White House

• 8 August 1974: Nixon resigns

• Campaigns as an outsider.

• Emphasizes “Human Rights”

• Dismantles much of the US intelligence system.

• 1979 Iranian Revolution

Iranian Hostage Crisis

• 52 American diplomats held 444 days:November 4, 1979 - January 20, 1981

• 24 April 1980: Failed rescue attempt

• (24 December 1979 Soviets invade Afghanistan)

8 killed4 wounded1 helicopter destroyed1 C-130 destroyed5 helicopters abandoned/captured

1976

1980

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.