Transcript Events - Cold War Project

Events
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Events
Events
Events
Welcome to the Museum of
Cold War 1976-1991
Curator’s
Offices
Shannon Ganey
Curator’s
Office
Shannon is a graduate from UCLA and
specializes in being the smartest person
ever about the Cold War. 
Contact me at [Your linked email address
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Operation Babylift
After the United States invaded Vietnam, it left
many of the children there without parents. On
April 3rd, President Gerald Ford announced in a
mission deemed Operation Babylift, the United
States military would fly 70,000 orphans out of
Vietnam. To execute this mission, about 30
flights were planned.
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http://asam100ee.wikispaces.com/Op
eration+Babylift,+Vietnamese+Adopti
on,+Adoption
The Fall of Saigon
On the morning of April 30, 1975, South
Vietnam’s President Duong Van Minh
surrendered to the Vietcong, ending
decades of violence between the North and
South. Only hours before the announcement
the last American soldiers and civillians
evacuated from the U.S. embassy. Outside
the building’s gates, hundreds of South
Vietnamese pleaded for a spot in one of the
helicopters, afraid the Vietcong would kill
them.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/
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Soviet Afghan War
On the 24th of December 1979, the Russian
40th army, under direct orders from Soviet
leader Leonid Brezhnev marched into the
capital Kabul. Early exchanges were swift and
the Soviet Union had Admin shot on 27th of
December 1979, to be replaced by Babrak
Kamal. Popular support for the invasion was
not there, however, and Kamal relied almost
entirely on the support that he received from
the Russian army. By 1982, the rebels held
around three quarters of the country and the
pattern continued as the conflict went on. The
war was to last over nine years and became
known as Russia’s “Vietnam” due to the
seemingly interminable nature of the conflict
and the unsatisfactory conclusion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/b
ooks/review/Thompson-t.html
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SALT
SALT were the negotiations between the
United States and the Soviet Union that
were aimed at curtailing the manufacture
of strategic missiles capable of carrying
nuclear weapons. The first agreements,
known as SALT I and SALT II, were
signed by the United States and the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1972 and
1979, respectively, and were intended to
restrain the arms race in strategic (longrange or intercontinental) ballistic missiles
armed with nuclear weapons. First
suggested by U.S. President Lyndon B.
Johnson in 1967, strategic arms limitation
talks were agreed on by the two
superpowers in the summer of 1968, and
full-scale negotiations began in November
1969.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked
/topic/568184/Strategic-ArmsLimitation-Talks-SALT
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Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was the last General
Secretary of the Soviet Union. He brought
about massive economic, social, and political
changes and helped bring an end to both the
Soviet Union and the Cold War. With the
falling of the Soviet empire, Gorbachev
helped establish a new system of
government, including the establishment of a
president and the end of the Communist
Party's monopoly as a political party.
However, for many, Gorbachev was going
too far. From August 19-21, 1991, a group of
hard-liners of the Communist Party
attempted a coup and put Gorbachev under
house arrest. The unsuccessful coup proved
the end of both the Communist Party and the
Soviet Union.
http://www.russianarts.org/rno/photos.
cfm?Photos=Guest&Code=710
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INF Treaty
The INF talks began in October 1981, and
continued without result until November
1983, when, in response to the beginning
of deployment of U.S. missiles, the Soviet
Union left negotiations. In January 1985,
U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz and
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko
agreed to resume the effort (the United
States classified these talks a continuation
of the earlier process while the Soviet
Union considered them new negotiations).
While originally negotiations only
addressed the INF issue in Europe, the
scope was later expanded to global
coverage and a new category, short-range
intermediate-range missiles (SRINF) was
added. The INF Treaty was signed at a
summit meeting between U.S. President
Ronald Reagan and Soviet General
Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nnp/nnp
db.htm
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Berlin Wall Falls
The Berlin Wall was both the physical division
between West Berlin and East Germany from
1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary
between democracy and Communism during the
Cold War. After several weeks of civil unrest,
the East German government announced on 9
November 1989 that all GDR citizens could
visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of
East Germans crossed and climbed onto the
wall, joined by West Germans on the other side
in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few
weeks, a euphoric public and souvenir hunters
chipped away parts of the wall; the governments
later used industrial equipment to remove most
of the rest. The physical Wall itself was
primarily destroyed in 1990. The fall of the
Berlin Wall paved the way for German
reunification, which was formally concluded on
3 October 1990.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20
09/nov/06/berlinwall-germany
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Poland Gains Independence
In early August 1980, the wave of strikes led to
the founding of the independent trade union
"Solidarity" by electrician Lech Wałęsa. The
growing strength of the opposition led the
government of Wojciech Jaruzelski to declare
martial law in December 1981. However, with
the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet
Union, increasing pressure from the West, and
continuing unrest, the communists were forced
to negotiate with their opponents. The 1989
Round Table Talks led to Solidarity's
participation in the 1989 election; its candidates'
striking victory gave rise to the first of the
succession of transitions from communist rule
in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1990,
Jaruzelski resigned as the President of the
Republic of Poland and was succeeded by
Wałęsa after the December 1990 elections.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/world
/europe/eye-on-polandgallery/index.html
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Communism Ends in Czechoslovakia
The Velvet Revolution was a non-violent
revolution in Czechoslovakia which led to
the overthrow of the Communist
government which had ruled in that nation
for over 40 years. It is often
commemorated along with other protests,
demonstrations, and marches held in
former Soviet nations in the late 1980s.
The history of this revolution is actually in
dispute, as it has historically been
presented as a series of spontaneous
national protests, but it may have been
supported or at least allowed by the
Communist government.
http://itellyawhatcommunismfell.edubl
ogs.org/
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Fall of Lithuania in 1990
Established on 21 July 1940 as a puppet state,
during World War II in the territory of the
previously independent Republic of Lithuania
after it had been occupied by the Soviet army on
16 June 1940, in conformity with the terms of
23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Between 1941 and 1944, the German invasion
of the Soviet Union caused its dissolution.
However, with the retreat of the Germans in
1944–1945, Soviet hegemony was reestablished, and existed until 1990.
http://coldwarsites.net/country/lithuani
a
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Invasion of Grenada
The U.S. Army's Rapid Deployment Force,
U.S. Marines, U.S. Army Delta Force and
U.S. Navy SEALs and other combined
forces comprised the 7,600 troops from the
United States, Jamaica, and members of
the Regional Security System defeated
Grenadian resistance after a low-altitude
airborne assault by the 75th Rangers on
Point Salines Airport on the southern end
of the island while a Marine helicopter and
amphibious landing occurred on the
northern end at Pearl's Airfield shortly
afterward. The military government of
Hudson Austin was deposed and replaced
by a government appointed by GovernorGeneral Paul Scoon until elections were
held in 1984
http://www.faqs.org/espionage/PrRe/Reagan-Administration-1981-1989United-States-National-SecurityPolicy.html
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Tiananmen Square
In 1989 during the student movement, many
people gathered in Tiananmen square to protest
the government's new programs. The protest
grew despite the government's efforts to stop
it. Eventually the Chinese government ordered
the use of military force to remove the
protesters. They used tanks to kill tousands of
protesters and dispel the others.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china
-tiananmen-square-weibo-2012-6
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Fall of Soviet Union
The Cold War ultimately brought the Soviet
Union down, but it took nearly half a century
to accomplish this goal. In 1945, around the
end of WWII, the Soviet Union and United
States waged this war of threatening words
and fear. The Cold War was a top concern on
the international affairs front. From
communism opponents' perspective, its
purpose was to contain communism and
avoid nuclear conflict. But the Soviet Union
aimed to spread communism to the United
States, if not the rest of the world.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/20
11/12/20-years-since-the-fall-of-thesoviet-union/100214/
Conclusion
I thought Mr. Collins would enjoy this political
cartoon because those are his fave.
http://www.lindsayfincher.com/the-fallof-communism-reagans-legacy.html
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