SA Flashcards
How can you avoid the draft
Attend college
Hawks
Supported war
Doves
Opposed war
Tet
Vietnamese new year
How was the Vietnam war new for Americans
Watched war on TV, saw villages burned, children and elders caught in battle, soldiers wounded and killed.
What did the Vietcong do?
Launched surprise attacks on cities throughout South Vietnam.
What did the Tet Offensive do?
Showed that even with half a million U.S. Troops no part of south Vietnam was safe
Richard Nixon
Became President through a pledge to end the war.
U.S. Withdrawing from war
- withdrawing American troops and turning war over to South Vietnamese
- two sides reached a ceasefire agreement
- communist forces captured Saigon
- Vietnam became united under one communist government
Arms race
Soviet Union launched first space satellite which threatened U.S.
NASA
American space program to compete with the Soviets
Détente
Policy to reduce tensions between two countries
What did détente do
Eased tensions establishing more trade
SALT
Treaty to limit the number of nuclear warheads and missiles
What did the Soviets do to screw it all up?
Went into Afghanistan to help a pro-Soviet government form
How did the whole thing conclude
The U.S. withdrew the SALT agreement. And didn’t allow its athletes to compete in the 1980 Olympics.
Soviets remained in Afghanistan for 10 years, the war became costly and led to the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Cold War
Intense rivalry between Soviets and U.S. that lasted for 50 years
Origins of Cold War
U.S. And Britain hated the Soviets because they thought communism was stupid
Soviets wanted to overthrow non communist governments
Soviets distrusted US because they feared Us was to powerful
Satellite nation
One that is dominated politically and economically by a more powerful nation
What ponies did Stalin break
To hold free elections as soon as possible in Eastern Germany
Containment
Keep Soviet influence contained within existing boundaries
How did Us try and prevent the spread of communism
Gave Greece and Turkey $400 million in economic and military aid
Truman doctrine
Program to encourage nations to resist communist expansion
Marshall plan
Plan to rebuild Europe
$12 billion in aid to Western European countries
WWII left Europe’s home roads and factories ruined
