Unit 6: Cold War to the Present

1
Unit 6 Cold War to the Present

• (Part 2)
• Vietnam to Iraq

2
Vietnam

• Vietnam is part of a former French colony that in
  1954 was divided into North and South Vietnam.
  North Vietnam was run by a communist government
  headed by Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnam was run by
  a noncommunist government headed by Ngo Dinh
  Diem.

3
Vietnam

• The government of South Vietnam was corrupt and
  often repressive. However, the U.S. supported
  the government because it was anti-Communist, in
  fear that if South Vietnam fell to the
  communists, all of Southeast Asia might follow.

4
Vietnam

• Throughout the early 1960s, communist-backed
  guerilla forces known as Vietcong fought against
  the South Vietnamese government. The U.S. sent
  aid and support to the government.
• By the summer of 1964, the U.S. had begun
  limited bombing of positions held by the Vietcong
  and supported limited commando raids on North
  Vietnams coast.

5
Vietnam

• In August, 1964, President Johnson reported that
  the North Vietnamese had attacked two American
  ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. At the Presidents
  request, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin
  Resolution, which allowed the President to carry
  out a war against the Vietcong and North Vietnam.

6

• Johnson quickly began bombing military bases in
  North Vietnam. In February 1965, after the
  Vietcong attacked an American airbase in South
  Vietnam, Johnson ordered an escalation, or
  military expansion, of the war. In April 1965 he
  began sending U.S. troops to fight against the
  Vietcong.

7
Vietnam

• American troops encountered difficulties in
  fighting the communist rebels. Vietcong
  guerrillas used hit-and-run tactics and booby
  traps. They launched small-scale attacks and
  then disappeared into the jungles or friendly
  villages. To counter such tactics, American
  troops adopted a search-and-destroy strategy.
  The troops destroyed jungles and villages in an
  attempt to force the Vietcong out into open
  combat.

8
Vietnam

• The U.S. continued pouring troops into Vietnam.
  During the height of the conflict, more than
  500,000 American soldiers were serving in the
  country. Despite the growing influx of U.S.
  troops and massive bombing of his country, Ho Chi
  Minh vowed to keep fighting, believing that his
  forces would outlast the U.S. in a war.

9
Vietnam

• Once the U.S. had escalated the fighting, there
  seemed to be no way of leaving without damaging
  its international prestige. Between 1965 and
  1967, American officials estimated that some
  2,000 attempts were made to open direct
  negotiations, all unsuccessful.

10
Vietnam

• By the end of 1967, U.S. military leaders assured
  the country that the end of the war was in sight.

11
Vietnam

• January 30, 1968, marked a turning point of the
  war. That day, the Vietcong launched surprise
  attacks on numerous towns and bases in South
  Vietnam. Occurring on Tet, the Vietnamese lunar
  New Year, these attacks became known as the Tet
  Offensive.

12

• These attacks were quickly repelled. However,
  the American people were shocked that an enemy
  was supposedly near defeat could launch such a
  large-scale attack. After Tet, many citizens
  began to believe that the U.S. could not win the
  war.

13
Vietnam

• In March, 1968, President Johnson announced that
  he would halt nearly all bombing of North Vietnam
  and try to begin negotiations. These peace
  negotiations proved fruitless, however, and the
  fighting continued.

14
Vietnam

• Gradually, as the U.S. moved deeper into the
  Vietnam War, opposition grew. Americans divided
  into two groups. Those who supported the war
  were called hawks, those who opposed the war
  were called doves.

15
Vietnam

• A - Many of those who opposed the war were
  students. The antiwar movement centered on
  college campuses.

16

• B - Many students protested the draft calling the
  system unfair because it offered a deferment to
  college students, which meant that a person who
  could not afford a higher education was more
  likely to be drafted. Many people protested the
  fact that Black Americans made up a
  disproportionately large number of American
  soldiers fighting overseas.

17
Vietnam

• C - Some protests turned violent. During a 1970
  protest at Kent State University in Ohio, four
  students were killed when the Ohio National Guard
  fired on demonstrators. Two more students were
  killed by state police at Jackson State
  University in Mississippi.

18
Vietnam

• During this tumultuous period in the U.S., some
  young people rebelled against established values
  and searched for a new set of beliefs. These
  people made up what was known as the
  counterculture because their values and practices
  conflicted with those of established society.

19
Vietnam

• On the other side, a large number of conservative
  Americans were angered by riots, protests, and a
  war that seemed to be going nowhere. The deep
  anger these Americans felt against the protesters
  soon developed into a backlash against the
  anti-war movement.

20
Vietnam

• By 1968, American society had reached a turning
  point. As a result of the Tet Offensive and the
  continuing protests, polls showed that the
  majority of Americans had turned against the
  Presidents handling of the war.

21
Vietnam

• A - The Democratic party also became split.
  Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, both
  of whom opposed the war, announced they would
  challenge Johnson for the presidential
  nomination. In March 1968, Johnson stunned the
  nation by announcing that he would not run for
  reelection.

22

• Hubert Humphrey, Johnsons Vice-President, became
  the administration candidate. As the election
  progressed, however, it appeared that Kennedy
  would gain the Democratic nomination. Then,
  Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968. In
  August, the Democrats nominated Humphrey for
  President.

23
Vietnam

• B - Meanwhile, the Republicans chose Richard
  Nixon as their candidate. During the campaign,
  Nixon promised to bring order to the nation and
  end the war in Vietnam. Nixon won a close
  victory and thus became President.

24
Vietnam

• To help him handle foreign policy matters, Nixon
  appointed Henry Kissinger, a brilliant political
  scientist, as his national security adviser and
  later his secretary of state. Wanting to be
  remembered as a peacemaker, Nixon proclaimed a
  policy of détente, or relaxation of tensions
  between the United States and the communist
  block.

25
Vietnam

• He also visited Moscow and began arms limitation
  talks with the Soviets that led to agreements by
  both sides to ban biological warfare and limit
  the growth of nuclear weapons. Nixon also worked
  to improve relations with China, lifting trade
  and travel restrictions, and in February 1972, he
  visited the country.

26
Vietnam

• Despite a campaign promise to end the war in
  Vietnam, Nixon moved slowly. He did not want to
  withdraw U.S. troops without a peace agreement
  and thus become the nations first President to
  lose a war.

27

• In June 1971, the New York Times published a
  secret defense department study known as the
  Pentagon Papers, which indicated that the
  nations various administrations had misled
  Congress and the public about the war in Vietnam.
  The documents angered many Americans and
  increased protests against the war.

28
Vietnam

• To quiet opposition to the war, Nixon announced a
  policy of Vietnamization. The policy consisted
  of withdrawing U.S. troops and replacing them
  with South Vietnamese soldiers. Nixon hoped that
  Vietnamization, combined with saturation bombing
  of North Vietnam, would allow the U.S. to
  withdraw from the war with honor.

29
Vietnam

• In January 1973, the warring sides signed a
  cease-fire agreement ending the military presence
  of the United States in Vietnam. The war,
  however, continued. In 1975, Congress refused
  President Fords request for funds to aid South
  Vietnam in its continuing war. In January 1975,
  North Vietnam launched a major offensive against
  the South. In a few months, the communists
  conquered South Vietnam and united the country
  under communist rule.

30
Vietnam Myths Facts

• Myth The U.S. soldiers were very young and
  poorly educated.
• Fact The average age was 23, and 79 of our
  troops were high school graduates.

31
Vietnam Myths Facts

• - Myth The soldiers were mostly poor and from
  minorities.
• Fact While 30 of the 58,000 killed came from
  the lowest third in income, 26 came from the
  highest third 12.5 were black.

32
Vietnam Myths Facts

• - Myth Many were jailed for draft-evasion
  during the Vietnam war.
• Fact Though 500,000 did dodge the draft, only
  9000 were convicted.

33
Latin America
34
Latin America

• Shortly after taking office, Kennedy implemented
  a program of aid to Latin America called the
  Alliance of Progress. Its purpose was to develop
  long-term economic growth among Latin American
  nations in order to prevent communist
  revolutions.

35
Middle East
36
The Middle East

• When war broke out between Israel and its Arab
  neighbors, the U.S. supported Israel. The Soviet
  Union backed and armed the Arab states. Israel
  quickly won the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.

37
The Middle East

• In 1973, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur,
  Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise
  attack against Israel in an attempt to regain
  land lost to Israel during a previous conflict.
  The U.S. supported Israel, while the Soviet Union
  aided the Arab states. The two superpowers,
  however, also worked to end the conflict. The
  combatants eventually agreed to a cease-fire

38
The Middle East

• After the war, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
  worked with Israel and Egypt to reduce tensions
  in the Middle East. He engaged in shuttle
  diplomacy-flying back and forth between the
  capitals of the two nations in an attempt to
  produce a lasting peace. Kissingers efforts
  resulted in improved relations between Egypt and
  Israel

39
The Middle East

• On the world stage, President Jimmy Carter
  attempted to promote a foreign policy based on
  morality and truth rather than military or
  economic considerations. (When the Soviet Union
  invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Carter imposed a
  grain embargo on the Soviets and kept the United
  States out of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.)

40
The Middle East

• Carters greatest foreign policy triumph and his
  greatest failure involved the Middle East.
• Carter helped to broker peace between long-time
  enemies Egypt and Israel. The two sides signed a
  peace agreement known as the Camp David Accords
  in 1979

41
The Middle East

• The Iranian hostage crisis-Also in 1979, an
  Islamic revolution toppled the monarchy in Iran.
  A group of rebels, angry over U.S. ties with the
  former rulers, seized the American embassy in
  November 1979 and took hostage more than 50
  Americans. Throughout 1980, Carter worked to win
  the hostages release. Negotiations failed,
  however, as did a military rescue in which eight
  Americans died in a helicopter crash.

42
The Middle East

• Election of 1980-pitted Democrat Jimmy Carter
  against Republican and former actor and governor
  Ronald Reagan of California. Reagan hammered at
  Carters lack of leadership and of his failure to
  obtain release of the hostages sealed his defeat.
  On Election Day, Reagan won handily. On January
  20, 1981, just after Reagan was sworn in, Iran
  released the American hostages after 444 days in
  captivity.

43
The Middle East

• Reagan adopted a hands-off attitude toward the
  day-to-day operations of the presidency, giving
  more responsibility to his staff. This practice
  aided what would become known as the Iran-Contra
  affair, a damaging scandal.

44

• In 1986, several of Reagans national security
  advisors arranged to sell weapons to Iranians in
  exchange for American hostages, then secretly
  used the profits to support anti-Communist rebels
  in Nicaragua in violation of a congressional ban
  on such financing.

45
The Middle East

• Although investigators cleared Reagan of
  responsibility for the scheme, they faulted him
  for allowing aides to make policy decisions
  without his knowledge.

46
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union
47
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• In 1983, President Reagan announced his Strategic
  Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed Star Wars.
  The project involved creating a shield of new
  weapons designed to intercept and destroy nuclear
  missiles. In addition to Star Wars, Reagan
  promoted a giant military buildup costing about
  1 trillion. This increased the debt and left
  less money for housing, education, and
  environmental programs. Congress responded in
  1985 by passing the Gramm-Rudman Act, which put
  pressure on Congress and the President to reduce
  the deficit and balance the budget.

48
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• Reagans desire for a strong defense was based on
  his belief that the Soviet Union was still a
  threat to the United States. U.S.-Soviet
  relations improved, however, when Mikhail
  Gorbachev became the new Soviet premier.
  Gorbachev opened up Soviet society (glasnost) and
  instituted democratic reforms (perestroika).

49
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• In 1986, Gorbachev and Reagan met to discuss
  reducing their nuclear arsenals. They eventually
  signed a treaty calling for the removal of all
  intermediate-range nuclear weapons from Europe.
  The cold war was slowly coming to an end.

50
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• After winning the election of 1988, President
  George H.W. Bush was confronted with a tidal wave
  of change around the world. Gorbachevs new
  reform policies in the Soviet Union created even
  greater demands for freedom and independence in
  Eastern Europe. In 1989, several Eastern
  European nations overthrew their communist rulers
  and forced democratic elections.

51
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• Demands for democracy then erupted in the Soviet
  Union itself. A failed coup left the power to
  govern in the hands of Boris Yeltsin, president
  of the Russian Republic, and Gorbachev resigned
  as Soviet president.

52

• By December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to
  exist. In its place was a loose federation of
  self-governing nations made up of former Soviet
  republics, including Russia, known as the
  Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

53
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• All the former Soviet and communist block states
  forced serious economic troubles as they
  attempted to convert state-run economies to
  capitalist systems.

54

• Shortages of essential goods such as food, fuel,
  medicine, and housing created severe hardships
  for large numbers of people. Ethnic rivalries
  flared in the newly independent nations,
  complicating their transition to self-government.

55
Improved Relations with the Soviet Union

• On January 1, 2000, Vladimir Putin was
  inaugurated as the new president of Russia,
  succeeding Boris Yeltsin. While Russia is now an
  ally of the United States, there are still areas
  of major disagreement.

56

• In December of 2001, U.S. President George W.
  Bush announced that the United States will
  withdraw from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile
  Treaty mid-2002 in order to build up defensive
  weapons. Russia disagrees that this is the right
  thing to do.

57
COLD WAR IS OVER
58
The Persian Gulf War
59
The Persian Gulf War

• In August 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Husseins
  troops seized control of Kuwait, Iraqs oil-rich
  neighbor. Following the invasion, Iraq
  controlled 20 percent of the worlds oil
  reserves. President Bush, with cooperation from
  more than 25 other nations, assembled a U.S.-led
  military coalition that drove Iraqi forces out of
  Kuwait. Saddam Hussein, however, remained a
  threat to the regions peace and stability.

60
The Persian Gulf War

• Observers feared that Iraq was working to develop
  chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. The
  Persian Gulf War caused Americans to rethink the
  military role of the nation. Some leaders called
  for scaling down U.S. military forces, arguing
  that the real source of power in the new world
  order would be economic.

61
The Persian Gulf War

• Other experts warned that the U.S. must maintain
  a strong military to guard against several
  remaining hostile and potentially dangerous
  nations. Recently, it is feared that Iraq is
  involved in sponsoring terrorism around the
  world, thus, some speculate that there will be
  more conflict between Iraq and the United States,
  among other nations of the west.

62
Other ethnic conflicts

• Despite the decline of communism, wars arising
  from ethnic hatreds, political boundaries, and
  religion plagued nearly every world region
  throughout the 1990s.

63
Other Ethnic Conflicts
64
Other ethnic conflicts

• The first crisis to confront the administration
  of President Bill Clinton was civil war in the
  East African nation of Somalia. When Clinton
  took office, thousands of U.S. troops already
  were in Somalia protecting deliveries of food to
  those left starving by the war. As the U.S.
  troops became more involved in the conflict,
  President Clinton pulled them out in 1995 rather
  than risk American casualties.

65
Other ethnic conflicts

• The U.S. and its allies also confronted violence
  in Europes Balkan region. In 1991, the
  multinational state of Yugoslavia disintegrated
  as several of the countrys ethnic groups broke
  away and claimed independence. Ethnic hatreds
  and renewed feelings of nationalism after decades
  of totalitarian rule fueled the wars in the
  Balkan region.

66
Other ethnic conflicts

• Serbia, the regions largest republic, fought
  against Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, and
  Macedonian Independence, and the region descended
  into years of war. As reports of Serb atrocities
  against various ethnic groups mounted, Western
  nations took action.

67

• The U.S. and its NATO allies bombed Serb military
  sites in the first NATO military offensive ever.
  In 1995, the warring sides agreed to a cease-fire
  and signed an agreement known as the Dayton peace
  accords.

68
Other ethnic conflicts

• In 1999, violence flared up again in the Balkans,
  as Kosovo, a province of Serbia, sought its
  independence. To put down the rebellion, Serbs
  marched into Kosovo, where again reports surfaced
  of atrocities against ethnic Albanians.

69

• Serb forces rounded up and executed more than
  8,000 Muslim men and boys. After diplomatic
  relations failed, NATO launched air strikes
  against Serbia, which eventually agreed to remove
  its forces and permit NATO troops to restore
  order in Kosovo.

70
Other ethnic conflicts

• Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was forced
  from power in 2000 and was deemed a war criminal
  by Western leaders and the international war
  crimes tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands.
  Prosecutors say Milosevic held ultimate
  responsibility for at least 900 ethnic Albanians
  and the eviction of 800,000 civilians from their
  homes.

71
Other ethnic conflicts

• The United States played the role of peacemaker
  in Northern Ireland. For many years, sectarian
  violence between the Protestant majority and
  Roman Catholic minority had torn Northern Ireland
  apart.

72

• Roman Catholics wanted to reunite with the
  predominantly Catholic, Irish Republic.
  Protestants insisted that Northern Ireland remain
  part of Great Britain. In 1997, the U.S.
  persuaded both sides to disarm and accept a
  cease-fire. A year later, Catholics and
  Protestants agreed to a peace plan.

73
Other ethnic conflicts

• The U.S. also worked to end years of fighting
  between Israelis and Palestinians, an Arab people
  living under Israeli rule. Under a peace
  agreement reached in 1995, Israel agreed to
  significant Palestinian self-rule and the removal
  of Israeli forces from other Palestinian areas.
  Implementation of the plan, however, went slowly.
  

74
Other ethnic conflicts

• In 1998, with Clintons help, both sides signed
  the Wye River Memorandum, which detailed the
  steps needed to implement the peace agreement.
  Unfortunately, a new round of conflict developed
  in 2000 and the two sides have never been more
  divided.

75
Conflict with China
76
Conflict with China

• In April of 2001, China held 24 Americans for a
  short period of time after a mid-air collision
  between a U.S. Air Force jet and a Chinese jet.
  The Chinese jet crashed killing the pilot and the
  Americans made an emergency landing on Chinese
  soil. Although the Chinese blamed the U.S. for
  the collision, the U.S. government has strongly
  rejected responsibility for the incident.

77
Conflict with China

• President George W. Bush has been given credit
  for decisive leadership in the quick release of
  the Americans. Bush also pledged military aid
  for Taiwan in the event of aggressive force from
  China. Many suggest the Cold War continues
  between the U.S. and China.

78
Peacemaker

• As 2000 began the United Nations was directing
  peacekeeping operations in 17 countries from
  Africa to the Middle East to Asia, at an
  estimated cost of around 900 million. Why is
  the United States, more than other countries,
  playing the role of peacemaker around the world?
  The U.S. is widely seen as the only remaining
  superpower, and as such, has the respect and
  authority needed to negotiate peace agreements.

79
Americas War on Terror
80
Americas New War on Terror 9-11-2001

• On the beautiful morning of September 11, 2001, 4
  planes left 3 major airports to begin what would
  be the deadliest single day in modern American
  history. At 759 a.m., American Airlines Flight
  11 with 92 people left Bostons Logan Airport for
  Los Angeles at 801 a.m., United Flight 93 with
  45 people left Newark Airport for San Francisco
  at 810 a.m., American Flight 77 with 64 people
  left Washingtons Dulles Airport for Los Angeles
  and, at 814 a.m., United Flight 175 with 65
  people left Boston for L.A.

81

• The next day, Attorney General John Ashcroft
  would say the planes were hijacked by between
  three and six individuals per plane, using knives
  and box cutters, and in some cases making bomb
  threats. He also says a number of suspected
  hijackers were trained as pilots in the United
  States.

82

• January 29, 2002-In his State of the Union
  address, President George W. Bush in a vital act
  of world leadership declared a declaration
  against the axis of evil referring to 3 nations
  where there are weapons of mass destruction in
  hostile hands.

83
Iraq

• After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, dictator Saddam
  Hussein was discovered to be only months away
  from producing an atomic bomb and had already
  done tests on a radiological dirty bomb. His
  program was closed, but his pool of trained
  scientists remained, and he might have a nuclear
  device within a few years. When United Nations
  weapons inspectors were banished, they were
  convinced that Saddam had hidden an arsenal of VX
  nerve gas and a whole range of biological agents
  and toxins.

84
Iran

• According to the Monterey Center for
  Nonproliferation Studies, Iran, under the
  leadership of Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, had an
  arsenal of chemical weapons and, according to the
  U.S. government, had been secretly producing
  biological weapons. It is getting Russian help
  on nuclear power and assistance on missiles from
  Russia and China.

85
North Korea

• Caught in 1992 producing more plutonium than it
  admitted to making, North Korean president Kim
  Jong II agreed in 1994 to stop producing it in
  exchange for Western nations help with
  less-dangerous nuclear technology. But it
  blocked implementation of the agreement. North
  Korea has large stocks of chemical weapons and a
  well-developed biological weapons program. It is
  also developing a missile capable of reaching the
  United States.

86

• The three countries dont constitute a
  cooperative axis as Germany, Italy, and Japan
  did in World War II, but there is no question
  that they are evil. They have a history of
  menacing their own people.