Bye CWI

I just finished my research paper, it feels good. Im pretty confident. Its been a good year. Bye CWI.

Cuban Missile Crisis

 The world came 13 hours from a nuclear war. What does this actually mean? If J.F.K would not have communicated with the USSR we may have grown up in a completely decimated world. It basically means we came very very close to seeing a nuclear strike on US or USSR soil.  

China's Communism

After World War II, the ongoing civil war between the communists and nationalists resumed.  Led by Mao Zhedong, the communists eventually overthrew the corrupt government, run by Chiang Kai-Shek.
Once in power, Chairman Mao started a long period of reforms, meant to push China into its own new age.  Mao took land from the wealthy and divided it up between the poor peasants.  He also had all people start producing steel by melting down all of the steel they had into a communal melting furnace. However, the peasants did not know how to make steel and most of it went to waste.  Another of his failed ideas was the Cultural Revolution, a time period where intellectuals were discriminated against and considered enemies of the state.  Millions were killed throughout many of Mao's ridiculous reforms and ideas.  The reign of Mao did not push China to a new golden age, but pulled it further into a period of regression in technology, ideology, and society.

Why did the Soviet Union collapse?

The Soviet Union collapsed because they could not keep up with the costs of the arms race with the US, nor could they provide the proper leadership citizens were looking for. The Arms Race was very costly for the United States and the USSR, but since the USSR had just came out of World War II with very little money, they could not afford to keep producing nuclear weapons. Also, Gorbachev's implementation of a more Capitalist lifestyle gave citizens a reason to ask for more freedoms, freedoms that the Soviet Union could not give out without abandoning Communism.

Who is to blame for starting the Cold War? The U.S., the U.S.S.R., or both?

I think that both the Soviet Union and the United States are to blame for starting the Cold War. The United States begun to show off their power to the Soviet Union with the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. In turn, the Soviet Union attempted to make their own atomic bombs. The situation spiraled out of control, consequences being huge economical deficits, as well as fear in both Americans and Russians. The Cuban Missile Crisis also caused much fear between the two countries. Both nations were within two hours of a nuclear war, but both sides came to an agreement. Neither country attempted to prevent this crisis earlier, so they both are to blame for helping spiral the situation out of control. Although the United States did make the first move in attempt to show of their strength, the Soviet Union is also responsible for escalating the situation.

Give 2 reasons to explain Germany’s failure from 1942-45.

I believe that Germany failed because of a lack of concentrated man power, as well as trying to take too much land too quickly. Hitler had troops scattered all over Europe and Asia, giving weaker concentrations of troops. The Nazis could not fight with enough man power because they were in too many places, not allowing them to focus on specific targets. Also, Germany tried to push too far too quickly. Operation Barbarossa was an advance into the U.S.S.R. made by Germany. Hitler thought that he was fully capable to move into the U.S.S.R. quickly, but he was wrong. The Soviet Union pushed them back and ended up helping to defeat Germany.

What enables totalitarian/authoritarian regimes to take power?

I think that fear and force allow totalitarian and authoritarian regimes to take power. In Hitler's case, for example, he managed to gain power through force as well as his convincing speeches that made Germans think that Hitler was the solution to their issues. These regimes rely on the weaknesses of the countries they wish to take power in, gaining power through physical action and the fear of the people.

Sputnik

Sputnik was the first man-made satellite sent from Earth into space. It was launched by the Soviet Union, triggering the Space Race between the Soviet Union. Americans could hear the beeps of the Sputnik from their radios, and this worried them about any possible nuclear strikes the Soviet Union could launch from space. Would it have worried you if you could hear a Russian satellite from your radio?

Eastern Europe fights Communism

The US and USSR weren't the only two countries to be "fighting" during the Cold War, countries like Czechoslovakia, it was involved in standing up and fighting Communism. In 1968, Russian troops rolled in with tanks to try and stop anti-communist revolutionaries and implement a Communist government. Unfortunately, the Czech people didn't take kindly to the Soviets and began to protest. Soon, these protests would turn viral and eventually the entire Eastern Bloc was up in revolution against the Communist Russian leaders.

Hitler's Last U-Boat

Close to the end of Word War II, Hitler sent a U-boat to Japan loaded with all of Germany’s latest technology. They disembled the ME-262 and put it in the cargo hold along with Germany’s Uranium 235. When the boat was halfway to Japan, Germany surrendered. The U-boat crew voted to turn the boat over to the Americans. When the U-boat arrived in New York in May of 1945, the cargo was turned over to Robert Oppenhaimer of the (Manhattan Project), where the Uraunium 235 was used in the bomb they dropped on Japan.

Stalin's Secret Armies

In 1942, while the German army was racing across Europe towards Asia, the Russian army had put up little, in some cases almost no realistic defense. When the Germans reached Stalingrad on the Volga, it looked pretty grim for the Russians. At that time, Stalin had Siberian troops guarding the boarder expecting a Japanese attack. When a spy told Stalin there would be no threat from the Japanese, the troops were released to fight at Stalingrad, and that’s what made the difference in winning or loosing that battle.

The Battle of Dunkirk

The German jugernaught trapped the British and French in the port of Dunkirk, the interesting fact was that the Germans could have easily destroyed the British and French in that port. Hitler ordered his forces to stop letting the British and French forces get away on the little ships, why? Hitler always respected the British army, Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf “Britain is a stabilizing force in Europe.” So he let the British and French forces off the hook (so to speak). If the Germans wanted to, they could have easily destroyed that entire force including the little ships.

Containment

The US's containment strategy for stopping the spread of Communism during the Cold War seemed to be a big part of the class, seeing as Mr. Stewart made us repeat it over and over. However, containment was never the best strategy during the Cold War, seeing as we lost close to 1 million troops in Vietnam, had to draw out a stalemate in Korea (and let Mao get praise for "winning" the skirmish), and almost came to nuclear war with the USSR. Basically containment was based on the idea of standing up to Communism wherever it seemed to sprout up. This sounds good on paper, but in reality, you cant win a war without advancing and eradicating the enemy. If you take a look at Vietnam, the US was in a war that was essentially pointless. However, containment did do some good for the world, seeing as the Berlin Airlift kept thousands of capitalistic people alive and allowed the US to gain a sense of authority and aid that smaller countries could run to in time of need. Personally, I think containment was a bunk idea for a strategy.

The Marshall Plan

Europe remained physically and economically destroyed after World War Two. When the U.S. saw all the problems in Europe, they decided to help them before the USSR could get involved. If the U.S. wanted to contain communism, they were going to need to help the Europe economy majorly. On June 5, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State, George Marshall developed a European Recovery Program that Marshall proposed that America would give aid to any European country that needed it to help their economy. America offered this plan to all of Europe, even the USSR. The USSR declined, which the U.S. knew it would. Who ever accepted this would receive aid from the U.S., getting money, food, supplies, and anything else they needed. Truman thought if they removed trouble from Europe it would reduce communism threat, which was true. After the U.S. supporting many nations to help their economy they thought good about capitalism not using communism as a back up plan. The Marshall Plan, served as one of the most successful containment policies during the Cold War.

Communism vs. Capitalism

There's always been some sort of conflict between Communism and Capitalism, United States and the USSR, but the big question is, why? To answer that is simple, comparing Communism and Capitalism is like comparing red to blue. Communism (in its purest form) is a class-less, money-less, government-less society based on the idea of sharing. Everyone is equal, and the old saying "sharing is caring" actually comes to life and is commonly practiced day to day. You work for your fellow comrades and share the benefits from your communal labor. Communism lacks a dominant presence of government and is ran by communal groups that are focused on their state, not the country as a whole.
Capitalism however, is the exact opposite. It's based on a social and economic hierarchy that uses currency to fund personal and governmental needs. Capitalism is based on greed, but, "that's how a Communist would put it as."- Mr. Stewart.

Start of the Cold War

There are many factors that contributed to the start of the cold war, but the US directly caused a chain reaction of paranoia, distrust, and deterrence in it's relationship with the USSR. The first act of spite between the US and USSR came at the Potsdam conference in 1945 where Truman recalled something happening like this- "On July 24 I casually mentioned to Stalin that we had a new weapon of unusual destructive force. The Russian Premier showed no special interest. All he said was he was glad to hear it and hoped we would make 'good use of it against the Japanese.'" -Harry S. Truman, Year of Decisions (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1955) p. 416. 

This conversation between Truman and Stalin was what started all the races such as the arms race and the space race. Even though Truman gave Stalin a hint about the new nuclear weapons the US still decided to use them against Japan instead of showing a demonstration. Many believe that the usage of the nuclear weapons was a form of deterrence to show the USSR what the new weapons can do.

Communism

Since its been a long time since we have reviewed types of governments, I'd like to go over the Soviet Union's form of government: Communism. Communism's major goal is to create a one world society where all people have the same social status and are all equal. One of the founders of communism was Karl Marx, and Communism is often referred to as Marxism. Soviet Union Communism wasn't truly full-blown communism, as in a true communistic society there is no government and everything is arranged by committees. Furthermore, people are given roles in society rather than professions which rotate in cycles. THere is no money in true communism, and everything you need is in a communal warehouse. In theory, it would seem to work, but practical extreme communism has yet to succeed.

Cuban Missile Crisis

When the Russians put nuclear missiles in Cuba, the US responded by blockading Cuba and threatening the start of nuclear war.  Tensions rose when the US supported rebels in a failed attempt to overthrow the communist dictator of Cuba, Fidel Castro.  Placing the missiles in Cuba only made situations worse by showing that they were able to launch a first strike.  Only 90 miles from the mainland, Cuba was the perfect place to store missiles and keep a location that the Soviets could launch a first strike.  The two ideologies, now closer geologically than ever, were at the brink of an actual nuclear war.  Within 30 minutes from launch, the missiles from Cuba could hit the White House and destroy the US government.  In response, the US set up nuclear launch stations in Turkey, right next to the Soviet Union.  This event is significant because it was the closest the US had ever gotten to all out nuclear war.  They had literally been 12 hours from launching missiles at the Soviet Union when Khrushchev sent a message to the White House saying that the Soviet Union will take the missiles out of Cuba. The two powers both backed down, both removing the missiles close to the other, the Americans taking their missiles out of Turkey, and the Soviet Union removed their missiles from Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the most exciting part of the Cold War for me. I think part of that is because, it was the closest we came to war during the cold war time period. Along with that, it was also the closest the world had/has ever come to a nuclear war. I believe it was actually good that the crisis occurred, because it showed people that nuclear could really happen at any second. Because of this, I think it also scared the US and USSR which was good because after the crisis, tensions became a little lessened for the first time. This also led to the beginning of communication between the US and Soviet Union which helped the Cold war come to an end.

Space Race

Space Race

You cannot talk about the Space Race during the cold war without bringing up Sputnik. Sputnik was the first ever satellite man kind had ever seen. It was a revolutionary invention and brought a whole new aspect into the cold war, the space race. Although we didn't talk very much about the space race in class, it was still a huge part of the time era. It increased tensions even more between the two countries, but also led to the US putting the first man on the moon. A negative aspect about the space race is that it caused the countries to spend even more money on the war, which for Russia was a very bad thing. Since I knew about the Space race previously because my grandpa participated in it, I believe that it is one of the most interesting events during the cold war.

Long Telegram

Long Telegram

The Long Telegram was sent by George Kennan, a US diplomat in Russia, to the US. The telegram was basically a warning to the United States about the strength of the Soviet Union. It was very alarming to the US government and was the first time they really felt like the USSR was going to be a threat. Because of this, the government created their policy of containment, which ultimately played a part in almost all of the decisions the US made during the cold war. Looking at the big picture, the Long Telegram in a way shaped how the Cold War would play out.

Truman Doctrine/ Marshall plan

Truman Doctrine/ Marshall plan

These plans both had very similar ideas that were based off the idea of containment. The Truman Doctrine was proposed by president Truman and was the thought that the US needs to help the small countries near the Soviet Union so that the USSR could not just go in and takeover easily. This goes along with containment because this is an American attempt to aid countries in east Europe so communism will not spread. The Marshall plan, like the Truman Doctrine, was proposed by George Marshall. The plan provided food, recourses, machines, etc. to help countries that were in ruins from the Cold War. Overall, the US spent over 12.5 billion dollars in east Europe between the two plans.

The Cold War

The Cold War could be described as an icy stare down. War never actually broke out between the Soviet Union and USA and it was more of one country trying to prove they were better than the other. Examples of this are seen in the arms race when each country went into crazy production of weapons based on MAD. This brings up the point of MAD which was created during the cold war. MAD, Mutual Assured Destruction, was the idea that if war broke out, the countries that were hit would be absolutely destroyed because of the nuclear bombs. This made citizens very scared and was also one of the basic ideas of the Cold War.

Containment

Containment was a United States policy to prevent the spread of communism to other nations around the world.  This policy arose as a direct response to counter the Soviet ambition of expansion into neighboring territories.  Containment was based off of a telegram sent by George F. Kennan to the United States Government which stated that if Communism was not contained then it would attempt expand to the rest of the world.  As a result of the Long Telegram, President Harry Truman created the Truman Doctrine which stated that the United States would help any country under the threat of Communism.  Also the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO for short) was a combination of countries whose goal was to combat the Soviet Union.

Glasnost and Perestroika

When Gorbachev comes to power in Russia, he wants less of a totalitarian state, and instead, encourages a free flow of ideas.  In 1985 he announced glasnost, which was a policy of openness.  Soviets were then able to feel more comfortable giving their opinions, even if they were negative.  This signified a change in Russia's communist ways, because people were able to give decide what they wanted.  Later that year, perestroika was introduced, which was economic restructuring.  This was necessary because of the problems that glasnost created.  People began fighting and protesting against long lines for common necessities.  This new policy allowed local managers to have greater authority over their farms and factories, and people were able to open small private businesses.

Research paper and realizing we only have 4 more days of class before the FINAL

After today, December 10th, we only have 4 more days of class until our final!

Our paper is due this Friday, Dec 13th at the end of the period. All late work is due the same day, but at the beggining of the period.


Heres some perspective:

   The final is worth 200 points-- which is 2 times the amount of points our research paper is; our research paper is worth the amount of 2 position papers.

    Also, this is only a semester class so after the research paper and the last notebook check (possibly, the board is nearly full) the final is your last chance to raise your grade. Don't get too stressed out, however it is important to study. You can do this by looking over your notebook and checking Edmodo for resources like practice tests.

   Our final is on Friday, Dec 20, from 10:10-11:45 The last final of the 2013 year you'll take. For those with 3rd periods, that final is on Dec 20, from 8:10- 9:45. You have 25 minutes in between finals to cram but that will not be enough studying and studies show that last minute cramming actually confuses you more than it helps you.

China Becomes Communist

After over 20 years of civil wars in China the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949. It was led by the Communist dictator Mao Zedong.  In 1950 Mao sent the People's Volunteer Army into Korea to fight against the United States.  Mao also imposed land reforms which took land from the "wealthy" land-lords and gave it to the peasants.  Mao also campaigned to suppress Counterrevolutionaries, which involved the public execution of former government leaders, businessmen, and anyone who was not totally loyal to Mao.  In 1976 it was estimated that 1 million people had been killed in the land reforms, and 800,000 in the counterrevolutionary campaign.  During Mao's time in power he imposed several reforms such as the Great Leap Forward  The Great Leap Forward began in 1958 and was a plan designed to strengthen the Chinese economy by having every single person produce Steel. However Mao did not predict that the Chinese people would not be able to produce high quality steel and it ended up being a waste of time.  Many civilians died of starvation during the Great Leap Forward because people were not producing food, just steel.

Soviet Union Leaders During the Cold War

During the Cold War power in the Soviet Union changed hands 8 times.  The founder of the Soviet Union was Vladimir Lenin (we barely touched on Lenin this year so I will not focus on him) He was in power for just over one year.  After Lenin came Joseph Stalin.  Under Stalin's brutal leadership the Soviet Union won world 2, developed it's first atomic bomb, but also killed approximately 20 million people.  After Stalin's death in 1953 Georgy Malenkov was his replacement.  He was in power for 11 days before being replaced by Nikita Khrushchev.  Khrushchev gave a speech in 1956 talking about De-Stalinization. De-Stalinization was the reforms to change/remove key ideals that helped Stalin to control total power in the Soviet Union.  Some examples are GULAG and the renaming of cities such as Stalingrad and Leningrad.  After Khrushchev being removed from office in 1964 Leonid Brezhnev replaced him.  Brezhnev played a key role in Soviet-American relations.  He was in charge during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks which provided a maximum number of missiles a country could have at any given time.  Yuri Andropov replaced Brezhnev in 1942 but died after only 1 year in power.  Following the death of Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko took power, but similarly to Yuri his health was rapidly declining and died after only 1 year in power.  After Chernenko, the final leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev took power.  Gorbachev was the most important leader of the Soviet Union in terms of Soviet-American relations.  His reforms changed the Soviet Union into a more free nation.  He encouraged people to think for themselves.  When Gorbachev resigned in 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved with him.

The Arms Race Increasing Tensions Creating War Throughout the Cold War

The Arms Race, an event that happened all of the Cold war which you could call a competition between the U.S and the USSR fighting for power. Each nation wanted to be more powerful than other and the Arms Race made countries believe who ever had more weapons was more powerful. When the U.S successfully exploded the atomic bomb it brought a whole new level of competition in the Cold War. August 24, 1949 the USSR developed their first atomic bomb ending the American bomb control while bringing a new aspect of the Arms Race. U.S was still at an advantage but they still continued to make more and more weapons fearing a nuclear war and the USSR going ahead of them in the Arms Race when really they were way ahead, this event was called the Bomber Gap. When USSR starting advancing, President Truman decided to make an even more powerful weapon than the atomic bomb which was the most powerful weapon at the time. In November of 1952, the U.S. successfully tested the Hydrogen Bomb(H-Bomb) which was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb. However, only a year later the USSR caught up and built a hydrogen bomb of their own, meaning that both of the world’s superpowers were caught up causing more tensions. The Arms Race was mainly a competition to see who was more powerful as the U.S and the USSR built more and more weapons spending billions of dollars that could have been used on the citizens and the country.

Cuban Missile Crisis

This event happened earlier in the Cold War but it is such a significant event involving U.S and USSR relationships throughout the Cold War, which will help for question number two on the research paper due this Friday the 13th!

Tensions were increasing majorly due the Arms Race throughout the Cold War led to a major event called the Cuban Missile Crisis. The closest period of time the world ever came to a nuclear war, which meant destruction for everyone which everyone feared. Communism and Capitalism were still enemies increasing a lot of the tensions because they both wanted different things. The USSR was still very hind in the Arms Race and when Fidel Castro came to power more tensions increased because he was a Communist and thought placing nuclear weapons in Cuba which was 90 miles from the U.S which U.S felt was too close increased tensions also. Cuba thought a second attack was inevitable due to the Bay of Pigs failure to overthrow Cuba's leader Castro so he thought placing nuclear weapons so close would secure defense. When President of U.S, Kennedy found out this was all happening he responded immediately forcing USSR to remove the nuclear weapons from Cuba and that he would remove the weapons from Turkey. When this was all happening, everyone thought this major crisis would turn the world into a nuclear disaster creating World War III.

Long Telegram

In light of our Cold War Research paper being due this week, I wanted to give an important Cold war event that may be valuable to your paper. The Cold war event that I feel had the most profound effect on US-Soviet relations was the Long Telegram. The Long telegram was an 8,000 word telegram form senior diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Moscow George Kennan talking about Soviet intentions and how the U.S> should deal with them. It gave the basis for the United States policy of containment. Containment was a huge source of tension in the Cold War, and the Cold war was solely a war of tensions. Containment caused the United States to engage in proxy wars with the Soviet Union, or wars where they supported opposite sides of a war in another country and fought each other through these countries. The oppositions caused much strain in the countries' relationships. It also conflicted with the Soviet goal of expansion, and the communist goal to have a one-world communist society. Also, the Telegram said war was inevitable with the Soviet Union, and the United states would eventually have to fight them. Coming from a someone with deep knowledge of current Soviet affairs, it is easy to see why this would cause unrest.

A World Economy

Over the past few days in class we have been watching documentaries on post-Cold War China. One of the most striking features of these documentaries is the effects of globalization on China. Globalization is the interconnection between all countries economies made possible by the internet. Due to the massive population of people in China it is one of the country's most prominent resource. Unfortunately, the huge  population also causes a massive percentage of Chinese people to be poor. Because of this, the labor cost there is cheap, and many Western Businesses are moving their manufacturing centers to China. This has positive and negative effects. It causes westerners to lose jobs in their own country, but also lowers prices for the people in that own country. Chinese are given jobs, but they normally can't afford the products that they make. Does this really benefit the people in the counties, or just the manufacturers. It is hard to say,  but one thing is for sure, it could not happen without globalization.

Mao Zedong Day 2

Today, we continued learning about Mao Zedong. After the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao moved on to the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward was a period of time when Mao attempted to control the Chinese economy with force. Mao issued an order that made many peasants attempt to produce steel. Because the peasants were not educated in the production of steel, the steel turned out so unrefined that it could not be used. After steel production, Mao ordered his nation to kill of any sparrows, so that they would not eat seeds and crops. With most of the sparrows gone, insects thrived. The insects ended up eating and damaging more crops than the previous sparrows had. This resulted in a three year famine of the Chinese people, killing about 48 million. After seeing the mistakes of their leader, some Chinese citizens began to criticize Mao. These people were severely punished by Mao; some were killed, many were hurt and imprisoned. At this point, Mao was around the age of 72. Many of his followers began to see him as old and frail. Mao began to feel like he was losing power over his people, so, in order to show his godliness, Mao swam ten miles in one hour in the Yangtze river. At the same time, Mao also had a parade, march in clothes, through the Yangtze river as a way to show the power of his nation. Some time passed, and Mao started the Great Cultural Revolution, a revolution that influenced the youth and punished authoritative figures. From the Great Cultural Revolution, a group of mostly youths, called the Red Guards was created. These Red Guards attacked and harassed any authoritative figures, such as teachers. Mao was able to greatly influence the youth which created the Red Guards because the youths, around the age of 20, had learned much about the greatness of Mao as part of their curriculum. The Red Guards reminded me much of the Hitler Youth. They both wore red sashes on their arms, consisted of youths, and attacked those deemed enemies of the people by their leaders. So far, compared dictators such as Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler, Mao Zedong seems like the leader who aimed most towards improving the lives of the majority of his people.

Mao Zedong

Today in class, we learned about a new communist leader, who established his regime in China. Mao Zedong grew up as a lower class peasant; he saw that the minority of his people lived in poverty, while a meager fire percent lived in great wealth. Mao began to gain supporters from the lower class. After being influenced by the hardships of inequality in his youth, Mao aimed for a China where everyone was equal. At this time, the corrupt nationalists held power in China. The Japanese invaded China, seeing that it had internal conflicts and was unstable. Mao began fighting the Japanese in simple strategic methods including gorilla warfare. After Mao had gotten rid of the Japanese, many more peasants began to follow him, after seeing that Mao defeated a strong nation. With the nationalists weakened by the Japanese, Mao took over. Mao continued to accumulate followers by giving all peasants two square meals a day, and land. The people were happier than they were under national leaders. In order to give land to the people and to bolster his reputation, Mao publicly humiliated and killed rich landlords. In the 1950, while Mao was still the leader of China, Stalin had passed away. Mao had viewed Stalin as a great teacher of the Chinese people and as a role model for communism. After his death, Khrushchev took over the USSR. Mao did not like Khrushchev because Khrushchev had offended Mao by speaking against Stalin. Khrushchev withdrew the minimal support that had earlier been given to China by the USSR. Soon after the dispute with the USSR, Mao wanted to purge China of anti-communists and intellectuals, similar to what Stalin did. Through the Hundred Flowers Campaign, a campaign that allowed people openly say what they disliked about communism. The people who spoke against communism were punished and sent to be re-educated in bad conditions such as cattle farms. For now, Mao seems to be a harsh leader, but not as harsh as Stalin. Because he grew up among the poor, I believe Mao will be a better leader for the people than Stalin.

Soviet Union Collapse

I agree with David that it is true that democratization played a huge role in allowing regions of the Soviet union to break away. But I also believe the buildup towards Democratization in the soviet Government through its Satellite nations is worth noting. The Soviet Union could not afford on supporting Its satellite nations due to the military cost of it, and it needed the money to support its own citizens. When Gorbachev stated that he would not impede nations under Soviet Control who wanted to be independent, he set off an avalanche that ended in the breakup of the Soviet Union. They were allowed the choice to choose their leaders, and soon, all of the countries wanted to have self rule, and they broke away from the Soviet Union's communist Rule. Of course, nations within the soviet Union could not deny the same freedoms to the people of their own nation, who had already decided that they were living was below par of what they wanted, and slowly they moved away from communism and towards democracy. Gorbachev tried only allow them a little taste of it with his reforms, but they soon craved more. They had been given freedom of speech, travel, and a market economy, but It wasn't enough for them. The August Coup tried to save communism at this time by eliminating Gorbachev, but this only weakened the support for the communist party and people were enraged democratic ideals were being taken away from them. The Soviet union started to break apart, and soon, it was no more.

If democratization had not taken place, would the USSR remained a whole rather than breaking apart?

During the past few days, we have been discussing the fall of the USSR. The USSR had many internal problems such as starvation, low quality products, and the shortages of supplies. In the past, the USSR had tightened the belts of its people and simply carried on through the hardship. The biggest difference between the USSR in the past, and the USSR in the 1987, was democratization. In previous time, the people of the USSR feared the party and would do everything that they obeyed due to the communists keeping the people under strict control. With Gorbachev as the current leader of the Soviet Union, many satellite countries declared freedom from communism and the USSR. These actions showed the people of the Soviet Union that liberation from communism was achievable. With these inspirational examples, the people of the Soviet Union amassed and together over-through communism. In the Russian part of the USSR, almost all the people were against the communist party. When the tanks of the August Coup came rolling in to put down the protests of the people, the tank operators would not attack the people, and instead just participated in the rebellion. Democratization had created a weakness in the communist dictatorship of the USSR which made it possible for the satellite countries to rebel, which in turn allowed Russia and other parts of the USSR to disassociate themselves from the USSR. I believe that if Gorbachev had not weakened the communist regime with democratization, the USSR, as a whole would have continued its reign. collapse

What if the Soviet Union and US had both started a Nuclear Defense Race Rather than an Arms race?

In class we talked about anti-ballistic missiles. We learned that they cost five times more to make and are often inaccurate. This deterred both countries form concentrating on defending themselves from nuclear weapons rather than building more for deterrence because the economics favored the aggressor. However, I have wondered if both countries started with a buildup of ABMs, would they have been able to make them more accurate and maybe even reduced the cost of them. Maybe if all energy on both sides was used to make an impenetrable defense, then nuclear weapons would cease to be a threat. Also, the Flaw in MAD of having an insane person who doesn't believe in MAD get a hold of nuclear weapons and starting a nuclear war would cease to exist. This was president Reagan's argument for the Strategic defense initiative(Star Wars). Maybe we would have laser's in space protecting us from all nuclear threat. It seems absurd and unreachable but If it could be done, wouldn't the problem of a country destroying the world with nuclear war be solved?

Hungarian Revolt

In 1956, after the Polish succeeded in gaining freedoms, Hungary tried to follow in their footsteps. They felt that their current leader was too much like Stalin, so the Soviet Union forced him to resign and Imre Nagy was put into power. However, the Hungarians didn't only want more freedoms as the Polish did, they wanted absolute independence. The Soviets would not allow this, which resulted in fighting in Budapest, and Imre Nagy started to support the revolutionaries. The Hungarians asked for help from the United States, but as the U.S. policy was one of containment, not freeing countries already under communist rule, they did not provide assistance. Furthermore, the entire world's eyes were turned to the Middle east where was fighting between British and French and Egypt, which drew attention away from the Hungarian Revolt, so no help could be found. The Soviet Union sent troops to Budapest and crushed the revolution, and Imre Nagy was executed. Khrushchev acted like Stalin, a Man he condemned to be a ruler of terror.

De- Stalinization

When Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953, he was succeeded by communist party member Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev was a strong believer in communism, but condemned Stalin in a speech for his purges, arrest of innocents, and sending them to gulags. His speech made people who heard it feel safe because they believed that the truth was finally coming out and would never be repeated. Israeli spies in Soviet Russia gave the speech to the CIA who broadcasted it throughout Europe. When the Polish People heard the speech, they started standing up for more rights because they believed that Khrushchev would not punish them for it as Stalin would. Poland did not denounce communism however, so Khrushchev allowed them more freedoms as long as they remained Russia's ally and a member of the Warsaw Pact.

MAD, ABMs, MIRVS, and the SALT talks

Today in class we finished the documentary on MAD, or Mutual Assured Destruction. The concept of Mutual assured destruction is that if each side of the Cold war had enough nuclear weapons to destroy 25-50 percent of the population of the other side, no one would attack each other in fear that they would be destroyed as a result. If each country could make other countries believe this, there would be peace. When Soviets designed ABMs, or Anti-Ballistic Missiles, they endangered this concept of MAD because ABMs were a defense against nuclear strikes. This eliminated Assured destruction, which could have caused one side to dare to attack the other. These ABMs cost five times as much to produce as a nuclear bomb, which gave an economic advantage to aggression. In response to ABMs, the United States developed MIRVs, or Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles, which allowed for multiple warheads inside a single nuclear missile. This caused, for each nuclear missile, 10 ABMs would have to be sent to defend against it. Eventually both countries grew tired of the amount of money they were spending to uphold their side of the nuclear Arms race and develop new technologies, so they met and engaged in the SALT talks, or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. The result of these talks was a limitation of ABMs and a temporary freeze on nuclear launcher production, but it did not control MIRVs or arms production, so it did not end the arms race.

MAD

Today in CWI, we watched a documentary on about MAD, mutually assured destruction. The Soviets and Americans had a MAD relationship were each side was basically scared into thinking that the other side would attack them and kill most of them eventually if they attacked the other side first and no one would win. This put the US and USSR in order to not do a first strike anytime soon. Through MAD, submarines were made that could carry many tons of nuclear weapons so that if one side did attack the other, MAD could work and then the submarines would surface and attack the other side with the many nuclear weapons the submarines could hold.

Nuclear Bomb Simulation

Today in class we did a simulation based on what happened during the Cold War and nuclear weapons. The simulation was in our groups to build a flashlight which represented the bomb, but each group only had one part of the flashlight and so we had to acquire the items from other groups by trading. To make things more complicated, there were several spies whose job was to sneak items from the group that they were "in" to their own actual group. In the end of the simulation, 4 out of 6 groups had "bombs" and they all kept on bombing each other setting the CWI record for 2 seconds to bomb each other. Most people in the class blamed this happening on the one man nation. The simulation showed the tensions between US and USSR. It also showed us which way was safer, if more countries or groups had bombs or one country or two country. In our simulation, I think that of only one country had the bomb it would have been more safe because that one country would know that the other countries wouldn't be able to attack them and they wouldn't need to attack the other weaker countries that don't have t bombs.

The Berlin Wall

Today in CWI we watched a documentary about the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was made to separate West and East Berlin since people from East Berlin which was controlled by the Soviet Union were escaping to West Berlin and then escaping to Germany because they wanted their freedom. And in order to keep East Berliners in, the Soviets issued the wall to be build. Even while the wall was being built and the wall was built, people kept on trying to escape to West Berlin, but many died trying. There were struggles with going to West Berlin too like in the video when the woman was trying to get to West Berlin through the window while communism guards tried pulling her back into the window and everyone else was trying to pull her to freedom.

The Cold War Creator

On Friday (10/25/13) we learned a few events that led up to the cold war. We learned that President Truman invited Winston Churchill to the U.S to give a speech to his people. The speech Churchill gave was called "The Iron Curtain" in which he stated that the USSR had drawn an iron curtain around Europe. He also said that communism was bad and we should try to spread democratic ideas. When Stalin heard this speech, he interpreted as a call to arms. He compared Churchill to Hitler and he said capitalism would bring war. George Kent (U.S) sent an 8,000 word telegram to the U.S saying that Stalin planned to take over the world and spread communism. These events lead me to the conclusion that the USSR is to blame for the start of the cold war. Why? Well first of all Stalin did not hold free elections in the states he had regained and also he did not give people freedom because he spread communism ideals. The U.S was only trying to keep Stalin in check by sending over troops to stop communist uprising, but maybe this was also a wrong thing to do. What do you guys think?

The Culprit of The Cold War

So far after what we have seen and discussed in class, I believe that both the U.S.S.R and the U.S are responsible for starting the Cold War. After World War I neither country had a reason to continue their alliance since as communists and capitalists, they were natural enemies. I think the speech given by Stalin in the documentary we saw in class today, and the "Iron Curtain" Speech by Winston Churchill show the responsibility each country contributed to the initiation of the war. When Stalin gave his speech he claimed that war between capitalists and communists was inevitable and declared that in order to establish Soviet security and gain strength, communism must expand to the rest of the world, and capitalism must be weakened. This speech sounded like a threat to the U.S and in response Churchill gave his speech describing the "iron curtain" that divided Europe into the democratic Eastern Europe, and the communist Western Europe. This speech was what Stalin considered a "call to arms" or to war. These two speeches are the reason I think both the U.S and U.S.S.R are responsible for the growing tension, threats, and conflict that led to the Cold War.  

War in the Pacific

On Friday we learned about the war between the Americans and the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean.  The Japanese made their first attack in Pearl Harbor, which officially brought the Americans into the war.  By the time Japan attacks Midway in 1943, Americans had figured out their code, and knew of their upcoming attack.  At Midway, the Japanese lost four carriers, and the Americans only lost one.  This is where America switched from defense to offense.  The goal of America was to gradually approach the main Japanese islands, and take them over.  After the Americans attacked Leyte Gulf, the victory was so overwhelming that the Japanese knew they had no chance winning the war.  This was the beginning of the kamikaze.  These were Japanese suicide missions, to blow up any American supplies or weapons that they could, before Japan was completely out of the war.

Kamikaze

This week we learned about the war in the Pacific and how it was fought. It was a naval war with battleships and aircraft carriers. The fighting was mostly between USA and Japan for territories in the Pacific. Japan wanted to cover their homeland so no one can get in. The US wanted to go to their homeland to fight for Pearl Harbor. Whenever the US pushed closer to Japan more soldiers would die. It got to the point where Japanese soldiers will never surrender and would kill themselves. Their fighters would do suicide missions by flying there planes into US ships. The US never saw anything like this and were a little terrified by this. This was known as the Kamikaze which translates to the divine wind. But the US still pushed on towards Japan. At the point when we finished in class Japan was unable to fight in the air and the ocean. 

Red Army

Today in Class we finished watching the video, "Vengeance".  In the beginning of the video, we learned how ever since the battle at Stalingrad, Germany's hope of winning the war was spiraling downwards.  Germany lost more hope after operation D-Day, when the allies bombed France. At this point, Russia was also planning on attacking Germany.  Operation Bagration was a victory for the Red Army.  This attack surprised Hitler, who thought the attack would take place in a different location.  Today, after finishing the movie, we learned about the Russians, who were gaining confidence, and had little tolerance for any traitors of their country.  Stalin deported many ethnic groups from the homeland because of the chance that they were collaborating with the Nazis.  The Red Army also treated prisoners of war badly, because Stalin believed that by surrendering, they were betraying Russia.  Stalin would send people to the Gulag for any tiny reason that made him believe that person was a traitor.  This made everyone afraid to do something wrong, so the people did not have the choice to disagree with Stalin.

The Spiral of Terror

Today in class we finished "The Spiral of Terror" worksheet. We left off on Friday with the Germans stealing food from the Ukrainians. Some German people agreed that this policy of treating the Ukrainians like sub-humans and stealing from them was natural and just. Still others thought that it was a mistake to treat the Ukrainians this way and instead the Germans should try to get Ukrainian support and use the people before killing them. We then learned about a Russian group of resistance fighters called the partisans. They would sabotage the German troops, especially at major trade lines. In addition to terrorizing the German army, they also stole food from the Russian citizens. In order to get rid of these partisans the Germans would kill thousands of innocent people assuming all of them were involved. Only an handful of the people killed were actually involved in the fighting. Both Hitler and Stalin believed that people could only be controlled by the use of terror. This meant that both leaders were continuously trying to terrorize the other causing an endless cycle of terror known as the "spiral of terror".

Russia and Germany

Late night post... still a little disappointed by the way the Russians had done so poorly during the war.They sure didn't have the right strategy to efficiently take on the Germans but they did have strength in numbers.Even with that advantage if they Germany had not been too slow to reach Moscow before winter WWII may have panned out much differently as the U.S would be left to take on Japan and Germany.

Allied Progress

As time moved on Germany had grown. Its empire now extended from France to part of Russia to Africa. With this large territory came a great amount of responsibility to hold it. Germany was also receiving oil and materials from outside this landscape to fuel its army and future conquests. From our homework video we now know that the Allies attacked from the south. They tricked the Germans into thinking they were going to invade at Sardinia, but infiltrated the German lines at Sicily. The Americans on the West of Italy and the British on the East, they made steady progress and soon took Italy. During this time Mussolini had been overthrown and killed, later to be hung in the street for all to see. The events indicated that Hitler's Germany was now weak and falling back and soon the United States would not only be fighting the Germans, but Japan as well.

Germany Turns on Russia

Today we spent most of class learning about how Germany invaded Russia. The Germans and Russians already shared a hatred towards each other, just did not see an ideal time to attack until, the Germans made a move. They would gain resources and oppose there biggest threat. At first Stalin was doubtful that Hitler would attack because he would risk a two front war and he was tied up with the British, but he soon learned that he made a mistake not listening to his intelligence. The Germans began to attack using the "blitzkrieg" method that had been successful before. The Nazi's advanced with resistance. The period ended just as we began conversing how Germany would reach Moscow.  

President Roosevelt

Today we watched the remainder of the video and answered all of the questions given to us on the worksheet.

 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president on March 4, 1933 and held this title until his death in 1945. He was the only president to ever serve 4 terms. Before he became Mayor of New York and was diagnosed with polio, he was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and founded the United States Navy Reserve. He played a very large role in the politics of our history, in particular, WW2. The video that we watched today showed us the moves FDR took before the US entered the war. On May 16, 1940 he asked for $1,182,000,000.00 in national defense funds. During this time he had already expanded the branches of the US military and supported countless projects that all lead towards war. A draft or lottery of men took place for service and numerous naval ships and planes were being built, some given to Britain in exchange for payment latter on. On December 8, 1941, Roosevelt declared war on Japan in response to the attack of Pearl Harbor.

Britain at Bay Day 1

Today during CWI we had started watching a video about Britain being forced up against a wall while facing the Germans.We also had our notebooks passed back today along with us being assigned to read Ch 6 in A Short History Of WWII and answer the questions in our notebook.A short recap of what we had seen from the video includes Britain being pushed back to its homeland where it had to defend itself against the German army which had nearly outnumbered them 2 to 1.The 50 or so British divisions had to face the German army of roughly 80 strong. To the Germans Britain's navy had been far too powerful to take on Hitler then wanted to attack by air and could have very easily won if British scientists had not been able to develop radars to gain an advantage.The Luftwaffe had eventually bombed London by accident causing the RAF to start dropping bombs on Berlin.The bombing of cities had stalled the Germans long enough so that the RAF was able to recover and get back into the fight.The Germans had then gotten worried about how the Luftwaffe had not been able to break Britain and so their mission also known as Operation Sea Lion had been cancelled and we wait to finish the rest of the video tomorrow

Lightning War, Continued

On Friday in CWI, we finished watching the Lightning War documentary. We learned about how the Germans basically trapped the French and British in at Dunkirk. The Germans decided to take a break for two days because their tanks and men all needed a rest, so they figured why not stop? However, during those two days the British and French were able to get 300,000 of their men off of the beaches- which was about 41% of the total soldiers. They called in any boats that could possibly take men off the beach, and tons of boats showed up. Ultimately, they were able to save their men, but they had to leave behind all their tanks and weapons. So, the men were safe, but Germany had just taken over France. The end of the video leaves us thinking that Germany has just won this war. At that time he had taken over the majority of Europe, but we'll have to see what happens...

Lightning War

Today in CWI, we watched a documentary about the start of World War 2. We learned that the Germans used a 'pincer' attack to attack Poland. The pincer attack was designed to surround and essentially crush the enemy. The Germans were able to surround and capture Poland in about four weeks. Next, the Germans went on to attack Great Britain. This went on to be called the "Phoney War" or "sitzkreig. It's called 'phoney' because nothing really happens in the winter except training the armies and trying to stay warm. The British kept using their strategies from World War 1, which obviously didn't work and needed improvements. Likewise, the British thought the Germans would use the same strategies from World War 1, which they most definitely were not doing. Something that confuses me is, wouldn't the British know about Germany conquering Poland by using new tactics? So, wouldn't they know to be prepared for the Germans to use those tactics in trying to conquer them(the british)?

Tuesday, September 3rd

Today in CWI, we learned how to access the book we will be starting to read. On Edmodo, you go into the WW2 folder and scroll to the bottom where you will find the documents attached. Tonight, our homework is to begin reading chapters 1-5 and answer the corresponding questions in our notebooks. After that, we discussed all of the deaths that were caused by WW2. We saw that the axis powers experienced a lot of deaths. This was likely because the war was fought mainly on their land. So, not only would they have many soldiers dead, they would also have innocent civilians thus increasing the number of deaths in those countries.

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