Hungarian Revolt

In October 1956, the Hungarian army joined protesters to overthrow Hungary's Soviet controlled government. They wanted to pick their own leader and have peace. Opposed to Poland's uprising, Hungary's revolt was more intense. Everyone had joined to revolt with Hungarian flags that had the communist hammer-and-sickle emblem cut out. This showed that Hungary was trying to leave the "Iron Curtain"and leave communism and that had upset the Soviets. Another way the Hungarians showed their dislike for communism was that they toppled a statue of Stalin. A Hungarian communist leader named Imre Nagy, promised free elections and demanded that the Soviet troops leave Hungary as he had formed a new government. Soviets tanks invaded Budapest with infantry units, Hungarians responded with pistols and bottles but the Soviets overpowered them. While fighting against the Soviets Hungary had asked the US for help, the US promised to come in 3 weeks as that would give time for the fight to burn out. But the US never came as they did not want to start a WW3. The Soviet invaders had executed Nagy and replaced the Hungarian government with pro Soviet leaders. This opened the eyes to the Soviets as they are understanding that communism is not working for everyone.

MAD

What is MAD? MAD stands for mutual assured destruction. The concept of MAD is the only way to have stable deterrence in the world is for both sides to be able to kill 25% to 50% of the others population. It seems silly now to have nuclear stable power but back then both sides needed to be confident to deter each other or MAD wouldn't have worked. In simpler terms if one side were to attack the other side, that side would be able to retaliate with equal or greater force. This led to more technology being built, the Soviets had built the ABMs which countered missiles that were coming to them. This troubled the US as they themselves were trying to make ABMs but were unsuccessful. Instead the US invented the MIRVs which were a warhead that included multiple missiles that countered the ABMs. I think MAD in a way complicated things for both sides but at the end made it that a nuclear war didn't happen. It made things complicated because both sides had to keep building missiles just to feel safe. They lost a lot of money as $30 million dollars was spent on making air missiles for each side. Both governments were stressing out because no one knew how many missiles each side had or if and when they would be attacked, it was just a problem of trusting each other. If both sides would have worked together, the war could of been over earlier. It seems weird to think but in a way MAD kept the peace.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile crisis was the closest the US and the Soviets got to a nuclear war in the Cold War. In a span of two weeks, both countries were stressed and overwhelmed with the idea of starting a nuclear war, the US was 6-7 hours away from possibly starting one. What started this? In 1959, Fidel Castro was the new leader brought up by a revolution in Cuba. Castro butted heads with America by nationalizing industries that cost American companies billions of dollars. That caused the US to stop trade with Cuba, only to have Castro adopt communism and become allies with the U.S.S.R. In Cuba the Soviets helped Castro with military aid and brought along medium range nuclear missiles, which gave the U.S.S.R the first strike capability. At this point I think the U.S.S.R was thinking more for themselves rather than actually helping Cuba out. The war has been going on for years and if the Soviets have missiles only 90 miles away from America they have a huge advantage. It also helps that if the US responds to their missiles most of the damage would be done to Cuba. The U.S.S.R was lucky to be allies with Cuba but took advantage of a new born naive communist country. The US did not know what to do, invading Cuba or plan an airstrike on them could lead to war. On the other side the U.S.S.R didn't want to back down because they would look bad, and Cuba did not want America to invade as it could lead to nuclear war on their land. I think another reason the Soviets didn't want to attack was they knew that the US had more missiles than them and that would lead to more damage to the U.S.S.R. Looking at the big picture the Soviets could only do partial damage while the US can do major damage. Finally Khrushchev decided to back down and remove the missiles, later he was replaced as he appeared weak to back down. The U.S.S.R had it all except enough missiles but if they did I think they would have started the war first. To have the first strike capability was a huge advantage and they didn't want to lose it. If everything was on their side they would have started the nuclear war. Do you think the Soviets took advantage of Cuba? If the U.S.S.R had the same amount of weapons as the US would they have attacked first?

Social Psychology Experiments

the social psychology experiments were a series of experiments for example there was one experiment that had smoke seeping under a door with a person on the side of the door with the smoke coming through and he was sitting at a desk taking a test and he saw the smoke and went and got help. When this same exact setting came into place again just with three people the experiment was to find out if you are more likely to run and get help if you are alone or with other people and when the was more than one person in the room know one did anything because if one person keeps there cool everyone else will and visa versa. Another experiment was there was a box with different voltages on it and the voltages went all the way up to 400, there would be a person in a different room hooked up to this box and a person in the next room controlling the box what would happen in the psychologist would ask a question and if the person controlling the box got it wrong he would click the voltage lever and it would go up by 10 volts and every question wrong he would go up, the thing about this experiment is that the guy in the next room was actually a recording and the recording would make sound effect that a real man would make when shocked with these voltages for example at one point it would scream and the person controlling it would want to stop but would not because a man telling him to do it was in a uniform and thats what people grew up to obey is people in uniforms.

In class activity

        In the in class activity there was six groups and these groups would have a part of a flashlight, the flashlight resembled a nuke so during the activity there was rounds and during the rounds u would make trades with other groups but sometimes there was a spy in your group you would know this cause in the beginning of the class there was a card on your desk that had an O or and X and if you had and x you were a spy and an O meant that you were not when you finished trading and had all of the parts to your flashlight (nuke) you would test it which meant that you would sit it on your desk and flash it then after Mr stewart said we could we would shine the light (nuke) a different group and you could do this three times with one flashlight.

The Berlin Wall

When the war came to and end the capital of Germany, Berlin, was split into four sections between Russia, America, Britain, and France.  The eastern half of Berlin was under the Russian name, while the western half was run by all three of the capitalist allies.  The tension between the capitalists and the communists grew as time went on and soon the people of eastern Berlin began moving to western Berlin and never coming back.  This angered the Russians, who didn't want their communist citizens leaving their half of Berlin.  To combat this movement they built a wall around the entire western Berlin to keep the eastern population from crossing over.  This wall was built very abruptly and gave the people little time to escape.  Many families were separated and people were trapped on a side of Berlin they did not want to be on.  Although some places only had small bits of bared wire acting as a wall, soldiers also stood guard, ready to shoot at any who tried to cross.  The public rebelled against it and was astounded that the allies weren't protesting in their favor.  The rise of the Berlin Wall increased the tension between Russia and America as the Cold War continued.      

Under what circumstances can ordinary people commit horrendous crimes?

During World War II the Nazis ran death camps in Poland to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.  Thousands of workers were needed to run such a large operation and yet none of them stood up against the immoral treatment of human beings through the duration of the Holocaust.  These soldiers were ordinary people, committing terrible acts in the circumstances they were presented with.  A line of human behavior experiments done in the late 1900's gives an idea as to why those people could have been so easily manipulated into participating in a genocide.  The Milgram experiment showed the world to what length people will follow orders.  When a person doesn't see themselves as the one truly responsible for what they are doing they can be coaxed into just about anything.  The Wave experiment demonstrated how people want to be a part of something bigger than them, and how they use self serving bias to convince themselves they are doing what they are doing for good reasons.  Dehumanization was also a factor that caused the Nazis to commit acts of terror.  By making victims seem like less than people, it was easy for them to see the killings as something that had to be done.  

Why can/do people dehumanize others?

 Throughout history, people have treated minorities and such as lesser beings and made them suffer for being different. Americans driving Native Americans from their homes in North America, and enslaving Africans, Germany's massacre of the Jews, Gypsies, and other minorites, and Mao Zedong's genocide of 49,000,000 Cambodians, are all examples of this. However, people always seem to wonder: how can humans treat each other like this? A series of infamous studies known compiled into a book known as The Lucifer Effect suggests a number of answers to this question. Some of the conclusions it reaches are: a self-serving bias, in which it is concluded that people think that they are inherently good and can do no wrong. Furthermore, when one is anonymous or knows they will not be punished, they are more inclined to do something they know is morally wrong. Also, humans are quite obedient beings, especially to authority figures. Now, how do we connect this to genocides in history? Well, if you consider Hitler's mass extermination of the Jews, you may wonder how people could just standby, or even participate in this atrocity. Well, a self-serving bias, anonymity, and obedience would surely make it easier for Hitler to do so. One may say to oneself: "I would never do anything like Hitler did". However, those people are just the kind of people who were more likely to participate.

The Iron Curtain

In a speech delivered by Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain, he explained Europe's situation following World War II. The Allies had divided Germany up after they had been defeated. The USSR got part, and the rest of the Allies got a different part. The USSR specifically had the entire Eastern part of Europe. With the Allies no longer united against a common enemy, more disagreements developed. With Russia being communist, and the rest of the Allies capitalist, they disagreed on many points, and this divided Europe. Churchill's speech spoke of how it was like an Iron Curtain had been drawn between the USSR and the rest of the Western Europe. In the speech, he made it sound as if the USSR had been the ones to instigate this Iron Curtain, and that they were the ones to blame for it. In 1946, Europe was already very divided between the communists and the capitalists.

Who Is To Blame For The Cold War?

The Cold War was started in equal parts by the US and the USSR. There was much contention on both ends even before World War II, having a lot to do with their opposing views. One factor to starting it on the US part was Containment. They blatantly opposed the communists, trying to keep communism from spreading, which could have rubbed the wrong way with Russia. Also, with the Marshall Plan, it gave aid to the European countries on the Western side of Europe, opposite of Russia. Then on the USSR's part, they tried to threaten Western Europe and the US with the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. When the other nations wanted to unite Germany, they wanted to keep it separate, so they blocked off Berlin, and cut off all supply lines. The other nations stumped their attempt though, by flying in and giving supplies to the citizens, eventually causing Russia to end the blockade. Both the US and the USSR in equal parts were responsible for the beginning of the Cold War.

The US and the USSR: Unease Before the Cold War

Long before the Cold War began, there was tension between the US and the USSR. Even before World War II, the two countries did not get along very well, and that was made more prominent during the war. When Russia initially made the nonaggression pact with Germany at the beginning of the war, it upset the US. And Stalin blamed the Allies for delaying when they were to invade the German territories. Following the war, their tension grew. The USSR wanted to spread communism, while the US was against it, encouraging democracy instead. On top of that, they both wanted materials from Europe. The USSR wanted to keep Germany divided to avoid another war, and the US wanted to reunite it and stabilize it. Russia had the countries along its borders after they took it from the Germans, and they wanted to shield themselves from another Western attack. In 1946, even Stalin said that communism and capitalism could not continue existing peacefully, and that war between them and the US was inevitable.

Russia, Ukraine and the West

This will make a lot more sense once we complete the class but here are some articles that might help you understand some basics of the conflict (if your are interested).


A brief and informative article for those who might be interested in the background of what is going on...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/25/ozy-russia-ukraine-cia/5805815/

As well as a focus on an issue that may escape most Americans but is central to the events of this weekend...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/opinion/ukraine-crimea-russia/index.html?hpt=hp_t1