The Climax of the Cold War
Dec 29, 2015
• Soviet split with China in 1960 became a complete break, occasional fighting.
• In the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev was forced to back down to Kennedy.– Kennedy won the propaganda war over the Berlin
Wall.– Khrushchev replaced by Leonid Brezhnev – Brezhnev years were a period of détente between
the USSR and the United States.
• Both the US and the USSR continued to develop nuclear weapons– … but signed nonproliferation agreements to limit
number of nations with nuclear weapons.
• Early 1970s superpowers held Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks.
• Nixon sought Soviet help in negotiating a “peace with honor” in Vietnam.
• Dubcek, leader of Czechoslovakia in 1968, instituted reforms called “Prague Spring.”– Decentralized government, more free speech, and
talk of an opposition party.
• Brezhnev Doctrine allowed use of force to keep Warsaw Pact together.– Brezhnev sends troops to Prague, ousts Dubcek
and rescinds reforms.
1968• January – March, North Vietnamese “Tet Offensive”
• January – August, “Prague Spring”
• 4 April Assassination of Martin Luther King
• May Sorbonne riots• Wide-spread strikes and civil unrest in France
• 6 June Assassination of Robert Kennedy
• 20–21 August Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia
1969
• 20 January Richard Nixon becomes President• Begins negotiations with North Vietnam in
summer• Begins “Vietnamization”
• 8 August Tate-Labianca Murders
• 15 – 18 August Woodstock
• 6 December Altamont
• 1972 - US combat troops out of South Vietnam– “Easter Invasion” repelled by South Vietnam with
US help.
– November - Nixon reelected with 60.67% of vote (Third highest in US history)
– 17 June: Watergate break-in– 19 June: Connection made to the White House
• 8 August 1974: Nixon resigns
• Campaigns as an outsider.
• Emphasizes “Human Rights”
• Dismantles much of the US intelligence system.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
• 52 American diplomats held 444 days:November 4, 1979 - January 20, 1981
• 24 April 1980: Failed rescue attempt
• (24 December 1979 Soviets invade Afghanistan)