ColdWar

•           Capitalism vs Communism, Warsaw Pact vs

NATO

•           George Orwell (“You and the Atomic Bomb”)  applied the term “cold war”

•           Winston Churchill introduced the term “iron curtain”

•           a state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II

•           Mutual suspicion, heightened tension, series of international incidents

United States vs Soviet Union

Caribbean Crisis THE BRINK OF DISASTER

•      On October 16th 1962, a U2 spy plane took high level photographs over Cuba and identified inter-mediate range missiles

•      On October 17th 1962 the CIA reported to the president that the 16 to 32 missiles identified could kill 80 million Americans as they had a range of 2000 miles with a flight time of just 17 minutes

•      What should have Kennedy done?

•      He could do nothing and ignore the missiles

•      He could order a full scale military invasion of Cuba

•      He could order an air strike against the missile bases only

•      He could call on the Russians to remove the missiles

•      He could put a naval blockade around the island

•      Kennedy sent a message that if the USSR did not agree to take away missilies by October 29th, USA would launch a military invasion of Cuba. On October 28th, Khruschev replied that the USSR would remove the missiles. Within 2 months they were gone. The Cuban Missile Crisis was over but it had taken the world to the brink of nuclear war.

How it all ended….

Proxy wars

Proxy wars are conflicts in which one superpower might fight in another country or provide support to a group which opposes the rival superpower

Arms race

•      U.S. military expenditures bill for the Cold War at around $8 trillion (historian Walter LaFeber )

•      in the late 1960s, both the U.S. and the USSR were each spending $50 million a day on nuclear weapons

•      By way of comparison, the U.S. spent roughly $8 billion per month on the war in Iraq. Money spent on the Cold War could fund that operation for another 80 years

HOW THE WORLD COULD BE A DIFFERENT PLACE AND WHY IT IS NOT….

THE FALL OF BERLIN WALL

AND THE COLLAPSE OF THEUSSR

The USA felt the winners. A new age of

Globalization and American hegemony came….