The background of the author: Howard Jones earned a History Ph.D from Indiana University in 1973. He later became a history professor at the University of Alabama. He is also an American author and editor and won the Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award from the University of Alabama and Burnum. Jones wrote a book named The Bay of Pigs; it was published in 2008. He chose to write the book because new documents from the CIA had been released, regarding the Bay of Pigs. In this book, Jones describes, in numerous ways, that the invasion was poorly planned and suffered from a lack of communication. The CIA case officers had been aware of the plot since the early stages of planning the invasion. The author used new information about the Bay
USA made the first move by trying to invade Cuba at The Bay of Pigs in 1961. The US failed but this attempted acted as a warning to Fidel Castro, the Prime minister of Cuba, and caused him to seek help (Source E). Therefore, the reason Cuba turned to USSR for help was because of the threat from USA. Another reason they needed help was because the US refused to carry on buying sugar from Cuba which placed them in a poor economic state. After Fidel Castro came to power, he nationalized American companies within
In the 1950’s the cold war had begun. The fear of retaliation from communists was at large. Some Americans believed that communists were amongst them plotting. This lead to a dark time in history when American opportunity became limited for many. Most rights were limited, normal life was disrupted, and the most necessary human right may have been taken. All of these restrictions limited the American opportunity making it an age of fear and oppression rather than an age of opportunity.
The United states got involved in the Vietnam war to contain communism. In Document 1 president Harry Truman says, when a country is ruled by the minority with a government that uses terror and oppression, the rights of the majority are being violated, and the United States ' policy must aid them. In communism, the basic human rights are not respected by the government, and the United States have
The invasion of South Korea marked the first actual military combat of the Cold War, despite the fact that the Cold War started nearly three years sooner.1 Following the invasion, Harry S. Truman and the United Nations rushed into involvement, differing greatly from the peaceful setup of the previously relevant League of Nations. (Document C) In the early stages of the war, more citizens opposed it than supported it, leading to protests and frustration among citizens; however, by the end of the Korean War, significantly more Americans were content with the Korean War than were opposed. (Document D) With help from the United Nations, American and South Korean troops forced North Korean troops backward; and after a short failed attempt to conquer Korea in its entirety, South Korea once again settled for a division at the 38th parallel. The Korean War was relatively short; however, it caused a massive increase in the budget of the Department of Defense which is equivalent to 300 billion dollars in modern standards. This drastically increased budget caused economic strain and hardship on America once again, just five years after World War II. (Document G) The Korean War raised the prices of foods due to the need to supply for the soldiers3, further hurting the economy. Though the Korean War did not cause as large of a panic
The Cuban Revolution was successful in toppling the corrupt Batista dictatorship and getting the Cosa Nostra (a major crime syndicate in Sicily) out of Cuba. The Cuban Revolution was and is not successful however, in making Cuba a free land and a good place to live for everyone. It benefited just the communist party leaders. At first the Cuban people thought they were fighting from freedom, and that they were trying to free themselves from Batista and the United States. However, what most of the cuban people didn 't know it was that it was all a lie. Nothing changed things got worse and worse and worse. Cuba remained the same as it did earlier with Batista; a poor country in debt whose livelihood depends on sugar production.
In January of 1959, became communist under Fidel Castro. The United States tried to stage a coup to get rid of Castro, but the attack failed. In May 1962, the Soviet Union began to secretly ship nuclear warheads to Cuba. In October, U.S. spy planes detected medium range nuclear missiles being installed on the island. In the graphic shown for document D, it is shown that medium range missiles had the potential to reach New Orleans, Miami, and Washington D.C. The United States decided to quarantine all of the incoming ships to Cuba. The United States and Soviet Union officials began diplomatic relations to deactivate the nuclear missiles. Just three days after the missile became functional; Soviets began to remove the missiles. A few months later, in an unpublicized agreement with the Soviet Union, the United States removed the nuclear warheads it had in Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated the United States’ use of the policy of containment because the United States issued a quarantine of Cuba and also entered in diplomatic talks with the Soviet Union to try to halt the conflict. However the Cuban Missile Crisis also demonstrated how containment was not successful because despite how friendly the two leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States became Cuba still became a communist
The Soviets had expansive tendencies. The Soviets wanted to isolate West Berlin from the West and take them over. From Document A, In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy
The Korean War was not a conflict in which the United States needed to be involved as to its horrific outcome is testament. Yet, in the 1950s, the U.S. thought it was believed that the only way to stop the spread of communism was to fight back against the potential formation of communist governments. When war broke out in Korea, it became a place for the United States to make a statement against communism on a global front joining with South Korea to combat the communist North. In retrospect, however, the United States should not have entered the war. Not being a part of the war would have saved American lives and money, potentially eliminated PTSD in a generation on soldiers, and would have prevented the animosity that exist between the United States and North Korea that dominates the headlines today.
Some historians believe the Cold War was inevitable because of the hostilities from both America and the Soviet Union after World War II. America believed that the USSR was an expansionist country trying to spread an evil, communistic idea throughout the world. Although the countries never directly fought against each other, as they only fought in proxy wars, there was still extreme conflict. The United States responded to the Soviets actions in Germany, Europe, and their national actions. These responses were justifiable, or so many Americans at the time believed. Many realized that the Soviet Union was a terrible foe to face, as George Kennan, a respected American diplomat, noticed. He said in “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” “This means
In January of 1959, Fidel Castro came to power. The United States’ attempted to overthrow Castro with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a CIA operation to overthrow Fidel Castro by landing 1200 disgruntled Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs. The attempt fails miserably and is a huge embarrassment for Kennedy, who then vows to bring down Castro. After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro looked to the Soviet Union for protection. According to document D in 1962 “The soviets began shipping 40,000 troops, 60 missiles and 158 nuclear warheads to communist Cuba.” However, U.S spy planes soon identified evidence of the nuclear missile sites being rapidly installed in Cuba. As a result, the U.S quarantined (set a zone around) Cuba where ships carrying weapons could not go. If Cuba had missiles, they could threaten other countries and make them submit to Cuba which would result in them becoming communist. Numerous Soviet transports stopped dead in the water just outside the quarantine line. In April 1963, the United States and the Soviet Union came to an agreement. Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuba and the U.s removed their missiles from Turkey. This tactic of containment through blockades/quarantines was highly effective because as a result of the quarantine, there were no more missiles in Cuba so they could not take over other countries and spread
During the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place. It was when two superpowers were close to causing a nuclear war. Its main origin was when the United States invaded Cuba, on April 10, 1961; which is also known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. After the invasion, previous Prime Minister; Fidel Castro of Cuba, was ‘paranoid’ because he felt like America was planning another attack. So in order to protect his nation, he sought military and economic help from the Soviet Union. Late president Nikita Khrushchev (from USSR), agreed to assist Castro and took immediate action. He installed missiles in Cuba, which the US thought was a threat to the security of their nation. In summary, I think that this was a defensive move by the Cubans.
All of these operations were carried out to protect America as well as other countries from the spread of communism. However, Kinzer doesn’t make it seem that way. Notably, the book fails to discuss the state of the world. The United States and the Soviet Union were the two biggest forces in the world, were not happy with each other, and both had nuclear missiles. There was a lot of pressure to keep the Soviets as far away from American territory as possible. When the government detected a threat, it acted swiftly as to prevent a bloody war that would destroy the world. The governments put in place in Guatemala, Chile, Iran, and South Vietnam were supposed to prevent the spread of the Soviet Union forces and therefore, protect the United States as a
The hope for this research essay is to try to implement and understand the role of democracy in the case of the Korean War. This research essay will look in depth to see if democracy can truly prevent war and bring peace or if it is irrelevant in what causes war in the international realm. This concept is also known as the Democratic Peace Theory. The Democratic Peace Theory is probably the most popular theme or theory in trying to understand what causes war and what causes peace. The current relationship between South Korea and North Korea is very similar to how the United States and the Soviet Union were in the Cold War.
Both “Postwar Reconstruction and a Declaration of Self-reliance, 1953-55” by Charles Armstrong and “North Korea’s Vinalon City: Industrialism as Socialist Everyday Life” by Cheehyung Kim focus on the post-Korean War reconstruction of North Korea as a model of the socialist economic development. The authors analyze the rise of North Korea as a showcase of socialist industrialization with “fraternal” supports from the whole Eastern Bloc, the role of this rapid` industrialization in consolidating Kim Il Sung’s power, and external and internal backgrounds behind the North’s gradual transition from an externally dependent economy to an autarky after the initial years of industrialization.