Detente - The End Of The Cold War

There were many reasons that we ended the Cold War. Everyone on both sides were sick of the constant tension between the two countries. The US realized that the Soviet Union would stay Communist no matter what. We also realized we cant be the policeman of the world. Both sides also had nuclear weapons so powerful, they could blow up the world ten times over. That wasn't any ones intention or goal. It was also nicer and calmer to negotiate with words instead of talking through guns and such. Those negotiations ended up with the SALT I treaty. SALT means Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
The US basically offered an olive branch of peace to the Soviet Union. They took that olive branch because they were sick of all the tension, the constant racing, and they realized there was a better way to live than constantly in fear of a nuclear attack. Both sides were also wanting to end it because both sides were going to go bankrupt soon.

Direct Conflicts with Germany

There were two major conflicts with Germany. There was the Berlin Crisis (there's a lot of crisiss' in the Cold War), and the Berlin Wall.
The Berlin Crisis happened in 1961. Berlin was a city in turmoil. Almost 3 million East Germans fled into West Berlin because it was free of Communism. The economy in East Germany was also suffering because of so many people leaving. Nikita Khrushchev knew something had to be done. At a meeting in Vienna, Austria, he threatened to sign a treaty with East Germany that would let the country close down all roads leading to West Berlin. Kennedy refused. Khrushchev said "I want peace, but if you want war, that is your problem." Kennedy's determination and the United State's large nuclear striking power prevented Khrushchev from closing all the air and land ways between West Berlin and West Germany. He surprised everyone by building the Berlin Wall. It separated East Germany from West Germany.

The Berlin Wall ended the Berlin Crisis but furthered the Cold War tensions.

East and West Germany

Cuba Direct Conflicts

There were two really big conflicts with Cuba during the Cold War. The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1,500 Cuban exiles landed on the beaches. Angry Cubans were waiting for them. Within three days, almost all the exiles were dead or captured. The U.S. sponsored the Invasion, and after those horrid three days, Kennedy said the Bay of Pigs invasion was a colossal mistake. There were many warning signs too. It  was almost an open secret that the Cuban exiles were being trained and armed by the CIA in Florida and Guatemala. The New York Times almost published a story about it, but because of concerns, they were deleted. Overall, I think the Bay of Pigs invasion was a complete fail. The Cubans knew we were coming. There's no point in doing it when the secret gets out.

Cuba

The other large conflict was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union said that they weren't putting in nuclear weapons in Cuba, which is only 90 miles from Key West. Then some planes went over Cuba, and found out they were lying. There were pictures that there were missile bases in Cuba and there were missiles there ready to launch and would reach the U.S. in minutes. We got mad at them and we set up a blockade to prevent any more ships to get into Cuba. The Soviets had decided then to strike a deal. The Soviet Union said that if the United States promised that they wouldn't attack Cuba, then the Soviet Union would take out the missiles in Cuba. The United States also took out all the nuclear missiles in Turkey too. Then the crisis was over. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a smack to reality. Everyone realized they didn't want a nuclear war. They realized they didn't want to blow up themselves while the same time blowing up their enemy. Readers Digest Version: they didn't want to blow up the world.

I think it was a smart choice all in all.

Korean War Conflict

After WWII, the Soviet Union took control of North Korea and we took control of South Korea. Both North and South Korea wanted to be reunited as one, unified country. But the Soviet Union and the United States and very different ideas for the country. The Soviet Union wanted Korea to be a Communist country, while the US wanted it to be a democracy. The two countries couldn't decide or even agree to meet in the middle. Instead of compromising, they went to war with each other.
When the Soviets decided to surprise attack South Korea, they thought the US wouldn't fight back. But they were terribly wrong.
South Korea never wanted a war on their hands. But they had to go to war because the North Koreans invaded South Korea and they couldn't just hand North Korea their country. So they fought back. The Soviets helped a lot with the North Koreans and the US helped a lot with the South Koreans.
South Korea first asked the help of United Nations, and they did.
The US came to the South Koreans aid. Truman basically did it for show of military strength, not to help the South Koreans. Overall, 16 nations helped the South Koreans with the War. Basically, the two nations fought for a while when all of a sudden the Soviet Union suggested a cease-fire.The Soviet Union and the US decided on a neutral line. The agreement had goods and bads. The fighting had stopped, but there were still two nations. Today, North Korea is still Communist and mostly living in poverty. On the other hand, South Korea is thriving and is a democracy modeled after the US.

North and South Korea

The CIA and Guatemala

Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 establishing the CIA. The National Security Act charged the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) with coordinating the nation’s intelligence activities and correlating, evaluating and disseminating intelligence affecting national security.

Where Guatemala is

Eisenhower had believed that the Guatemalan government had Communist sympathies. It was only because the Communists gave over 200,000 acres of American land to peasants. So the CIA trained an army to invade Guatemala. They invaded Guatemala and didn't have much to fight. The Guatemalan army refused to defend their president, so the president resigned. Then the army's leader became the next dictator president of Guatemala. That was exactly what we wanted. Get the president of Guatemala to resign and get a new president.

The Arms and Space Races

The Soviet Union and the United States were constantly in a race. A race to see who could build the better guns that had the best accuracy, the best gun that could kill the most people, do the most damage. They were constantly at battle. A big race was to see who could first blow up an H-Bomb (hydrogen bomb). Hydrogen bombs are more destructive. The hydrogen bomb has the force of 1 million tons of TNT. That's about 67 more times the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. At first, the United States was debating on whether or not it was even morale, but they decided to do it. On November 1, 1952, The US won that race. The race to see who could explode the first H-Bomb. But alas, the Soviets caught up in August of 1953 with their own H-bomb exploding.
The first space race was to see who could launch the first artificial satalite. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik into the atmosphere. It traveled around the globe every 96 minutes and traveled around the earth at 18,000 miles per hour. Its success was a triumph for the Soviet Union. We were shocked at first. Our first try to put a satalitte in space was a complete and utter failure. But then on January 31, 1958, we successfully launched our first satalite.

U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War

First off, the Vietnam War is a proxy war of the Cold War. Although by the technical terms, it isn't. A proxy war is a war instigated by a major power that does not itself participate.  At first we made the locals fight, but then they were losing, so we had to intervene. Then we were in the war directly. The Soviets played more along the proxy rules. They got the North Vietnamese to fight for them. 
There were lots of T.V.s in the U.S. during the Vietnam War. They had a big impact on the American people; good things and bad things. A good thing about the cameras being in Vietnam is that you could keep up with the war. The government couldn't tell you lies about what was going on. The cameras at that time did not lie to you. But a bad thing about the cameras being there was that everyone saw all the bloody battles and everyone dying. That made many people very, very upset. So upset, they started riots. One example would be Kent State. Most of the protesters were college age, younger than thirty.
The protesters were a violent bunch. They wanted the war to end now, and got even angrier when President Nixon announced that they would be widening the war effort. 
On Saturday, May 2, the Reserve Office Training Corps building at Kent State was torched, and stores downtown had been looted the night before.
The Governor of Ohio sent in the Ohio National Guard. The troops arrived with tear gas and loaded rifles (bad mistake). Protesters rallied that Monday at noon on the commons. A National Guard officer told them to go away and stop gathering.

The famous Kent State photo of
a 14 year old crying over
one of the dead



Troops threw tear gas at the protesters, but that did little. That only got the canisters thrown back at them. So the guards marched up a hill and opened fire on the crowd. Accounts were that 28 Guardsmen fired between 61 and 67 shots. Four people ended up dead that day, and nine more were injured.

Nixon said some of the blame was on the protesters. He basically said "if you didn't protest, those lives wouldn't be lost, and we wouldn't have tragedy on our hands. Just let me do my job and don't tell me what I'm supposed to do."

The Draft also became something the American public despised greatly. There was a draft during WWI and WWII, but the public thought it was necessary, so they didn't protest. Vietnam was different. At first it was single men up to 45, and married men up to 35. Also then there were ways out of it. You could pay your way out or you could find a substitute.

During the Vietnam War, you could get out of it by going to college or marrying and having kids. Others also had "connections" to get out of it. The minorities and the poor had a lot harder time of getting out of being drafted. But there weren't enough people coming in. So then they made it so where everyone, even the rich, were in the lottery. Then people got angry, and there were many protests.

At the end of the war, Nixon put the draft on hold, and it has been a voluntary draft ever since. Charles B. Rangel from New York has introduced a bill to reinstate the draft over and over, time and time again to Congress. It has failed to gain much support. In 2004, his bill failed 402-2. It looks like the draft will not be returning anytime soon.