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Key Events of The Cold War

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1. US and USSR interests: The Cold War extended to all corners of the world with a proxy war on almost every continent. The South East Asian country Vietnam became a Cold War battleground for the Second Indochina war which involved both the US and Russia’s interests. It was, once again, the Capitalist struggle against Communism. The Vietnam War was a direct result of the USSR’s and China’s communist presence and pressure. It was part of the “Domino Effect”. The “Domino Effect” was a theory by US politicians that because of Russia and China’s pressure and power, all of Asia would follow suit in becoming communist one by one. Kennedy believed that if they could stop this from occurring in Vietnam, they would be able to stop all of Asia from turning to communism for they would have broken the chain(Staff). The USSR on the other hand was interested in this conflict for the communist government in the North was doing exactly what the Soviet Union and its leaders wanted: to spread communism throughout and to show the world how bad capitalism and democracy was.
2. Key Events and Terms:
Following the Geneva Accords in 1954 Vietnam split into two different countries, the North and South, with two different rulers, Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho Chi Minh consolidated his power up North after the Vietminh, the revolutionary group defeated the French in the first Indochina War. Diem was the South nationalist leader and had been elected by the French with much US support for he was

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