Period Unit 4 8 Effects of the Cold War Dominant Skill: Making Connections Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical development or process. NATO & WARSAW PACT NATIONS and THEIR ALLIES Learning Objective 8C: Compare the ways in which the United States and the Soviet Union sought to maintain influence over the course of the Cold War. Thematic Focus: POLITICAL Historical Development: The Cold War produced new military alliances, including NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and led to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars between and within postcolonial states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) When NATO was established in 1949, one of its fundamental roles was to act as a powerful deterrent against military aggression. This was initially specifically aimed at stopping the aggressive spread of Communism. Warsaw Pact A treaty establishing a mutual-defense organization composed originally of the Soviet Union and Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The treaty (which was renewed in 1985) provided for a unified military command and for the maintenance of Soviet military units on the territories of the other participating states. Illustrative Examples: Proxy Wars -Korean War -Vietnam War -Angolan Civil War -Sandinista-Contras conflict in Nicaragua Korean War After the split of Korea into a communist North and democratic South along the 38th parallel, the North Korean troops invade the south in 1945 in an attempt to unite the Korean peninsula under communism. U.S. troops engage and push North Korea back to their border with China. China enters the war and pushes the U.S. back to the 38th parallel and an armicist is signed creating a De-Militarized-Zone. (DMZ) Vietnam War With the collapse of France in World War II, Japan occupied Vietnam as a colonial holding. When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II in 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s forces took the capital of Hanoi and declared Vietnam to be an independent country, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. objects and the United Nations divides Vietnam. Ho Chi Min goes to war to unite Vietnam under his communist rule. Angolan Civil War A civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal. The war was used as a surrogate battleground for the Cold War by rival states such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa and the United States. Sandinista-Contra Conflict in Nicaragua The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua. During their war against the Nicaraguan government, the U.S.-backed Contras committed numerous human rights violations and used terrorist tactics. Period Unit 4 8 Effects of the Cold War Harkness Discussion Discussion: Group 3 Evaluators: Group 4 Source Document 8-3 “Dueling Alliances” What similarities and differences can be seen in the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact?.