1. Cuban Revolution 5) In 1959, Fidel Castro led a popular revolution that toppled the Batista regime. Castro established a Communist dictatorship and moved to confiscate all U.S.-owned businesses and properties in Cuba.

2. Cuban Revolution 6) Thousands of anti-Castro Cuban refugees fled the island and set sail across ninety miles of ocean and sought asylum in the United States.

3. Cuban Revolution 7) Before the U.S. could intervene, the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev eagerly recognized Castro’s regime in Cuba. The U.S. government threatened to invoke the Monroe Doctrine, but Khrushchev declared it a dead policy and indicated that he would shower the U.S. with missiles if Cuba was attacked.

4. The Bay of Pigs (1961) 1) Shortly after taking office, Kennedy was persuaded to back a CIA plan to use Cuban refugees to topple the Castro regime.

5. The Bay of Pigs (1961) 2) Over 1200 Cuban refugees were trained and armed by the United States and were hastily sent to Cuba to invade the Bay of Pigs and lead a popular uprising against Castro in mid-April 1961

6. The Bay of Pigs (1961) 9) The ground invasion commenced on the early morning of April 17th as the 1200 Cuban rebels landed at the Bay of Pigs. Castro’s forces responded quickly and completely surrounded the rebels within three days.

8. The Bay of Pigs (1961) 11) President Kennedy assumed full responsibility for the failure, admitted to U.S. involvement in the invasion, and fired the head of the CIA. The embarrassing fiasco led Kennedy to remark that, “victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

9. Berlin Wall (1961) 1) U.S. presence in West Berlin was a continual source of frustration for the Soviet Union since the failed blockade of 1947-48. Nikita Khrushchev continually un-nerved U.S. leaders by threatening to use military force to occupy Western Berlin.

10. Berlin Wall (1961) 2) Hundreds of East Germans used U.S.-controlled West Berlin as a means to escape to non- communist countries in Western Europe. This defiance of Soviet authority became too strong to ignore and Khrushchev moved to restrict the drain of refugees.

11. Berlin Wall (1961) 3) Obvious U.S. involvement in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion had also severely strained U.S.-Soviet relations in April 1961.

12. Berlin Wall (1961) 4) In August 1961 the Soviets began construction of the Berlin Wall to prevent access to the western sector of the city. A massive wall of concrete and barbed wire was erected around the U.S. sector and was patrolled by armed guards.

18. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) 2) On October 16th 1962, aerial photographs taken by American spy planes revealed that the Soviets had secretly constructed several nuclear weapons sites within Cuba. Only ninety miles off the coast of Florida, the nuclear missiles could quickly and easily strike most targets in the continental United States.

23. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) 5) In a televised address on October 22nd, Kennedy announced the disturbing discovery to the nation. He ordered a massive naval “quarantine” of Cuba to prevent Soviet reinforcement and demanded that Soviets immediately dismantle the nuclear sites.

25. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) 8) In response to the U.S. naval quarantine, Khrushchev authorized his Soviet field commanders in Cuba to launch their nuclear weapons if the island was invaded by U.S. forces. The world held its collective breath for close to a week as a fleet to Soviet ships sailed across the Atlantic towards Cuba.

26. ?

27. Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) 9) Khrushchev blinked first and offered a series of compromises to prevent further escalation of the crisis. In exchange for the Soviet promise to dismantle their nuclear sites in Cuba, Kennedy agreed on October 28th to end the naval quarantine of Cuba and pledged never to invade the island.

30. The Red Scare 1) The Cold War not only made Americans fearful of the possibility of nuclear war and the spread of Communism abroad, but it also filled many citizens with a hysterical sense of paranoia over the possibility of Communist threats within the United States itself. USSR

31. The Red Scare 4) The looming threat of nuclear war now made every American vulnerable. Feeling defenseless, many Americans responded by constructing their own backyard bomb shelters; school children practiced nuclear war drills; and average citizens became accustomed to a world of “duck and cover.”

37. The Red Scare 5) This constant state of confrontation with the Soviet Union made Americans extremely suspicious of any leftist political ideology that even remotely resembled Communism. As a result of this paranoia, many left-wing and liberal political stances were irrationally branded as being “communist.”

38. The Red Scare 7) The federal government responded to the domestic Communist threat by aggressively investigating American citizens that were even remotely associated with communist beliefs and affiliations.

39. Cold War Spies

40. A) ALGER HISS 1) Alger Hiss was investigated and convicted of perjury during the 1950s. He later served 5 years of prison and spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name. ?

41. B) JULIS & ETHEL ROSENBERG 7) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg took the Fifth Amendment when they were called to testify and they both refused to name any of their co- conspirators. This made the jury very unsympathetic to their case.

42. B) JULIS & ETHEL ROSENBERG 8) The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage and were sentenced to death in early 1951. They were the only American civilians to be executed for spying during the Cold War.

43. McCarthyism 1) The trial and conviction of the Rosenbergs in 1951 produced greater public hysteria concerning widespread Communist infiltration, leading to an irrational and fanatical anti- Communist campaign during the early 1950s.

44. McCarthyism 2) The anti-Communist crusade was led by an obscure Senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy masterfully exploited American fears of Communism in order to gain political power in the U.S. Senate.

45. McCarthyism 3) In 1950 he shocked the American public by claiming to have a list of over 200 known Communists that were currently working in the U.S. State Department, however, he often avoided requests to give specific names or to provide evidence to back up his claims. “I have here in my hand---”

46. McCarthyism 7) McCarthy used his Senate seat to conduct several investigations and public hearings on individuals that he accused of having Communist affiliations and / or participating in Soviet espionage. The mere accusation of being a Communist was often enough to ruin a career.

47. McCarthyism 8) A Washington Post political cartoonist known as “Herblock” coined the term “McCarthyism” in reference to the Senator’s Anti-Communist crusade. The term “McCarthyism” came to be synonymous with the exploitation of fear, baseless defamation, the assumption of guilt by association, and “witch- hunting.”