2.  The US, USSR, and even China often used a variety of strategies to gain influence in the Third World  They would back wars of revolution, liberation, or counterrevolution  The US and the USSR both established intelligence agencies – the CIA and the KGB  The US gave military aid, built schools, set up programs to combat poverty, and sent volunteer workers to many developing nations

3.  In 1955, Indonesia hosted many leaders from Asia and Africa at the Bandung Conference  They met to form what they called a “third force” of independent countries, or nonaligned nations  Some nations, like India and Indonesia, managed to remain neutral throughout the Cold War

4.  In the 1950s, Cuba was ruled by an unpopular dictator, Fulgencio Batista, who had US support  Cuban resent led to a popular revolution, led by Fidel Castro, which overthrew Batista in January 1959  At first, many praised Castro for bringing about many social reforms, however Castro soon revealed himself to be a harsh dictator  He suspended elections, jailed or executed his opponents, and tightly controlled the press

5.  When Castro took over, he nationalized the Cuban economy, which included taking over US- owned sugar mils and refineries  In response, President Eisenhower ordered an embargo on all trade with Cuba  Castro then turned to the Soviets for economic and military aid  In 1960, the CIA began to train anti- Castro Cuban exiles  In April 1961, they invaded Cuba, landing at the Bay of Pigs  Without proper US military support, the exiles failed in their invasion and Castro easily defeated the forces, humiliating the United States

6.  The failure at the Bay of Pigs convinced Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that the US would not resist Soviet expansion in Latin America  July 1962  Khrushchev secretly began to build 42 missile sites around Cuba  In October, US spy planes discovered these sites, setting off an international crisis  President JFK demanded the removal of the missiles and announced a blockade of Cuba to prevent the further arrival of more missiles  Eventually, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the US agreed to never invade Cuba and to remove missiles from Turkey

7.  The US supported the anti-communist dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and his family in Nicaragua from 1933-1979  In 1979, communist rebels, known as the Sandinistas, overthrew the Somoza reign  Originally, the US and the USSR supported the Sandinistas’ leader Daniel Ortega, but he quickly began to support Marxist rebels in El Salvador  In response, the US gave its support to the anti-communist rebels known as the Contras  The civil war raged on for over a decade, greatly crippling Nicaragua’s economy

8.  Following WWII, Iran’s leader, Pahlavi, embraced western governments and wealthy western oil companies  This clashed with the traditional Islamic beliefs and customs of many of the people  Iranian nationalists united under Prime Minister Muhammed Mossadeq and forced the shah to flee  With US support, the shah was restored following fear of Iran turning to the Soviet Union for support

9.  The shah continued to westernize Iran throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including weakening the power of the ayatollahs, or Islamic religious leaders  Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, while living in exile, began to encourage revolution in Iran  The shah fled Iran in 1979 and Khomeini returned to establish an Islamic state and to export Iran’s militant form of Islam

10.  In 1979, young Islamic revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 people hostage and demanding that the shah face a trial for his actions  They remained prisoners for 444 days before being released in 1981  Khomeini encouraged Muslim radicals to overthrow their secular governments, however this policy heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq where Saddam Hussein governed in a secular state

11.  For several years following WWII, Afghanistan had maintained its independence from both the US and the USSR  However, in the 1950s, the Soviet Union began to increase its influence  In the late 1970s, a Muslim revolt threatened to topple the communist regime, so the Soviets invaded  The Soviets expected to quickly invade, prop up the communist government, and leave but they got stuck  Supplied by American weapons, the mujahideen, were able to hold off the Soviet forces

12.  President Jimmy Carter warned the Soviets against any attempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf  To protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States stopped shipments of grain to the Soviet Union and boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics  In 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew all of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan