Stephen Harnais' U.S. History Blog: 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011

Terms and names from Chapter 24-4:

The hydrogen bomb was developed as a more destructive super-weapon than the atom bomb, because the Soviet Union had acquired their own functioning atomic bomb (the Americans needed to have a more destructive bomb to demonstrate superiority). (It was estimated that the bomb would be 67 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima)

The Americans won the race with the Soviets to develop such a bomb, but the USSR soon caught up less than a year after the first successful American H-bomb.

Dulles believed in brinkmanship, the willingness of the US to go to the edge of all-out war.

With the new developments and focus on the nuclear race and stalemate, the US came to rely on the CIA very heavily. The CIA used their spies to gather information from foreign nations, such as the USSR.

The CIA also gave several million dollars to anti-Mossadegh supporters to have him removed from office, in order to keep that nation pro-American and anti-Soviet.
The CIA raised an army and invaded Guatemala. When the president of Guatemala "resigned" from office, the army's pro-American leader took power as dictator of the country.

The Warsaw Pact, signed by the Soviet Union and several other countries, linked the nations together. The USSR passed this Pact as it grew fearful of West Germany (which it had recognized when Stalin died and a new dictator took office).
In Geneva, Eisenhower proposed an "open skies" policy in which the two superpowers would allow flights over each other's territory to prevent surprise nuclear attacks on one another. Though it was turned down, it was seen as a step towards peace.
A war almost broke out over the Suez Canal, with England, France and Israel on one side, and Egypt on the other. However, the UN stepped in and stopped it before it began, leaving control of the canal to Egypt, the one that illegally seized it in the first place.
Congress approved the Eisenhower Doctrine, which stated that the US would defend the Middle East against any attack by a communist country.
Nikita Khrushchev became dictator of the Soviet Union after Stalin. He also believed that communism was best for the world, but he believed that it could spread peacefully.
The USSR came back by being the first to launch a man-made satellite into the Earth's orbit, named Sputnik. The US, after some failures, managed to catch up and launch their own satellite.
On the final U-2 American spy-flight over the USSR, the plane was shot down and the pilot was sent to prison in the Soviet Union for 10 years. This was after Eisenhower had been convinced to allow one more flight.

The Soviet Union demanded an end to the flights and a formal apology. Eisenhower agreed to stop the flights, but did not apologize. This incident sparked more tension between the two nations as the world entered the 1960s.

Friday, March 11, 2011

THE MACHINES THAT CHANGED THE WAR:

Russians had the t-34 tank which gave them the advantage over the Germans, even up against the Tiger and Panther tanks.

The t-34 was mass produced in larger numbers than any other tank in the war.
They sometimes rolled right off the production line into the heat of battle, which was much faster than the German tanks which would take a while to get to the Russian front.
The t-34 was the first ever tank to employ the sloped-armor design which essentially doubled the armor's thickness and gave it the ability to deflect projectiles. This armor allowed the tank to be able to take a lot of direct hits from the German tanks, and continue fighting.
As for the cannon, when the Germans outfitted their tanks with armor that could handle the original projectile of the t-34, the Russians responded by upgrading their tanks with high-velocity 85mm guns (http://web.ebscohost.com/hrc/detail?vid=3&hid=19&sid=af4c1125-b35b-41f4-aee5-01187714e94f%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9aHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=khh&AN=28832246 -> T-34/76 by Jon Guttman)

(END OF DAY 1 HERE------->)

Japanese had the Zero's which gave them the advantage of aerial superiority at the beginning of the war in the Pacific.

The Japanese Zero had a maximum speed of 331 mph and had a range (with the aid of an extra fuel tank) of up to 1,930 miles)
The zero could also be launched from a carrier, giving it increased range and allowing it to be used in the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
When the Japanese ordered a better version from western designers, they received a plane that could achieve 276 mph at an altitude of 10,500 feet, which surpassed the expectations of the Japanese.

7.7mm Round

The zero came with two 7.7mm machine guns for dog-fighting and strafing.
The zeros ruled the skies at the beginning of the war in the pacific because of their agility and speed (though the US went on to crush this aerial superiority with such planes as the P-38 Lightning).

(END OF DAY 2 HERE------->)

Germans had a submarine which they brought back from WWI where it showed its power and influence on the battlefield, the U-Boat.

The older and less advanced version used in WWI sank almost 11 million gross tons of Allied shipping.
In 1944, the snorkel was invented which allowed submarines to charge their batteries and run on diesel power while submerged.

U-Boat deck gun

The U-Boats featured deck guns varying from 86mm to 105mm used when the U-Boat surfaced.

German U-Boats would surface during the night to fire at enemy ships with their deck guns because they could not be seen and British radars (on their ships) could not accurately detect a submarine on the surface.

Adapted U-Boats also had the ability to lay mines near the shore. These mines sank nearly 3 million tons of shipping.
(http://web.ebscohost.com/hrc/detail?hid=104&sid=01324ac7-b837-4db9-b4a8-e90d0a5c5c2a%40sessionmgr112&vid=5&bdata=JnNpdGU9aHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=khh&AN=52367830 -> Killer U-Boats by Stephan Wilkinson)

(END DAY 3 HERE------->)