Fire

Captain **John Herrick** chose to engage the three North Vietnamese ships. Of the three ships, two were badly damaged, and one was reported to be destroyed (Engagement Report). In Washington two days later on August 5, President Johnson addressed the congress. He asked for Congresesonal support of increased engagement in Veitnam. The congress was in full support of President Johnson's want for increased involvement in Vietnam (Casey 179). Later that day an air assault crippled the North Vietnams Navy (Engagement Report). As Operation Rolling Thunder started and the Vietnam War intensified, growing unrest back in America became more prominent and president Johnson’s support in congress plummeted (Hopkins 1). After nine brutal years of war, the United States had to pull out due to public unrest (Moise 1). weakened from the Vietnam War the United States and its allies took a more reserved foreign policy to avoid further distrust in the government (Gaddis 1). The U.S.S.R gained more power and money when oil became a valuable stock, due to the oil crisis in the early seventies (Gaddis 1). President **Nixon** met with the soviet premier to try to reduce the number of nuclear missiles. This showed a diffusion of tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (Schulzinger 1), however, the **U.S.S.R** continued to expand communism. In 1979 the **U.S.S.R** invaded Afghanistan. This later was called the //Soviet Union's “Vietnam”// as it marked a decrease in power by a small determined guerilla force. The war dragged on into the late 1980’s, and then a new soviet Premier named **Mikhail Gorbachev** came into power. Unlike his predecessors who were hardliners, he was open to a “de-Stalinization”, or a reduced extreme form of Communism. His goals were to implement two policies of Glasnost and Perestroika and to pull the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. He also worked to improve relationships with the United States. He could not, however, control the military leaders and hardliners, and was eventually overthrown by the soviet military (Britannica 1). However the people had become used to increased freedoms and did not like the re-implimented strict government. So in 1990 he lead a peaceful revolution against the army and won control of the Soviet Union. He declared the Soviet Union to be Russia and it was to be run under a With the communist party split in two, a democratic movement swept the nation. This revolution in the winter of 1991 marked the end of the Cold War.
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