From Wikipedia


Cold War

Episode Seventeen

Good Guys, Bad Guys 1967 - 1978

The Cold War (1962-1979) refers to the phase within the Cold War that spanned the period between the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis in late October 1962, through the détente period beginning in 1969, to the end of détente in the late 1970s.

The U.S. maintained its Cold War engagement with the Soviet Union during the period, despite internal preoccupations with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War antiwar movement.

In 1968, Eastern Bloc member Czechoslovakia attempted reforms and was subsequently invaded by the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact members, crushing the reforms. By 1973, the U.S. had withdrawn from the Vietnam War. While Communists gained power in some South East Asian countries, they were divided by the Sino-Soviet Split, with China moving closer to the Western camp following U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Third World was increasingly divided between governments backed by the Soviets (such as Libya and Syria), governments backed by the West (such as Saudi Arabia), and a growing camp of nonaligned nations.

The Soviet and other Eastern Bloc economies continued to stagnate. Worldwide inflation occurred following the 1973 oil crisis.

1980 World map of alliances