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Truman Doctrine
A policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S Truman on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. -
Marshall Plan
The large-scale American program to Europe where the United States sent them monetary support to help rebuild European economies in order to combat the spread of communism. -
Berlin Blockade
It was a plan to keep the U.N. from supplying West Berlin in order to flood them out and leave all of Berlin to the USSR. -
Mao Zedong
A Chinese revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, poet, political theorist, and leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the architect and founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949, and held authoritarian control over the nation until his death in 1976. -
Korean War Begins
World War II divided Korea into a Communist, northern half and an American-occupied southern half, divided at the 38th parallel. The Korean War began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to South Korea's aid. -
U.S. enters Vietnam War
To support the South’s government, the United States sent in 2,000 military advisors, a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. The military condition deteriorated, and by 1963 South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Vietcong. In 1965, Johnson escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces, which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The 1968 Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese turned many Americans against the war. -
First Soviet Satellite
The first soviet satellite was Sputnik and was the beginning point of the space race. -
Bay of Pigs
An unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading combatants within three days. -
Americans walk on the Moon
This was accomplished with two US pilot-astronauts flying a Lunar Module on each of six NASA missions across a 41-month time span starting on 21 July 1969 UTC, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. -
Khrushchev is Overthrown
Nikita Khrushchev (1894 - 1971) was a Russian Communist who seized power as dictator over the Soviet Union when Joseph Stalin died in 1953; his grip on power lasted until he was ousted in 1964. It was the height of the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and the United States and its allies. One of the most colorful world leaders of the 20th century, he always identified with the peasant--and indeed he was crude, unsophisticated, earthy, and brutal, as well as energetic, shrewd and determined. -
Gorbachev comes to power
A former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. -
Chernobyl Meltdown
A nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (officially Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central Moscow's authorities. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. -
Tiananmen Square
a large city square in the centre of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heaven's Pacification) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the largest city square in the world. It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. The square was the center of the 4 June 1989 protests, where soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing 400–800, and perhaps many more. -
USSR collapses
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was a process of systematic disintegration, which occurred in its economy, social structure and political structure. It resulted in the destruction of the Soviet Federal Government ("the Union centre") and independence of the USSR's republics on December 25, 1991. The process was caused by weakening of the Soviet government, which led to disintegration and took place from about January 19, 1990 to December 31, 1991.
