-
Period: to
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference took place in a town called Yalta. The "Big Three" went there to discuss post-war Europe. The United States was represented by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Britain was represented by Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin representedthe Soviet Union. The conferences purpose was to speak about the war. That involved: The dividing up of Germany, the formation of the United Nations, German war reparations, the entry of Soviet forces into Japan, and the future of Poland. -
Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech
Nine months after Sir Winston Churchill failed to be reelected as Britain's Prime Minister, Churchill and Truman traveled to make a trip. In the Missouri town of Fulton, Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain" speech to 40,000 people. This came to be one of his mot famous post-war speeches. He entitled this speech "Sinews of Peace" and many people believe it was the beginnign of the Cold War. -
Truman Doctrine
Harry Truman presented to Congress an adress known as the truman Doctrine. In ths adress, he asked Congress for $400 million dollars in assitance for Turkey and Greece. he belived that if tose two countries fell, communism would likely spread South to Iran and even east to India. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, formally known as the European Recovery program was created to stabilitize the ecomonies of 17 western and southern Eauropean countries so that they could institute democracy. This plan was passed by Congress on April 3, 1948. The Soviet Union withdrew itself from the plan causing other countries to follow its lead. The countries still in the plan were: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and western Germany. -
Beginnuing of Berlin Airlift
When World War 2 had ended defeated Germany was split into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The City of Berlin was also split with the Allies taking the western part of the city and the Soviets the eastern. Jospeph Stalin organized a plan to cut off all routes to the western section. Beginning on June 24, 2 million people were deprived of food, water and necessary supplies. Truman set up a massive airlift plan. Each day about 2,500 suplies were transfered to the city. -
Creation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created to prevent the spread of communism. The Soviet Unioon and its allies formed a rival pact called the Warsow Pact in 1955. This disagreemnt held the framework for the military standoff taht continued during the war. -
End of Berlin Airlift
The Soviets finally lifted the blockade in May due to the ridicule of many international communities.The airlift, called die Luftbrucke or "the air bridge" in German, went on until September 1949, for a utter delivery of more than 1.5 million tons of supplies and a total cost of over $224 million. When it ended East Berlin was absorbed into the Soviet East Germany and West Germnay remained its own nation with its own goverment. -
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the act of unfairly accusing someone. Jospeh McCarthy was republican senator from Wisconsin who unfairly accused numerous people of being Soviet spies. He ruined his reputation during the army McCarthy heatings which were broadcasted on T.V. -
Start of Korean War
This was the first military action of the Col War. This war started when 75,000 soldiers passed across the 38th parallel, the boarder between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. American troops entered in July to defend Soouth Korea's troops. To us, this was a war against international communism. -
End of Korean War
After the years of intense fighting the United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, ending the Korean War. Finally in July the war came to an end but thousand of lives were lost during this war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today. -
Launch of Sputnik
The first orbiting space satelite was laucnhed in 1957 but the Soviet Union. The lauch of the Sputnik made people believe the Soviet Union was technolically superior to the U.S. They believed the U.S.S.R. was capable of causing more damage now that they had advanced in making this new piece of technology. -
Building of Berlin War
In an effort to stop the regugees from trying to leave East Berlin, the commnist government of East Germany placed a wall between East and West Berlin. They first put up barbed wire but within tree days the walla had started full construction and a conctrete wall was being built.The U.S. was furious and almost decided to ulldoze the wall down but the Soviet Union sent troops to protect it and the wall sucessfully divided the East and West of Berlin. -
Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" Speech
Talking to a convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Florida, Reagan referred to the USSR as an "Eveil Empire" for the second time in his career. The first time he used the term was at the British House Commons. Many thought his Star Wars refrence was brillian while many belived it was unprofessional and irresponsible. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall stood until November 9 when the head of the East German Communist Party broadcasted that the citizens of GDR could now pass the borber whenever they wanted. That night people surrounded the wall. Some crossed theboder into West Berlin while others took hammers and chipped the wall. -
Collapse of Soviet Union
A few days before Christmas day, when the Soviet Union fell, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan gathered in the Kazakh city of Alma-Ata and declared that they were not going to be part of the Sooviet Union any longer. Instead they would create a Commonwealth of Indepent States. The USSR fell due to the amount of radical reforms that Mikhail Gorbachev had excecuted. -
Fall of Soviet Union (cont.)
He had become unsatisfied in the termination of the USSR and resigned from his job on December 25 ending a terrifying era in history.
