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Joseph Stalin
Became Soviet dictator in 1926. By 1927, he began a massive effort to industrialize the country. He had modernized the USSR with a 5 year plan, but he did not tolerate opposition to his rule. His efforts brought 10 million deaths, most were peasants who resisted communist policies. He may have been a determined leader who brought the USSR into being a world superpower, but his dictatorship killed MANY. Died in 1953 -
United Nations
An international organization composed of most of the countries in the world. It was founded in 1945 to promote peace, security, and economic development. There was a vote in which every country would have one. It was the second attempt at creating a collective security system within only a few decades. -
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) became the 33rd President of the United States upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945. Truman, who had only a high-school education and had been vice president for just 82 days before FDR's sudden death, inherited the monumental task of leading the United States through the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War began under Truman's watch. -
Containment
Containment was the United State’s policy of containing communism. It was a policy that meant that the U.S. would use any means necessary to contain the spread of communism. It started in 1946 and the result was wars and tensions between Soviet supported countries and U.S. supported countries. It was significant because it was the United State’s effort to contain communism and enveloped many different events after World War 2. -
Joseph McCarthy (McCarthhyism)
Served as a Republican Senator for the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion. He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere. -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman created a new policy saying that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid. Most people believe that this was the main cause of the cold war. This policy won the support of Republicans who controlled Congress, sending $400 million, but no military support. In 1952, both Greece and Turkey Joined NATO, a military alliance. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the American program to aid Europe, in which the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
Berlin Airlift
Soviet troops cut all roads and rail traffic to West Berlin, leaving he Berliners without reperations. Truman ordered Berlin airlift, 11 months of cargo planes dropping supplies to West Berliners, in order to keep from provoking another war. Stalin lifted blockade on May 12. -
N.A.T.O.
A mutual defense alliance. The threatening expansion of the Soviet Union in Europe led to the forming of NATO. 12 countries agreed to come to the aid of any member who was attacked or was affected possible Soviet aggression . -
Mao Zedong
Zedong was a Communist leader in China who struggled against the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-Shek since the 1920's. They stopped their civil war during World War ll to work together to prevent Japanese occupation but resumed it again after. To prevent a Communist revolution in China the U.S. gave $2,000,000 in aid but they squandered it and Communism rose and in 1949 Zedong formed the People's Republic of China. -
Korean War
The Korean War was an important turning point in the Cold War. It focused on using political pressure and economic aid to contain communism. It led America to rapidly increase its military, and brought Asia into the Cold War.Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Australia signed defense agreements and America began aiding French forces in fighting communists in Vietnam. MacArthur led the American forces, with the permission from the United Nations, to push back the North Korean forces -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eisenhower was instated as president after Truman with a campaign promising an anti-communist policy greater than that of Truman. Eisenhower negotiated a peace treaty with Korea, ending the Korean war, and covertly began Soviet interventions within friendly countries. -
Nikita Khrushchev
Led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964. -
Warsaw Pact
A mutual defense treaty between eight Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The treaty was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union in Warsaw. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. -
John F. Kennedy
Elected as President on the 8th of November, JFK led a campaign promising a harder policy on Soviet forces. He aimed to close the "missle gap" between the U.S. and USSR by increasing arms production. Years later his Cold Warrior posture degraded as he humiliated in the Bay of Pigs battle, and the Cuban Missle Crisis which almost ensured a nuclear holocaust. -
Berlin Wall
Nikita Krushchev wanted a way to stop Germans from going nto West Berlin from Communist Germany. He built a wall throughout Berlin to keep the soviet sector out and anyone who tried to flee from the East was shot at. It stood as a symbol of the division between the East and the West for almost thirty years after. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
This incident is the closest we have come to nuclear war. The Soviet Union attempted to send nuclear warheads to Cuba. The United States made a blockade to prevent the ship carrying the warheads from getting to Cuba. The only casualty was a single US aircraft. -
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson was the thirty-sixth president from 1963 to 1969. He was significant because he carried on the American struggle to restrain communism. He was sworn into presidency after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He urged people “to build a great society, a place where the meaning of man’s life matches the marvels of man’s labor.” He also made a new civil rights bill and a new tax cut. He contributed to many service that the country provided such as education, medicare, and more. -
Ronald Reagan
the 40th president and was president when the cold war ended. By the early 1980s, many people in the US perceived that the USSR military capabilities were gaining on that of the United States. Previously, the U.S. had relied on the qualitative superiority of its weapons to essentially frighten the Soviets, but the gap had been narrowed. Reagan believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to allow for more democracy and free speech, this would lead to reform and the end of Communism. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Union and instated a series of changes. Beginning with glasnost (freedom of speech) and perestroika (restructuring of the economy), Later, Gorbachev ended the arms race with America as he realized it was an unwinnable dispute, and a drain on government funds. -
Iran Contra Scandal
Reagan illegaly supported rebels in the Middle East. Oliver North sent arms to rebels in Iran. It ruined Reagan's reputation. -
George H.W. Bush
Bush was a determined president who brought the US to be a kinder and gentler nation. He won the Republican nomination in 1988, and became president. He was elected at he closing of the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the Soviet Union. He sent troops to Panama to overthrow the corrupt government. During his time, Saddam Hussein became the greatest threat and test. Also, there was a faltering US economy and rising violence in the inner cities. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
As the Soviet power in East Germany and Berlin lessened, the East German government announced on November 9th that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Fall of Berlin wall paved the way for German reunification which was concluded on October 30th, 1990. -
Collapse of Soviet Union
It was the end of the communists in most of Russians 15 post states (some of them were in Europe like: Czechoslovakia, West Germany, Poland). The economic system of the Soviet Union went down and many people started to think that it´s a big mistake.There were many Religious and social disorders. The Soviet union was dissolved into 15 post Soviet states
