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Yalta Conference
Where: Yalta, Ukraine
Who: The Big Three (USSR, Britain, USA)
What: Divided Germany into 4 countries and the USSR promised free elections to liberated countries. -
Postdam Conference
The conference featured the UK, US, and USSR heads of state. The point was to figure out what Germany's (and others') punishment should be. Agreements included cutting Vietnam in half, Nazi war criminals being prosecuted, Germany and Austria being split into four zones, reshaping Germany from an economic point of view. Germany has seized all foreign countries being handed back to their owners. -
Hiroshima/Nagasaki Bombing
The Japanese were very determined to continue fighting regardless of the cost; they sent their soldiers to fight. The Atomic bomb was a trump card for ending the war quickly and was also a way to show power towards the USSR. Finally, dropping the bomb measured the actual damages and repercussions in the longer term. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was a concept applied to the spread of Communism through South East Asia. It didn't provide a prevention plan. -
Molotov Plan
After the Soviets rejected the Marshall Plan, they came up with their Molotov Plan version. This way, Stalin could keep both economic and ideological control over Eastern Europe throughout the rebuilding process of Europe. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan ensured Europeans were quickly lifted out of poverty, even though it eventually profited the US the most. The Marshall plan enhanced the recovery of the allies while keeping behind communism. -
Treaty of Brussels
The treaty's goal was to show that western European states could cooperate, thus encouraging the United States to play a role in the security of western Europe. -
Berlin Blockade
The Soviets wished to keep post-war Germany weak and pliant, to support their recovery and avoid a new German expansion. As tensions over the divergent visions intensified over moves in West Germany and elsewhere, the division of Germany started to solidify. -
NATO
Alliance Against the Soviet Union. (Its counterpart is called the Warsaw Pact.) It includes the USA, i.e., the most potent overall military in the world, and several other countries, which are 1. also liberal democracies with capitalist economies and 2. also have pretty good militaries. -
Soviet Creation of Nuclear weapons
After the Americans dropped two bombs on Japan, the full force of the importance of this new weapon finally hit Stalin, and he ordered a crash program to have an atomic bomb as quickly as possible. -
Korean War
Koreas were divided but pretty much divided because two different leaders had two different political agendas (Kim Il-sung, the NK leaders grandpa, and Syngman Rhee, the 1st SK president) -
Fidel Castro taking over
Fidel claimed that he was supposed to be fighting for Cuba's independence, but within a few years, he had foreigners use his country as a base for nuclear missiles. -
Stalin’s Death
Stalin's death was also significant in Krushchev's Secret Speech. Many of his horrible acts were resurrected again with the revelation that perhaps Stalin was not the god-send that many people made him out to be. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam war started as a war for independence from France by the Vietnamese people. The French eventually lost that war. Meanwhile, America became more interested in this national conflict due to the strategic importance of Vietnam and the threat of it becoming aligned with the Communist block. -
Hungarian Revolution
It started as a group of students protesting. It quickly turned reactionary as imprisoned former Nyilas Party members(basically Nazis) were freed. The masses began lynching communists, jews that were not even related to the communists, and non-commies suspected of being one. A lot of books from marxists were burned on the street as well. -
NORAD
Cold War-Era Defense System -
Bay of Pigs
Initially, the Eisenhower administration planned the op but carried it out under Kennedy, who was not as keen on the idea. The rebels lacked the organization & planning to carry out an overthrow of the Cuban government. -
Creation of the Berlin Wall
The West did not want to lose their last part inside the ‘Iron Curtain’ to the Soviet Union, so the Soviet Union built a wall around West Berlin to prevent ‘capitalist ideals’ and stop the West from supplying West Berlin efficiently. -
End of Cuban Missile Crisis
The final agreement was for Russia to remove the equipment they installed in Cuba, and the US promised to fire the missiles they had established in Turkey. -
Nuclear Arms Treaties
An international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote cooperation and peace through atomic energy and create disarmament in general of atomic weapons. -
Afghanistan/soviet war
The Soviet-Afghan War conflicted between insurgent groups, Maoist groups, and the Soviet army, which lasted within a nine-year guerrilla war. -
Solidarity in Poland
Solidarity emerged when the communist government f Poland signed the agreement allowing for its existence. Over twenty Inter-factory Founding Committees of independent trade unions merged at the congress into one national organization, NSZZ Solidarity. -
Berlin Wall falling
When the East German government failed to prevent protests along the wall and suddenly permitted flow across it, it was seen as a symbol of the inability of the Soviets to continue to suppress discontent with violence. The optimism epitomized by this symbolic event spread on both sides of the conflict and greatly accelerated efforts to reduce Russian dominance over eastern Europe and dissolve the USSR. -
Czechoslovakia revolution
The nationwide protest movement in Czechoslovakia ended more than 40 years of communist rule. In 1989 a wave of protests against the communist regime erupted in eastern Europe. -
End of Cold War
Regan arguably hastened the breakup by increasing the US military spending, which the Soviets felt the need to match. Due to their economic problems, they could ill-afford this spending, and it just made their financial system worse. The US won because the USSR no longer existed, Russia came out of it all extremely weak politically and economically, and the USA was the only "superpower" left. -
Warsaw Pact
Collective defence treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe
