-
Yalta Conference
Meeting of the heads of the government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union took place at the Soviet Black Sea resort of Yalta. The meeting was represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Premier Joseph Stalin. Here, they agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation controlled by the Allied military forces. -
First Atomic Bomb
American scientists successfully test the first atomic bomb in New Mexico. -
Potsdam Conference
Leaders of the United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain meet at the Potsdam Conference. President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill continue the work that was done at the Yalta conference to determine the future of postwar Europe. The conference establishes a military administration for Germany and agrees to put Nazi leaders on trial for war crimes. -
Period: to
Bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
American bomber, Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Two days later, American plane, Bockscar, drops an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. -
Map of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Map of the two Japanese cities that were bombed. -
Ho Chi Minh Declares Independence
Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam's independence from France. Ho's Vietnamese Declaration of Independence quotes the American Declaration of 1776 where it says that "All men are created equal." -
Ho Chi Minh Biography
Ho Chi-Minh was born on May 19, 1890, in Nghe An Province, Vietnam. In 1921, he organized the Intercolonial Union. He was elected to the Committee of the Peasants' International Congress in 1923. In 1936, he took charge of China’s Indochinese Communist party. He declared Vietnam’s independence in 1945 and became the first president of the republic in 1954. He died on September 3, 1969, in Hanoi, Vietnam. -
Macarthur Commands
General Douglas MacArthur serves as "supreme commander" of Japan as the country adopts a new democratic constitution. MacArthur creates a plan to dissolve Japan's largest industrial corporations and instead uses them to rebuild Japan as an anticommunist place. -
Iron Curtain Speech Delivered
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at a college graduation in Fulton, Missouri. During the Col War, "Iron Curtain" was the boundary separating the communist nations of Eastern Europe from the mostly democratic nations of Western Europe. -
Truman Doctrine Announced
President Harry Truman announced a U.S. policy of giving economic and military aid to free nations threatened by internal or external opponents. -
Harry Truman Biography
Harry S. Truman was born in Missouri on May 8, 1884. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s vice president for just 82 days before Roosevelt died and Truman became the 33rd president. In his first months in office he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, ending World War II. His policy of communist containment started the Cold War, and he initiated U.S. involvement in the Korean War. Truman left office in 1953 and died in 1972. -
Berlin Blockade
The Soviets impose the Berlin blockade, cutting off rail and road access to the capital city, which is located in the middle of the Soviet zone of eastern Germany. -
The Berlin Airlift
The 11- month Berlin Airlift brought necessary supplies into the city by plane. The airlift represents an immense achievement of coordination, with planes landing and being unloaded around the clock for nearly a year. -
NATO Formed
Ten Western European nations join the United States and Canada to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an anti-Soviet military alliance that extends the deterrent threat of America's nuclear weapons to cover Western Europe. -
Warsaw Pact Formed
Formed by the Soviet Union - communist military alliance intended to counter the threat posed by NATO. -
Krushchev Leads the Soviets
Following the death of Stalin, Nikita Krushchev becomes Soviet Communist Party Leader. -
Nikita Krushchev Biography
Born on April 15, 1894 in Kalinovka, Russia, Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. Khrushchev was one of the primary players in the Cuban Missile Crisis and oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall. After being pushed from power and retiring, he died several years later on September 11, 1971 in Moscow. -
Public Articulation of the Domino Theory
Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly articulates the Domino Theory which says that the fall of one nation to Communism might lead, like a chain of dominoes, to the fall of neighboring nations as well. -
Cold War Tech
On 5 October 1957 the Soviet Union succeeded in putting the first man made object into orbit around the Earth. This Satellite was called Sputnik. Their launch caused a huge shock all around the world, but especially in the United States, where people had grown used to their countries technological superiority. Later, in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, was created and given control of all non military activity in Space. -
Great Leap Forward
Under Mao Zedong's leadership, China begins the Great Leap Forward, a plan to industrialize the nation. The state takes over land, changes agricultural practices, and places people on huge communes to produce steel. The Great Leap Forward fails miserably to produce progress for China, resulting instead in a Great Famine as agriculture is sacrificed for industry. Millions die. -
Berlin Wall Map
Map of East and West Berlin separated by the Berlin Wall. -
Soviet Red Army Invades Afghanistan
At the end of December 1979, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country. -
VIDEO : Pattern of US Cold War Interventions
-
VIDEO : The Presidency Preview: Dwight D. Eisenhower & the Cold Wa
-
Cold War Music Video
-
COLD WAR PROPOGANDA
-
COLD WAR PROPOGANDA
-
ILLUSTRATION
Kennedy and Krushchev arm wrestling while both sitting on bombs. If either of them lose, then they push the button which will make the other bomb go off. -
ILLUSTRATION
The Domino Theory. -
ILLUSTRATION
Representing the use of weapons to scare the USSR. -
Cold War Statistics
-
Cold War Statistics