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Russian Communist Revolution
Communism became the first major system of government in Russia. The Bolshevik Party which led the revolution that was led by Marxist Vladimir Lenin. Under communism, private ownershipwas taken away and the people were not allowed openly practice their relgion. This stuck fear for many of the American hearts. Number of people were arrested just because they were thought to have had communist beliefs. -
League of Nations started
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that had ended the first World War. It was the first international organization mission to maintain world peace. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, was a peace settlement between Germany and the Allied Powers that had ended World War I. The conditions over the treaty were upon Germany that many believe laid groundwork for the rise of Nazis in Germany. -
MAD
The primary application of the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) started during the Cold war in which it was seen as helping to prevent any direct fuul-scale conflicts between the U.S and the Soviet Union while they engaged in smaller proxy wars around the world. -
Yalta Conference
The Allied leaders: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin discussed the conditions under the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation and the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence following Japan's surrender. -
Period: to
Cold War
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United Nations
After the failure of the League of Nations, the establishment of the United Nations was the second attempt at creating a collective security system within a few decades. Yet, during the Cold War collective security was going to fail once again, as most of the world was divided into two blocs. -
Nuremberg Trials Started
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by allied forces after WWII, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg. -
Nuclear Deterrence
Nuclear deterrence is the threat to retalliation with nuclear weapons. In general, deterrence referrs to the attemot to create riskis that led to the opponent to not engage in a certian policy or action. For deterrence to work the risk must be higher than any possible gain. For nuclear deterrence to succeed certian physical and psycholoical preconditions have to be fulfilled. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Nationalist Party and the Communist Party of China joined in a united front against Japan. After entering of the Unisted Sates into the war. After Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two sides maintained alliance, but fought each other on several occasions. in 1945, Stalin's troops invaded its decleration of war against Japan. Japanese surrender in August. -
General Assembly
During the General Assembly's first session the following resoultion were adopted; establish a commission to deal with the problem of atomic energy, extradition and punishment of war crminals, question of refugees, establishment of international emergency funds. -
Iron Curtain Speech
On this date, Sir Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron curtain" speech to a crowd of 40,000 in the small Missouri town of Fulton. This was one of his most famous post- war speeches. Churchill gave the descriptive phrase that surprised the US and Britian, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent."His speech changed the way the democratic west viewed the communist east. -
Baruch Plan
The Baruch Plan was a proposal by the US government to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in its first meeting in June 1946. The US, Great Britian and Canada called for an international organization to regulate Atomic Energy. The plan proposed to entend between att countries the exchange of basic scientfic information for peaceful ends. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set forth by the US president Harry Truman in a speech on March 12 1947, which stated the US would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet shpere. Historians often consider it as the start of the Cold War, and the start of the containment policy to stop Soviet expansion. -
Marshall Plan
The European recovery program, commonly known as the Marshall Plan, is usually remembered for the economic support provided by the United States for the rehabliitaion of European countries ravaged by WWII -
Berlin Airlift Began
The Berlin Airlift can be called the first battle of the Cold War. The Western countires were delivering food and supplies as needed to the city of Berlin thorugh the air because all other routes were being blocked by the soviet Union. The Soviets wanted control of Berlin so they figured if they cut off Berlin from the supplies and food, it would fall under the control of the soviets. They blocked the rail and road traffic to Berlin. -
NATO Founded
The Cold War was in full swing, the Soivet Union was rising to power, capturing satelitte countries. Using strong dynamic forces, the Soviet Union capotured surrounding countries first to help protect them from invasion. This tactic was used to imprison civilions and force them to join the Soviet military. As their armed forces increased, other nations feared the Soviet Union would expand and take over other countires. In responce, the North Atlanic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed. -
Joseph McCarthy speech
Jospeh MacCarthy was an American politician who served as a republican US senator from wisconsin from 1947 until 1957. He became the most visible public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of a widespread communist subervision. MacCarthy had a rise in national profile on February 9, 1950 when he gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia. He produced a piece of paper claiming it contained a list of known communists working in the State department. -
Korean War Started
Korea had been temporaly didvied at the end of WWII at the 38th paralle latitude boundery line. The Soviet Union occupied the North and the U.S. occupied the South. The Soviets installed communist government and whanted to unite Korea as one by North invadeing South Korea.At the time that the war ended an armistice was signed and Korea boundeirs are the same as they were before the war. As for success of the containment policy, the exspansion of communism to the south had failed. -
Warsaw Pact
Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Cxechoslovakis and Bulgaria were members of signing the treaty in Warsaw. The treaty called on the member states to come in defense of any member attacked by an ouitside force. The Warsaw Pact reamined intact until 1991. -
Sputnik Launched
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into orbit on October 4 1957. It was visible all around the earth and its round radio puises were detectable. The surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Sputnik Race, a part of the Cold War. The launch started new political, military, technological and scientfic developments. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
in 1961, the US sent trained Cuban exiles to Cuba to try and to overthrow Fidel Castro's government. The invasion is considered part of the Cold War because the US was trying to prevent communism from taking hold in America. President John F. Kennedy chose the Bay of Pigs because this idea was that the planes would fly first and destroy the air force. They hoped that the Cuban people would join them and would rebell against Castro -
Building of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built by the communist government of East Berlin in 1961. The wall separated East Berlin and West Berlin. it was built in order to prevent people from fleeing East Berlin. In many ways it was the perfect symblo of the "Iron Curtain" that separated the democratic Western countries and the communist countries of Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War. -
Fidel Castro Proclaims Communist Cuba
In December 1961, Fidel Castro made clear what most US officals already believed. In a televised adress on december 2nd, Castro declared, " I am a Marxist-Leninist and shall be one until the end of my life." He went on to state that "Marxism has become the revoulutionary movement of the working class." He also noted that communism would be the dominant force in Cuban politics. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis occured in 1961 when the Soviet Union began to install nuclear missiles in Cuba and could strick the US.After tension between the US and the Soviet union, that nearly started WWIII the missiles were removed. This is almost the closest of the United States and the Soviet Union came to nuclear war during the Cold War. -
U.S. send troops to Vietnam
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between Nationalist Forces attempting to unify the country under a communist government and the United Sates attempting to prevent the spread of communisim. As fighting continued, the US sent advisers to South Vietnam. When the North Vietnamese fired apon 2 US ships, congress and the president increased US involvement. The first US ground troops arrived in Vietnam in March 1965. -
Non - Proliferation Agreement
The Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty was an agreement signed in 1968 by several of the major nuclear and non- nuclear powers pledging their cooperation in stemming the spread of nuclear thechnology. The NPT did not ultimately concern about the consequences of nuclear war, the treaty was a major success for advocates of arms control because it set for international copperation between nuclear and non-pnuclear states to prevent proliferation. -
Apollo 11
During the 1950's and 1960's, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a heated competition to see which superpower would dominant the exploration of space. The United States was traliling the Soviets in space developments. After president Kennedy proposed the US put a man on the moon, NASA conducted the first Apollo mission. On July 20, 1969 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Ed Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon. -
SALT One
Salt I, the first series of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, extended from November 1969 to May 1972. During that period the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated the first agreements to place limits and restraints on some of their central and most important armanents. -
Kent State Shootings
The Vietnam War appeared to be winding down in 1969, when president Nixon announced to the nation that the "Cambodian Incursion" had been launched by US combat forces. Students at Kent State University in kent, Ohio had been protesting against the campaign. When the Ohio National Gardsmen fired 67 rounds, killing four students and wounding nine others. -
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the peoples army of Vietnam and the national liberation front of South Vietnam (the Viet cong) on April 30, 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period leading to the reunification of Vietnam into a socialist republic governed by the communist party. -
Margaret Thatcher
Margret Thatcher served as a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to serve in Britian's highest political office. During her time as Prime Minister she was a staunch conservative. She also was an important leader for democracy in the Cold War against the communism and the Soviet Union. The called her The Iron Lady. -
Deng Xioping
Deng Xiaoping was a politician and reformist leader of the People's Republic of China. He was also the "paramount leader" from 1978 to 1992. His goal was to set China back on course of the econmoic development that had been badly interrupted during the final years of Mao's leadership. He was removed from office and improsioned during the years of the Cultural Revolution. -
Pope John Paul II
The pope was a key source of information and social movement for people worldwide. He criticized much of the Communist world and most certainly helped moved the people towards the elimination of communism. Also, Poland's Communist government unsuccessfully tried to embarrass John Paul II and undermine his popularity but that did not stop him from being the pope. -
SALT II
During a summit meeting in Vienna, president Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Lenide Brezhnev signed the Salt II agreement dealing with limitations and guidelines for nuclear weapons. The treaty which never formally went into effect, proved to be one of the most contrversial US- Soviet agreements of the Cold War. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
The Soviet War in Afghanistan lasted nine years from December 1979 to February 1989. Part of the Cold War, it was fought between Soviet- led afghan forces against multi-national insurgent groups called the Mujahideen, mostly composed of two alliances- the Peshawar Seven and the Tehran Eight. The Peshawar Seven received military training in Pakistan and China, as well as weapons and money from the US, Britian and other countires. The Tehran Eight recieved support from the Islamic republic of Iran -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
In November 1989, a member of the New East german government was asked when New East German travel laws would come into force. He answered "As far as i can see, immediately." Thousands of East Berliners went to the border crossings and demanded to open the border. The border was open, which ment the end of the Berlin Wall. This resulted from policy changed of the Soviet Union and their leader Gorbachev. -
Lech Walesa
The leadership of Lech Walesa helped bring down the Communist government in Poland, which influenced against the Communism throughout Eastern Europe. Walesa led an anti-Communist organization, formed in 1980, which fought for political, economic and civil rights to improve conditions. The collapse of Communism brought down the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War, and as democracy and prosperity rose in Poland.
