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Russian Revolution
In 1917 the Bolsheviks led a revolution against the Czar of Russia to overthrow him and his government. This was the start of a five year civil war. The war eventually led to Lenin running Russia as a communist leader in 1922. -
Potsdam Conference
Final meeting between the USSR, Britain, and the U.S. It was also the final meeting of the second World War. The meeting was filled with arguments about who gets what in Eastern Europe and who will help America finish the war with Japan. -
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain is a metaphor relating to the buffer zone of communist nations set up by Russia creating the Soviet Union/USSR. Anything past the buffer zone was behind this curtain and was in complete secrecy. The nations in the union were completely cut off from the rest of the world. -
Atomic Bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The first and only nuclear weapons used in the world for war, dropped by the U.S. The bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki three days later. Bombs brought an end to the war with Japan but the effects are still noticed to this day. -
Truman Doctrine
Truman doctrine is a policy that the U.S. would provide money, sometimes troops, and supplies to people under threat of Soviet Communism expansion. The policy would only apply to nations already under democracy or wanting to switch. -
Hollywood 10
The Hollywood 10 are a group of ten movie stars from Hollywood that were accused of being communists but didn't confess or give names of other communists. These people stood their ground but ended up blacklisted from the movie industry and some sent to prison. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a plan from the U.S. congress that is a way to give aid to Western European nations who took damage to their homeland during WWII. The entire process gave nearly 100 billion dollars in today's money to several countries. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Berlin blockade is when the USSR decided to block off the whole of Berlin. This included the Western side which the U.S. and Britain were responsible for. They didn't want to send troops to breach the wall so we sent air drops of supplies, money, and food to the people in West Berlin. -
NATO
NATO is the acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This is a treaty that was created between Western nations in the Atlantic that were capitalist and wanted to defend the world from communism. The treaty was made to keep the USSR out of the Western hemisphere. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviet Bomb Testing was a program that started under Stalin in the early years of the Cold War. It took almost three years for the USSR to finally get a concrete test going and in August years after the war ended they successfully tested their first atomic bomb. -
Korean War
Korean War kicked off because North Korea wanted to invade the Southern section but they did not have the means. The USSR gave them money and supplies to invade if they enforced a communist government over the South. The U.S. came in the war because the South needed help and we wanted to keep them a non-communist nation so we sent troops. -
Khrushchev Takes Over
The shift of power to Khrushchev is a good one as he was already high in the communist party. He was a fairly liberal man and led the de-Stalinization of the USSR and backed the early Space Program in the Cold War. He reformed in liberal methods and was removed from power. -
Eisenhower's Massive Retaliation Policy
The massive retaliation policy is a policy from Eisenhower and his congress that was a way to deter war by creating the largest nuclear stockpile so the Soviets won't attack them. His reason if the deterrent failed they would still have enough nukes to be able to win the war if it came to it. -
Army -- McCarthy Hearings
This was a hearing between the army and McCarthy and his beliefs. McCarthy led investigations on people who were supposedly communists in the U.S. and tried to find spies. He jailed many people and was held. Hearing occurred because of conflicting accusations. -
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact is a treaty between the Soviet nations in buffer zones of Russia. It was signed by the Soviet Union and seven other communist satellite nations in Eastern Europe. The treaty was made in reaction of NATO (the opposite). -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution was the first revolution in the USSR buffer zone when a nation tried overthrowing the communist government and the USSR did not send troops to put it down and they let it happen. It started the other revolutions when there were no consequences. -
U2 Incident
A U.S. pilot flying a CIA spy plane over the Soviet Union was shot down and the pilot survived but was captured. The USSR offered the release of our spy if we released one of theirs. The government agreed to the trade and our pilot was brought home safe. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
This "invasion" was a group of 1,400 exiled Cubans led by Fidel Castro on the Bay of Pigs to take over the government. It was successful and they implemented a communist nation. -
Berlin Wall
Berlin wall is a wall that separated the entirety of Berlin including the Western side which was controlled by the U.S. and other capitalist nations. The wall was eventually taken down in the end of the Cold War to bring the nations together.
