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Harry Truman
33rd President -
United Nations
Hopes for world peace were high at the end of the war. On April 25, 1945, representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to establish a new peacekeeping system. After two months of debate, on June 26, 1945, a charter was signed establishing the United Nations. -
McCarthyism
Among all the anti-Communist activists of the Red Scare, none were more well known than Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin. McCarthy charged that Communists were taking over the government, and made many unsupported accusations of Communism against people. Only in 1954 was he stopped, after making accusations against the US Army. -
Red Scare
In the 1940s and 50s, there was a great fear of Communism in the US. Because of this, many Americans believed that there were communist spies in the US. This period of time was known as the Red Scare. -
Truman Doctrine
On March 12, 1947, Harry Truman declared that it must be the policy of the US to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." He requested $400 million from Congress in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey. This statement would later be known as the Truman Doctrine. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan provided assistance to European countries destroyed by the war in an attempt to prevent the spread of communism. It gave over $13 billion from 1948-1951 to finance the economic recovery of Europe . -
NATO
Western European fear of Soviet aggression was increasing. As a result, ten Western European nations joined with the US and Canada to form a defensive military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The 12 members of NATO pledged military support to one another in case any member was attacked -
The Korean War
Only 5 years after the end of WWII, the US went to war in Korea. After World War II, the US had cut back its armed forces in South Korea. The Soviets concluded that they would not have enough forces to defend South Korea and prepared to take back North Korea with tanks, airplanes, and money. -
Dwight Eisenhower
34th President -
The Vietnam War
From the late 1800s until World War II, France ruled most of Indochina, including Vietnam. In 1940, the Japanese took control of Vietnam, and in the next year, Ho Chi Minh helped organize the Vietminh, an organization that aimed to win Vietnam's independence from foreign rule. France, having no intention of losing its former colony, moved troops back into Vietnam by the end of 1945. In May of 1954, the French were forced to surrender, without retaking Vietnam. -
John F. Kennedy
35th President -
"Bay of Pigs" Invasion
In March of 1960, President Eisenhower gave the CIA permission to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. On April 17, 1961, Cuban exiles supported by the US military landed on Cuba's southern coast at Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs. An air strike failed to knock out the Cuban air force and an advance group sent to distract Castro's forces neveer reached the shore. Some exiles were killed while others were imprisoned. -
Lyndon B. Johnson
36th President -
Kennedy's assassination
On November 22, 1963, Air Force One landed in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy and his wife had come to Texas to mend relationships with the state's Democratic Party. They sat in the back seat of an open-air limousine, and as they approached the Texas School Book Depository, rifle shots rang out, and Kennedy was shot in the head. -
Richard Nixon
37th President -
Ronald Reagan
40th President -
George H.W. Bush
41st President -
Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
In 1988, Gorbachev reduced the number of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe and allowed non-Communist parties to organize in nations such as East Germany and Poland. On November 9, 1989, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall, allowing free passage between the two parts of the city. On October 3, 1990, Germany was united again. Other European nations such as Czechoslovakia and Latvia adopted democratic reforms and withdrew from the Soviet Union. -
Persian Gulf War
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops invaded a disputed area claimed by Kuwait. After looting Kuwait, the invaders headed to Saudi Arabia and its oil fields. If Iraq conquered Saudi Arabia as well as Kuwait, it would control half of the world's oil reserves, threatening the US' oil supplies. President Bush and his Secretary of State organized an international coalition against Iraqi aggression, launching Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi control. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
In December 1991, 14 non-Russian republics declared their independence from the Soviet Union. Gorbachev himself lost power and resigned as Soviet president, dissolving the Soviet Union. -
William Clinton
42nd President -
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement would bring Mexico into the free-trade zone that the US and Canada had formed. Supporters said that NAFTA would strengthen the economies of all three countries and create more jobs in America. Others believed it would transfer American jobs to Mexico and harm the environment because of Mexico's weaker antipollution laws. The treaty was ratified in 1993 and took effect on January 1, 1994. -
George W. Bush
43rd President -
September 11th Terrorist Attacks
On September 11, 2001, two hijacked commercial jets struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The jets exploded on impact, killing everyone on board the planes as well as over 3000 people in New York. -
War in Afghanistan
An international conflict in Afghanistan began in 2001, triggered by the September 11 attacks. It consisted of three phases: toppling the Taliban, defeating the Taliban militarily, and increasing the US troop presence in Afghanistan. In December 2014 at the end of the conflict, it became the longest war ever fought by the US. -
War in Iraq
When Saddam Hussein refused to leave Iraq after Bush's request, US and allied forces launched an attack, dropping precision-guided bombs on a bunker complex in which the Iraqi president was believed to be meeting with his staff. This was followed by a series of air strikes directed against government and military installations, and within days, US forces had invaded Iraq from Kuwait in the south.
