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NATO
The US and 11 other Western nations, prompted from the quick expansion of communism, formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO strengthened and unified the Western Allies' military response. NATO also provided a counterweight to Soviet armies. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when 75,000 North Korean soldiers passed the 38th parallel to invade South Korea. In July, America had entered the war on the side of South Korea. The Korean War ended in July 27, 1953 with about 5 million soldiers and citizen dead. Still today, Korea is divided. -
Death of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the USSR from 1929 to 1953. He killed about 20 million people, more than Adolf Hitler ever did. He died in 1953 after suffering from a stroke. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw pact was a treaty singed between the USSR, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. This treaty stated that the Soviets in charge of the armed forces of these nations. This treaty lead to the making of NATO. -
Space Race
The Space Race was a country-wide race to the moon. After the Soviets Union put cosmonaut, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin into space, the US was determined to put the first man on the Moon. This race lasted for 18 years and costed both counties a total of about $30 billion dollars. -
Bay of Pigs
On January 1, 1959 a Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro invaded Havana. The US tried for two years to free Havana from Castro with no luck. The US then came up with the plan of training a guerrilla army of Cuban exiles to help overthrow Castro. The first part of the plan was to destroy a small airbase making it impossible for Castro to resist the main invasion. -
The U-2 Incodent
A american U-2 spy plane was shot down while over the Soviet Union. This was one of the fist spy planes to go into the air and conduct a recon mission. The CIA had assured President Eisenhower that the Soviet didn't posses a weapon able to shoot down a plane at 70,000 ft. This incident derailed an important meeting between Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barbed wire and concrete wall put up by East Germany to keep out West Germany. The wall stood until November 9, 1989 when East Germany announced that anyone could pass as they pleased. People brought hammers and pickaxes and began to demolish the wall. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US and USSR had engaged in a 13-day standoff. Both countries threatened each other with nuclear warheads. The USSR had setup nuclear-armed warheads in Cuba, just 90 miles off Key West, Florida. It ended when President Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba as long as the USSR pulled their missiles out of Cuba. -
JFK assassination
John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States. He was travelling through Dallas, Texas riding in a Convertible in a 10-mile motorcade. At 12:30 p.m., Lee Harvey Oswald fired tree shots from a nearby building, harming and later killing the President.
