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Truman
Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender quickly followed. In June 1945 Truman witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, hopefully established to preserve peace. -
Krustchev
He sponsored the early Soviet space program, and enactment of moderate reforms in domestic policy. After some false starts, and a narrowly avoided nuclear war over Cuba, he conducted successful negotiations with the United States to reduce Cold War tensions. -
Nixon
Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon both pledged to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism. Kennedy warned of the Soviet's growing arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles and pledged to revitalize American nuclear forces. -
JFK
Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon both pledged to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism. Kennedy warned of the Soviet's growing arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles and pledged to revitalize American nuclear forces. -
Grobachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. -
Yalta/Potsdam Conferences
At Yalta, the Big Three agreed that after Germany's surrender, it would be divided into four post-war occupation zones. The city of Berlin would also be divided into similar occupation zones. -
Long Telegram
In the “Long Telegram,” Kennan emphasized that the Soviet Union did not see the possibility for long-term peaceful with the capitalist world and that the best strategy was to “contain” communist expansion around the globe. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain formed the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II until the end of the Cold War. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
1947 - Start of the cold war
The Cold war started when the tension heightened between the United States and the USSR. Stalin and the Soviets wanted to expand on communism into Europe however Truman and the free world did not, which caused a conflict. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was issued by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. In this doctrine, President Truman said that the United States would go to whatever lengths possible to contain the spread of communism and stop the United States' former ally, the Soviet Union. -
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The Cold War
Political rivalry between the United States and the USSR. -
Berlin Airlift
The western allies started an airlift, because of the Berlin blockade imposed by the soviet regime. -
Korean War
Korean war began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea -
North Korean Invasion
After five years of simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when the Northern Korean People's Army invaded South Korea in a coordinated general attack at several strategic points along the 38th parallel, the line dividing communist North Korea from the non-communist Republic. -
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Korean War
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Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is an approach in which a country pushes a situation extremely close to a dangerous point. Many considered the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia an example of brinkmanship; the accumulation of so many deadly weapons could have led to disaster. -
Domino theory
The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a row of dominos. -
Warsaw Pact
Reinforced communist dominance in Eastern Europe. -
Warsaw Pact
Although the Soviets claimed that the organization was a defensive alliance, it soon became clear that the primary purpose of the pact was to reinforce communist dominance in Eastern Europe. -
Space Race
The “space race” was a Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop aerospace capabilities, including artificial satellites, unmanned space probes, and human spaceflight. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long conflict in Southeast Asia. It began in 1954, after the country of Vietnam was split into two parts, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam wanted to reunite the country under Communism, its political and economic system. South Vietnam fought to keep this from happening. -
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Vietnam War
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Sputnik Launch
The “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “fellow traveler,” was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic. -
Great Leap Forward
The goal was to modernize the country's agricultural sector using communist economic ideologies. -
M.A.D
The theory was, if two countries each possessed the ability to obliterate the other, neither would risk an attack. It prevented direct conflict between the two superpowers, but it created the possibility of total global destruction if they ever actually went to war with each other. -
Non-Aligned Movement
Was founded in 1961 with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation. In its first three decades, the Movement played a crucial role in decolonization, formation of new independent states, and democratization of international relations. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred when the Soviet Union began to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. The United States refused to allow this and, made many secret negotiations, the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles. -
Tonkin Resolution
South Vietnamese commandos attacked North Vietnamese radar and military installations on Hon Me and Hon Ngu islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. -
Cultural Revolution
The revolution's goal was to enforce communism and remove any foreign, capitalist, or traditional cultural elements from Chinese society. -
1st Man on Moon
On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon. About six-and-a-half hours later, Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. -
Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet Afghanistan War was fought between Afghanistan rebels called the Mujahideen and the Soviet supported Afghanistan government. The United States supported the Afghanistan rebels in order to try and overthrow the communist government and to prevent the spread of communism. -
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Soviet-Afghan War
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Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional intergovernmental organization focused on cooperation on political, economic, environmental, humanitarian, cultural and other issues between a number of former Soviet Republics.