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Yalta Conference
The conference that ends WWII. At the conference Germany is split into two, East and West Germany. After the conference two superpowers emerged, the United States and the Soviet Union. -
United Nations
The United Nations replaces the League of Nations. The goal of the United Nations is to help keep world peace and prevent another world war. -
US goes Nuclear
US has nuclear power and has demonstrated the use of it on Japan. -
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Policy of Containment
During the United States followed a policy of containment. This means that they tried to contain communism to where it was. The United States used the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, Vietnam War, and the Korean War to do this. -
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Domino Theory
The United States believed that if one country fell to communism then the surrounding courtries would also fall to communism. This is what caused them to follow the policy of containment. -
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Capitalism vs Communism
Capitalism - allows for private businesses and individuals, typically the business owner, can make money Communism - government owned businesses and in theory everyone gets the same -
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Cold War
A timeperiod of high tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. It was a conflict over the ideas of capitalism vs communism The United States represented capitalism and tried to contain communism, represented by the Soviet Union. -
Truman Doctrine
As part of the containment policy President Turman gave money to Turkey and Greece to help them resist communism. In total Truman gave Turkey and Greece $400 million. -
Marshall Plan
As part of the containment policy Secretary of State George Marshall created a plan to help aid European nations rebuild after WWII. He gave European countries $13 billion to complete this task. The US also gave this money to help the European countries resist communisn and help to convince them that democracy was better. -
NATO
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Oganization) was an agreement signed by democratic countries to follow the policy of collective secutiry. Collective security is when the countries who are involved agree to defend and fight for each other if one is attacked. -
Soviet Union goes Nuclear
Soviet Union tests their first successful nuclear bomb -
Nuclear Arms Race
The arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union begins. The two countries began to see who had more weapons as well as bigger, more powerful waepons -
Communism in Asia
Communism spread to China and eventually to North Korea. This is an example of the domino theory. -
Korean War
The Korean War is an example of containment. The Soviet Union supported North Korean and the United States supported South Korea. The war ends in 1953 with a ceasefire at the 38th parallel - exactly where it had started. -
Warsaw Pack
In reaction to NATO, communist countries created and signed the Warsaw Pact. In the Warsaw Pact the countries invovled also agreed to collective security. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
The Eisenhower Doctrine was mostly used in the Middle East. The United States declared that they would use armed forces to help defend other countries against communism. -
The Space Race
The Soviet Union launched the first satalite, Sputnik, into space. In raction the US creates NASA and focuses on getting into space. -
Cuba and Castro
Fidel Castro overthrows the Cuban government (which the US supported) and intalls a communist govenrment -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War, was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975. The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. -
Bay of Pigs
The CIA trained Cuban refugees to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs to overthrown Castro. The mission failed. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba that were aimed that the United States. The United States had missiles in Turkey that were aimed at the Soviet Union. The United States put a blockade around Cuba to stop any ships from the Soviet Union that wanted to get to Cuba. After 14 days of a standstill between the US and the Soviet Union the US agreed to pull their missiles out of Turkey and the Soviet Union agreed to pull their missiles out of Cuba. -
First Man on the Moon
The United States was the first country to have a man on the moon. The name of the ship was Apolll 11 and Neil Armstrong was the first man to actually step on the moon. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbechev announced that the Berlin Wall, seperating East and West Berlin, will be torn down. This is symbolically the end of the Cold War.
