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Truman Doctrine
President Harry Truman urges a joint session of Congress to support his doctrine, which calls for U.S. financial and military aid to Greece and Turkey in an effort to protect the countries from Soviet domination. It caused great controversy. Some opponents objected to America inference in other nation's affairs. Congress immediately authorized more than 400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece, -
Marshall Plan
U.S Secretary of State George Marshall proposed that the United States give aid to needy European countries. This would provide food, machinery, and other materials to rebuild Western Europe.Congress debated the 12.5 billion program and communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. -
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill was concerned about the Soviets taking over Eastern Europe and creating totalitarian governments and he wanted the United to be involved. The Iron curtain was a division between Western European capitalist countries and Eastern European Communist countries, -
Berlin Blockade
Stalin tried to force the western allies out of Berlin by sealing off all railroads and highways into the western sectors of the city. The western powers responded to the blockade by mounting a round-the-clock airlift. For almost a year, cargo planes supplied West Berliners with food and fuel. Their success forced the Soviets to end the blockade. -
Berlin Airlift.
France, Britain, and the United States decided to withdraw their forces from Germany and allow their occupations zones to form one nation. The Soviet Union responded by holding West Berlin hostage. It had been divided into four zones, cutting off highway, water, and rail traffic into Berlin's western zones. Stalin gambled that the allies would surrender West Berlin or give up but American and British officials flew food and supplies into West Berlin for 11 months. -
NATO
Ten western European nations joined with the United States and Canada to form a defensive military alliance. From its inception, its main purpose was to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation. The Soviet Union responded back to form it's own alliance called the Warsaw pact with the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European countries. -
Communism take over China
Led by Mao Zedong was supported by the Soviet Union. He had a strong support of the peasants by promising land redistribution. Therefore, he ordered land to be taken away from the wealthy and restricted amongst the peasantry. Resistance was met with violence as 1 million landlords died. Peasants were organized in communes of 200-300 families that lived and worked together but owned nothing. Had Re guards to purge to enemies that felt went against his teachings. -
Korean War
the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. -
Vietnam War
A Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh wanted to win independence of Japan. He drove the French out of Vietnam and a peace conference split Vietnam in two with Ho taking charge in North Vietnam and named it it a Communist state. Communist rebels, The Vietcong, stayed active in the South.The United States began to send large numbers of soldiers seeing that the South Vietnam was threaten by Communists.In two years, North Vietnam overran the South and named Vietnam one country again. -
Revolt in Hungary
The Hungarian army joined protesters to overthrow Hungary's Soviet-controlled government, storming through the Capital, Budapest with mobs. Hungarian Communist leader Imre Nagy form a new government that he promised free elections and demanded Soviet troops to leave. In response, Soviets tanks and infantry entered Budapest. -
Sputnik
During the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were working to develop new technology. The Soviets were fed fears that the U.S. military had generally fallen behind in developing new technology. As a result, the launch of Sputnik served to raise Cold War tensions and The Soviet Union launched the earth’s first artificial satellite.The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who hoped that the United States would accomplish it first. -
Great Leap Forward
To expand the success of the Five Year Plan, Mao Zedong proclaimed the "Great Leap Forward." This planned called for larger collective farms, Communes that Peasants worked together, lived together, and owned nothing. The Great Leap Forward was a giant step back causing poor planning and inefficient industries hampered growth.This program ended after crop failures caused a famine that killed about 20 million people. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The failed Bay of Pigs invasion convinced Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that the United States would not resist Soviet expansion in Latin America. So Khrushchev secretly began in build 42 missiles sites in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy demanded the removal of missiles and also announced a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent the Soviets from installing more missiles. Soviets remove missiles and the U.S promised not to invade Cuba. -
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Cultural Revoultion
China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what became known as the Cultural Revolution in order to claim his authority over the Chinese government after the government weakened. He shut down the nation’s schools, calling for a massive youth mobilization to take current party leaders to task. Mao encouraged a group called Red Guards to purge intellectuals and artists. Red guards targeted anyone they felt went against Mao's teachings. -
Revolt in Czechoslovakia
After the revolt in Hungary, Khrushchev voted to remove him from power replacing to Leonid Brezhnev quickly adopting repressive domestic polices. The party enforced laws to limit such basic human rights as freedom of speech and worship. This period of reform became know as Prague Spring and then armed forces from The Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia. -
Apollo program
After the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite, and successfully sent a man into space, America rushed to develop the technology that the Soviets already had, prompting the creation of the Apollo program. Apollo 11 was a mission to complete the first manned lunar landing. The mission was considered a great success, and was a win for the United States in the Space Race.
