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Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference is best known for President Truman's 1945, conversation with Stalin. During this time President informed the Soviet leader that the United States had successfully detonated the first atomic bomb. -
Atomic bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945. 135,000 total casualties happened at Hiroshima and 64,000 total casualties at Nagasaki. -
Long Telegram Containment
Kennan responded on February 22, 1946, by sending a 5,500-8,000 word telegram from Moscow to Secretary of State James Byrnes outlining a new strategy for diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. -
Iron Curtain Speech Containment
Iron Curtain speech was carried by former British prime minister Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri. He pointed out the necessity for the United States and Britain to act as the guardians of peace and stability against the menace of Soviet communism. -
Truman Doctrine Truman Doctrine
Truman Doctrine, by the U.S. President Harry S. Truman declaed immediate economic and military to aid Greece. They were threatened by communist insurrection, and Turkey, under pressure from Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean area. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was a system created by the Soviet Union in 1947. To provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. -
Hollywood 10 HUAC
Congress voted to hold the “Hollywood 10” in contempt. The following day the Motion Picture Association of America announced that the “Hollywood 10” directors, producers, and writers who had refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) would be fired or suspended. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an attempt to get all of Europe in debt to the USA and allow the Americans to dominate it. The American view was that the Truman Doctrine was stopping the continuing spread of Communism. -
Berlin Blockade Berlin Airlift
Berlin blockade was a international crisis that came up from an attempt by the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1949. The Western Allied powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) to abandon their post World War II jurisdictions in West Berlin. -
NATO Berlin Airlift
NATO played a vital role in deterring the Soviet Union and defending the Allies from the threat, as well as cementing the trans-Atlantic security relationship and providing a framework for West Germany to be re-armed. -
Berlin Airlift Berlin Airlift
The crisis started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. -
Alger Hiss case
Former State Department official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury. He was convicted of having perjured himself in regards to testimony about his alleged involvement in a Soviet spy ring before and during World War II. -
First Soviet bomb test Berlin Airlift
The Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test, code-named 'RDS-1', at the Semipalatinsk test site.The device had a yield of 22 kilotons. -
Chinese Communist Revolution Berlin Airlift
The Chinese Communist Revolution, in mainland China as the War of Liberation, was the conflict and led by the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao Zedong, that resulted in the proclamation of the people's republic of China. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when North Korean troops pushed into South Korea in June 25, 1950, and it lasted until 1953 -
Korean War & Korean Armistice
The Korean War began June 25, 1950 with the North Korean army's invasion of South Korea. On July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed ending the war, now officially recognized as Armistice Day. -
Rosenberg trial
A court case involving Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, an American couple. Some have argued that the Rosenbergs were innocent victims of McCarthy-era hysteria against communists or of anti-Semitism. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was fought from March 13 to May 7, 1954. The battle was between French and Viet Minh forces for control of a small mountain outpost on the Vietnamese border near Laos. The Viet Minh victory in this battle. -
Army-McCarthy hearings McCarthyism
The Army McCarthy hearings were hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations from to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe including Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. -
Hungarian Revolution
A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days before in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter million Hungarians fled the country, vicious street fighting broke out, but the Soviets' great power ensured victory. -
U2 Incident
Confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that began with the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane over the Soviet Union and that caused the collapse of a summit conference in Paris between the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
Berlin Wall
In response to East Germany building a barrier to close off East Germans' access to West Berlin and hence West Germany. That barrier the Berlin Wall, was first erected on the night of August 12 to 13, 1961, as the result of a decree passed on August 12 by the East German Volkskammer, “Peoples' Chamber”. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
An American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles. He met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. He was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. -
1968 riots at Democratic convention
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, thousands of Vietnam War protesters battled police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
Kent State
Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
All parties, including South Vietnam signed the final agreement in Paris. As it turned out, only America honored the cease-fire. A little over 2 years later, 30 North Vietnamese divisions conquered the South and restored peace in Vietnam. -
Fall of Saigon
The South Vietnamese hold of Saigon falls to People's Army of Vietnam. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese. -
Reagan elected
The United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. -
SDI announced
In a televised address to the nation, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to embark upon groundbreaking research into a national defense system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete. -
‘Tear down this wall’ speech
Reagan's stark challenge to tear down the Berlin Wall gave shape to increasing international pressure on Moscow to make good on its promises of openness and reform. The wall, which had become a symbol of Soviet oppression, came down two years later. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Cold War, a global power struggle between dictatorship and democracy, ended in Berlin on November 9, 1989. The course of history, however, was set in motion by decisive events outside the country long before that.