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United Nations formed
The United nations is an international organization of countries formed after World war II with the intention of promoting international peace, cooperation, and security and to allow countries to come together to organize responses to issues and avoid another war. -
Period: to
Cold War Era
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Hollywood 10
Ten members of the Hollywood film industry publicly denounced the tactics used for communist investigations in the Hollywood industry done by the House Un-American Activities Committee and received jail sentences and were banned from working for major hollywood studios due to them speaking out against it. -
Truman Doctrine
A policy created by president Truman that created the framework for the United States foreign policy. It was a program that would provide aid to nations and help encourage them to resist communism. The United States ended up providing $400 million in economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey to help them resist communism. -
The Marshall Plan
Another aid program created by the United States to help European countries that were devastated by WWII. The United States feared that those countries would fall to communist invasions due to the horrible situations that arose after the war. The United States provided $12 billion in aid to Western Europe to help rebuild after the war. -
NATO formed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance that was formed to serve as a counterweight to the growing Soviet Union to help keep the peace and protect countries that might have been under risk of communist invasion or attack from the Soviet Union. -
Korean war
A battle fought between communist North Korea and democratic South Korea. Since North Korea was provided aid from the Soviet Union, that caused the United States to step in to help defend South Korea and provide them aid which was one of the major involvements in the cold war with the fight between communism and democracy. -
Space Race/sputnik launch
The space race was a technology race between the Soviet Union and the United States for who could develop space technology faster and get into space first. It was an era of competing to who had the better technology and science. The Sputnik launch was a launch done by the Soviet Union which took the United States by surprise that they were able to get a satellite up into space which ended up circling the earth for a while before falling back to Earth. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs was a failed attack launched by the CIA during the Kennedy administration in an attempt to push the Cuban leader Fidel Castro out of power. It served as a full scale invasion of 1,400 American-trained Cubans that had fled when Castro came into power. However the invaders were significantly outnumbered which was an immediate cause for failure. -
Berlin wall goes up
The Berlin wall was a physical barrier that was constructed to separate East and West Berlin to keep Western "fascists" from entering East Germany and underlying the socialist state. After World War II, Berlin was separated between the allied powers and the Soviet Union so that one part of Berlin didn't fall to communism. However the Berlin wall was put up by the Soviets to separate the two sides. -
U.S. Officially enters the Vietnam War
The Vietnam war was another violent conflict between communism and democracy. Vietnam was split between communist North and democratic south Vietnam. The United States entered the war in 1965 due to the policy of wanting to aid countries in resisting communism throughout the world. However the American influence ended up being more harmful since many American's died and eventually the soldiers were told to withdraw from the war effort. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
The Soviet Union began an invasion in Afghanistan to spread communist ideals throughout more countries. The invasion ended up triggering a long civil war in Afghanistan due to the struggles with communist and other government ideologies. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan due to the perfect placement for the Soviet Union to gain more control and get closer to India. However the Soviets ended up withdrawing with a failed invasion. -
Berlin wall comes down
The Berlin wall was the longest standing physical symbol of the war against democracy and communism. It's fall was seen as the end of the cold war and the end to the risk of all out warfare. East and West Berlin were reunited and the cold war was over.