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Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a series of 2 rebellions where Russia's Government changed from a Tsarist Autocracy, at the time being led by Tsar Nicholas II. To a Democratic government, led by a Provisional Government appointed by the Committee of the Duma. Then to a communist government controlled by the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries. This worried the U.S. about their treaty with the Soviet Union. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference is where the Allies's leaders met to discuss multiple important topics after the war. These included: The control of defeated Germany, Post war boundaries, Winning the war with Japan, and Securing a lasting peace for Europe. -
Atomic Bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The development of the atomic bomb, also known as the Manhattan Project, was the first time that nuclear weapons started being thought about. The U.S. made 2 of these bombs and dropped each on a different major city in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which obliterated the cities and their people. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron curtain was Stalin's "buffer zone". He stated it was for protection from impending attacks on Russia and the Soviet Union. The entire section of Eastern Europe was behind this "curtain". -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American Policy that said we would stop Soviet expansion in Europe. While this policy was being discussed Soviets gained control of Czechoslovakia. -
Hollywood 10
10 people who worked in the Hollywood film industry were jailed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC, because they denounced the tactics used by the HUAC when they were questioned about being spies for the Soviet Union. There were still tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union at this time. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was the system that the Soviet Union used to resupply and rebuild the countries in Europe and Asia that had aligned themselves with the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Blockade
Joseph Stalin closed all ground entrances to East Berlin because he accused all of West Berlin of American Economic Imperialism when they adopted a new type of currency. This furthered the tensions already standing. -
Alger Hiss Case
The Alger Hiss Case was a court hearing about a conviction made by Whittaker Chambers calling state department official Alger Hiss a Soviet spy at the HUAC. Hiss ended up incarcerated for 4 years but the case of his innocence continued on until his death on November 15, 1996. -
Marshall Plan
President Truman signed the Marshall Plan which allowed $13 billion in aid to be sent to Europe from 1948 to 1951. All countries behind the Soviet Union's 'Iron Curtain' were not able to receive this aid. -
Berlin Airlift
During the Berlin blockade all of the citizens in East Berlin were cut off from supplies, electricity, and running water. The Allies' plan was to use bomber planes to drop supplies over the border in Berlin for all of the citizens. 2.3 million tons of supplies were dropped over the year the the blockade lasted. -
Soviet Bomb Test
When the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb it surprised everyone. Experts predicted they would not have the bomb until years later. The Russians code named the bomb "First Lightning" -
NATO
The United States and 11 other western nations came together to try and stop the spread of communism. The North Atlantic Treaty was primarily a security pact. NATO started with Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States, later Greece, Turkey, West Germany, and Spain joined. -
The Korean War
The Korean War started when North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th parallel in an attempt to invade South Korea. Americans joined the South and helped in the back and forth battles at the 38th parallel. The Soviet Union controlled the North and the U.S. controlled the south. -
Rosenburg Trial
The Rosenburgs were a married couple who were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. Specifically passing atomic bomb information on to the Soviet Union through a spy-ring. On April 5, 1951 a judge sentenced them both to death in the electric chair. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was a man known for his interrogation of suspected communists. The Army-McCarthy hearings were on television for 3 months and ended when he ws accused of publicizing accusations of treason and disloyalty with insufficient evidence. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
This was the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. The French plan was to lure out the Vietnamese and destroy them with firepower. -
Geneva Conference
Conference between several nations to discuss issues from the Korean and Indochina war. Diplomats from South Korea, North Korea, the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and the United States of America (US) all came to talk about the conflict in Korea. France, the Viet Minh, the USSR, the PRC, the US, and the United Kingdom were at the conference to talk about Indochina. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Unions counter to NATO. The Soviet Union and all of its satellites were part of this pact. The Warsaw Pact focused on the objective of creating a coordinated defense among its member nations in order to deter an enemy attack. -
Hungarian Revolution
Thousands of Hungarians filled the streets in October of 1956 demanding a more democratic political system as well as freedom from the Soviets Oppressing them. Hungary ended up withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact causing the soviets to come in and destroy the capitol. -
Bay of Pigs
Fidel Castro marched his army into Havana to overthrow General Fulgencio Batista. The CIA launched an invasion to try and force Castro out of power, but they were badly outnumbered and lost. -
U-2 Incident
The U-2 Incident started when USSR pilots shot down an American U-2 Spy plane in Soviet airspace and captured the pilot. This increased the tensions already set up between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall divided Berlin into East and West. It was put up by the Soviet Union during the time of the "iron curtain." They kept this wall up for 28 years and rejected all forms of aid to rebuild East Germany. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis started when the Soviet Union installed nuclear missiles on Cuba. President JFK acted to place a naval blockade around Cuba to show the U.S. was ready to use force.disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. -
Assassination of Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother were arrested and assassinated in a CIA backed coup d'tat in 1963. The Ngo brothers soon agreed to surrender and were promised safe exile; after being arrested, they were instead executed in the back of an armored personnel carrier by ARVN officers on the journey back to military headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. -
Assasination of JFK
President JFK was shot dead in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Lyndon B. Johnson automatically became president after Kennedy's death. He was the fourth President to be assassinated. -
Tonkin Golf Resolution
This was a joint resolution passed the allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to move military troops without a declaration of war from congress. The President used this to move troops into Vietnam when Communist North Vietnam shot at American Battleships. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the code name of a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The goals of this were to boost the sagging morale of the Saigon regime in the Republic of Vietnam, to persuade North Vietnam to cease its support for the communist insurgency in South Vietnam without actually taking any ground forces into communist North Vietnam, to destroy North Vietnam's transportation system, industrial base, and air defenses, and to halt the flow of men and material into South Vietnam. -
Riots at the Democratic Convention
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, thousands of protesters against the Vietnam War fight with police in the streets while the Democratic Party destroyed itself concerning a platform statement on Vietnam. In the course of 24 hours, the Cold War consensus that had dominated American thinking since the late 1940s was shattered. -
Tet Offensive
This was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was started by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army, the United States Armed Forces, and their allies. More than 80,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops attacked more than 100 towns and cities, including 36 of 44 capitals, five of the six autonomous cities, 72 of 245 district towns, and the southern capital. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr., American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. President Lyndon B. Johnson was in the Oval Office that evening, planning a meeting in Hawaii with Vietnam War military commanders when he got the news that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. -
Assassination of RFK
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election, and died the next day while hospitalized. -
Election of Nixon
Eight years after being defeated by John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election, Richard Nixon defeats Hubert H. Humphrey and is elected president. Democratic opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, was weakened by internal divisions within his own party, stemming in part from the growing dissatisfaction with the Johnson administration’s handling of the Vietnam War. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia was significant in the sense that it delayed the splintering of Eastern European Communism and was concluded without provoking any direct intervention from the West. -
Kent State
Four Kent State University students were shot and killed and nine were injured when members of the National Guard opened fire on a group protesting the Vietnam War. People say that this event contributed to the downfall of President Nixon. -
Nixon visits China
The seven-day official visit to three Chinese cities was the first time a U.S. president had visited the Peoples' Republic of China. Nixon's arrival in Beijing ended 25 years of no communication and diplomatic ties between the two countries, and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. and China. Immediate results included a significant shift in the Cold War balance driving a wedge between the Soviet Union and resulting in significant Soviet concessions to the U.S.. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
President Richard Nixon of the USA ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam. The decision came after Dr. Henry Kissinger, the National Security Affairs adviser to the president, returned to Washington from Paris, France with a draft peace proposal. Combat missions continued in South Vietnam. By January 27, 1973, all warring parties in the Vietnam War signed a ceasefire. -
Fall of Saigon
The fall of Saigon effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War. After the introduction of Vietnamization by President Richard Nixon, US forces in South Vietnam had been constantly reduced leaving the military of South Vietnam to defend their country against the North. North Vietnamese tanks smashed down the gates at the Presidential Palace to accept the surrender of General Minh. South Vietnam was wholly under the control of North Vietnam who swiftly announced the creation of a united Vietnam. -
Reagan Elected
Ronald Reagan served as the 40th U.S. president for 8 years. He cut taxes, increased defense spending, negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets and is credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War. -
SDI Announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, the Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. The nickname “Star Wars” may have been attached to the program for some of its abstract and far fetched ideas, many of which included lasers. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
Meeting in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev produced no earth-shattering agreements.The meeting came as somewhat of a surprise to some in the United States, considering Reagan’s often incendiary rhetoric concerning communism and the Soviet Union, but it was in keeping with the president’s often stated desire to bring the nuclear arms race under control. -
‘Tear Down This Wall’ Speech
Reagan went to Berlin to speak about the Berlin wall that separated East and West. The wall stood as a stark symbol of the decades-old Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia in which the two politically opposed superpowers continually wrestled for dominance, stopping just short of actual warfare. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall, while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945.
