-
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution took place in 1917 when the lower and poor class people of Russia revolted against the government. They were led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The new communist government was created, and is know as the Soviet Union. -
Potsdam Conference
The Big Three leaders, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman all met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. -
Atomic bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The US dropped an atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, on Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later a second atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki. These are the only times nuclear weapons have ever been used in war. -
Iron Curtain
The boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991 created by the Soviet Union. This was created to block itself and its states from non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
Truman Doctrine
An American foreign policy made to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was brought to Congress' attention by President Harry S. Truman when he promised to stop threats to Greece and Turkey. -
Hollywood Ten
They were ten individuals cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted after refusing to answer questions about their alleged involvement with the Communist Party. These screen directors had the American people on edge and created suspicions. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), was where America provided aid to Western Europe. The United States gave over $13 billion to help rebuild Western European economies after World War II. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
This was an international crisis that arose from an attempt by the Soviet Union to force the Western Allied powers to step in and create another major conflict. Instead the United States and other allies airlifted supplies to the city of Berlin. -
NATO
The threat Communist expansion forced the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Soviet Union and its allies made a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact, soon after. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviets conducted their first successful atomic weapon's test, nicknamed First Lightning. It was a very closely copied model of the atomic bombs the United States used to end World War ||. -
Korean War
World War II divided Korea into a Communist, northern half and an American-occupied southern half. It was divided at the 38th parallel;the war began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. -
Khruschev Takes over
During World War II, Khrushchev mobilized troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and at Stalingrad. After the war, he helped to rebuild the devastated countryside while simultaneously stifling Ukrainian attacks. -
Eisenhower’s Massive Retaliation Policy
Massive Retaliation, basically a massive response or massive deterrence, was a military doctrine and nuclear strategy. This was made in order to warn that in which case a state falls under attack, much greater force would be retaliated. -
Army- McCarthy Hearing
They filled TV screens across the United States from April to June 1954. The Government Operations was trying to learn whether Senator Joseph R. McCarthy had used illegal influence to win special treatment for Pvt. -
Warsaw Pact
This is the name given to the treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. It was signed in Poland and was officially called 'The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance'. -
The Vietnam War
Because of the First Indochina War, the communist forces assembled, and became known as Viet Minh. After the conflict died down, in 1973, another war began between North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. -
Hungarian Revolution
Also known as the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, was a nationwide revolt against the communist government. It lasted from late October until November 10th. -
U2 Incident
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) shot down an American U-2 spy plane, and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to admit to the Soviets that the CIA had been flying spy missions over the USSR for several years. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
A group of 1,500 Cuban, trained by the CIA, launched an invasion of Cuba from the sea. The plan was to overthrow Fidel Castro and his revolution. -
Berlin Wall
The Cold War began to slow across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for Belin's Communist Party announced a shift in his city's relations with the West. However, the reunification of East and West Germany wasn't made official until 1990. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
It was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
Detente under Nixon
This was a period of general easing of the tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. It was an effort to avoid the collision of nuclear risks; Détente was known in Russian, and loosely meaning "relaxation of tension". -
The Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy used by the United States under the Reagan Administration. It was made to overwhelm the influence of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Cold War. -
Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech
A famous speech made by Ronald Reagan, where he pushed to "Tear down this wall!" This was addressed to the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to consider disintegrating the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens could cross the border whenever they pleased. Ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall, some crossed freely into West Berlin. Others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself.
