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Potsdam Conference
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. After the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine the postwar borders in Europe. -
Atomic Bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people many more people die later on from radiation exposure.Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. -
Long Telegram
Kennan sent an 8,000-word telegram to the Department—the now-famous “long telegram" on the aggressive nature of Stalin’s foreign policy. -
Iron Curtain Speech
The Iron Curtain was a political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II. It was enacted in 1948 and provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts on the continent. -
NATO
NATO was created from a number of countries on the east side of the world to protect Europe from threats. -
Alger Hiss Case
Alger Hiss was prosecuted for being a spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. -
First Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviet Union created a bomb much faster than they should have because they had spies in the Manhattan project -
Korean War
A war was fought between South and North Korea, when North Korea invaded the border and North Korea was supported by China . -
Rosenberg Trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were spies for the Soviet Union were convicted of espionage providing secrets about the American military. -
Korean Armistice
Designed to "ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and all acts or armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved." -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
A series of hearings held by the United States investigating conflict between the U.S. Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
Hungarian Revolution
Spontaneous national uprising 12 days before Hungary is crushed by Soviets, thousands of protesters demanding more democratic system. -
U2 Incident
An American U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defense Forces while performing aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet Territory. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Failed landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba by Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. -
Kent State
Students protested the bombing of Cambodia, the students clashed with Ohio National Guardsmen and they shot and killed 4 students, the shootings became the focal point of a nation deeply divided by the Vietnam War -
Ceasefire In Vietnam
The U.S. agreed to send home remaining military personnel from South Vietnam within 60 days. North Vietnam agreed to return all American prisoners of war. North Vietnam was allowed to leave 150,000 soldiers and to retain the territory it controlled in South Vietnam. -
Fall of Saigon
Viet Cong and North Communist forces captured South Vietnam capital of Saigon forcing a surrender and bringing an end to the Vietnam War -
Reagan Elected
President Reagan received the highest number of electoral votes received by a non-incumbent presidential candidate of over a million votes. Promised restoration of military forces -
SDI Announced
Reagan announced SDI on national television stating that he calls "upon the scientific community in this country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete" -
"Tear Down This Wall" Speech
Reagan's harsh 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 came down two years later. -
The fall of the Berlin Wall
East Berlin's spokesman for the communist party announced a change in his city's relationship with the West. Starting at midnight he stated the citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders.