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The Cold War
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The Truman Doctrine
President Harry Truman knew another war was brewing, pitting the East and the West against each other. He then announced the Truman Doctrine, a pledge to provide economic and military aid to oppose the spread of communism. The United States sent around $400 million dollars in aid to Greece and Turkey. -
The Marshall Plan
On June 15, 1947 the US secretary of state George Marshall announced this plan at a commencement speech at Harvard. This plan was enacted on April 3, 1948, which sent approximately $13 billion to Western Europe, which is equivalent to $130 billion in current dollar values. Western Europe was then able to make a rapid recovery from the war, and helped preserve political stability. -
The Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, the Soviets blocked off all land, rail, and water routes into West Berlin. Western leaders then enacted the Berlin Airlift, which supplied the 2 million residents of Berlin with food, coal, and other vital resources. It was only in May, 1949 the Soviets realized that the blockade was useless, and they lifted the said blockade soon after. -
The Start of the Nuclear Arms Race
When the United States heard of a successful field test of a Soviet atomic bomb, they sought to develop even more powerful weapons, so as not to lose the military advantage the US had over the Soviet Union. They created the hydrogen bomb, but soon after the Soviet Union also tested their own hydrogen bomb. They then started to create more bombs to gain an advantage over the other. -
The Creation of NATO
In the aftermath of the airlift, the United States, Canada, and most Western European countries joined together in a military alliance known as NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This organization was created to counter Soviet power in Europe. -
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The Korean War
The Korean War was the battle between the Communist North Korea against non-Communist South Korea. North Korea started the fight by invading the South, but the UN intervened which gave the South the advantage until China decided to intervene in the war. In 1953 both sides agreed to an armistice, ending the war. -
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Attempts at Arms Control between the Soviet Union and the United States
In 1955, Eisenhower proposed an open skies treaty that was not implemented. The Soviet Union also proposed complete nuclear disarmament but this was not implemented. SALT I, SALT II, The ABM Treaty, and the INF Treaty were implemented during this timespan, to limit the aggression and tension between these two superpowers. -
The Warsaw Pact
In May 1955, the Soviet Union and other Communist nations of Eastern Europe formed their own alliance. This alliance was known as the Warsaw Pact. -
The Vietnam War
Vietnam was split into two halves, the North supporting Communism and the South with an anti-Communist regime. THe North Vietnamese began to fight to reunite Vietnam albeit under a Communist regime, and the US intervened and sided with the South. The war dragged on until the mid-1970s. -
Sputnik
When the Soviet Union successfully launched the world's first artificial satellite, this made the US believe that they lost teh technological advantage they had over the Soviet Union . In response, they established NASA in 1958. This would eventually put the US in the forefront of space research. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Rebels under the famous Fidel Castro implemented a Communist regime in Cuba. He then forged close ties with the Soviet Union. The US wanted to overthrow Castro, so they enacted the Bay of Pigs invasion, but it failed.Tensions rose in the Cuban Missile Crisis, a confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union over the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba. -
The Berlin Wall
Many Germans living in East Germany wished to live in a free, democratic nation, and others only sought to find a job in West Germany. To stop this exodus, East Germany began erecting a wall dividing the city of Berlin. -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union consisted of 15 separate republics, and each republic wished for freedom. When Gorbachev lost power, each republic soon declared independence, and the Soviet Union came to an end.
