-
Russian Revolution
A pair of revolutions occurring in Russia in which the czar was overthrown and the Bolsheviks, a communist party led by Lenin, rose to power. The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the fall of an empire and the rise of Marxian socialism while at the same time efficiently stopping much fighting on the Eastern Front in WWII. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was the meeting of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17, 1945 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of WWII. The Potsdam Conference concerned the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its border, and the European Theatre of War territory. -
Atomic Bombing
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. A second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. These bombings forced Japan's Emperor Hirohito to state his country's unconditional surrender in WWII. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the boundary line that divided Europe into two distinct areas of political influence from the end of WWII until the end of the Cold War. It divided Europe in the west and the Soviet Union as well as its Communist one-party states in the east. The Iron Curtain displayed the lengths the Soviet Union would go to in order to isolate itself and its satellite states from contact with the west and other areas not controlled by the Soviets. -
Hollywood 10
The Hollywood 10 were ten motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947, and refused to answer questions concerning their possible Communist connections. They spent time in prison for contempt of Congress and were primarily blacklisted by Hollywood studios. It showed that the U.S. was willing to investigate allegations of Communist influence and subversion in the U.S. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was the policy of President Truman to provide military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey as well as any country under threat by Communism or a totalitarian ideology. It became the foundation of NATO, and established American support for countries fighting Communism. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a program in which the United States was to give large amounts of economic aid to European countries in order to help them rebuild after the destruction of WWII; it was proposed by the U.S. Secretary of State, General George C. Marshall. It channeled over 13 billion dollars to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. It successfully sparked economic recovery restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt by the Soviet Union in 1948 to restrict the ability of France, Great Britain, and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin within Russian-occupied Germany. The U.S. and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany, causing the Soviet forces to lift the blockade on May 12, 1949. The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crisis of the Cold War. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance of European and North American democracies founded after WWII to strengthen international ties between member states- especially the U.S. and Europe. It also serves as a counter-balance to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. -
Soviet Bomb Test
On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union successfully detonated its first atomic bomb in Kazakhstan. The U.S. was extremely surprised because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weapon knowledge so soon and many consider the test to be the beginning of the nuclear arms race. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North and South Korea; North Korea with the support of China and the Soviet Union and South Korea primarily with the support of the U.S. It was the first armed conflict in the Cold War, it prevented North Korea from taking over all of Korea, and it showed that America was willing to send troops to contain communism and the Soviet Union was willing to send troops to expand communism. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army-McCarthy Hearings were a series of hearings held by the U.S. Senate's Sub Committees on Investigations to investigate conflicting accusations between the U.S. Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. His attacks on the U.S. Army led to the first televised hearings in U.S. history; he campaigned to uncover subversives in government operations. -
Eisenhower's Massive Retaliation Policy
Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles did not believe that containment was enough to stop Soviet expansion so they adopted a policy known as Massive Retaliation in which the U.S. was ready to use atomic weapons if they were to be attacked.The policy was hoped to counter the growing Soviet threat and it was a first recourse if the counter was not successful. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was an alliance that served as the communist counteraction to NATO between May 14, 1955 to July 1, 1991. The Warsaw Pact came to be seen as a potential militaristic threat, as a sign of communist dominance, and a definite opponent to American capitalism. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a prolonged military conflict between South Vietnam, who was supported by U.S. forces, and communist North Vietnam. The war ended in a North Vietnamese victory and unification of Vietnam under communist rule. The Vietnam War had a large death toll with the loss of 2 million Vietnamese civilians, 1.1 million North Vietnamese troops, 200,000 South Vietnamese troops, and 58,000 U.S. troops. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution was a nationwide revolt from October 23, 1956 to November 10, 1956 opposing the communist government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies. It is considered by many as the nation's greatest tragedy as thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter million Hungarians fled the country. -
Kruschchev Takes Over
Nikita Kruschchev took over for Stalin and led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, being the premier from 1958 to 1964. Kruschchev largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West but he also instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons ninety miles from Florida. -
U-2 Incident
The U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War during the premiership of Nikita Kruschchev and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while committing espionage over the Soviet Union. The incident eliminated an important meeting between the two leaders scheduled for later that month and Gary Powers, the pilot, was convicted by the Soviets on espionage charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles in which the CIA trained and financed a group of Cuban refugees in an attempt to eliminate the communist government of Fidel Castro. The failed invasion strengthened the position of Castro's administration, which later exclaimed its intention to adopt socialism and pursue closer ties to the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a wall dividing the east and west sectors of Berlin, built in 1961 by the East German authorities to stop the flow of refugees from east to west. The wall symbolized the lack of freedom under communism and it also symbolized the Cold War and divide between the communist Soviet bloc and the western democratic, capitalist bloc. It lasted from August 13, 1961 until November 9, 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet Union regarding American nuclear deployment in Italy and Turkey with subsequent Soviet nuclear deployment in Cuba. It was a direct and dangerous confrontation during the Cold War and was the moment the two superpowers came closest to nuclear war. -
Detente Under Nixon
Detente Under Nixon was a period of easing Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1979. It was a time of increased trade and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the signing of Strategic Arms Limitation talks and Treaties. It was a major effort by President Richard Nixon to avoid the impact of nuclear risks. -
The Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine advocated using U.S. intelligence operations to support and sponsor guerrilla warfare overseas in an attempt to stop the spread of communism. It was a strategy thought out and implemented under the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in order to end the Cold War. It represented a shift in the post WWII foreign policy of the U.S. -
Reagan's Berlin Wall Speech
President Ronald Reagan made a speech standing at the Bradenburg Gate in Berlin at the peak of the Cold War, challenging his Soviet counterpart to "tear down this wall". It was one of Reagan's most famous Cold War speeches symbolizing a desire to end the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall was sparked by the reform policies of Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. The official demolition of the wall started on June 13, 1990 to symbolize the official end of a divided Germany. Germany was officially reunified into a single country on October 3, 1990.
