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The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. The goals were to take the power out of the hands of the aristocracy. This revolution sparked the beginning of a new era in Russia that had effects on countries around the world. The revolution lasted from March 8, 1917 - November 7, 1917. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman presented this address before a joint session of Congress. His message, the Truman Doctrine, asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Turkey and Greece. This doctrine outlined the broad parameters of US Cold War foreign policy. -
The Marshall Plan
A program by which the United States gave large amounts of economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of World War II. This Plan was proposed by the secretary of state, General C. Marshall. This was significant because it reduced the influence and power of Communist parties in Western Europe. It caused the Cold War to become a reality in the lives of the people of the countries involved. -
NATO
This acronym stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO is an alliance of 28 countries bordering the North Atlantic Ocean. It includes the United States, most European Union members, Canada, and Turkey. It's primary purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western Allies' military response to a possible invasion of western Europe by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. -
Eisenhower's Massive Retaliation Policy
In 1954, President Eisenhower adopted a foreign policy of "massive retaliation". This policy sought to counter the growing Soviet threat. It viewed nuclear weapons as a means of deterring war and as a first recourse should deterrence fail. The premise of the policy was that if the Soviet Union attacked Europe, the United States would use tactical nuclear weapons to blunt the assault. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was organized in 1955 in answer to the NATO. It was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam war was a long, costly, and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was then intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The war lasted from November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975. -
U-2 Incident
The U2 incident was confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that began with the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane over the Soviet Union and that caused the collapse of a summit conference in Paris between the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. The American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union. -
The Reagan Doctrine
In his 1985 state of the union address, President Reagan pledged his support for anti-Communist revolutions in what would become known as the "Reagan Doctrine". In Afghanistan, the United States was already providing aid to anti-Soviet freedom fighters, ultimately, helping to force Soviet troops to withdraw. It was a strategy implemented by the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in the late Cold War. -
Iron Curtain
A notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in the eastern Europe in 1989. The Iron Curtain refers to the sphere of influence that the Soviet Union had among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
