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Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh, commonly known as Bác Hồ, Hồ Chủ tịch and by other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime Minister of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955, and as President of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969. -
Ngo Dihn Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam, and then served as the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until he was captured and assassinated during the 1963 South Vietnamese coup. -
JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person to assume the presidency by election and the youngest president at the end of his tenure. -
Peace Treaty
It is a legal agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the two parties.
A more recent example of a peace treaty is the 1973 Paris Peace Accords that sought to end the Vietnam War. -
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. -
Grobachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. -
Yalta/Potsdam Conferences
At Yalta, the Big Three agreed that after Germany's unconditional surrender, it would be divided into four post-war occupation zones, controlled by U.S., British, French, and Soviet military forces. The city of Berlin would also be divided into similar occupation zones. -
US Atomic Bombs On Japan To End WW2
In an attempt to end the war in the Pacific without a costly invasion of Japan, the US dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively. The use of atomic weapons demonstrated America’s technological superiority but also increased existing tensions with the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cold War. -
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Phase 1
The United States and its allies created the NATO military alliance in 1949 in the apprehension of a Soviet attack and termed their global policy against Soviet influence containment. Truman unveiled the policy of containment also called the “Truman Doctrine” to provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under the threat of communism or to fight communism. -
Iron Curtain
The Fall of the Iron Curtain and the beginning of a new chapter in our history. The Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 paved the way for the reunification of Germany and reunification of Europe after more than 40 years of political and economic division between the West and the East. -
Long Telegram
George Kennan, the American charge d'affaires in Moscow, sends an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state. Kennan's analysis provided one of the most influential underpinnings for America's Cold War policy of containment. -
Novikov Telegram
The Soviet response to The Long Telegram was The Novikov Telegram, in which the Soviet ambassador to the USA, Nikolai Novikov, warned that the USA had emerged from World War Two economically strong and bent on world domination. As a result, the USSR needed to secure its buffer zone in Eastern Europe. -
Truman Doctrine
The principle is that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or Communist insurrection. First expressed in 1947 by US President Truman in a speech to Congress seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, the doctrine was seen by the Communists as an open declaration of the Cold War. -
Berlin Blockade And Airlift
After WWII, control of Germany was divided between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Berlin was located in the Eastern Soviet sector, but since it was the country’s capital city, its control was also divided between the Western powers and the USSR. In all, the western allied powers would deliver 2.3 million tons of supplies and fuel to West Berlin during the airlift. -
Marshall Plan
On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. -
USSR Tests First Nuclear Weapon
The Soviet Union had begun research on its own atomic bomb program in 1943. Aided by information and plans stolen from the Manhattan Project by Soviet spies, the USSR was able to develop its own nuclear weapon within only a few years after the end of World War II. In August of 1949, it conducted a successful test of 20-kiloton bomb years ahead of American predictions, effectively creating the nuclear arms race between the two superpowers. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two North American. -
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Phase 2
In the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, the US jumped to support the democratic government of South Korea against communist North Korea with the help of the United Nations. The war started when North Korea invaded South Korea with the help of China and the Soviet Union. After the participation of, particularly, the US, the communist regimes found it hard to occupy the entire Korea, which soon ended. -
US Tests First Hydrogen Bomb
On November 1, 1952, at 7:15 am local time (October 31, 1915 hours GMT), the United States tested its first thermonuclear device (hydrogen bomb) on the island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands about 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. The resulting fireball was 3 miles wide and reached a height of 120,000 feet. The mushroom cloud that followed the fireball was 100 miles wide. Elugelab was vaporized and the crater left behind was more than a mile wide and more than 160 feet deep. -
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Koren War
Japan began ruling Korea in 1910, but ceded control of Korea when it surrendered at the end of WWII. The United States and the USSR agreed to split Korea into two occupation zones. When the two major powers withdrew, friction between the north and south finally erupted into war in 1950 when North Koreans invaded the south. No final peace treaty was ever signed to end the Korean War. -
North Korean Invasion
The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. -
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Phase 3
Two new US-sponsored treaties emerged in this phase namely South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), signed in September 1954, and Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO) in 1955 to prevent communism from gaining ground in these regions. Within a short span of time, America gave military assistance to 43 countries and formed 3300 military bases around the USSR. Moscow, in the response to NATO and SEATO, concluded the “Warsaw Pact” with the Eastern European countries on 14th May 1955. -
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict. -
Domino Theory
The theory is that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino causing an entire row of upended dominoes to fall. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. -
Space Race Beginning
The US and the USSR each wanted to achieve technological superiority over the other. Included in that struggle was the race to become the first country to build a rocket capable of launching an object into space. Not only would this be an immense technological achievement, but a rocket that was powerful enough to carry a payload into space could also carry a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the other country. Soon, both counties began to race to the moon. -
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Phase 4
In 1962, Cuba's Missile Crisis contributed a lot to the cold war. This incident created an atmosphere of conversation between American President Kenedy and Russian President Khrushchev. America assured Russia that it would not attack Cuba and Russia also withdrew a missile station from Cuba. -
Sputnik Launch
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries ran out. -
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Vietnam War
Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, was considered an important sphere of influence by both US and Soviet leaders. When nationalist forces created North Vietnam in 1956, the USSR and China recognized and backed the new communist country while the US became committed to stopping the spread of communism in the region and backed South Vietnam. North Vietnam ultimately prevailed in the war and Vietnam was unified into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. -
USSR Tests Largest Nuclear Weapon Ever Built
Known as Big Ivan to the Soviets and as Tsar Bomba in the US, RDS-220 was the largest nuclear weapon ever built. Designed as a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb, its yield was reduced by 50% when it was tested. It detonated at 13,000 feet and its fireball still reached the earth. The blast pressure was measured at 300 psi and the flash of light was visible more than 600 miles away. The mushroom cloud reached an altitude of 210,000 feet. -
Berlin Wall Divides Germany
By 1961, massive numbers of East Berliners were fleeing through the open border to West Berlin. Late on August 12, in an effort to stem the tide of defectors, Soviet Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. The wall was more than 26 miles long and eventually, the barbed wire fence was replaced with a 13-foot wall. -
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement was formed during the Cold War, largely on the initiative of then-Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, as an organization of States that did not seek to formally align themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain independent or neutral. -
Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a pivotal moment, not just in the Cold War but in the history of modern Europe. It was brought about by political reforms inside the Soviet bloc, escalating pressure from the people of eastern Europe and ultimately, confusion over an East German directive to open the border. -
M.A.D
Mutual assured destruction is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. -
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Phase 5
The Fifth Phase which began in 1962 also marked a mutual suspicion between USA and USSR. There was a worldwide concern demanding a ban on nuclear weapons. In this period Hot Line was established between the White House and Kremlin. This compelled both parties to refrain from nuclear war. -
"HOT LINE” ESTABLISHED BETWEEN US & USSR
The Cuban Missile Crisis prompted the US and USSR to set up a direct line of communication between the two countries to enable rapid and direct communication between them in crisis situations that might impact the security of either country (such as the accidental launch of nuclear weapons). The US used the Hot Line to explain US fleet movements in the Mediterranean. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States 2nd Air Division, U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
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Phase 6
This phase commencing in 1969 was marked by DETENTE between USA and USSR- the American President Nixon and Russian President Brezhnev played a vital role in putting an end to the Cold War. Later, uring the Bangladesh crisis of 1971 and the Egypt-Israel War of 1973 the two superpowers extended support to the opposite sides.d -
1st Man on Moon
Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17. -
Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. -
Iranian Revolution
ranian Revolution, also called Islamic Revolution, Persian Enqelāb-e Eslāmī, popular uprising in Iran in 1978–79 that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on February 11, 1979, and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic. -
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Phase 7
In this phase, certain changes were noticed in the Cold War. That is why historians call this phase as New Cold War. This phase led to the end of the Cold War stages. The Cold War was an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II. -
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Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union, the DRA and allied paramilitary groups against the Afghan mujahideen, foreign fighters, and smaller groups of anti-Soviet Maoists. -
Able Archer And The War Scare
In early November of 1983 the world may have come closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. NATO was conducting what it considered a routine exercise named Able Archer, a simulation designed to train and test the procedures for shifting from conventional to nuclear war. -
Berlin Wall Comes Down
In June of 1987, US President Ronald Reagan stood at the infamous Brandenburg Gate, part of the Berlin Wall, and challenged the Soviet General Secretary: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” A little less than 18 months later, millions of Germans celebrated as thousands of their compatriots tore down the Berlin Wall—one of the most iconic symbols and enduring images of the Cold War. -
Cold War Ends
Riding the wave of unrest symbolized by the opening of the Berlin Wall, leaders of every Eastern European nation except Bulgaria were overthrown by popular uprisings by the end of 1989. Finally, on December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. The president of the Russian Republic, Boris Yeltsin, formed the Commonwealth of Independent States. After 45 years, the Cold War, the longest war in US history, was over. -
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had its origins on December 8, 1991, when the elected leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (Belorussia) signed an agreement forming a new association to replace the crumbling Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). -
Mujahideen
Guerrilla fighters in Islamic countries, especially those who are fighting against non-Muslim forces. Mujahideen, or Mujahidin, is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad, interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community.