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The Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill speech rose the alarm of the tyranny caused by communism and that it was on the march through Europe. This was to unite the world against a new enemy, Communism in the Soviet Union. -
The Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was made by the Russian’s to help to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe -
The Hollywood 10
Beginning in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (or HUAC) investigated communist influence in Hollywood, the Hollywood 10 where a group of actors and play writers that did not co-operate with the committee in its investigation of Hollywood and refused to answer questions citing the 1st Amendment and sentenced to prison, even after the investigations were over many more actors and play writers were black listed by the studios forcing them into exile and obscurity. -
The Truman Doctrine
The palice of the U.S. was to help all free people who are resisting attempted subjugation from armed minorities or by outside pressures and that it was up to us to help. -
The Alger Hiss Case
In 1948, the hunt for communists during the "Red Scare" hit the center of government when the ex-communist Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a communist spy. The House Committee was about to dismiss the case for lack of evidence but one member, Richard Nixon, kept pushing the case. Alger Hiss was eventually convicted of perjury, not of espionage, in the end some people felt that Hiss was a victim of the "Red Scare", others did not believe Hiss and thought he was still a communist. -
The Berlin Airlift
June 1948 - May 1949: After the Soviet Union blocked off all transport in and out of Berlin in hopes of starving out the Allied forces of West Berlin and it inhabitants into submission, America, France, and Great Britain began to fly food and other necessary materials into West Berlin and eventually the blockade was lifted. -
The Berlin Blockade
Responding to a new form of currency as an American economic imperialism, Joseph Stalin sealed off all access to West Berlin, cut off the power to the city, and starved the people of West Berlin in hopes that he would force the western Allies out of Berlin and starve its free, non-communist peoples into submission. -
NATO
12 European and North American nations joined together as a form of defense against Soviet aggression under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. -
The Marshall Plan
Presented by George C. Marshall, the plan was to distribute food, machinery, technical support, help in rebuilding new homes and businesses, money, fuel, and construction equipment for European countries that were destroyed by the war and to stop the spread of communism. -
The Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift ends -
Soviet Atomic Bomb Test
The Soviet’s first atomic bomb was successfully tested and code named “First Lightning”, this scarred the U.S. and lead to many arrests including a scientist that worked on the Manhattan Project for charges of espionage. -
The Rosenbergs Trial
In March of 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested for being in connection in a communist conspiracy to pass US bomb secrets from the State Department the the Soviet Union. They dismissed the claims and said that this was a persecution because they were Jewish and their left wing view. The were convicted of espionage when the evidence showed that they had a small, but materiel role in the plot. They were executed in 1953 despite all of the antisemitism protesters in the country. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
This was one of the key Viet Minh victories in the Indochina War. The Viet Minh surrounded the French forces that war occupying the valley basin and fires on them musing artillery that they managed to place in caves in the mountains of the valley, and preventing the French form using their air field. Three French strong points were quickly over ran in the first 72 hours of the battle. The siege ended on April 6 after the Viet Minh received heavy losses from French reinforcements. -
Geneva Conference of 1954
The United States, the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, France, and Great Britain came together in April 1954 to sort out the problems in Indochina. The main topic was the war lasting from 1946 between the Viet Minh and France. In July of 1954, the Geneva Agreements were signed, this agreement made France pull its troops out of Vietnam but the country had to be divided at the 17th parallel to separate the communist north and the democratic south. -
The Army - McCarthy Hearings
The US Senator McCarthy, well known for exploiting the Red Scare for political gain, pitted himself against the US Army to gain back his withering support. In an investigation, both sides produced charges and counter-charges, concerning clout, favoritism, and communist cover-ups. This event tour away at the last Senator McCarthy's support for his crusade ageist communism. The Hearings turned into a media circus and considered inconclusive, and showed McCarthy as an arrogant, blustering, tyrant. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and its satellites created the pact as a response to the creation of NATO -
The Invasion of Hungary
October - November 1956: A nationwide revolt against the Hungarian People’s Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, the revolt began when a protester was shot and killed by the State Security Police. Hungarian militians fought across Hungary against State Security Police and Soviet troops. A short victory for the rebels stood until a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country, eventually the Soviet forces won. -
The U-2 Incodent
An American U-2 spy plain, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was shot down over Soviet Russia, the US government tried to cover up the incident as an accident but eventually can clean, the Russian government then calmed this as an act of American espionage and aggression. -
The Berlin Wall
The wall was built to separate the sides of Berlin, this was to prevent people in East Berlin from leaving the Soviet Union as to keep power over East Germany and to prevent skilled workers from leaving. -
Assassination of Ngo Dinh Nhu
After a hostile takeover of his own army, Ngo Binh Nhu and his brother were arrested by the South Vietnamese army and brutally assassinated. His death caused mass calibration in the lower class but this lead to political chaos. In turn the US became more involved in Vietnam by needing the stabilize the South's government and having to fight back the communist rebels and North Vietnamese. -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was with his wife, the with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, on a ten mile motorcade in the streets of downtown Dallas. At 12:30 pm. the motorcade was passing the Texas School Book Depository Building when on the 6th floor, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at the president, fatally wounding JFK and seriously injuring Governor Connally. JFK would die 30 minutes after the shooting, he was 46. Oswald was arrested 73 hours after the shooting. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
After a US Navy ship was fired upon in two days, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was created and gave broad congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam War, in other terms the US would have been fully involved in the war lead by President Lyndon Johnson. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the US's first strikes against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. It was a sustained bombing of important targets such as bridges, trails, and military instillation. The Bombing was only suppose to last the first 8 weeks of the war but instead lasted for 3 & 1/2 years. However, the goal of the bombings were to try to cripple the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, it failed and was only a mass wast of money. -
The Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a mass surprise attack in South Vietnam perpetrated by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese forces. The attack hit the heart of South Vietnam from the DMZ to the the Delta. By February 10 the Tet Offensive was largely crushed and showed as a US victory, but the battle was considered a psychological victory for the North Vietnamese, the size and surprise of the attack brought the American moral down when the media showed its devastating effects of the fighting. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
On April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee at 6:00 pm. He had traveled the Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike. He was currently on his way to dinner when he was shoot. He was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital, do to the bullet striking his jaw and severing his spine. As word of his death spread, mass riots began to break out across the US. -
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
On June 5, Robert F. Kennedy was having his California primary celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, when he was fatally shot by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Robert was perceived by many to be the only person in American politics capable of uniting the people. Sirhan Sirhan was wresteled to the ground by Rafer Johnson and Roosevelt Grier, Kennedy's escorts, Sirhan Sirhan was charged with the candidate's death and sentenced to life in prison. -
The Invasion of Czechoslovakia
August 1968 - April 1969: The Soviet Union lead an invasion of Czechoslovakia to stop reformist trends in Prague. It was done to prevent the rest of Russia's satellites would join the revolution and break away from Russia, it was quickly contained. -
The Riots at Democratic National Convention in Chicago
Outside of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, thousands of protesters against the Vietnam War battle police while the convention inside rips itself to peaces after a concerning a platform statement on Vietnam. The anti-war protesters massed to force the Democratic party to nominate McCarthy but met fierce police resistance, the entire world saw what unfolded that night and witnessed what was a serious fracture beginning to develop in America’s previously solid Cold War consensus. -
The Election of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon won the closest election in US history by beating his opponent by only 500K votes. He mainly worked on the platform of designed to reach the “silent majority” of middle class and working class and promising to bring America together again. Nixon's main pledge was to "find a way to peace with honor” in Vietnam. -
The Kent State Shooting
On May 4th, a group of 2,000 students took over the Kent State campus to protest the war in Vietnam and the US lead invasion of Cambodia. By noon that day, the National Guard troops arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse. When they did not, the National Guard fired tear gas and began to march on the students with bayonets fixed. Minutes later the troops fired on the crowd. Four students were killed and nine other were wounded After a period of disbelief and shock the students left. -
Nixon visits China
When President Nixon landed he became the first US president to be in the communist People's Republic of China. The trips goal was to re-establish a diplomatic relations between the United States and communist China. This event became a historic opening in the Cold War. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
The ceasefire that was designed to end all fighting in Vietnam and help to get all US forces out of Vietnam. However the ceasefire did not last long. The South Vietnamese forces continued to take back villages occupied by communists in the two days before the cease-fire deadline and the communists tried to capture additional territory. Eventually the North launched an attack on a South Vietnamese position ending the ceasefire. -
The Fall of Saigon
After the North Vietnamese launched the "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" in South Vietnam beginning in March. The South Vietnamese fought poorly to defend the territory and were easily overran by the North Vietnamese forces. The South Vietnamese 18th Division made a valiant final stand at Xuan Loc outpost but was eventually overpowered by the Northern troops. By the 27th The North Vietnamese had full control of Saigon and busted down the presidential palace. On the 30th the Vietnam war was over. -
Election of Ronald Reagan
When Ronald Reagan was elected he made the promise of to eliminate all communism, not to try to contain it but to role it back to where it came from and made the goal to out build the Soviet Union. He then would spend millions of dalliers to achieve his goals. -
Announcment of SDI ('Star Wars')
The Strategic Defense Initiative was an idea created by President Ronald Reagan as a way to defend the US from a Soviet nuclear missile attack. It was later dubbed 'Star Wars' by the media. The Soviets responded to this idea as the US "inventing a new plans on how to unleash a nuclear war." Even if Star Wars was far from being created the Soviets treated it as an immediate threat. -
1st Geneva Conference under Reagan
In November of 1986, President Reagan met with the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was willing to find peace and change the Soviet Union. In the official discussions, Gorbachev was willing to negotiate an arms reduction on the condition that Reagan gave up on Star Wars, Reagan declined. Even if nothing was reached in the discussion and important friendship formed between the two leaders. -
The 'Tear Down This Wall' speech
In West Berlin, with his back to the Berlin Wall, President Reagan challenged Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev that if he wanted peace between the two nations to tear down the Berlin Wall. Eventually, Mikhail came trough with the challenge and the Soviet Union started to separate. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Change began to stir in the Soviet Union, as Mikhail Gorbachev renounced the Soviet repression of Eastern Europe. Countries across Eastern Europe then began to demand a democratic government and freedom. In Germany the communist government tried to make democratic reforms, but the popular movement made could not be contained, and the Berlin Wall after 30 years an reunited Germany. The movement then traveled through the Soviet Union and Dec. 25, 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved forever. -
The End of The Soviet Union
After the same events that traveled through Eastern Europe swept through the Soviet Union, the failure of Perestroika to revive the economy, and the Union losing its international prestige, Mikhail Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union as his last act as the official head on December 25, 1991, ending the Cold War.