-
The Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. The main idea of the Truman Doctrine was the policy of containment. -
West Germany Joins NATO
In 1949, the Americans, British, and French combined their zones of occupation in West Germany to establish a new nation, the Federal Republic of Germany. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. The alliance says its "essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means." It was very significant to this time. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a Soviet command structure to control military forces of it's satellites. In seven communist Soviet satellite nations of Albania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic. -
Berlin Wall Built
This wall separated the city of Berlin in Germany from 1961 to 1989. It kept apart the Eastern half from the Western half, many people thought this was a symbol of the Cold War. -
Eliminating Missiles
Gorbachev and Reagan agree to eliminate all land-based intermediate-range missiles. An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile. -
Berlin Wall Falls
As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of were free to cross the country's borders. -
Warsaw Pact is Dissolved
The action was yet another sign that the Soviet Union was losing control over its former allies and that the Cold War was falling apart. -
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties
Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union that were aimed at reducing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
