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The House Un-American Activities Committee
The HUAC was created to investigate Communist activities in the U.S. This group searched for Soviet spies and Communist sympathizers using the words "Are you now or have you ever been a Communist?". The people accused would be blacklisted. The HUAC even accused a group of ten actors and actresses of being communists. -
NATO
After WWII many of the Western countries such as the U.S. and Great Britain formed an alliance that they would protect each other in case of any Soviet attack. This was met by the Warsaw Pact which was produced by the Soviets and it "Buffer Zone" on May 14, 1955 and stated that it was a "Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance" between the countries involved. This was seen as a display of Communistic Dominance and a foe for American Capitalism. -
McCarthyism
Created by Senator, Joe McCarthy, McCarthyism was when in Senate hearing McCarthy began accusing people with ties to Communism. This was something that sounded nice to the American populace but quickly turned into witch hunts. These hearings destroyed peoples reputations because of rumors with limited evidence. -
Sputnik
The Soviets had successfully launched the first artificial satellite which happened to be the size of a beach ball and weighed 189 pounds. This startled the U.S. since it meant the USSR was more technologically advanced. This starts the Space Race between the Soviets and the U.S. which had the U.S. start its space program NASA. -
The Great Space Race
The launching of Sputnik began the race to the moon and back between the USSR and the U.S. This caused the U.S. to establish NASA and the National Defense Education Act. The Soviets then became the first to exit Earth's atmosphere with Yuri Gagarin. This lead to President Kennedy's challenge to get to the moon by the end of the 60's. His goal was met by July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon thus ending the Space Race. -
The U-2 Incident
On May 1, 1960 the CIA pilot Frances Powers was shot down from his U-2 spy plane over Soviet airspace. Powers was under orders by President Eisenhower to find any advancements in Soviet missile advancements. The CIA used U-2s search for advancements in the USSR's nuclear program. -
The Bay of Pigs
Lead by CIA trained Cuban exiles, the Bay of Pigs was an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. The invasion was established after Castro was converted to Communism by the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. The invasion overall was a huge failure and made the U.S. look bad in front of the USSR. -
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was produced by the USSR to keep Germans from moving out of East Germany to West Berlin, where they could have freedom. It was also used to keep the West Berliners from undermining the USSR. At 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide this wall had 12 checkpoints allowing for restricted travel between the two halves of the city. The wall had manned turrets placed by the wall that would shoot anyone trying to cross it. The wall stood until the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Tensions between the USSR and U.S. started to rise when the Soviets built nuclear missile bases in Cuba. This was in response to the building of missile bases in Turkey. This almost brought the U.S. and the USSR to nuclear war. -
The Fall of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union collapsed officially on December 25, 1991 however the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The collapse was due to many things but one for sure was the starvation of the Soviet people that didn't have access to things such as clothing or shoes which caused the young people to not embrace the Communist party. The USSR also had a failing economy after President Reagan isolated their economy and drove oil prices down. Another cause to its downfall was a revolution in Poland... next page. -
The Fall of the Soviet Union 2
revolutions throughout Eastern Europe. The Communist Party tried to coup but its failure sealed the doom of the USSR by reducing Gorbachev's power and propelling Democracy with the help of Boris Yeltsin. On December 25 Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union and that was the last day the Hammer and Sickle flew from the top of the Kremlin. On December 31, 1991 the USSR was officially no more.
