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End of World War II
This is where the initial bickering bewteen the Soviets and Americans began. There was a loit of disagreement between the two about post-war Europe and how to go about rebuilding. -
The Marshall Plan
After George Marshall was appointed secretary of the state, he decided to come up for a recovery plan for Europe after WWII because the United States was one of the few undamaged powers after WWII. This plan gave financial aid, supply aid, and reconstruction aid to the European countries with significant losses. It was a success and ended up rebuilding European economies. -
Berlin Air Lift
After the Berlin Wall was constructed, all trade was halted between Western Germany and Eastern Germany. The USSR was being stubborn and not coming up with a compromise. The United States decided not to abondon the 2 million Berlin citizens in East Germany and decided to airlift around 3,000 tons of supplies every day. -
Creation of NATO
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was created to provide defenses to all 12 members of the organization from Soviest aggression and communist influences. After WWII, the USSR controlled most of Europe and tried to use that to their advantage for rescources and to spread communism, which is what NATO was created to prevent. -
Soviets Create & Test Atomic Bomb
On August 29, 1949, the Soviets tested their atomic bomb that they have produced, which shocked Americans. The test was successful and made the saftey of the United States a question because the Soviet Union now possessed atomic ability that America thought they were no where near. This also raised tensions between the two. -
Korean War
The Korean war really sparked the violence in the cold war as North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The war lasted over 3 years and ended on July 27, 1953. The Soviet Union got involved with North Korea and the United States on the South Korean side. -
Creation of Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a direct counter for mutual defense from the formation of NATO. 8 communist countries all signed this pact in Warsaw on May 14, 1955, to aid each other with defense and to intimidate any NATO contributors. -
Vietnam War
This war was composed of the communist North Vietamese the Southern Vietamese. The USSR was trying to spread communist influences so they assisted the north, and America assisted the South. Most of the fighting occured in the bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos. -
Bomber Gap
Bomber Gap refers to the fear that the Americans had of intercontinental bomb raids from the Soviets. The Soviets had the ability and technology to reach the homeland by plane from the other side of the world and drop a heavy payload. -
Missle Gap
This refers to the fear of America being in range of missles from the Soviet Union. An overestimation of the Soviets technology is what started the panic. This fear started around 1957 and lasted until 1960 where they realized their overestimation. -
Operation Pedro Plan
This was a CIA run project where 14,000 Cuban kids were taken from Cuba to be educated in the United States and not be under communist influence. After the Cuban missle crisis, the kids were stuck in the United States and couldn't visit home. -
Bay of Pigs
On April 17, 1961, John F. Kennedy sent 1400 trained Cuban exiles to try and overthrow Fidel Castro. This ended up being a major failure and ended up blowing up in Kennedy's face. -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
On August 13, 1961, the GDR started placing temporary barriers between East Germany and West Germany. Within the past year, hundreds of thousands of East Germany citizens have permanantly fled to the west and the GDR was having problems with leadership because of that. They then banned all emmigration to the west by constructing the Berlin Wall. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The Cuban missle crisis is the closest the world has ever been to full out nuclear war. Russia was falling behind with technology and could only launch missles so far, so they decided to work with Fidel Castro who needed more defense after the failed Bay of Pigs attack, to try to intimidate the United States. America didn't respond well and was ready for a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. -
China Tests Atomic Bomb
On Octover 16, 1964, China tested their first atomic device. It was a success and made them the 5th world power to have atomic bombs in their arsenal. This is bad news for the United States because now 2 communist countries control atomic ability -
United States Invades Domincan Republic
On April 28, 1965, around 22000 American troops invaded the Dominican Republic to try and neutralize the communist influence Fidel Castro was trying to lie upon them. -
USS Liberty Sinking
During the Arab-Israeli war, an American intelligence ship was attacked several times by Israeli boats and planes, causing many crew members to die, and the ship sank. -
USS Pueblo
On January 11, 1968, an American boat was given orders from their Japan port to try and intercept Soviet and North Korean electronic communications. After a few days, on January 23, a few Korean fighter jets saw them as a threat and went to intercept them with a few boats. The Pueblo tried to flee then was enganged by the boats. Knowing they were unable to outrun, the captain surrendered. -
United States Bomb Cambodia
United States B-52 bombers were given orders to bomb suspected communist camps and supply camps located in Cambodia. The bomb raids lasted for 14 months, around 3000 flights occured, and 110,000 pounds of explosives were dropped. -
Operation Babylift
After the Vietcong were almost insured victory, thousands of adults fled southern vietnam leaving thousands of children as oprhans. Operation Babylift was issued by the United States to fly 70,000 orphans out of Vietnam. It is also noted that the first plane that took off from Vietnam with orphans crashed and killed half of the people on the plane. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
500 muslim students took control of an American embassy in Iran. Carter put an embargo on Iran as a result which wasnt a success to release the 60 hostages. Carter then sent a 8 helicopter special forces mission which was a fail. 3 helicopters broke down then 2 collided on the way back after they aborted. -
USSR invades Afghanistan
After a new government was established in Afghanistan, many rebel groups tried to over throw the government. The newly established government was in close ties with the USSR so they invaded to help defend while the U.S. assisted the rebels to reduce communist influence. -
1980 Olympic Hockey Game
After years of rivalry between the Soviets and the United States, in the semi finals of hockey in the 1980 olympics, they played each other. The Soviets were known as the best hockey team in the world at the time and the Americans ended up defeating them, going on to beat Finland to the gold. This game has huge significance showing the rivalry bewteen the two countries. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
On March 23, 1983, President Reagan gave a televised speech announcing the research put into nuclear missles launced from space and space controlled. America is in a huge arms race with the Soviet Union and it would be a huge advancement if successful. -
Reagan Meets With Gorbachev
The newly elected leader, Gorbachev, met with Ronald Reagan on November 19, 1985. Although no major agreements were made, they had some nice personal talks which started a good relationship between the two for agreements down the road. -
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
After a nuclear reactor was shut down for maintanence on April 25, 1986, in Ukraine its saftey systems were shut off as well and the reactor exploded. The Soviets tried to cover it up and clean up and cover the mess, but the damage was already done. Citizens were evacuated a day after the incident occured which caused thousands to die as long term effects. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Thousands of students protested the communist Chinese government at Tiananmen Square and were confronted by the over powered Chinese Army. The soldiers fired into the crowd and showed a statement to the world of how terrible communism is. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall is marked as the end of the cold war. On November 9, 1989, the wall seperating West Germany from East Germany was finally opened up for use and travel between the two. This symbolic structure being over run really slowed down the red scare in many other countries too. -
INF Treaty
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is a result to the end of the cold war for the two super-powers to reduce their nuclear arsenal. This one calls for the removal of 500-5500 km ranged missles and as a result around 2000 missles were destroyed by the deadline of June 1, 1991. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
On Christmas day in 1991, the large and powerful USSR broke apart into 15 different countries. The reason behind this is sophisticated and fragile, but overall it was unstability in political and economic situations. The United States has been fighting for democracy against them since WWII and were relieved to see them finally be weakened.
