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Creation of Warsaw Pact
This pact was originally created by the Soviet Union with eight other communist countries. This occurred during the cold war. It bound the signers of this treaty to come to the Soviets assistance when there was a threat from a foreign offender, Many believe this to be a response to the United States and its allie's creation of NATO. -
Marshall Plan
This was the new plan to try and attempt to recover Europe. America wanted to give financial aid to the European countries in order to help them recover from World War II. It offered the same aid European countries were recieving to the Soviet Union(and its allies), but they did not accept. The plan tried not to look at the destruction and damage caused by the war, but tried to look forward in the future, and provide money for modernization. -
Creation of NATO
NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is a intergovernmental millitary alliance between many countries. It was created to make a mutual agreement to mutual defense in case an outside force might attack. NATO currently has 28 members that control its' operations. -
Soviets Create & Test Nuclear Bomb
This was called the Soviet Atomic Bomb Project. They began research and testing because they found out about the United States and the Soviet Union were testing their own atomic bombs. They especially expanded their testing facilities after the bombing of Japan. They developed secret cities for the assembly of bombs and used espionage efforts in order to get more information. -
The Korean War
The Korean War was a civil war between North and South Korea. North Korea was backed by China. South Korea was backed by the United Nation. This division resulted from political conflict between the two sides at the end of World War II. The North established a communist government and the South establish a democratic government. The United States of America provided 88% of the 341,000 international soldiers that helped South Korea. The war resulted in a permanent division of North & South Korea. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam war is perhaps the longest war America has ever fought in. The United States began by supplying the French with aid. This fight was between North Korea (communists) and South Korea (French and US allied). This war occurred during the cold war between USSR and USA, some officials see this as an indirect attack on the Soviet Union by the United States. The main cause was to prevent the spread of communism to other countries. -
Soviets Launch Sputnik
The Soviets successfully launched the first satellite into space. It was the size of a beach ball and took around ninety-eight minutes to orbit the earth. This was exremely important because it marked the beginning of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It also marked the start of the space age. -
Fidel Castro Comes to Power in Cuba
Fidel Castro is a communist who came to power as Prime Minister in 1959. He believed himself to be a revolutionary leader. He then became President of Cuba from 1976 to 2008. There he developed Cuba into a one-party socialist state. The United States throughout the years have tried to remove him through economic blockade, assassination and counter-revolution. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs invasion was an unsuccessful attempt by the US military to invade Cuba. It was intended to take over Cuban military and overthrow their current leader, President Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado. The US was defeated by Cuban forces led by Fidel Castro. The US then attempted to overthrow Castro when he was in power. -
Berlin Wall Goes Up
The Berlin wall was put up by the Germans to completely cut off East Germany and West Germany. Guard towers and a "death area" surrounded the wall in order to keep people in/out. The Wall was intended to prevent the emigration and movement of Germans. The Germans from East Germany wanted to leave the communistic area. East Germans continuously tried to escape and find loopholes in the wall. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
This is a 13 day time of unnease between the United States versus Soviet Union and Cuba. This is also known as the time in which the Cold War almost became a nuclear war between the two. They Soviets wanted to put up a missle base in Cuba, but the US would not allow it. They demanded that the Soviets would publicly take down their bases/missles..and they complied. -
US Sends Man to the Moon
This was an extremely important event for the United States. The United States and the Soviet Union had been competing eachother in an international space race. President Kennedy had said that by the end of the decade he would have a man on the moon. The Apollo 11 was launched. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. -
US Invades Grenada
The US initially invaded Grenada because President Reagan had claimed that this Carribbean Island posed a national security threat on the United States. Reactions to the invasion in Grenada were positive within the United States, but the reaction internationally viewed the invasion very controversial. The US won control over Grenada's government and viewed it as a huge victory. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall was originally put up by the Germans to completely cut off East Germany and West Germany. Guard towers and a "death area" surrounded the wall in order to keep people in/out. Protest demonstrations broke out all over Germany. Demolition of the wall began in November 1989 and continued until the whole thing was removed in October 1990. -
Collapse of Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was only officially collapsed and dissolved by 1991. This marked the official end of the cold war. The USSR was finally brought down and didn't exist any longer after this date. The fifteen republics of the Soviet Union were officially liberated when the USSR was brought down. Boris Yeltsin was the first democratically elected president in Russia, who had defeated the communism-favoring Nikolai Ryzhkov. Russia was now born.
