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The Truman Doctrine
In fear of communism spreading to Greece and Turkey, Truman proposed financial aid to both countries. Because both countries didn't like eachother, and Greece was in the middle of a civil war, and both of their governments were financially unstable and more vulnerable to communism; the United states gave the two countries $400 million dollars. -
The Marshall Plan
Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a plan that the USA should aid the struggling countries from WW2 economically and politically.Truman decided this was a good plan, and then created the Economic Cooperation act of 1948 to restore Europe's economy. -
Soviets Create and Test Nuclear Bomb
When the Soviets tested the first nuclear bomb, the after shock was the start of the nuclear arms race. The bomb the USSR tested had about the same power as the bomb the US dropped on Nagasaki to end WW2. This was a major suprise to the west, the United States had believed Russia to be years behind the United State's technology. -
The Korean War
The US got involved with what was basically a civil war in Korea to once agian, stop the spread of communism. Allied iwth North Korea was communist Russia and China, while the US sided with South Korea. There was no real winning side to this war, the end of it resulted in a stalemate. -
Rosenburg Spy Case
The Rosenburgs were husband and wife who were convicted of epionage and executed. They were convicted of passing along information about the development of the atomic bomb to Russia so Russia could advance the atomic bomb. -
The Warsaw Pact
After NATO was formed by Noth America and parts of Europe to put commuinism to a halt and keep the peace, the communists decided to creaste their own organization to counter NATO. it was signed By Albania, Poland, the USSR, German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumanians, and Czechoslovakia. this pact was createdbecause the soviets wanted to keep an eye on their allies. After a while this pact was brought to an end, as country after country dropped out. -
The Vietnam War
The United Sates got involved in the war to help French re-colonize Indochina that was taken from them in WW2 by the Japanese, and to prevent communisim from spreading to South Vietnam. The US and France were up agianst the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Nationalists. The US and France were not strong up to stand up agianst the Viet Cong and Northern Vietnamese Nationalists, and soon South Vietnam was overtaken by communism. -
Sputnik
The launch of Sputnik into space started the heated space race between the USSR and United States. Sputnik was an artificial satellite and could orbit the Earth in a matter of 98 minutes. This achievement by the USSR struck panic into the United States-the government feared that the Soviets would soon be able to send missiles from space. Almost immediately funding for sateillite projects went into effect. Not to be outdone by the USSR, the US began creating their own satelite. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt by the United sates to overthrow Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, who had taken US oil refinderies and businesses in Cuba two years before the invasion. -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
The Berlin wall wasn't completed all at once, but was rather a long building process in order to seal of East and West Berlin from eachother. When it was finished, the Berlin Wall was about eleven feet high and ninety six miles long. Khruchshev and the Red Army built this wall from preventing people from getting from East to West Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
On this date, Fidel Castro allowed Nikita Khrushchev to secertly build a missile base in Cuba to try to scare the United States into not building any more missiles. HOwever, President Kennedy was shown pictures of the missile base. Khrushchev then promised to take down the missiles as long as the United States Promised to to attack Cuba, to which the United States agreed. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
First of all, the wall was opened up for private trips, to and from East and West Berlin. After that, checkpoints were created for people to get in and out of. People claled woodpeckers would hammer off peices of the wall and sell them to tourists. The Berlin wall practically vanished by 1991, but a few reminders of the wall are still located near the German Parliment. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
In December of 1991, the Soviet Union split into fifteen different parts. The main three reasons the Soviet Union fell apart was because fifty percent of the USSR's population was not Russian, but from different ethnic backrounds. These people din't like the Russian rule they were under, and after Gorbachev adopted a policy of glasnost (free speech) and different peoples demasnded their freedom from the Russians. -
Creation of NATO
NATO was created as a result of the USSR taking over smaller countries in order to build up their army and avoid invasion. this also spread communism which worried North America and parts of Europe. In response to the USSR's tactics, NATO was formed to stop the spread of communism and is also a peace keeping organization still today. -
Detente
Detente is a french word meaning, "to relax" or "a release from tension". This is what history likes to call the release of tension between the United States and the USSR. The two countries decided to decrease their nuclear weapons in order to start putting an end to the Cold War.
