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The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was help that the United States provided to Europe to help improve European economies after WWII in order to prevent spread of Soviet Communism. The Cold War was coming up and the US was trying to prevent it this way. -
Creation of NATO
As Soviet Communism was threatening to spread, the US and 11 other nations decided to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In return, the Communists formed the Warsaw Pact, and conflict occured between the two. -
Korean War
25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953. North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations decided to defend South Korea and President Harry Truman sent U.S. ground, air, and naval forces. After avoiding defeat, the UN army threw back the North Koreans and chased them north. -
US creates and tests the hydrogen bomb
The US had produced the biggest ever man-made explosion in the Pacific archipelago of Bikini at the time. It was believed to be up to 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. -
Creation of the Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a treaty between eight communist states of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The treaty was between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, which was signed in Poland in 1955 and was officially called The Treaty of Friendship. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was the struggle between forces attempting to unite the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism. The US engaged in a war that many though to have no way to win. US leaders lost the American public's support for the war. Since the end of the war, the Vietnam War has become a precedent for what not to do in the future with conflicts. -
Soviet launch Sputnik
The Scviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The launch showed new political, military, technological, and scientific developments and advancements. The US felt like they had lost the so called Space Race and needed to answer. They successfully launched Explorer I the next year in response to the Soviets. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful attempt by United States backed Cubans to try to overthrow the government of the dictator Fidel Castro. About 1300 exiles, armed with U.S. weapons, landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern side of Cuba. They hoped to find support from the local population,and then they intended to cross the island to Havana. The invasion was stopped short of 2 days. 90 exiles were killed, and the rest were taken prisoners. -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
The Berlin Wall was the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany. The Berlin Wall was created in the middle of the night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. It was also a symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
An American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba. After discussing what to do with his advisors, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. This action was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. -
The Six Day War
The war was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The main cause of the Six Day War was an increase in tension between Israel and its Arab neighbours during the mid 1960s. -
US sends a man to the moon
The Soviets had been beating the US in every space competition there was. Starting from the Sputnik, to sending a man out into space. Kennedy felt he needed to respond by sending a man to the moon. Everyone thought this was a dream, but Kennedy wanted to make it a reality. In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. -
1980 Olympic Hockey game
Commonly called "Miracle on Ice" was the hockey game between the US and Soviet Union. The US team, filled with amateur and collegiate players, had to face a Soviet Union team which had won almost every world championship and Olympic tournament since 1954. The US scored in the last second to secure the win against the Soviets. -
German Reunification/Fall of Berlin Wall
The East German Communist Party announced that citizens could cross the border whenever they pleased. That same night, crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989 -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
On Decemeber 25, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, and handed over the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes to Russian President Boris Yeltsinwas. The USSR formally dissolved on 26 December 1991. The dissolution of the world's first and largest Communist state also marked an end to the Cold War.
