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Stalin's Hostile Speech
Stalin had given a speech to voters in Moscow and said that communism and capitalism were incompatible. Many think his speech could have caused the tension at the beginning of the Cold War. -
Operation Crossroads
Demonstration of America's atomic arsenal.
Two detonations (each had yield of 23 kilotons):
1. ABLE - altitude of 520 feet on July 1
2. BARKER - 90 feet underwater on July 25 -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman gave a statement to Congress for four hundred million dollars for aid in Greece and Turkey, both economically and militarily. He also stated that the United States should start supporting people who were resisting takeovers by "armed minorities." -
Rio Pact
(Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance) signed by 21 American republics. Stated that any attack or threat on one of the nations that signed would be an attack or threat on all of them. -
Truman's Loyalty Program
Program set out to catch Cold War spies -
Brussels Pact
Signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to protect Europe from communism. -
Marshall Plan
Signed by President Truman after World War II. It gave around five billion dollars in aid to European countries like: the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and West Germany. It was named after George Marshall, an army general and Truman’s secretary of state. -
Period: to
Cold War
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Creation of NATO
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was a defensive military alliance between Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. It was created in response to the increased Western European fear of the Soviets. It promised that if one was attacked on, it would be regarded as an attack on all. -
Soviet Atomic Bomb Test
USA was shocked that USSR had nuclear power yet and made them question their own safety, since both of them no possesed such power. After finding out about this, President Truman told USA to build up their nuclear power and resources to stop the USSR from making an impact. -
Korean War
North Korea invaded South Korea. North Korea was turning to Communism whereas South Korea were Nationalists. United States backed up South Korea, and the Chinese helped out North Korea. -
Rosenberg Spy Case
Married couple Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both arrested of conspiricy to commit espionage, and were sentenced to death in an electric chair. Julius was arrested on July 17, 1950, and Ethel was arrested on August 11 of the same year. They were accused of leading a "spy ring" that leaked top secret information about an atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. -
KGB
KGB: the Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopanosti of the Soviet Union. The KGB was the world’s largest spy and state-security machine, and it was basically involved in people's everyday life.The KGB was used to gather intelligence in other nations, conduct counterintelligence, maintain the secret police, the KGB military corps and the border guards, suppress internal resistance, and conduct electronic espionage. -
Creation of Warsaw Pact
When West Germany rearmed and joined NATO, the Soviet Union created its own military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact with Easter European countries, like East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. -
Vietnam War
Between North and South Vietnam, because of the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam. US got involved in the war, and more than three million people died. The war ended in 1975 when the communists took over. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union launched the satellite, Sputnik, successfully into space. It was the size of a beach ball, and took ninety eight minutes to orbit Earth. Launched the start of the 'space race.' -
The Kitchen Debate
Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev toured through the American National Exhibition together and began to debate about the type of kitchen Russians and Americans could afford and what each could produce. Definitely not a planned debate. -
France Tests A-Bomb
Detonated their first atomic bomb in Algeria, making them the fourth country with atomic power, along with United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom. -
Bay of Pigs
1,400 Cuban exiles trained by the CIA landed on the Bay of Pigs in order to distract Castro's forces, but the plan ended up failing and 20,000 Cuban troops surrounded the exiles and either killed them or took some as prisoners. -
Berlin Wall Goes Up
Ended the Berlin Crisis, where three million East Germans fled into West Berlin, therefore making East Germany's Communist government begin to fail and drop down the country's economy. It was put up to be a barrier between East and West Berlin, cutting the city in two. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
Kennedy informed the United States that the Soviet Union had missle sites in Cuba, and planned on removing them. He also said that any missle attack from Cuba would launch an attack on the Soviet Union. For six days the entire world anticipated the possiblity of a nuclear war. -
Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
Signed in Moscow by United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union that banned all nuclear testing unless it was conducted underground. -
Assassination of President Kennedy
While riding in a car campaigning in Texas, John F. Kennedy was shot in the neck and head. Soon after being pronounced dead, Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's Vice, was sworn in on Air Force One. -
China Develops A-Bombs
After successfully making atomic bombs, China became as powerful as the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and France. -
Man on the Moon
After the launch of Sputnik, the US knew they had to out-do the USSR. Kennedy made a speech to Congress saying that they will have a man sent to the moon before the decade ends. Later, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the moon, thanks to President Kennedy and NASA for making the dream become a reality. -
Publication of Pentagon Papers
Documents that were published by the New York Times containing information on the USA involvement in a war in southeast Asia. The government ended up winning a court order restraining anymore publication after three articles had shown up. The Nixon Administration created the Plumbers unit to prevent leaks like that from happening again. -
Olympics in Munich
USA were expected to win gold for Basketball in 1972 since they already had a winning record, and when they beat Italy, they were fighting for gold with the Soviet Union. It was a close game, and USA was down 48-49 with three seconds left, a free throw was shot and made, along with the second, putting USA ahead 50-49. But since the Soviet Union got up and protested the free throws to the refs, they got to set up a last second play, putting the Soviet Union winning gold with a final score: 51-50. -
SALT II
Signed in Vienna by Jimmy Carter and Leonid I. Brezhnev. Agreement between US and Soviet Union that set equal limits for missle launchers and strategic bombs, but not Cruise missels. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
The Soviets said they were invited in by the Amin government and were not invading and that they were supposed to support a serious government. Soviet soldiers ended up shooting prime minister, Hazifullah Amin, and put Babrak Kamal into power. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
Marked the end of the Cold War, covered ninety six miles. President Reagan was the one who said "tear down this wall." -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
After the Soviet Union began collapsing, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned. The Soviet Union broke apart into fifteen seperate countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
