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Yalta conference
World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. The three states were represented by President Franklin D. -
Potsdam conference
The main objective of the Potsdam Conference was to finalize a post-war settlement and put into action all the things agreed at Yalta. -
Creation of the united nations
established after World War II in an attempt to maintain international peace and security and to achieve cooperation among nations on economic, social, and humanitarian problems. Its forerunner was the League of Nations, an organization conceived under similar circumstances following World War I. -
Second red scare
The Second Red Scare, which occurred immediately after World War II, was preoccupied with the perception that national or foreign communists were infiltrating or subverting American society and the federal government. -
Truman doctrine
established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces -
creation of nato
created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. -
Korean war
After three years of fighting, the war ended in a stalemate with the border between North and South Korea near where it had been at the war's beginning. -
Cuban revolution
a social and armed conflict led by Fidel Castro to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. Many people in Cuba were unhappy with the social and racial inequality, the corruption, and the lack of justice of Batista's regime. -
Space race
An important element of the Cold War was the Space Race, in which both countries raced to build new technologies to be used for space exploration with President John F. Kennedy eventually setting his sights on the Moon. -
Vietnam war
a long, costly, and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
Suez crisis
the Egyptian Government seized control of the Suez Canal from the British and French owned company that managed it, had important consequences for U.S. relations with both Middle Eastern countries and European allies. -
Bay of pigs invasion
an abortive invasion of Cuba in April 1961 by some 1,500 Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro. The invasion was financed and directed by the U.S. government. -
Soviet-afghan war
over fear that the growing Muslim population in Soviet Central Asia threatened the Soviet control. The war lasted ten years, and the Soviet Union received a devastating defeat. Prior to the Soviet invasion, there were several leadership changes within Afghanistan. -
Chernobyl disaster
a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union. The accident and the fire that followed released massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment. -
Fall of the soviet union
Planned by hard-line Communists, the coup diminished Gorbachev's power and propelled Yeltsin and the democratic forces to the forefront of Soviet and Russian politics.