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Yalta Conference
At Yalta Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan. All three agreed that in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following. -
Potsdam Conference
According to the Protocol of the Conference there was to be a complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany all aspects of German industry that could be utilized for military purposes were to be dismantled. All German military and paramilitary forces were to be eliminated and the production of all military. -
Creation of the United Nations
The United Nations was 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. -
Berlin Blockade
Joseph Stalin the Soviet leader imposed the Berlin Blockade cutting off all land and river transit between West Berlin and West Germany. The Western Allies responded with a massive airlift to come to West Berlin's aid. -
Creation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was 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
North Korea supported by the Soviet Union invaded the south on the 25 June 1950 which was supported by the United States. The three-year war was exceptionally bloody and led to the deaths of 3 million people and tens of thousands of casualties. -
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was 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
The space race played a significant part in the Cold War as the Americans and Soviets competed to prove their technological and intellectual superiority by becoming the first nation to put a human into space. From beginning to end the world's attention was captivated by this contest for dominance. -
Vietnam War
North Vietnam wanted to reunite the country under Communism its political and economic system. South Vietnam fought to keep this from happening The United States helped South Vietnam but North Vietnam won the war in 1975 Soon Vietnam was a united Communist country. -
Berlin crisis of 1961
East German police and military units sealed off all arteries leading to West Berlin. The communists pulled up train tracks and roads erected barriers topped with barbed wire completely isolating the Western sectors and preventing East Germans from escaping to the West. -
Cuban missile crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. During the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
Soviet Afghan War
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began Within days Soviet troops had been air-dropped into Afghan cities heavy artillery had breached the border and the KGB had poisoned the Afghan president and his ministers. The invasion sparked a bloody nine-year civil war. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Five days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest that the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled. East German leaders had tried to calm mounting protests by loosening the borders making travel easier for East Germans. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
The unsuccessful August 1991 coup against Gorbachev sealed the fate 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.