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North Korea invades South Korea
The Korean War began when 75K soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army charged across the 38th parallel. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. It was a war against the forces of international communism. The U.S reaction was instead of requesting a declaration of war from Congress, Truman worked through the United Nations Security Council. The Soviet Union was boycotting the Council and the United States secured a Security Council resolution allowing armed intervention. -
U.S. sponsored coup overthrows Iranian government
With the support and financial assistance of the United States gov., the Iranian gov. overthrows the gov. of Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of Iran. Iran remained a solid Cold War ally of the U.S until a revolution ended the Shah’s rule. The military then overthrew Mossadeq. As a result, the Shah returned to take power and, as thanks for the American help, signed over 40 percent of Iran’s oil fields to U.S. companies. -
U.S refused to sign Geneva Accords
An agreement was made to split Vietnam at the 17th parallel. The Geneva Accords reached an agreement in 1954 in order to bring the end to the first Indochina war of Vietnam against France that lasted from 1946-1954. The U.S. refused to sign the Geneva Accord because the United States felt it gave too much power to the Communist North. So, the United States did not sign at Geneva but instead made their own stating that they are not against the treaty and are also not going to abide by its rules. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. The warrsaw Pact included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. The treaty called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state. Eisenhower singled out the Soviet threat in his doctrine by authorizing the commitment of U.S. forces “to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism.” -
The Kitchen Debate
Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev got into a heated debate about capitalism and communism in the middle of a model kitchen set up for the fair. Nixon suggested that Khrushchev’s constant threats of using nuclear missiles could lead to war, and he chided the Soviet for constantly interrupting him while he was speaking. Khrushchev warned of “very bad consequences.” The result was Soviet leader said he simply wanted “peace with all other nations, especially America. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro.The attack was a failure.The ultimate goal was to overthrow Castro and establish a non-communist government friendly to the United States. The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on Kennedy's administration. In order to make up for the failed invasion, the administration initiated Operation Mongoose, a plan to sabotage the Cuban government. -
Kennedy gave a speech that the U.S would put an American on the moon
President Kennedy understood the need and had the vision of not only matching the Soviets, but surpassing them. He stood before Congress and proclaimed that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” On September 12, 1962, President Kennedy delivered a speech describing his goals for the nation’s space effort before a crowd of 35,000 people. He made his goal happenen and landed on moon. -
Berlin Wall
The Communist government of the German Democratic Republic, East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state. The U.S helped seperate East and West and the communist built the wall. This was a leading factor to the Cold War. -
U.S. sends troops to the Dominican Republic.
President Lyndon B. Johnson sends more than 22,000 U.S. troops to restore order on the island nation. He wanted to forestall a communist dictatorship. Johnson’s action caused many protests in Latin America and eerieness among many in the United States. The outcome was the United States convinced the OAS to send an international peace-force to replace the American forces, and within a year, free elections were held in the Dominican Republic, and all American troops were withdrawn. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba. In a TV address, President John Kennedy made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize the threat to national security. Many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. -
Partial Test Ban Treaty
Representatives of the U.S, Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater or in the atmosphere. Officials from both nations believed that the nuclear arms race was reaching a unsafe level and public protest against the testing of nuclear weapons was increasing. President Kennedy signed 3 months before his assassination. It was an important first step toward the control of nuclear weapons. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam War. Military planners had developed a detailed design for major attacks on the North. Johnson announced that the North Vietnamese had attacked U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson sent airplanes against the North Vietnamese and asked Congress for a resolution that supported his actions.The number of U.S troops doubles to more than 20,000. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968. It was the first major act of attack in the war. This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam’s Communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam. 200,000 US troops there; first major conventional clash between USA and NVA at Ia Drang. -
Tet Offensive was the turning point
It was a coordinateed assault on 36 provinical capitials and 5 major cities and well as the U.S embassy in Saigon. The communist planned to take and hold the cities until the urban population took up arms in their support. They thought this would end the war but the fighting was fierce and in the end Americna and South Vietnamese forces repelled the offensive and there was no popular uprising agaisnt the government of South Vietnam. IT was a strategic blow to the Americans. -
Vietnamization
Richard Nixon introduced Vietnamization that was aimed at ending American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. The war created division in American society so Nixon believed Vietnamization which involved building up South Vietnam’s military strength in order to withdrawal U.S. troops, would prepare the South Vietnamese to take responsibility for their own defense against a Communist takeover and allow the U.S. to leave the conflict. -
Nixon Opened up to China
"There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation."-Nixon. Relations between the two communist powers, the Soviet Union and China, had been deteriorating since the 1950s. The President sensed opportunity. The announcement that the President would make a trip to Beijing shocked America. Nixon's visit to China in Feb. was widely televised and heavily viewed. It was only a first step in the building between the two states. -
Nixon created easement with the Soviet Union
The announcement of the Nixon going to Beijing produced an immediate improvement in American relations with the U.S.S.R.. Nixon got an invitation to meet with Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev in Russia. It was a sign that Nixon's effort was working; fear of improved relations between China and America was leading the Soviets to better their own relations with America, just as Nixon hoped. In meeting with the Soviet leader, Nixon became the first President to visit Moscow. -
Paris Peace Treaty ends the American role in Vietnam
The Paris Peace Accords, officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam, was a peace treaty to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The treaty included the governments of North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the U.S as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG). It ended direct U.S. military combat and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. The agreement was not ratified by the United States Senate. -
North Vietnam conquers South; refugees sent to U.S
The North Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies and the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand. The war is therefore considered a Cold War-era proxy war. Gradual withdrawal of U.S. ground forces began as part of "Vietnamization", which ended American involvement in the war. Over 1 million refugees eventually come to the US.
