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Russian Communist Revolution
Two Revolutions completetly changed Russia. The first revolution took over the Russian monarchy and established a Provisional Government. The second Russian revolution placed the Bolsheviks as the leaders of Russia which resulted in the world's first communist country. Without these revolutions there would be no Cold War and no fighting between the U.S. and Soviet Union. -
Treaty Of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles officially ended World War I, and led into WWII which eventully led to the Cold War. It forced Germany to take full responsibility for WWI and pay all war reparations. Germany was in depression and susceptible to dictator, Adolf Hitler, taking over. After WWII the U.S. and Soviet Union had a bad, tense relationship which led them into the Cold War. -
League of Nations
The League of Nations was the first internatinal organization who's main objective was to maintain world peace. The purpose was to make sure that a world war never broke out again. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was a meeting between British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt as World War II was coming to an end. While a number of important agreements were reached at the conference, tensions over European issues foreshadowed the crumbling of the Grand Alliance between U.S. and Soviet Union. This hinted that the Cold War would eventually come. -
United Nations
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization established to promote international co-operation. Most Americans hoped that the new organization would serve as a forum for settling international disagreements and a means for maintaining global peace. Over the next decades, the United Nations served as the scene for some of the more notable events in the Cold War. -
Nuremberg Trials
The purpose of the Nuremberg Trials was to punish the German leaders and bring Nazi war crimes to justice. The trials were held by the Allied forces of World War II. These trials are how the 2 superpowers began to come about in the Cold War. -
General Assembly
This is the only body in which every member of the group is represented and can vote. The General Assembly began at the beginning of the recovery from World War II. It created the United Nations Atomic Energy. They wanted to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction, meaning the atomic bomb. -
Iron Curtain Speech
In Winston Churchill's speech about the spread of Communism he gave a phrase that shocked the U.S. and Britain, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." He said that countires under soviet rule were behind the iron curtain. His speech changed the way the Democratic West viewed the Communist East, and many considered Churuchill's "iron curtain speech" the beginning of the Cold War. -
The Baruch Plan
The Baruch Plan established international control of atomic energy and weapons under the auspices of the United Nations. It was rejected by the Soviet Union because they feared that the U.S. would control weaponry. -
Truman Doctrine
This document was established by Harry Truman. The Truman Doctrine formed the beginning of the U.S. policy with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It states that the United States would provide military, political, and economic assistance to democratic nations under a threat from internal of external forces. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan proposed to rebuild the continent for political stability and a good world economy. George C. Marshall asked for American assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of Europe. Western Europe favorited the plan. This plan later restored European agricultural and industrial productivity. One of the reasons it was created was because of tensions between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. These tensions grew into the Cold War between two superpowers. -
Berlin Airlift
The cooperation between France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union broke down between 1947-1948. The Soviets interfered with the western traffic to and from Berlin. This is when the Berlin Blockade was built. To get back at the blockade, the western leaders constructed an airlift. This airlift consisted of 2,000,000 tons of food, coal, passengers, and other items into the city with 200,00 flights. -
NATO created
The likelihood of Communist expansion promoted the United States and 11 other western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was essentially a security pact, and stated that if one nation was to get attacked it would be like they all did. It reflected an important change in American foreign policy. For the first time since the 1700s, the U.S. had formally tied its security to that of nations in Europe. -
Nuclear Deterrent
During the Cold War the U.S. and Soviet Union built up a stockpile of weapons. The United States adopted nuclear deterrence which is the threat of using nuclear weapons to fight off an enemy attack. This made the Soviet Union not want to attack in fear of nuclear destruction. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
Chinese Communist leader, Mao Zedong, declared the creation of Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The "fall" of mainland China to communism led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades. -
Joseph McCarthy speech
In Joseph McCarthy's speech he declared that he had a list of 205 known members of the American Communist party. This warned the spead of Communism in America during the Cold War. Americans went crazy with the thought of rebellious communists living in the U.S. -
Korean War
The Korean War was between North and South Korea. North Korea sent 75,000 soliders across the 38th parallel in a surpise attack against South Korea (an American ally). This war began at the end of World War II from the tensions of the Cold War that came about afterwards. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact is also known as The Treaty Of Friendship. It was a military alliance between most East European countries that supported Communism.This pact was seen as a militaristic threat, an opponent to American capitalism and a sign of communist dominance. -
Sputnik Launched
The successful launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union shocks and frightens many Americans. The U.S. were caught off guard and feared that with the new invention the Soviets may have an advantage in the arms race, and the ability to launch missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to America. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The United States attemmpted to invade Cuba. On April 17th 1,300 exiles armed with U.S. weapons landed on the coast of Cuba. They tried to gain support from local populations, cross the island of Havana, and then overthrow Fidel Castro. Castro's army quickly defeated the U.S. army. As a result the U.S. stopped buying Cuban sugar. Castro then took over all U.S. businesses in Cuba. That is what lead Kennedy to authorize the Bay of Pigs Invasion which was an embarrassing fail for the U.S. -
Fidel Castro Proclaims Communist Cuba
Fidel Castro was the dictator, and it was said that Cuba was harboring nuclear missiles. This angered the U.S. so they invaded which caused an uproar. Fidel became allies with the Soviet Union and agreed to put missiles in Cuba which then led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. -
Building of Berlin Wall begins
Communist Government of the German Democratic Republic began to build a barbed wire and concrete wall between east and west Berlin. The purpose was to keep western "fascists" from getting into east Germany. It was mainly made to stem mass defections from east to west. -
Non-Proliferation Agreement
It was an agreement signed by several of the major nuclear and non-nuclear powers that pledged their cooperation in preventing the spread of nuclear technology and nuclear weapons. -
MAD
MAD, or Mutual Assured Destruction came about due to the Cold War. It assumes that each side has enough nuclear weaponry to destroy the other side, and that either side, if attacked for any reason by the other, would retaliate without fail with equal or greater force. MAD was initially meant to protect the United States from an attack. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cold War there was a tense confrontation between the U.S and Soviet Union known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy found out that the Soviet Union had missiles stationed in Cuba, and he decided to blockade Cuba so that no more missiles could enter. The disaster of nuclear war was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Khrushchev's offer to remove the missiles, and in return the U.S. had to remove their missiles in Turkey and promise not to invade Cuba. -
U.S. sends troops to Vietnam
This was the first commitment of American troops in South Vietnam. Both China and the Soviet Union threatened to interfer if the United States continued to apply its military on behalf of the South Vietnamese. In Moscow, Vietnamese and Chinese students supported by the authorities, attacked the U.S.
Britian and Austria supported the U.S. France on the other hand, did not. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was one of the most significant events in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite. This led America to rush to develop the technology that the Soviets already had, prompting the creation of the Apollo program. Apollo 11 was a mission to complete the first manned lunar landing. The mission was considered a great success, and was a win for the United States in the Space Race. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was constructed as a way of preventing East Germans from entering West Germany. It was not so much a boundary for West Germans wanting to enter the East, who were able to do so by obtaining a permit several weeks in advance. It didn't face much opposition by the western powers as its construction confirmed that the Soviet Union were not planning to take over West Berlin. -
Kent State Shootings
Students at Kent State were protesting against the United States for bombing Cambodia. Members of the Ohio National Guard fired in a crowd of demonstraters for their actions, killing 4 students and wounding 9. This resulted in a division between Vietnam. The U.S. wanted to help Southern Vietnam fight off Communism. -
SALT I
In the middle of the Cold War, a series of treaties were issued to reduce the build up of nuclear weapons. Leonid Brezhnev met with President Richard Nixon to come up with SALT I, a treaty that would contain the arms race. They came up with the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty (ABM) and the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. -
Fall of Saigon
Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces, and marked the end of the Vietnam War. This brought the unification of Vietnam as one Communist country. The Soviets were even more victorious because Vietnam was now a Communist country. This sparked more tension in the Cold war between the Soviets and U.S. -
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of China from 1978 to his retirement in 1992. He led China through far reaching economic reforms. -
Lech Walesa
In 1978, after being continually laid off for his concerns about the worker's rights, Lech Walesa became an activist and started the organizing efforts which led to the Solidarity movement in Poland. The Solidarity movement, as it gathered momentum started the process of the collapse of Communism. For his efforts he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and later became Poland's president from 1990-1995 -
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher was in office from 1979 to 1990 until she retired as prime minister. She became good friends with Ronald Reagan and together they helped end the Cold War. Her courage and leadership were important to Democracy's defeat of Communism. -
SALT II
Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter signed the SALT II treaty in Vienna. SALT II set more specific regulations on different missiles. Limits were set on the number of strategic launchers, and the various types of missiles. Each side was limited to no more then 2400 weapons systems. SALT II was never ratified due to tensions between the two countries. -
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II visited his homeland Poland, and during his later visits he was critical of Communism and showed support for the Solidarity movement. Pope's moral authority and support gave strength to the movement. Although it took another 10 years for Communism to collapse in Eastern Europe, Pope's visits for Poland, support of Solidarity movement, and his critisism of Communism are generally credited as contributing factors and seeds to the eventual collapse of Communism which ended the CW. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
The Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country. It was a watershed event of the Cold War, marking the only time the Soviet Union invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
On this day the Cold War began to come to an end around Eastern Europe. There was an announcement that at midnight the citizens of the GDR can cross the countries boarders. People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall while cranes and bulldozers pulled down sections. The people of East and West Berlin imediately flocked to eachother's side at midnight. As soon as the wall was down Berlin was united. The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990 -
START I/II
START I was the first treaty to reduce nucler weapons for the United States and Soviet Union. It provides limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. START II eliminated heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles. The treaty reduced the total number of strategic nuclear weapons by the U.S. and Soviet Union.