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The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism. Northern Vietnamese troops werre aided by the USSR while the Southern Vietnamese troops were aided by the US. The war resulted in a Northern Vietnamese victory and the unification of North and South Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. -
The Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. However, the attack failed. Prior to the attack, Cuba and the USSR became allies making this an important event in the Cold War. -
Creation of the Berlin Wall
Berlin WallOn August 13th 1961, "shock workers" from East Germany and Russia shut off the border between the Soviet and west Berlin using barbed wire. By August 16th, the barbed wire was being removed and replaced with a wall of concrete blocks. Within days West Berlin was surrounded by a wall four meters high. For president Kennedy, U.S. credibility was at stake. A failure in Berlin could disrupt NATO and weaken American influence in West Germany, the key to the balance of power in Europe. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During 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, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. The Cuban missile crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. -
Moon Landing
The race for space was another dramatic aspect for Cold War competition. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959. The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969. Sending a man to the moon and successfully bringing him back to earth in 1969 trumped the Soviets' ventures into space and put the United States in the lead in the Cold War. -
SALT I and SALT II
The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) refers to two arms control treaties (SALT I and SALT II) that were negotiated over ten years, from 1969 to 1979. The two treaties became the basis of all subsequent arms control agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union. SALT I was signed in 1972, and SALT II in 1979. The first one was ratified by both sides; the second one was observed without being ratified.
