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Stalin
Joseph Stalin was a Soviet dictator. He was a communist. HS: Stalin was a very cruel leader and sent millions to Gulag labor camps. -
United Nations
Delegates from 50 nations met in San Francisco to draft a charter for the United Nations. Under it, each member got one vote in the General Assembly. The five permanent members were the Soviet Union, United States, Britain, France, and China.The goal was to ensure peace. HS: United Nations is still there today, but it's work also includes economic development, disease prevention, and refugee protection. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was a much longer series of concrete walls, barbed wire, and watchtowers that ran along the border between East and West Germany. HS: The Iron Curtain divided the democratic West and the communist East. -
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh led guerrilla forces in Vietnam. He was a nationalist and communist who fought againt the Japanese. He was also in the First Indochina War. Ho aided the National Liberation Front or Viet Cong. HS: Ho tried to unite Vietnam under comminost rule, but never succeeded. The South Vietnamese capital was renamed Ho Chi Minh in honor of the great leader of 1976. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine follows the idea of containment, limiting communism to the areas that were already under Soviet Control. President Harry Truman of the United States formed the idea. HS: The Truman Doctrine made sure that Americans would resist Soviet expansion. It also guided the United States for decades. -
The Marshall Plan
The United States came up with the Marshall Plan to strenghten democratic governments. It was a huge aid package for postwar hunger and poverty. The U.S. gave food and economic assistance to help countries rebuild in Europe.The plan was created by George Marshall. HS: The Marshall Plan allowed the war damaged countried in Europe to recover and rebuild much quicker. It also strenghtened the split between East and West Germany. -
European Economic Cooperation
The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation came from the Marshall Plan. It had 18 members who worked to establish a permanent organisation to create a reform policy and to supervise the distribution of aid to countries. HS: It helped to create a recovery policy and also led to the development of many others reform and aid organizations. -
Berlin Airlift
Stalin had tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by sealing off every entry into the city. The Western Allies responded to this by setting up a round-the-clock airlift that lasted for more than a year. Cargo planes supplied people in West Berlin with food, fuel, etc. HS: This event was historically significant because it forced the Soviets to end their blockade in Berlin. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Twelve nations came together to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after WWII which was led by the United States. HS: NATO played a very important role in winning the Cold War. -
Peoples Republic of China
The People's Republic of China was formed when Mao Zedong led his Communist forces to victory and China became under Communist control. It was a one-party totalitarian state. HS: The People's Republic of China was what finally brought China under Communist rule. -
Korean War
The Korean War was fought between North and South Korea for power over the entire country. The United States backed up South Korea and China backed up North Korea. The war became a stalemate and both sides signed an armistice in1953. HS: After the war, the two sides of Korea developed separately. North Korea became a communist command economy and South Korea became a capitalist market economy. -
Explosion of the First Hydrogen Bomb
The United States tested the first hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok in the Pacific. It followed the denotation of the Soviets dropping an atomic weapon a few years before. HS: The test of the hydrogen bomb gave the United States a lead in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. -
Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev became the new Soviet leader after Stalin's death. He maintained the Communist Party's control, but shut down prison camps and eased censorship. He was a determined warrior. HS: Under Khrushchev, the Soviets were granted greater freedom of speech. -
KGB (Committee for State Security)
The KGB was the security agency of the Soviet Union government. It had many tasks and goals, but the five main ones were assistance in governing the Soviet Union, suppression of internal resistance, protecting leaders, ensuring economic efficiency, criminal investigations, enforcing morals, and punishments. HS: The KGB was involved in all aspects of the Soviet Union since 1954. -
Geneva Accords
The Geneva Accords were a number of written documents that were supposed to end the war after France had realized the could not keep fighting. It allowed Vietnam to become an independent nation. HS: These documents gave up Vietnam from French rule and caused Vietnam to be split into two sections, North and South. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union's response to the NATO. It was let by the Soviet Union but also included seven other satellites in Eastern Europe. The countries were communist by name, but actually practiced a dictatorship. HS: The Warsaw Pact cemented the devision of Europe into the "eastern" and "western." -
Suez Canal/ Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in Egypt. His goal was to modernize Egypt and stop Western domination. For this reason, he nationalized the Suez Canal. HS: This ended the British and French control. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union rebuilt its nation after WWII by using most of their resources for science and technology research. They launched Sputnik I which was the first artificial satellite. HS: The launch of Sputnik marked the beginning of the space age. -
Berlin Wall is Erected
The Berlin Wall was a massive concrete barrier that was built to keep the East Germans out of West Berlin. The wall was patrolled by guards and had barbed wire all along the top. HS: The Berlin Wall created even stronger tensions between democratic West and communist East. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union was sending nuclear missiles to Cuba and President Kennedy responded by setting up a naval blockade on Cuba. The Soviets finally agreed to move the missiles on October 28, and the war was resolved. HS: This event was the peak of people's fear of a nuclear attack. It caused Americans to build fallout shelters and schools to have air-raid drills in case of an attack. -
Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev was Nikita Khrushchev's successor from 1964 until he died in 1982. Under his rule, opposers suffered arrest and imprisonment. HS: Brezhnez was the First Party Secretary of the Communist Party and was also President of the Supreme Soviet. -
Tet Offensive
Guerilla forces came out of the jungles and attacked American and South Vietnamese forces in cities all across the south. HS: This marked a turning point in public opinion in the US. -
Helsinki Accords
All nations signed the Helsinki Accords to guarantee basic rights. HS: The Helsinki Accords granted freedom of speech, religion,and the press as well as the rights to a fair trial, to earn a living, and and to live in safety. -
Vietnam
Vietnam was divided between Communist North Vietnam and Democratic South Vietnam. South Vietnam was supported by the U.S. HS: North Vietnam eventually took over the South when the U.S. dropped out. -
Iranian hostage crisis
A group of Iranian students took over 60 innocent American hostagse after President Carter allowed the Iran Shah into the U.S. for cancer treatment. The Iranians held the Americans hostage for 444 days before they let them go on Jan. 21, 1981. HS: This event is what cost Jimmy Carter's second term as president. -
Russian Invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviets invaded the country of Afghanistan. The war quickly settled into a stalemate. HS: The Afghanistan war eventually helped lead to the downfall of the Soviet Union because of the major loss they had in their troops. -
Moscow Olympics
In the Summer Olympics of 1980, 65 countries led by the United States boycotted the event because of the War in Afghanistan. Some of the participating olympians from the boycotting countries still competed. HS: This event led to the Soviet Union's response to boycott the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984. -
Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement in Poland
Lech served as President of Poland and was a co-founder of the Solidarity which was the Soviet's first independent trade union. HS: Lech was the first democratic president of Poland and founded his own political party which became a free-market economy. -
Los Angeles Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California. Fourteen Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the games inresponse to the Americans boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. HS: These boycotts led to the creation of the event called the Friendship Games. These games were a competition between the U.S. and the USSR. -
Perestroika and Glasnost
Perestroika and glasnot were a few of Gorbachev's many reform ideas. Glasnot meant openness. Perestroika meant restructuring as in restructuring the goverment and economy. HS: These were some of Gorbachev's reforms that led to the downfall of the Soviet Empire. -
Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985 and brought along many new reforms. He called for openness and ended censorship. He pushed for restructuring the government and economy. His reforms brought unrest across the Soviet Union. HS: Gorbachev's reforms eventually brought economic turmoil and led to the fall of the Soviet Empire. -
Chernobyl
Chernobyl was a nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union.There was an accident that exposed crops, people, and animals to fatal radiation. HS: The accident sparked a great debate about the hazards of nuclear power. It also led the government to take better safety precautions. -
Tiananmen Square
Thousands of students, occupied Tiananmen Square which was a huge public plaza at the center of China's capital, Beijing. They called for democracy. Many were killed by the gov't. This became known as Tiananmen Square Massacre. HS: This event proved the Communist's fear of losing control. -
Berlin Wall is Torn Down
Tearing down the Berlin Wall was viewed as a symbol of freedom. People from all over the world came to the wall with hammers and many other tools to help bring down the Berlin Wall. However, it took much a few weeks to completely take down the wall. HS: After the Berlin Wall was torn down, the East and West Germans were able to move towards reunification. -
Yeltsin
Yeltsin promised to transform Russia's command economy into a free market economy and provided shock therapy. HS: Most of his time in power was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, collapse, and political problems. -
End of the USSR
When Gorbachev became the new leader, his policies and reformsled to economic turmoil. His policies created unrest across the world and many countries began to break away from the Soviet power. HS: The lasting Soviet republics went on to create 12 independent nations and after 69 years, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. -
Putin
Putin was elected President of Russia. He promised to end corruption and build the economy into a strong market economy. HS: He was questioned for fear that he was becoming more autocratic than democratic and many people protested his policies.
