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Detente
During the course of the Cold War, tensions rose and fell many times. One period of relaxation became known as "Détente," a French word meaning "release of tensions." This course of relaxation hoped for permanent improvement in relations between the US and Soviet Union, but differences with the two created many conflicts. -
Yalta Conference
Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin agreed to meet to discuss war strategy and issues that would affect the postwar world. the allied leaders had previously met in November 1943 at the Tehran Conference. Seeking a
neutral site for the meeting, Roosevelt suggested a gathering somewhere on the Mediterranean. In lieu of the Mediterranean, Stalin proposed the black sea resort of
Yalta. -
Potsdam Conference
Meeting of the principal allies in the world warII to clarify and implement the agreements previously reached in the Yalta
Conference. Stalin had promised to enter the war with Japan three months after the defeat of Germany. The US had the atomic bomb and was going to use it against the Japanese atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stalinʼs main concern at Potsdam was to obtain economic help. Unlike at Yalta peoples attitudes had changed. Stalin thought it was an important that Roosevelt died -
Truman Doctrine
A policy set forth by the United States president Harry S Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947 stating that the United States would support Greece and
Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet Sphere. "The policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." -
The Marshall Plan
The largest scale American program to aid Europe where the US gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of world war II in order to combat the spread of the soviet communism. The plan was in
operation for four years beginning in april 1948. The goal of the United States was to build regions that were hurt. -
The Berlin Crisis
The Berlin Crisis was not only critical, it was also an unusually long crisis, lasting eleven months and a highly complex one. Britain actively participated, alongside America and France, at all these different levels. their aim was to force the
Western Powers to allow Soviet Xone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel. -
The Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift carried supplies to the people in West Berlin.
They recently independent united states air force and the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force flew over 200,000 flights in one year, providing necessities such as fuel and food to the
people of Berlin. -
Nuclear Arms Race
A frantic era in which several nations tested several types of nuclear technology and acquired thousands of nuclear warheads. This was made in an effort for the US and Soviets to be better than eachother and get ahead of one another. Whoever had the best technology had the most power, but this was a much more dangerous game because the potential of a nuclear war was always there. -
Rosenberg Spy Case
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are regarded as the leaders of the
Soviet Union's “atomic spy ring” in the early 1950ʼs. Julius and Ethel were convicted of espionage during war time, sentenced to death, and executed on june 19 1953. They were indeed engaged in the espionage against the US. The Rosenbergʼs were the last big time ideological spies of the US. -
The Korean War
The Korean War began with 75,000 soldiers for North Korean people at the 28th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet- Backed Democracy. By July, American troops had entered the war to help the South Korean side of the war. The only concern that the Americans had was the expansion of Communism. Americans were trying to talk it through with the North Koreans and they didn't know if it would led to a much bigger war with Russia and China, leading to
world war III. -
The Vietnam War
The US's Cold War foreign policy began to play a major part in Vietnam. US policy was dominated by the domino theory, which believed that the fall of North Vietnam to Communism will bring Southeast Asia down with it. This set off a Communist chain reaction. The United States began to offer support to the anti-Communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem. With U.S. assistance, Diem took control of the South Vietnamese governement; the Viet Cong -
The Hungarian Uprising
Students and workers took to the streets of Budapest (the capital of Hungary) and issued their Sixteen Points which included personal freedom, more food, the removal of the secret police& the removal of Russian control. Poland had already been granted rights in 1956 which had been gained by street protests and displays of rebellion. Hungary followed and on October 31 removed themselves from the Warsaw Pact. On November 4, Soviet tanks went into Budapest to restore order& they killed the wounded -
U-2 Crisis
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet Air Space and captured its pilot, Francis Gray Powers. He was confronted with the evidence of his nations espionage. The Soviets convicted powers on espionage charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
This invasion was an unsuccessful attempt by the United States (backed cuban exiles) to overthrow the government of the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro. The Central Intelligence Agency had been training anti- revolutionary Cuban exiles for a possible invasion of the island. The failure of the invasion was a serious embarrassment of the young Kennedy Administration. -
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier that surrounded West Berlin and prevented access to it from East Berlin and areas of East Germany. East German troops began to tear up streets to install barbed wire fences through Berlin, which was the original Berlin Wall. It was constructed of cider blocks but was later replaced by a series of concrete walls that topped with the barbed wire and reinforced with guard dog patrols, 466 guards on duty with machine-guns in the watchtowers, and mines everywhere -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the Arms Race, Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential US attack. -
Tet Offensive
During the Tet holiday cease-fire in South Vietnam 80,000 troops of the North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front attacked cities and military establishments throughout South Vietnam. Most of the attacks were turned back, with the communist forces suffering nearly 40,000 Communist losses. This shocked the US who thought the troops were coming home. -
Prague Spring
Alexander Dubček became first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, who attempted to create “socialism with a human face” in Czechoslovakia in order to gain popular support for the Communist government, who was in an economic trouble. Control of the press was loosened, accountability for police and security forces was promised, and plans were made to move toward a consumer economy to meet better the needs of the people. -
Fall of South Vietnam
President Minh surrendered the capital city of Saigon and the rest of South Vietnam to North Vietnam on April 30, 1975.
The United States undertook a massive evacuation of its embassy in Saigon. The evacuees included US government personnel as well South Vietnamese who had aided the US throughout the war. The evacuation was forced to stop by the US Navy. All marines were evacuated, but thousands of South Vietnamese waited atop the U.S. Embassy for helicopters that never came. -
Perestroika
Also known as, "reconstruction." Perestroika was introduces by Gorbachev which called for economic and political reform of the USSR. Despite great propaganda the Soviet economy was collapsing with poor management, low growth, bad quality products, and huge amounts of resources spent on the Cold War’s arms race. Gorbachev believed the nation could remain a socialist economy, as opposed to a market economy, if key changes were made, including the closure of the Cold War. -
Collapse of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall had begun with the building of the Wall in 1961, but it took about three decades to tear it down. People trapped in the Communist countries rised up against the Communist system but they failed several times. Finally the East German government announced that the wall was open and people were shocked. They came to see that they were letting people out and people chiseled the wall down, merging both sides. -
Regan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy made by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War. While the doctrine lasted less than a decade, it was the US's foreign policy from the 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The U.S. provided aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to "roll back" Communist governments. This doctrine ended Communism and encouraged Socialism. -
End of USSR
The official end to the Cold War. The Soviet Union split up into fifteen separate countries. For the West, this meant a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reform of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe.
