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Yalta Conference
To discuss Europe’s post-war reorganization, the heads of government from the United States (President Franklin D. Roosevelt), the United Kingdom (Prime Minister Winston Churchill), and the Soviet Union (General Secretary Joseph Stalin) met in the Livadia Palace near Yalta, in the Crimea. -
Potsdam Conference
Meeting in Potsdam, Germany, the “Big Three” (President Truman, Premier Stalin, Prime Minister Churchill) discussed post-war arrangements in Europe, without coming to many agreements. One result of the conference was the joint proclamation by the US, Great Britain and China fighting Japan. It ended with an ultimatum: Japan had to agree to an unconditional surrender. -
Truman Doctrine
Often considered the start of the Cold War, United States President Harry S. Truman introduced a policy stating that the US would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military air to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. His reasoning being, because these “totalitarian regimes” coerced “free peoples”, they represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. -
Marshall Plan
Initiated by Secretary of State George Marshall, this was the United States large-scale program to give monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II. The plan was in operation for four years. The goals included to rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and essentially make Europe prosperous again. -
Russian Blockade of Berlin
During post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies’ railway access to areas of Berlin. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practically all control over the city. This was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was in response to the Berlin Blockade, where the Western Allies organized to carry supplies to people in West Berlin for almost a year. Their success forced the Soviets to end the blockade, but this deepened the hostility between the two camps. -
Nuclear Arms Race
After the Manhattan Project during World War II, the Nuclear Arms Race began. This was a competition between the United States (NATO) and the Soviet Union (Warsaw Pact) on who could created the strongest, deadliest, nuclear weapons. It became very dangerous when the United States created the H-bomb in 1952, followed by the Soviet Union who created the same thing in 1953. During the 1960s a policy of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) developed, preventing an attack from either side. -
Korean War
Being the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War, the Korean War was between the Republic of Korea (which was supported by the UN) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (which was supported by China and the Soviet Union). The was was a result of the physical division of Korea (along the 38th Parallel) by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the end of the World War II. -
Rosenberg Spy Case
After passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg -- two American communists -- were convicted and executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. This was the first execution of civilians for espionage in United States history. -
Vietnam War
This was a Cold War-era military conflict between North Vietnam (supported by its communist allies) and South Vietnam (supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations), which took place in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. North Vietnam used guerilla warfare while South Vietnam relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower. -
Hungarian Uprising
Beginning as a student demonstration, this nationwide revolt attracted thousands as it marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building. This was against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and it's Soviet-imposed policies. -
U-2 Crisis
During the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower and leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union. The United States government at first denied the plane's purpose and mission, but then was forced to admit its role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its intact remains and surviving pilot, Francis Gary Powers, as well as photos of military bases in Russia taken by Powers. Coming rough -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful action where the CIA-trained Cuban exiles were to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Fidel Castro. The main invasion took place at a beach named Playa Girón, located at the mouth of the bay. The invasion is named after the Bay of Pigs, although that is only a modern translation of the Spanish Bahía de Cochinos. -
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The German Democratic Republic set up a barrier that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and East Berlin. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls. However, Berlin was not completely cut off from food and fuel -- the Berlin Airlift managed to send in supplies. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cold War, this was a confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other. After some unsuccessful operations by the US to overthrow the Cuban regime, the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of nuclear missiles with the ability to strike most of the continental United Sates. The United States considered attacking Cuba via air and sea, and settled on a military "quarantine" of Cuba. -
Prague Spring
This was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. It began when Alexander Dubček was elected the First Secretary of Communist Party, and continued when the Soviet Union invaded the country to halt the reforms.The reforms, especially the decentralization of administrative authority, were not received well by the Soviets, who,sent thousands of Warsaw Pact troops in to occupy Czechoslovakia. -
Tet Offensive
This was a military campaign during the Vietname War. It's purpose was to utilize the element of suprise and strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed take place.The operations are referred to as the Tet Offensive because there was a prior agreement to "cease fire" during the Tet festivities, but the Viet Cong broke the agreement, and launched an attack campaign. -
Détente
Détente is the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War. Détente ended after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, which led to America's boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Ronald Reagan's election as president in 1980, based on an anti-détente campaign, marked the close of Détente and a return to Cold War hostilities. -
Fall of South Vietnam
With US forces gone from the country, South Vietnam stood alone. The situation worsened in December 1974, when Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, cutting off all military aid. The province fell quickly and Hanoi pressed the attack. Surprised by the ease of their advance, against largely incompetent ARVN forces, the North Vietnamese stormed through the south, finally capturing Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered on April 30, 1975, following the fall of its capital. -
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy created and implemented 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 centerpiece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991. -
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s. This policy was associated with the Soviet leader Gorbachev along with his other major policy reform he introduced known as glasnost, meaning "openness". Perestroika is often argued to be a cause of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War. -
Collapse of the Berlin Wall
Berlin had been politically divided since the end of World War II, with the eastern portion of the city serving as the capital of the German Democratic Republic. The two parts of the city were physically divided in 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall, the most visible expression of the Cold War. When the Berlin Wall was opened on November 9, 1989 it marked for many the symbolic end of that war. -
End of the U.S.S.R.
The Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. The United States was happy that there enemy had been taken down, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe.
