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The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a time when people began to revolt with political and social issues. It ended the time period of a monarchy system and ultimately created what we now know as the Soviet Union. Bolsheviks created an uproar which consisted of the lower and middle classes wanted the end of the war, land and bread for the people. -
The Atomic Bombs
After the first bomb was dropped the Soviet Union instantly had both fear and motivation. The Soviet Union knew that the balance between the two countries was now lost and that there military was inferior to that of the U.S. Warfare has now become more about the threat of war then actual fighting. If a nuclear weapon is used it will most likely end in total warfare and destroy potentially the entire country. -
The Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was a meeting between Harry S Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin about how to handle Germany which had surrendered unconditionally and to secure peace. Problems arose during the conference after Stalin felt Churchill and Truman were teaming up against him because they wanted a democracy free Europe. -
The Long Telegram
An 8,000 word dispatch from George F Kennan an american diplomat stationed in Moscow had deciphered the Soviet riddle. It stated that Stalin had to present the outside world as hostile in order to justify his own bloody regime. -
The Iron Curtain
After World War II there was a imaginary divide splitting Europe until the end of the Cold War. On one end was all the countries that the Soviet Union had control or influence over while on the other was members of the NATO or neutral countries. The term Iron Curtain was a metaphor for the separation between the two halves of Europe -
The Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was created by the Soviet Union in 1947 in order to provide help to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. It is very similar to the Marshall Plan but opposite sides. The Molotov plan was a symbol for the Soviet Union after they had rejected the Marshall plan. -
Hollywood 10
The Hollywood 10 was a blacklist of ten celebrities that were tried by the HUAC for suspicion of "un-american" activity and display in there productions. During their trials they exercised their 5th amendment and refused to answer questions ultimately making them look guilty. They were sentenced to jail and prohibited from working on major projects. -
The Truman Doctrine
The Truman doctrine was an American foreign policy with the purpose of keeping communism from spreading especially in Greece and Turkey. It stated that the US would provide support for any country that is in threat of being taken over by communism. America mostly provided financial air rather than direct military aid. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan provided aid for any of Western Europe who was struggling. The U.S ended up providing over 12 billion dollars in help rebuilding after World War II. This included rebuilding war-torn regions, removing trade barriers, modernizing industry, improving European prosperity, and ultimately preventing the spread of Communism. -
The Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was when the Soviets blocked all the Western allies access into the areas of Berlin that were being controlled by the western allies ultimately trying to starve them out. The Soviet Union said they would retract the blockade if the U.S., United Kingdom and France would stop using the Deutsche Mark which was new form of currency that made it seem as if they were all unified as one. -
The Berlin Airlift
After the Soviet Union had started the Berlin Blockade trying to starve out the western allied parts of Berlin the U.S. retaliated by flying airplanes over and dropping off supplies to the people. They flew a plane into Berlin every thirty seconds carrying medical supplies, food, clothing and etc. Although life was not the easiest in West Berlin and everything was rationed it would have been much worse if the U.S. had not helped and saved all the people from starvation. -
The Alger Hiss Case
Alger Hiss worked for the state government and was accused of being an espionage for the Soviets. The prosecution did not have good enough evidence to prove he was guilty as they were trying to but were able to persecute him for perjury and send him to jail for five years. This case caused a start of great suspicion in the U.S and started to accuse anyone they could. -
NATO
NATO standing for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was an alliance between 29 different nations in North America and Europe. The alliance stated that if one member of NATO was attacked, all the other allied members would consider it an attack on themselves and provide any aid needed to the attacked country even military members. -
The First Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviet Union had been trying to figure out the since the early 1940's however after the bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Soviets becames desperate and rushed to make one just like the U.S. Before the U.S. had used their atomic bombs the Soviet was unable to work on it because of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and they were waiting on reports from the spies they had working on watching the U.S. -
The Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Communist Revolution took place after the Second Japanese war and was led by the communist party of China by Chairman Mao Zedong. It ended with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. -
The Korean War
The Korean War was fought between North Korea who was supported by China and the Soviet Union vs South Korea who was supported by the United Nations which was mostly the U.S. The war started when North Korea invaded South Korea and ended up in many battles along the border. -
The Rosenberg Trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a Jewish couple who worked on the Manhattan Project. They were sent to trial on the crime of being espionage's and sharing secrets about the bombs to the Soviet Union. Although there was not very much evidence on the crime they were still convicted and executed for the crime by electric chair. -
The Army-McCarthy Hearings
Joseph McCarthy used the Red Scare to gain political power. He claimed he had a list of 205 names of communist working in the State Department. His allegation caused panic all across the United States and he ultimately was caught in his lies. -
The Warsaw Pact
A treaty of mutual friendship between the Soviet Union and Poland and 7 other Eastern Europeasn countries during the Cold War. It was the counter to NATO. -
The Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution was a nationwide revolt against the Hungarians government policies that had been imposed with soviet ways. It began as a student protest which ended up attracting thousands for marches. The revolt spread quickly and ultimately led to the governments collapse. -
The U2 Incident
A United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defense Forces while it was collecting images and data of the Soviet Union. It was flown by pilot Francis Gary Powers, and he successfully landed after parachuting safely. He was captured and convicted of espionage but ultimately was given back to the US. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed attempt by US-sponsored Cuban exiles to reverse Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. This began with a invasion of northern Cuba. The invaders surrendered after only three days, with the majority being publicly interrogated and put into Cuban prisons. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall is a barrier made out of concrete separating Western Germany from Eastern. The Eastern part was completely communist and wanted to trap and cut off their people away from any type of democracy. The wall contained large towers and guards so that if someone tried to escape they would be shot and killed or captured and imprisoned. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13 day 'argument' between the Soviet Union and United States when the US found out that the Soviets were giving Cuba nuclear weapon secrets. It is considered to be the closest confrontation that the two had to being a full blown out nuclear war. After several days of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between US President John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev, that the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union. -
Assassination of JFK
JFK was the 35th president and was assassinated at 12:30 pm in Dallas, Texas by a former US marine named Lee Harvey Oswald. President Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting.Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department 70 minutes after the initial shooting. It took 10 months of trial to finally convict him of murder. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Invasion of Czechoslovakia was by five Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Hungary. Approximately 250,000 Warsaw pact troops attacked Czechoslovakia, Romania and Albania refused to participate. 137 Czechoslovakian civilians were killed and 500 seriously wounded during the occupation. The invasion started a series of events that would ultimately see Brezhnev establishing peace with U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1972. -
Nixon visits China
On July 15, 1971, the President shocked the world by announcing on live television that he would visit the PRC the following year. When communist took over China the United States recognized, the Republic of China as the sole government of China. The relationship between China and the U.S. is now one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world, and every successive U.S. president, except Jimmy Carter, has visited China. -
Reagan elected
Ronald Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Regan was different than the other republicans running because while they wanted to contain communism he wanted to destroy it. -
Strategic Defense Initiative Announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. Reagan was a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutual assured destruction, which he described as a suicide pact, and he called upon the scientists and engineers of the United States to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
The two leaders met to discuss the Cold War-era arms race, primarily the possibility of reducing the number of nuclear weapons. Hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting was the first American-Soviet summit in more than six years. The first thing Reagan said to Gorbachev was "The United States and the Soviet Union are the two greatest countries on Earth, the superpowers. They are the only ones who can start World War 3, but also the only two countries that could bring peace to the world". -
'Tear down this wall' speech
A speech delivered by United States President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin. Reagan called for Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the Berlin Wall, which had separated West and East Berlin since 1961. Though it received relatively little media coverage at the time, it became widely known in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the day before Reagan's visit, 50,000 people had demonstrated against the presence of the American president in Berlin. -
The fall of the Berlin wall
The fall of the Berlin wall marked a new era. After many years the communist party finally declared that people were free to cross the borders. People started using anything they could to chip down the wall piece by piece and finally bulldozers and other things came to bring it down. The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
