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Yalta Conference
Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met in Tehran to discuss their plans for WW2. Stalin promised that Poland, with revised boundaries, would have a representative government based on free elections. He broke that promise soon after. Yalta was really about the Big Three getting a feel for each other. It shaped relations between USSR and US. -
US Termination of Lend-Lease Aid to USSR
The US government ended the vital lend-lease aid to the USSR and then refused Moscow’s plea for a $6 billion reconstruction loan after the war. The United States is refusing to give the Soviet Union aid which angers them. -
United Nations Conference
After Roosevelts death 13 days earlier, representatives from 50 nations met in the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House and created the United Nations Charter. The Soviet Union was also a part of the UN. The US and USSR would have to coexist as they were two members of the big five (US, Britain, USSR, France, and China) who all had veto powers against actions taken against itself. -
US Approval of Loan to Britain
After refusing to give the USSR a loan only a year earlier, the US approved a loan of 3.75 billion to Britain in 1946. That only further planting the seed of mistrust between the US and USSR. -
The Atom at the UN
The US delegate called for a UN agency, free from great power veto, to have worldwide authority over atomic, energy, weapons, and research. Consequently, the USSR delegate then countered that possession of nuclear weapons should just be outlawed by every nation. The USSR used veto power to confuse everything and no actions were taken. The US and USSR were still suspicious of each other. -
What to do with Germany?
After the Nuremberg Trials finished in 1946 the Allies couldn’t agree on what to do. France, the USSR, Britain, and the US all occupied a zone of Germany. Once Stalin saw that the democracies were planning to reunite Germany he tightened his grip on the USSR controlled eastern section. West Germany eventually became an independent nation and East Germany became a state bound to the Soviet Union. -
Truman Doctrine
Truman asked for 400 million to help Greece and Turkey defend themselves against communist pressures. He also basically said that the US was in the business of defending democracy globally. It forced the world to pick a side, pro-Soviet or pro-American -
Marshall Plan
Democratic nations or Europe and US met to work out a plan for joint economic recovery. They offered the same aid to Soviet Union and its allies if they made political reform and accepted certain outside controls. America made the terms deliberately difficult for the USSR to accept, and they didn’t. -
Containment Doctrine
The US’s Containment Doctrine said that the USSR was relentlessly expansionary and that the flow of Soviet power could be stemmed by “firm and vigilant containment.” It inspired a “get tough with Russia” policy. -
National Security Act
It created the Department of Defense. The Soviets were unifying their armed services and creating a new national security apparatus so the US followed suit as they were competing nations. It also created the National Security Council, to advise the president on security matters, and the CIA, to coordinate the government’s foreign fact gathering. -
Berlin Airlift
The Soviets took control of Berlin and issued a blockade hoping to starve the Allies out. For almost a year American pilots ferried supplies to the Berliners, their former enemies. This showed America’s drive to honor their commitments in Europe. The Soviets finally lifted the blockade in May of 1949, the same year the governments of East and West Germany were established. This whole situation was a test of wills between Moscow and Washington. -
Executive Order 9981
Truman issued Executive Order 9981 to desegregate the US armed forces. The US was on the world stage and had to continue to prove themselves the great country and democracy the rest of the world thought and expected them to be. -
Truman’s Inaugural Address, 1948
Using Truman’s idea of “Point Four” the US would lend money and other aid to underdeveloped countries to help them help themselves. The goal was to stop these countries from turning to communism to avoid future violence. -
North Atlantic Treaty
Western European democracies were uniting and they asked the United States to join them. To the dismay of the Soviets the US joined the alliance -
Soviet Development of the A-bomb
The US had been able to keep the Soviets in line by threatening to drop an atomic bomb, now the Soviets had the capacity to retaliate. So Truman ordered the development of the H-bomb. -
National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (NSC-68)
North Korean forces attacked South Korean forces and forced them southward. After that Truman ordered a massive military buildup in America. NSC - 68 was important to the Cold War as it marked major militarization of American foreign policy. America then got the approval of the UN, when the USSR was absent, to condemn North Korea as the aggressor and take action to restore peace. Truman then ordered American forces to South Korea’s aid. -
Korean War
North Korea attacked South Korea. The US supported South Korea while the Soviets supported North Korea. The Chinese entered the war and attacked the United Nations’ forces. The fighting would continue for two more years as peace talks went on. -
Soviet Development of the Hydrogen Bomb
The Soviets weren’t about to be outdone by the Americans. The hydrogen bomb was a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb. Therefore after the Americans detonated their first hydrogen bomb in 1952 the Soviets were soon to follow. -
Army - McCarthy Hearings
Senator Joe McCarty turned the hunt for communists in the US government into a witch hunt. He finally took it to far when he went after the Army. They came right back at him and during his hearing he basically hung himself with what he said. The Senate formally condemned him a few months later and he died three years after of alcoholism. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
It was a 13 day standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviets installed nuclear-armed missiles on Cuba. President John F. Kennedy enacted a naval blockade around Cuba to make it clear that the US was willing to use military force if need be. Disaster was averted when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the missiles so long as the US didn’t invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove US missiles from Turkey. -
Vietnam War
The war consisted of North Vietnam fighting South Vietnam and its strong ally, the United States. President Nixon ordered the removal of troops from Vietnam in 1973 due to the American public’s opposition to the war and the high American death count. Communist troops ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975. The country was then unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. -
Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
It was to be a high-tech missile-defense system with orbiting battle stations in space that could fire lasers at targets on Earth. He wanted to use it to bully the Soviets into coming to the bargaining table. -
1984 Summer Olympics Boycott
The USSR, along with other countries, boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles after all arms control negotiations between the US and Soviet Union had been broken off the year before. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan signed this treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe. It was a big step in ending the Cold War -
1988 Moscow Summit
Reagan and Gorbachev had their last meeting in Moscow. Reagan openly praised Gorbachev as he was reforming the Soviet Union. This marked the end of the Cold War.
