-
Russian Communist Revolution
This revolution led to the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy in place in Russia to a communist government. This was the first country to have a communist government, and it started the spread of communism through eastern Europe. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles ended WWI, led to the rise of Hitler, and the start of WWII. It caused WWII because of the War Guilt Clause and putting all the blame on Germany. Germany had to pay back all war reparations and that led them into an economic depression. The depression led to the rise of Hitler because he brought about communism. Becuase of WWII, the US and Soviet Union formed a bad relationship. Thus leading to the Cold War. -
League of Nations
The League of Nations was formed by Woodrow Wilson after the end of WWI. Because the US did not enter the League of Nation, it fell apart. At that time the US was one of the most powerful countires in the world. Becuase we did not enter, no one believed it would work. It was also incapable of preventing agression from the Axis powers. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference ended WWII. At the conference they mainly talked about re-establishing the nations that were torn apart in the war. It was only the second of three meetings. Years later the Cold War started dividing the continent. The USSR was not happy that we didnt give Germany harsh punishment and the we slpit up Berlin into four parts. -
General Assembly
The General Assembly is part of the United Nations. The General Assembly had the veto power and they started to gain more power. The US and Soviet Union offten disagreed and because of it, it would not work effectivly. Becuase both were in the Security Council, they would veto each other. -
United Nations
The United Nations was created to help maintain world peace after WWII. This was difficult because during the Cold War, every proposal involving the spread of communism was either vetoed by the US or USSR, because they could agree on very little. -
Nuremberg Trials
These were a series of trials in which over 200 German officials were charged for war crimes they committed during WWII. Almost all of these defendents were found guilty and sentenced to harsh punishment. This created resentment from Germany toward the countries responsible for these trials. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
This was a struggle between the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist Party that resulted in China becoming primarily communist. For the United States, this meant that the USSR had another ally if it came to a nuclear war. -
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill's speech stated that "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." This changed the way the western nations viewed the Soviet Union and made them want to oppose the spread of communism which started the Cold War. -
Baruch Plan
The Baruch Plan was devised to encourage the exchange of scientific information for peaceful uses and to eliminate any nuclear weapons that could be used for destruction. The goal of this plan was to eliminate the risk of a nuclear war evolving from the Cold War. The Soviets rejected it because they thought the UN was mostly eastern nations and could not be trusted to monitor the use of nuclear power. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was a US policy to stop Soviet expansion during the Cold War. Truman pledged to contain communism in Europe and elsewhere. He also said that the US would support any nation with both military and econimic aid if its stability was threatened by communism or the Soviet Union. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was created after WWII, and it stated that the US would help countries resist communist movements. The US gave $17 million dollars in support to help rebuild European economics at the end of WWII in order to stop the spread of communism during the Cold War. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was a result of the Berlin blockade. The Soviet Union blocked the city of Berlin from the western allies. In response, the western allies airlifted supplies to the people of West Berlin, preventing the Soviets of getting full control of Berlin. -
NATO Created
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was an alliance between the western nations including the U.S., the United Kingdom, Turkey, and several others. This made the Cold War more dangerous because if we had gotten in a nuclear war, all of these countries would've had to have gotten involved. -
Nuclear Deterrence
The USSR's first test of a nuclear weapon inspired the idea of nuclear deterrence, which is when one country is hesitant to launch nuclear weapons on another country because the other country has nuclear weapons. This is a major reason that neither the US or USSR fired nuclear weapons during the Cold War. -
Joseph McCarthy Speech
Joseph McCarthy gave a speech that accused several government officials of being communist spies. Many of his claims were later proven unture, but this created unnecessary fear in Americans that communists were everywhere. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a result of the political divsion of Korea. The North controlled by the Soviets as a communist government and the South controlled by the USand run as a capitalist government. North Korea invaded South Korea creating an open warfare. On June 27, 1953 both sides signed an armistice agreement, restoring the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel. The US did not want communism to spread in into South Korea during the Cold War. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was created by the USSR during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was a treaty between the Soviet Union and all the soviet satellites. It stated that if the USSR went to war those countries would fight with them. It made the Cold War more dangerous because if we did go to war, more countries would be involved, which would lead to more nuclear weapons. -
Sputnik Launched
The Soviet Union launched the first earth orbitting satallite into space. This started the Space Race which was a competition in which the US and USSR were trying to improve their space technology to spy on each other and learn how to fire long range nuclear weapons at each other. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed attack on Cuba. The US and some Cuba revolutionaries tried to overthrow the Catsro government. This invasion led to the Soviet Union putting in nuclear missles. The missles were pointed at the US and could go as far as D.C. -
Fidel Castro Proclaims Communist Cuba
Cuba was officially proclaimed a communist nation, which worried the U.S. because Cuba is only 90 miles away from Florida. The Soviet Union could easily use their new ally to hit us with missiles, which put the U.S. in more danger during the Cold War. -
Building of Berlin Wall begins
The Soviet Union started to build the wall because they didn't want any of the western countries in Berlin. They built it so that Berlin would become a communist city, leading East Germany to become communist. They built it so that no one could try and stop them. -
MAD
It said that if one country were to attack antother country using nuclear weapons. Then the other country would respond in the same way. The US and USSR tried not to attack either one with nuclear weapons, because both knew that it would lead to a nuclear war. And both countries were trying to avoid that. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The U.S. discovered missiles pointed at them stationed in Cuba by order of the Soviet Union. The U.S. demanded that they be removed but the Soviet Union made us agree to remove our missiles in Turkey. This was one of the most tense times in the Cold War when a nuclear war seemed the most likely. -
U.S. sends troops to Vietnam
The US sent troops to Vietnam because it was slpit into North and South. North Vietnam was communist, and had help from China and the USSR. South Vietnam was democracy and had help from the US. During the Cold War the US was trying to stop communism from spreading throughtout Southeast Asia. -
Non- Proliferation Agreement
The goal of this treaty was to limit the danger of nuclear warfare by stopping the growth of nuclear weapons and promote nuclear technology for peaceful uses.This was an attempt to relieve tensions and avoid an all out nuclear war between the USSR and the US if the Cold War came to actual battles. -
Apollo 11
The U.S. put the first man on the moon in this space launch during the space race with the U.S.S.R. This was considered a "victory" for America. This increased tensions between the feuding countries and intensified the Cold War. -
Kent State Shootings
Four students were killed and 9 injured for protesting the Cambodian Campaign. This campaign involved the Vietnam War and called for an invasion of the Vietcong on Cambodian soil. This created more disapproval in American citizens for sending our troops to Vietnam to fight communism. -
SALT I
SALT 1 was a treaty between the US and the Soviet Union. It was an agreement that froze the number of American and Soviet ICBM and SLBM launchers. During the Cold War the US and Soviet Union were in a nuclear arms race to see who could be the most powerful. This treaty was ineffective and both sides continued both of the launchers. -
Fall of Saigon
The fall of Saigon signified the end of the Vietnam War. This was considered a victory for the Soviet Union during the Cold War because although we were not directly fighting each other, Vietnam was unified as a communist country after this. -
Pope John Paul II
He reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. After an attempted assasignationon him, he concecraed Russia and he led the collapse of communism in Poland. That in turn, initiated the collapses of the other Communist governments of Eastern Europe form East Germany to Bulgaria. He helped destroy communism in Europe. -
Margaret Thatcher
Thatcher was in office from 1979 until 1990 when she was replaced as prime minister. During her time in office, she had numerous meetings with both Russian leader Gorbochev and American president Reagan. She forced Russia to see the truth, that they were giving their citizens almost no rights, and is credited with having a large hand in the ending of the Cold War. -
SALT II
SALT II was a continuation of SALT I. It was an agreement that placed ceilings on further increases in some categories of nuclear capability. However this treaty was ineffective in preventing either country from greatly expanding its stratigic nuclear capabilities. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
The USSR sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan in attempts to take complete control of its government and turn them communist. This was an invasion outside of the Eastern Bloc, so the US and their allies made numerous attempts to drive out the Soviet Union, eventually succeeding after a large loss of money and life. -
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was the leader of the People's Republic of China from 1981 until his retirement in 1992. Although he was a communist leader, he incorporated some capitalist elements into China's government. He helped lessen tensions between the US and China. -
Graffiti on the Berlin Wall
The graffiti on the wall represents frredom of censorship, particularly from east Germany. Most of the graffiti was on the west side of the wall, the only place on the east side that had graffiti on it was the Death Strip. The art aslo carried the message of hope, symbols of freedom, and images that detail German experiences after WWII. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall signified that the Soviet Union and the communism government was out of Berlin. The US and Western Allies had lost controll to the USSR. Everyone belived that if the USSR got control of Berlin then it would start domino affect. Berlin conforming into a communist government, then Germany conforming and then finally all of Western Europe. But, becuase of the policy's the US put in, only Berlin was communist. The fall of the wall meant that Germany would be unified. -
Lech Walesa
Lech Walesa was a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charasmatic leader, he cofounded Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union. He was the first noncommunist president of Poland since the end of WWII. His election was a blow to Soviet power in East Europe and marked a defection from the communist Iron Curtain nations of Europe. -
START I
It was a bilateral treaty between th US and Soviet Union on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existance. It negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history.During the cold war the US and Soviet Union were in an Arms Race. -
START II
It was also a bilateral treaty betwwn the US and Soviet Union on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. This treaty banned the use of multiple independently targetable reetry vehicles (MIRV's) on intercontinental ballistic missles (ICBMs). I never entered into effect and the US Senate ratified it on January 26, 1996. Russia then ratified START II, but would later withdraw from the treaty.
