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Communists Win China
The communists had about 2 million men in militia units and more than 900 000 regular troops. During the war, china lost 2.2 million military men and lost more than 20 million civilians. -
Molotov Plan
called the Economic Recovery Program (ERP) was the system created by the Soviet Union to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Europe and Asia that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. Vyacheslav Molotov proposed toe Molotov plan. -
Truman Doctrine
Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy to stop Soviet imperialism during the cold war. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey. -
Marshall Plan
Also known as the European Recovery Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. It successfully sparked economic recovery. -
NATO Established
Called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was formed to build an alliance to stand against the Soviet Union. It was signed into effect on April 4, 1949 in Washington, DC. -
USSR Gets Atomic Bomb
The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. It came as a great shock to the United States because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weapon knowledge so soon. -
Korean War
Was a war between North and South Korea in which a United Nations force led by the United States of America fought for the South and China fought for the North. -
Coup in Iran
Coup 53 of Iran is the CIA’s first successful overthrow of a foreign government and reinstates the Shah of Iran. Iran remained a solid Cold War ally of the United States until a revolution ended the Shah’s rule in 1979. -
Warsaw Pact Formed
The Warsaw pact was a response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which posed a potential threat to the Eastern countries. This pact quickly became a powerful political tool for the Soviet Union to harness the powers of their combined military. -
Hungary Rebellion
This uprising was a spontaneous revolt by the Hungarian people against the ruling Communist party of the time. It began with a student protest on October 23rd in Budapest ending with a proclamation by Janos Kadar on November 11th that crushed the uprising. -
Suez Canal Crisis
Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal in July 1956, initiating the Suez Crisis. The Israelis soon were then joined by French and British forces, which nearly brought the Soviet Union into the conflict and resulted in damaging their relationships with the United States. -
Sputnik
The small satellite brought the Soviet Union into the technological spotlight and demonstrated that the country was capable of modern feats. Sputnik was the world’s first artificial satellite which was launched in 1957. -
Cuba Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October when the Soviet Union secretly put nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba and it nearly started a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. This lasted 13 days. -
China Explodes Atomic Bomb
China finally exploded its first atomic bomb. The Chinese people had developed their own nuclear technology. On the same day, the Chinese government made a solemn promise to the world that it developed nuclear weapons only for self-defense and safeguarding national security. China would never at any time or under any circumstances be the first to use nuclear weapons. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
the soviet Afghanistan war was fought between Afghanistan rebels called the Mujahedeen and the soviet supported Afghanistan rebels to try and overthrow the communist government and to prevent the spread of communism. -
War in El Salvador
Over 75 000 civilians died at the hands of government forces during the civil war in el Salvador. These 12 years of violence were punctuated by three well known events: the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero that sparked the conflict, the rape and murder of four American churchwomen that caused international outrage, and the 1989 Jesuits Massacre that finally compelled the international community to finally intervene. -
Evil Empire Speech
The phrase “Evil Empire” was first applied to the Soviet Union by United States president Ronald Reagan who took an aggressive, hard line stance that exceeded the Soviet Union’s strategic and global military capabilities. -
Star Wars (S.D.I.)
The S.D.I. was formed in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee development. A wide array of advanced weapon concepts was studied. In 1987 the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies being considered were decades away from being ready to use. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The purpose of the Berlin wall was to keep western fascists from entering east Germany and undermining the socialist state. the berlin wall fell when the head of the east German communist party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they wanted. That night crowds swarmed the wall. Some brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall. -
Fall of the USSR
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union declaring the office extinct and dissolving the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which was a massive communist empire that had existed since 1922.
