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Russian Revolution
There were two revolts, where the Russian Czar Nicholas II was removed from power, and in the next revolt, the Bolsheviks took control, led by Vladimir Lenin. -
Potsdam Conference
The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States all attended the meeting. Germany was to demilitarize, split Germany up into four sections, and reverse Germany's annexations. -
The Atomic Bombs Drop On Japan
An American B-29 Bomber dropped the first nuclear warhead on the city of Hiroshima. 90% of the city was wiped out, 80 thousand people were killed on impact, and tens of thousands more died of radiation poisoning. Three days later, on August 9th, 1945, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40 thousand people. -
The Iron Curtain
A metaphorical "wall" that took a physical form as border control in Europe. The East Side of the wall is under the Soviet Union, and they put up "The Iron Curtain" as a form of extreme isolationism. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was essentially a declaration of war, stating that the United States would give moral, ethical, monetary, and military support to countries/people threatened by communism. -
The Molotov Plan
It was the USSR's version of the Marshall Plan, where the Soviet Union would give aid to its aligned countries. It was a way of offering an alternative to the Marshall Plan. -
Hollywood 10
A group of Hollywood elites would not answer questions from the The House Un-American Activities Committee, and were nicknamed "Hollywood 10". The members of this group were convicted of crimes against the United States and sent to prison. -
Marshall Plan
It was a European Recovery Program that gave aid to Western Europe to support economies in countries being tempted by Communism after WW2. -
Berlin Blockade
As a retaliation to the Deutschmark, a new form if currency in Germany, Joseph Stalin blockaded Berlin by cutting the power and not allowing movement into or out of Berlin. Stalin did this because he thought the currency change was a form of US Imperialism, and wanted the country of Germany to whither and die. -
Berlin Airlift
When Joseph Stalin blockaded Berlin, the US and England sent in airplanes full of food, coal, medical supplies, and other things. It lasted 15 months, and for those 15 months, a plane carrying aid landed every three minutes. Eventually, the blockade was lifted on May 12th, 1949. -
Soviet Bomb Test
In Kazakhstan, the Soviet Union detonated it's first atomic bomb, under the code name "First Lightning". -
Alger Hiss Case
Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss (department of state for foreign affairs) of spying for the Soviet Union. Due to the fear of communism, he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to 5 years in prison. -
Korean War Began
North Koreans were invading South Korea, which was the first military action of the Cold War. America got involved in July, 1950. Three years later in July, 1953, the war was over. -
NATO
NATO stands for: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and it wa formed because there was a desperate need for a National Allied Defense Force (Against Soviet Aggression). The treaty's members included the United States and 11 other Western European Nations. -
Rosenberg Trial
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were allegedly in connection with a plot to pass U.S. Nuclear Bomb secrets to the Soviet Union, and both denied charges, but were found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
Joseph McCarthy was a senator who pressed charges on government officials, but several allegations were proved false in the Army-McCarthy Hearings when CBS News and people spoke out against him, and he was exposed as a fraud. The Hearings were career ending. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
12 thousands paratroopers were sent into the Battle of Dien Bien Phu Valley in North Vietnam. The French underestimated the Viet Minh, and were defeated and French troops surrendered. -
Geneva Conference
A Cease fire agreement was reached between North and South Vietnam, and the country was divided at the 17th Parallel, with Ho Chi Mihn in charge of the North. In 2 years, the countries would merge and vote for their leader. -
Warsaw Pact
It was a political and military alliance between the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. The Soviets were put in command of every country's armed forces. It was also the Soviet Union's response to NATO. -
Hungarian Revolution
Hungarian people protested, demanding a democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression. On November 4th, the Soviet Union rolled in with tanks and obliterated the revolt. Their leader was captured and executed by the Soviets, who put in another leader, János Kádár. -
U2 Incident
The US sent a spy plane over Russia to take pictures of "denied territory". Because the United States was trespassing, the Soviet Union shot the spy plane down. -
Bay Of Pigs Invasion
Fidel Castro took control of Cuba, and the United States did not like the man, so they tried to have him killed. The U.S. sent in the CIA to train Cuban soldiers for a rebellion. The rebellion failed because the U.S. refused to bring in air support. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall split Germany in two, an East and a West side that was constructed by the Germanic Democratic Republic, who were communists. The goal was to keep West Berliners out of East Berlin, but millions of East Berliners jumped the wall to get to the West side, and many more died trying. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuba was building nuclear missile sites, which were 90 miles off the coast of Florida, while the United States had "minutemen missiles" (nuclear warheads) poised to destroy every major city in the Soviet Union in European countries. The missiles in Cuba were removed by Khrushchev, and the US removed their missiles from Europe, so it was solved via diplomacy. -
Assassination of Diem
He was captured and killed by soldiers out to get him in a coup. The US denied all knowledge/participation of the coup. -
Assassination of JFK
The president was assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas for a 10-mile motorcade through the downtown streets in an open-top convertible.The shooter was thought to be Lee Harvey Oswald, but he was shot and killed by Jacob Rubenstein, so the shooter was never confirmed. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The resolution was called "The Blank Check" because it gave the president the power to use "any force necessary", without needing congressional consent. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
The US bombed North Vietnam over a span of three and a half years. -
TET Offensive
North Vietnam conducted a coordinated assault on South Vietnam that the US won, but the media claimed the Vietkong were victorious, even though they lost 40-42 thousand men. With the media coverage, the Vietkong got public sentiment in the US. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr. was standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike when he was shot in the jaw, which severed his spinal cord. -
Assassination of RFK
Robert Kennedy, a US Senator, was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan shot him repeatedly, and RFK died a day later. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin imposed his will on Czechoslovakia’s communist leaders and took control of the government. The country was run as a Stalinist state until 1964, when a gradual trend toward liberalization began. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
Thousands of antiwar demonstrators take to Chicago’s streets to protest the Vietnam War, where it got violent with protesters and the police. -
Election Of Nixon
Richard Nixon defeats Hubert H. Humphrey and is elected president of the United States. -
Kent State Incident
The students protested by setting fire to the ROTC building, which called in the National Guard, who opened fire on the students, killing 4 and injuring 9. -
Nixon Visits China
Nixon’s historic visit to the communist People’s Republic of China began the slow process of the re-establishing diplomatic relations between the United States and communist China. China welcomed the possibility of US trade. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
A cease-fire goes into effect at 8 a.m., Saigon time (midnight on January 27, Greenwich Mean Time) between the US and South Vietnam. Both sides violated it when the South Vietnamese forces continued to take back villages occupied by communists in the two days before the cease-fire deadline and the communists tried to capture additional territory.. -
Fall of Saigon
North Vietnam re-united the country by force when the president Gerald Ford was not allowed by congress to send aid to S. Vietnam, and on April 29th, the US conducted the largest helicopter evacuation in history, rescuing 7 thousand people. -
Reagan is Elected
Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981, promising to destroy communism and win the Cold War. -
SDI is Announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars was a hypothetical missile defense system that was in space ad protected the US from incoming missiles that was false, but the Soviets thought it was true. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev negotiated the Cold War, heading towards peace. -
"Tear Down This Wall" Speech
Ronald Reagan gave a speech to people of West Berlin at the base of the Brandenburg Gate, near the Berlin wall, and made it so that the East side of Berlin could hear him as well with speakers. The address Reagan delivered is considered to have affirmed the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism. -
The Fall of The Berlin Wall
The head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. Some people crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself.
