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The end of WWII
By May eighth 1945 the last German troops surrendered to allied forces in Europe. The end of WWII marks the end of when the United States and the Soviet Union were allies to each other. -
The Truman doctrine
With the Truman doctrine the United States essentially made it their duty to protect other nations worldwide from becoming communist. -
NATO is formed
The formation NATO is significant in cold war history as it signified the western countries of the world coming together largely in part to prevent the spread of communism. -
China becomes communist
China becoming communist was a key win in regards to the spread of communism. This opened the opportunity for other Asian countries to also become communist. -
The Korean War ends
The ending of the Korean War resulted in North Korea becoming communist and South Korea remaining a western country. Military involvement from communist China aided North Korea and Military involvement from the United States aided South Korea in this war. -
Creation of The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact allowed the Soviet Union to be in charge of other European communist nations like Poland and East Germany. The Warsaw Pact cemented the Soviet Union as the centralized power of Communist Europe. -
Sputnik 1 is launched
The launching of Sputnik 1 signified the beginning of what would be known as the space race between the United States and the Soviet union. -
End of the Cuban Revolution
The end of the Cuban Revolution was detrimental to the United States mission to contain communism. With Cuba now a communist state, the United States failed to contain communism in another country except this time at its own doorstep. -
Creation of the Berlin Wall.
With the construction of the Berlin Wall, east and west Europe would now be blocked off from each other. The Berlin Wall was a major symbol of the Cold War as it created a physical divide between communist and democratic Europe. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis is arguably one of the most significant events of The Cold War. In this crisis, the United States found out about Soviet nuclear missiles within Cuba, in response to a U.S. naval blockade of Cuba, The Soviet Union refused to get rid of the missiles unless the United States did the same to their missiles in Turkey. This conflict marks the closest the world has come to a full fledged nuclear war. -
Nixon's trip to China
In an attempt to ease relations between the two countries, President Nixon travels to communist China. This trip is also significant as it took place during the height of the Vietnam war in which it was apparent that Vietnam too would fall to communism. -
The End of the war in Vietnam
This event marked another failure by the United States in an attempt the contain the spread of communism. The war in Vietnam was largely unpopular by the people of the United States as American ground troops had been stationed to fight off the communist North Vietnamese. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
The Tienanmen Square Massacre holds significance has it marks when the centralized Chinese government openly killed thousands of protesters who called for an end to communism. -
The fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was destructed as east Germany decided to no longer stop people from crossing into west Germany. As the Berlin was a major representation of communism in Europe, the fall the Berlin Wall symbolized the Cold War coming to an end. -
The End of The Soviet Union
The fall of the Soviet Union is considered largely to be the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union as Russia and it's European Soviet allies decided to no longer identify as one united communist group of nations.
