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Yalta Conference
This is a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Primer Joseph Stalin. The Yalta Conference was a meeting with these three men. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the post war reconstruction that would need to take place. It was decided that Germany would be required to surrender, and they agreed to divide Germany into four areas, each being run by the three countries and France would run the fourth area. -
President Roosevelt's Death
This is a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He did many things for The United States during World War 2 but sadly had a stroke and suddenly passed away on April 12th while he was on vacation. President Harry Truman took his place as President of the United States. This was an important even, because as we will begin to see, Truman and Stalin were not on the same page that Roosevelt and Stalin had been on. -
The term "Cold War" is first used
This logo is what was used to represent the Cold War. After the death of President Roosevelt, tension began to rise between Truman and Stalin. On this day, Bernard Baruch, an American financier was with the senate and refered to the tension and problems between America and the Soviet Union as "The Cold War." -
Marshal Plan
This is a photograph of President Harry Truman signing the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was an initiative of the United States to aid in the rebuilding of Europe and Asia. $13 billion dollars were donated to economically support these countries in their times of need. -
NATO
With an attempt to stop the spread of Communism, NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded between Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This is the flag of NATO. -
The Peak of The Red Scare
The First Red Scare was the fear that was instilled in the hearts of the people about the potential threat of communism. In the First Red Scare, the fear was mostly towards worker revolution and political radicalism. This is important because it shows what the real conflict was during the Cold War. This is the campaign that was out when the scare of communism was happening. -
Berlin Blockade
This is a photograph representing The Great Berlin Airlift. The Soviet Union cut off all of the Western Allies' access to Berlin. This was in protest to the Western Allies sending in Deutschmark to Berlin. The Soviets said they would remove the blockade if the Westwern Allies would take them out, but instead they started the Airlift, where they would drop essential items into Berlin by aircraft. This was important because neither the Soviets nor the Western Allies wanted war. -
Soviet tests their 1st Atomic Bomb
"Joe 1" as the Americans called it, was the first atomic bomb that the Soviets tested. This testing of an atomic bomb made the Soviet Union the second world nuclear power. The Americans found out about it, and President Truman leaked it to the world a month later. This was good for the Western Powers, so that they could begin making more atomic weapons. -
Pact of Mutual Defense
The Soviet Union and the People's Rupublic of China signed a deal of mutual defense. This was a big deal, because two super powers in the world were not on the same side. This is a picture of a stamp that China produced in 1950 shortly after the agreement with the Soviet Union was made. -
Engagement in North Korea
For the first time, the United Nations intervened in the war between North and South Korea. They failed to stop North Korea and continue to fight until they crossed the 38th Parallel later that year. This is a picture of United Nations soldiers with Korean people. -
Joseph Stalin dies
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union died. When a nations' leader dies, it always creates a portion of chaos until things get into a rhythm with the new leader. There was great struggles of power to see who would become the next leader of the Soviet Union. This is a picture of Joseph Stalin. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was created as the communist counterpart to NATO. It included East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. The motivation behind creating The Warsaw Pact was that the Soviet Union wanted to maintain control over all of the military forces in Central and Eastern Europe. -
Sputnik 1
The first artificial Earth satellite was launched by the Soviet Union, and was visible all around the Earth. It was a huge surprise to the rest of the world, and was the beginning of the Space Race which had a huge role in the Cold War. This launch opened so many new doors to both parties. Here is a picture of Sputnik. -
Man on the Moon?
In January 1961, John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. On May 25th, he announced the intention of the United States to put a man on the moon. Basically the Cold War was just a fight to see who could be the best and most powerful, and this was just the icing on the cake. This is when the Apollo program began. Here is a funny drawing of a man "in" the moon. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union haad been loading nuclear weapons onto Cuba, which is only about 90 miles from the United States. The United States found out about it, and President Kennedy announced a state of crisis and put a naval blockade on Cuba. This intensified the crisis, but prevented what would have been a nuclear war. This is a drawing of the plans that the Soviet Union almost carried out.
