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The Russian Revolution
The United States opposed communism due to them not being a democracy, lack of private ownership or rights, and citizens lost the right to earn wealth. There was also a civil war going on in the USSR and we were sending support to the Mensheviks. -
Iron Curtain
The term iron curtain symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. It was the notional barrier separating the former Soviet block and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe. -
The Potsdam Conference
Security tensions, democracy tensions, and peace in Europe emerged. Stalin wanted to rule Europe with communism. The conference was about peace talks, security, and democracy in Europe. -
Automic Bomb- Hiroshima & Nagasaki
During the final stage of World War II, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States dropped the bombs after obtaining the consent of the United Kingdom. The two bombings killed at least 129,000 people, most of whom were civilians. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. -
Hollywood 10
10 members of the Hollywood film industry publicly denounced the tactics employed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, during its time of alleged communist influence in the American motion picture business. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose purpose was to counter Soviet geo-political expansion. It was first announced to congress by President Harry S. Truman and further developed when he pledged to contain threats to Greece & Turkey. -
Marshall Plan
An American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -
Berlin Blockade
This was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
Berlin Airlift
Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the size of the city's population. -
Alger Hiss Crisis
While he was being interviewed daily by the FBI in preparation for his appearance at Alger Hiss's perjury trial, Whittaker Chambers learned that Hiss's investigators had received reports about Chambers' sexual history. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European countries based on the North Atlantic Treaty. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border. -
Rosenburg Trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who spied for the Soviet Union and were tried, convicted and executed by the United States government. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The RDS-1, also known as First Lightning was the nuclear bomb used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was detonated after top-secret research and development as part of the Soviet atomic bomb project. -
Army-McCarthy hearings
A series of hearings held by the United States Senate's subcommittee on investigations to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
This was the decisive encounter in the first Indochina War. After French forces occupied the Dien Bien Phu valley in late 1953, Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap gathered troops and placed heavy artillery in caves of the mountains overlooking the French camp. -
Geneva Conference
A conference among several nations that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, intended to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the First Indochina War -
Warsaw Pact
Formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe. -
Hungarian Revolution
Hungarian Uprising was a nationwide revolt against the communist government of the Hungarian people's republic and its Soviet-imposed policies. -
U2 Incident
Happened when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. This event raised tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets, the largely political clash between the two superpowers and their allies that emerged following the war. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
Berlin Wall
The communist govt. of the German Democratic Republic (east germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with Soviet missile deployment in Cuba. -
Assassination of Diem
They arrest and assassination of Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup l -
Assassination of JKF
The 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza by Lee Harvey Oswald -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
This authorized President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
The title of a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the U.S. Air Division, U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. -
TET Offensive
Officially called The General Offensive and Uprising of Tet Mau Than 1968 by North Vietnam and the NLF, was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. -
Assassination of MLK
An American clergyman and civil rights leader shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Assassination of RFK
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He had just won the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Approximately 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring”–a brief period of liberalization in the communist country. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
Election of Nixon
Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. People argued that the election of 1968 was a major realigning election because it permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years. -
Kent State
Four Kent State University students were killed and 9 were injured when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. -
Nixon Visits China
Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China was an important strategic and diplomatic overture that marked the culmination of the Nixon administration's resumption of harmonious relations between the United States and China. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
President Nixon has ordered a halt to American bombing in North Vietnam following peace talks in Paris. The decision comes after Dr Henry Kissinger returned to Washington from France and proposed this idea. -
Fall of Saigon
This was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. -
Reagan Elected
A republican, served as the 40th President of the United States and earlier as the 33rd Governor of California. Having been elected twice to the presidency, Reagan reshaped the Republican party, led the modern conservative movement, and altered the political dynamic of the United States. -
SDI Announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was a program first initiated Ronald Reagan. The intent was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
A Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. -
‘Tear Down This Wall’ Speech
Referred to by the President, was built by Communists in August 1961 to keep Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin. The wall stood as a symbol of the decades old Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia in which the two politically opposed superpowers continually argued for dominance, stopping just short of actual war. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
Due to communism being dismantled, East German government official blundered by stating in an announcement, "Permanent relocation can be done through all border checkpoints between the East Germany into the West Germany or West Berlin."
