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Period: to
Cold War
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Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was created by US President Harry S. Truman. Historians say that the Truman Doctrine was the official start to the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was created to help stop the s[read of Communism throughout Europe and the world. -
NATO
NATO also known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 due to communist expansion. The United States and eleven other western nations formed this organization. NATO was going to primarily be used as a security pact. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when 75,000 soldiers came across the 38th Parallel into South Korea. This was the first militarized thing to take place during the Cold War. In July American troops had entered the war on the side of South Korea. 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the Korean War. -
Death of Stalin
Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union since 1924. He oversaw the domination of Eastern Europe. He died from a massive heart attack. He was a mass murderer killing between 8 and 20 million of his own people. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven other European countries came together to form the Warsaw Pact. It got its name because it was signed in Warsaw. The Soviets saw NATO was a threat because it was allowing Western Germany to militarize, so they responded by forming this Pact. -
Space Race
The Space Race was a competition between the US and the USSR more who had the most technological advancements. This lead to the US and USSR racing to the moon. Space was another area for the USSR and US to fight over who was better. During this time President Eisenhower created NASA, which was dedicated to the exploration of space. By landing on the moon, the US technically "won" the space race. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Sputnik was the world's very first artificial satellite that went into space. The launch of Sputnik started the space age, and began the contest to space between the USSR and the US. Sputnik showed that if the Soviets could launch a satellite into space, they could also launch missiles and other nuclear weapons. This event caught the world off guard and surprised many. -
U-2 Spy Incident
The USSR shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space. The Soviets captured the pilot of that plane, and his name was Francis Gary Powers. Because of that, President Eisenhower had to tell the Soviets that the CIA had been running spy missions over the USSR for many years. Powers was sentenced to ten years in Soviet prison, but after two years he was traded back to the United States in exchange for a Soviet agent. This incident raised tensions between the US and the USSR. -
The Berlin Wall
The construction of the Berlin Wall started on August 13, 1961. The Berlin Wall separated Eastern Berlin from Western Berlin. The main purpose for the wall was to keep Western half of Berlin from spreading their ideas in Eastern Berlin. The Berlin Wall was made of barbed wire and concrete. It was also heavily guarded to keep people from going to different halves of Berlin. The wall stood until November 9, 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Because of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US and USSR were in a thirteen day long political and military standoff because the USSR had placed missiles in Cuba which is only ninety miles from US shores. President JFK decided to enact a naval blockade around Cuba to show that we will use force to neutralize these missiles. However the missiles were never used because the Soviet agreed to remove missiles as long as the US would not invade Cuba. -
JFK Assassination
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States was assassinated on November 22, 1963. They were sitting in a convertible in a parade in Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly fired three shots from the sixth floor of a building, injuring JFK. He was said to be dead thirty minutes later at the Dallas Parkland Hospital. -
Vietnam War
Over 3 million people were killed in the Vietnam War. It was a war between North and South Vietnam. The war divided Americans, even after Nixon had pulled them out on Vietnam. Communists got control of South Vietnam in 1975. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
A group of Iranian students went to the US Embassy and took more than 60 American hostages. The cause was because of Jimmy Carter allowing Shah a pro-Western autocrat that had been expelled from his country to come to the US for cancer treatment. People believe this cost Jimmy Carter a second term. The hostages were set free 444 days after they were taken. -
Olympic Boycott by USA
Jimmy Carter announced that the US would boycott the summer Olympics that were being held in Moscow. Carter did this because the Soviets did not meet Carter's deadline to remove troops from Afghanistan. Canada, West Germany, and Japan joined the USA in the boycott. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
A person from the East Berlin Communist Party said that starting at midnight people were free to cross the country's borders. Over 2 million people from East Berlin went in West Berlin. Cranes and bulldozers were breaking down sections of the wall while people would use hammers to break chunks off.
