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At Yalta, the Allies decided that they would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from Germany, that Germany would be partitioned after the war, and that the USSR would join the war against Japan.
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United States successfully detonates an atomic bomb near Alamogordo, NM. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/timeline/index.html Nuclear Bomb Time-lapse Map:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY -
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
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United States drops a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan
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George Marshall delivers a speech at Harvard that officially introduces the European Recovery Program, which came to be known as the "Marshall Plan." http://www.marshallfoundation.org/TheMarshallPlan.htm
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The Chinese Civil War comes to an end with a Communist victory. Mao Zedong becomes leader of China. http://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev
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Early on the morning of June 25, the army of North Korea stormed across the 38th Parallel and invaded South Korea, quickly capturing the capitol city of Seoul and pushing the South Korean/UN Army back to the Pusan Perimeter. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/maps/koreatxt.html
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20th Century Battlefields: Korean War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pCXezIGI4 -
Shortly after the death of Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev becomes Secretary of the Communist Party. http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_nikita_khrushchev.htm
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The Korean War comes to an end with the signing of an armistice at Panmunjom,
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The isolated French outpost at Dien Bien Phu falls to the Vietnamese Communists, marking the unofficial beginning of America's war in Vietnam.
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Soon after overthrowing US-friendly dictator Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro takes power as the Prime Minister and, later, President of Cuba. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/
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US-backed Cuban exiles invade Cuba in hopes of toppling Castro's regime. The mission failed and proved to be a major source of embarrassment for the Kennedy Administration. http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx
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The Soviets began constructing a wall to prevent citizens from crossing between East and West Berlin. Short Documentary "The Wall"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Bi6tiWNCk http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Cold-War-in-Berlin.aspx -
Kennedy secretly authorizes covert action to destabilize Castro's regime. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rfk/peopleevents/e_mongoose.html
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Film from a U-2 spy plane shows what appear to be SS-4 medium range nuclear missiles. http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx Documents:
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/Cuban%20Missile%20Crisis1962.pdf -
The US and the USSR came to the brink of war when the US discovered the presence of offensive ballistic missiles in Cuba. Kennedy's Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgdUgzAWcrw Thirteen Days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tho5ZYLiuoc
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx -
President Kennedy delivered his famous speech to a large audience in Berlin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYEdRiBPDXQ
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President Kennedy was shot and killed as his motorcade went through Dallas, TX