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POSTDAM Confrence
The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, Both sides wanted their views to be triumphant War. Poland was another interest at POSTDAM for the US. They wanted control because they knew it would mean access to Russia. -
End of World War II
World War II officially ends, Stalin wanted Germany to be punished severly. However the US knew that Germany and its economy was invaluable to Europe and its economy. -
Sinews of Peace Speech
Churchill coined the phrase “Iron Curtain” during this speech. The meaning was that there was a strong line between USSR and Europe. -
Truman Docturine
The Truman Doctrine was a policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S Truman on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. This happened because Britian, who had been providing aid, stopped. -
NATO Formed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created to provide collective security from communism and the Soviet Union. -
Soviet Union detonates first atomic bomb
This knowledge intensified the Cold War. The nuclear weapons put the countries at a stalemate because total war was too dangerous. -
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The Korean War
First military action during the Cold War. America fought on South Korea's behalf, working to try to keep communism from spreading even further. Many saw the invasion of North Korea into South was a communism campagin to take over the world. A stalemate insued and negoations began taking place between the countries. he agreements drew a new boundary that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide “demilitarized zone” that still exists today. -
WARSAW Pact
A rival group of NATO, the Warsaw Pact was formed by the Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations. When Soviet leaders used military force to put down revolts they presented the action as being carried out by the Warsaw Pact rather than by the USSR alone. -
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The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was fought between communist North Vietnam and the government of Southern Vietnam. North Vietnam was backed by Communist China and the Soviet Union. While the Southern Vietnam was backed primarily by the United States. The US was trying to contain communism from spreading through any more of Asia. In April of 1975 South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam. Vietnam was now a communist country. The US had lost the Vietnam War and also taken a major blow in the Cold War. -
Soviets launched Sputnik
The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low. This led to the American Sputnik Crisis. This was a major event in the Cold war and led to the Space Race and America creating NASA. -
Khrushchev offically takes power of USSR
Khrushchev rose through the ranks in Stalin's goverment. He eventually became secretary of the Communist Party. In February 1955, he and his supporters pushed Malenkov out of the premiershiper and three years later Khrushchev was in power. -
Cuban Revolution
Fidel Castro takes over Cuba. Cuba becomes the first Communist state in the western hemisphere. The United States was very troubled about having a communist nation so close. President Eisenhower established traade restrictions and began a plan to overthrow the communism goverment. -
Bay of Pigs
Cuban exiles, armed with American weapons and using American landing craft, waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The attack did not go as planned when Cuban communist forces began fighting back. -
Berlin Wall
Te Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
A 13 day confrontation betweent the United States and the Soviet Union over missiles places in Cuba. Air Force confirmed medium and intermediate range missiles 100 miles from the coast of Florida.
The standoff was called off when Khrushchev agreed to withdraw weapons and Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba and take weapons out of Turkey. -
Berlin Wall Destroyed
Eastern European communist dictatorships fell one by on and eventually Germany began demolishing the Berlin Wall. This meant that East and West Germany were unified for the first time in more than 25 years. It also signified the begining of the end of the Cold War. -
The Cold War Ends/ Soviet Union is no more
In December 1991, Ukraine and Russia declared independence and the Soviet Union was dissolved. Americans were shocked at the events. They took credit for a win of the Cold War saying the US won economic battles that led to the eventually dissolving of the Cold War. Although some say there was really no winner.
