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The Rise of the "Iron Curtain"
"Iron Curtain" is a term used to describe the boundary that separated the Warsaw Pact countries from the NATO countries from about 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The Iron Curtain was both a physical and an ideological division that represented the way Europe was viewed after World War II. To the east of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the former Soviet Union. This included part of Germany Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave $17 billion in economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Soviets placed a blockade on the allied sector of Berlin to starve the population into Soviet alliance. The blockade was a soviet attempt to starve out the allies in Berlin in order to gain supremacy. the blockade was a high point in the Cold War. In response, the Western Allies organised the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people in West Berlin. -
The Formation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between the United States and 11 other Western nations based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. -
The Formation of the Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (formally, the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance) as a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. -
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The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was fought between communist North Vietnam and the government of Southern Vietnam. The North was supported by communist countries such as the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The South was supported by anti-communist countries, primarily the United States.
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism -
"Sputnik Crisis" and the Origins of the Space Race
The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and uncertainty in the United States in the wake of the success of the Soviet Sputnik program and a perceived technological gap between the two superpowers.[1] It was a key Cold War event beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The Sputnik crisis led to the creation of NASA and the start of the Space Race -
U-2 Reconnaissance Plane
This is where the US’s CIA had a plane trying to spy on the Soviets and the Soviets shot it down and this lead to an embarrassing conference between US and Soviets. (Embarrassing for the US) -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
This where the US tried to invade Cuba but failed miserably, this embarrassed the US. -
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Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin.
The date on which the Wall fell is considered to have been 9 November 1989, but the Wall in its entirety was not torn down immediately. Starting that evening and in the days and weeks that followed, people came to the wall with sledgehammers or otherwise hammers and chisels to chip off souvenirs. -
The Cuban Missle Crisis
This was the the closest to the US and the Soviets actually fighting. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted -
Fall of the USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991 by declaration of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. This declaration acknowledged the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union following the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On the previous day, 25 December 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, declaring his office extinct, and handed over the Soviet nuclear missile launching -
Links
Berlin Airlift
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/berlin.htm Cuban Missile Crisis
http://www.cubanmissilecrisis.org/ The Fall of the USSR
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fall-of-soviet-union
