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The Yalta Conference
SourceThe February 1945 Yalta Conference was the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. -
Berlin Declarration
sourceThe Berlin Declaration addresses the defeat of Germany and the assumption by the Allied nations of supreme authority over what had been the Third Reich. Montgomery, Eisenhower, Zhukov, and Lattre de Tassigny are the people who signed the Berlin Declaration -
Postdam Conference
SourceAfter the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine the postwar borders in Europe -
North Vietnam
SourceThe Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN), also known as North Vietnam, was founded by Ho Chi Minh and was recognized by China and the USSR in 1950. In 1954, after the defeat of France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France formally recognized the DRV and the country was partitioned in two. North Vietnam was a Communist State, the first in South-East Asia. -
Iron Curtain speech
SourceWinston Churchill went with Harry Truman to deliver the Iron Curtain Speech at the request of Westminster College. In this speech, Churchill gave the very descriptive phrase that surprised the United States and Britain, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." -
Greek Civil War
SourceThe first stage of the civil war began only months before Nazi Germany’s occupation of Greece ended in October 1944.The communists accepted defeat and the disbandment of their forces at a conference in February 1945, and a general election was held in Greece in March 1946. The communists and their followers abstained from the voting, however, and a royalist majority was returned. -
First Indochina War
SourceDuring the era of conquest in East Asia, France focused on the fortune withheld in Indochina. The French had been in the area for centuries, yet policies changed when other Western European nations began to colonize and claim their own pieces of Asia. -
Containment Policy
SourceGeorge F. Kennan made a policy of 'containment' Trying to contain communism from other countries. -
Berlin Blockade
SourceComing just three years after the end of World War II, the blockade was the first major clash of the Cold War and foreshadowed future conflict over the city of Berlin. -
Marshall Plan
SourceSourceThe Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. The Marshall Plan successfully sparked economic recovery, meeting its objective of ‘restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ The plan is named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who announced it in a commencement speech at Harvard University on June 5, 19 -
Berlin Airlift
SourceAs the wartime alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union ended and friendly relations turned hostile, the question of whether the western occupation zones in Berlin would remain under Western Allied control or whether the city would be absorbed into Soviet-controlled eastern Germany led to the first Berlin crisis of the Cold War. The crisis started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. -
NATO
SourceNATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. After the destruction of the Second World War, the nations of Europe struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their security. The former required a massive influx of aid to help the war-torn landscapes re-establish industries and produce food, and the latter required assurances against a resurgent Germany or incursions from the Soviet Union. -
Soviet Union tests A-Bomb
SourceAt a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” In order to measure the effects of the blast, scientists made buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb -
People’s Republic of China founded
sourceCommunist revolutionary Mao Zedong officially proclaims the existence of the People’s Republic of China; Zhou Enlai is named premier. -
Korean War - American Involvement
source 1950 the Korea Peninsula was divided between a Soviet-backed government in the north and an American-backed government in the south. -
Second Red Scare
SourceAmericans feared that the Soviet Union hoped to spread communism all over the world, overthrowing both democratic and capitalist institutions as it went. -
Eisenhower Presidency
SourceEisenhower was the supreme commander of Allied forces in Western Europe during World War II.Eisenhower managed Cold War-era tensions with the Soviet Union under the looming threat of nuclear weapons -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
sourceThe death of these two is the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War. They were put to death by the electric chair. Juilius Rosenberg was the first to be executed on June 19 1953. Ethen of course was the second to get executed. -
Iranian coup d’état
SourceThe Iranian military, with the support and financial assistance of the United States government, overthrows the government of Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of Iran. -
Warsaw Pact
SourceThe Warsaw Pact was a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. The Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. -
Hungarian Revolution
SourceHungary in 1956 seemed to sum up all that the Cold War stood for. The people of Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe were ruled over with a rod of iron by Communist Russia. -
Suez Crisis
SourceIsraeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-70) nationalized the canal in July of that same year, initiating the Suez Crisis. -
Sputnik
SourcceSputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957.Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. -
Nikita Krushchev
SourceNikita Krushchev was the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. During the subsequent Russian Civil War, Khrushchev’s first wife, with whom he had two children, died of typhus. He later remarried and had four more children. -
Cuban Revolution
SourceThe Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against the US-backed authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista -
U2 Incident
SourceThe Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers was the pilot that was captured. -
Kennedy Precidency
SourceJohn F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 as the 35th president. John F. Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to hold that office. -
First Man in Space
Sourcein 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (left, on the way to the launch pad) became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok -
Bay of Pigs
SourceFidel Castro overthrew General Fulgencio Batista. The invasion did not go well. The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting. -
Vietnam War - American involvement
SourceSouth Vietnam signed a military and economic aid treaty with the United States leading to the arrival (1961) of U.S. support troops and the formation (1962) of the U.S. Military Assistance Command. -
Checkpoint Charlie
SourceCheckpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War -
Yom Kippur War
Source Hoping to win back territory lost to Israel during the third Arab-Israeli war.Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a coordinated attack against Israel -
JFK Assassination
SourceWhile in Dallas, Texas John F. Kennedy was assasinated on May 23, 2015. Jacquliene Kennedy was also next to him while he was assasinated. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
SourceOn August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. -
Prague Spring
SourceThe Prague Spring of 1968 is the term used for the brief period of time when the government of Czechoslovakia led by Alexander Dubček seemingly wanted to democratise the nation and lessen the stranglehold Moscow had on the nation’s affairs -
Tet Offensive
Source General Vo Nguyen Giap, leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam planned the offensive in an attempt both to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its support of the Saigon regime. -
Nixon Presidency
SourceRichard Nixon (1913-94), the 37th U.S. president, is best remembered as the only president ever to resign from office. Nixon stepped down in 1974, halfway through his second term, rather than face impeachment over his efforts to cover up illegal activities by members of his administration in the Watergate scandal. -
Apollo 11
SourceThe Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy at 13:32:00 UT on July 16, 1969. After 2 hr and 33 min in Earth orbit, the S-IVB engine was reignited for acceleration of the spacecraft to the velocity required for Earth gravity escape. -
Nixon visits China
SourcePresident Richard Nixon takes a dramatic first step toward normalizing relations with the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks. -
Détente
SourceBoth countries stood to gain if trade could be increased and the danger of nuclear warfare reduced.On May 22 Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Moscow. -
Salt I
SourceDuring the late 1960s, the United States learned that the Soviet Union had embarked upon a massive Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) buildup designed to reach parity with the United States. In January 1967. -
SALT II
SourceNegotiations of SALT II began in late 1972.SALT I did not prevent each side from enlarging their forces.The negotiations spanned the Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter administrations. -
Paris Peace Accords
SourceOn January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed by a delegation led by Secretary of State William Rogers and Ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge, -
Chilean coup d’état
Sourcethe Socialist Party won the presidency with Salvador Allende Gossens. Allende had promised a republic to the people of Chile and said he would provide reforms that would make the working class more equal. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
SourceThe Tianamen Square Massacre was a series of protests and demonstrations in China in the spring of 1989 that culminated on the night of June 3–4 with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
SourceThe Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany. -
Berlin Wall
SourceThe Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East ... -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
SourceThe dissolution of the Soviet Union was formally enacted on December 26, 1991, as a result of the declaration no. 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, -
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
SourceThe Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons is the cornerstone of the nonproliferation regime. It entered into force in 1970, and 190 states have subscribed.
