-
Truman Doctrine
In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to actively offering assistance to preserve the political integrity of democratic nations when such an offer was deemed to be in the best interest of the United States. -
The Berlin Blockade
The Soviets blocked the United States, Great Britain, and France of being able to travel to their sector of Berlin, Germany. The blockade was the first major clash of the Cold War and foreshadowed future conflict over the city of Berlin. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan 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.’ -
NATO
The prospect of further Communist expansion prompted the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).It was primarily a security pact, with Article 5 stating that a military attack against any of the signatories would be considered an attack against them all. -
Soviet A-Bomb
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” Both superpowers (the US and the USSR) were now in possession of the so-called “superbomb,” and the world lived under the threat of thermonuclear war for the first time in history. -
Korean War
American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. The Warsaw Pact focused on the objective of creating a coordinated defense among its member nations in order to deter an enemy attack. The alliance also provided a mechanism for the Soviets to exercise even tighter control over the other Communist states in Eastern Europe and deter pact members from seeking greater autonomy. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The divisive war, increasingly unpopular at home, ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under Communist control two years later. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
The CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike: a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, 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. -
The Construction of the Berlin Wall
The Communist government of the German Democratic Republic began to build a barbed wire and concrete wall between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. The disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s (1894-1971) offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. -
Apollo 11
American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon. The United States was able to beat the Soviet Union. -
Glasnost and Perestroika
Gorbachev's dual program of “perestroika” (“restructuring”) and “glasnost” (“openness”) introduced profound changes in economic practice, internal affairs and international relations. Within five years, Gorbachev’s revolutionary program swept communist governments throughout Eastern Europe from power and brought an end to the Cold War (1945-91) -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
After the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.