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The Russian Revolution
A period of social and political revolution across the Russian Empire led by the Bolshevik party from March 8, 1917 to June 16, 1923. It ended with the establishment of the Soviet Union and the end of the civil war -
Chinese Communist Revolution
1945-1950, led by the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao Zedong, resulted in the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, on October 1, 1949. The revolution began in 1946 after the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and was the second part of the Chinese Civil War (1945–49). In China, the period is known as the War of Liberation -
The Potsdam Conference
Harry S. Truman and Churchill went to Europe for a meeting of with Stalin to determine post-war European plans. They confronted many issues, such as the control of defeated Germany, post-war boundaries, winning the war with Japan, securing Alaskan peace for Europe. Sets the front lines for the cold war. -
Atomic Bombs
After Stalin refused to withdraw troops and hold the free elections he promised, Truman condemned him for running a "Police government, plain and simple.". Atomic weapons, which were destined to win the war with Japan, could also be used to get a little leverage in dealing with people like Stalin. When Stalin heard that the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, it came as no surprise, but the willingness to use it presented a harsh reality for Stalin. His army would be useless. -
The Long Telegram
George Kennan spent years observing as an american diplomat stationed in Moscow. he wrote the long telegram, an 8,000 word dispatch to Washington, he "deciphered the soviet riddle". He believed Stalin needed to present the outside world as hostile in order to justify his bloody regime. -
Iron Curtain
A non-physical barrier across the continent, separating the former soviet union from the west. -
Molotov Plan
A system Proposed by Vyacheslav Molotov to provide aid to rebuild Eastern European countries that were politically and economically aligned with the soviet union. The soviet union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Eastern Germany all took part in the Molotov Plan. -
Hollywood 10
A group of producers, directors, and screenwriters who didn't answer questions regarding possible communist affiliations because they were protected by the 1st amendment, calling it outrageous -
Truman Doctrine
How containment will be implemented. To aid and help protect free countries trying to resist communist control. Greece and Turkey. -
Containment
Tyranny was once again on the march in Europe. In the months since potsdam, the soviet union was behaving more like an enemy than an ally. Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the eastern part of Germany had come under the soviet union's "Sphere of Influence". This was Stalin's buffer zone, assurance against any future invasions. -
Marshall Plan
Supplied food, money ($12 billion) and basic needs to help rebuild western Europe and not have them turn to communism. -
Berlin Blockade
Stalin ordered all land access into west Berlin to be sealed off. Roads and Railways shut down, Power turned off, shipments of goods. He was determined to force the western allies out of West Berlin and starve his people into submission. -
Berlin Airlift
Created to resupply the beleaguered city. Day and night, planes would ferry in food, coal, and medical supplies. A flight would land in West Berlin every 3 minutes on average, and more than 2 million tons of cargo were delivered during the program's 15 month run. Each mission brought the threat of soviet intervention, but it never came. -
NATO
The U.S. and Canada joined with 10 European nations joined to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A rebuilt, rearmed west Germany would join in 1955. -
First Soviet Bomb Test
The soviets tested their own atomic bomb years ahead of expert predictions. -
Alger Hiss Case
an American government official who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union in 1948, but statutes of limitations had expired for espionage. He was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. -
Korean War
A war between North and South Korea began when 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. -
Rosenberg Trial
Julius Rosenberg was a spy who passed along information to the Soviet Union and recruited spies for the Manhattan Project. He was U.S. citizen and electrical engineer. In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel were convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. They were executed in 1953. -
Army-Mccarthy-hearings
Hearings from April to June 1954 that made clear his methods and manner, greatly weakening his popular support and leading to his censure by the Senate on December 2, 1954. -
Warsaw Pact
In response to NATO, the Soviet Union formed a competing alliance; The Warsaw Pact. composed originally of the Soviet Union and Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. (Albania withdrew in 1968, and East Germany did so in 1990.) -
Hungarian Revolution
a nationwide revolution against the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from October 23 until November 10, 1956. it was the first big threat to Soviet control since the Red Army drove Nazi Germany from its territory at the End of World War II in Europe. -
U-2 Incident
A US U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet air defense forces while performing photographic aerial recon deep into Soviet territory. flown by Francis Gary Powers, was hit by an S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile and crashed near Sverdlovsk. Powers parachuted safely and was captured. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
A failed attempt by US-sponsored Cuban exiles to reverse Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, beginning with a military invasion of northern Cuba.1,500 Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro. -
Berlin Wall
a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from East Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
October 16–28, 1962. confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet missile deployment in Cuba. The closest the cold war ever got to actual war. -
Assassination of JFK
November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. He was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. marine. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
a joint invasion of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Hungary – on August 20-21, 1968. 137 Czechoslovakian civilians were killed and 500 wounded during the invasion. -
Nixon Visits China
The culmination of the Nixon administration and it's resuming of relations between the United States and mainland China after years of diplomatic isolation. ended 25 years of no communication or diplomatic ties between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. -
Reagan Elected
Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter. Due to the rise of conservatism following Reagan's victory, some consider the election to be an election that marked the start of the "Reagan Era". -
SDI Announced
Strategic Defense Initiative, AKA Star Wars. A big shooty lazer in space. a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack. How we win the cold war. $170 Billion. Now the soviet union has to keep up, which they can't. -
Geneva Meeting with Gorbachev
Reagan meets with Gorbachev in Geneva, Switzerland on the topic of international diplomatic relations and nuclear war. They discuss reducing nuclear arms. They don't reach an agreement but they become friends. -
"Tear down this wall" Speech
AKA The Berlin Wall speech. Given by Reagan at the Berlin Wall telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall. Gorbachev does nothing. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Broadcasted on T.V., families are reunited, led to the end of the cold war.
