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Yalta Conference
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Meeting between Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They demanded Germany's unconditional surrender. Stalin also allowed free elections in Eastern Europe. He also promised to return the land to Japan that they lost. They wanted this meeting to be kept a secret but the Soviet-American coorperation stopped it from actually happening. -
Berlin Declaration
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Signed the Berlin Declaration in Berlin-Wendenschloss declaring the unconditional surrender of Germany and the belief of supreme authority by the four powers. -
Postdam Conference
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Harry S.Truman, Jospeh Stalin, and Winston Churchill held the last World War 2 conference. They discussed the German econmy, war criminal punishments, and the boundaries for land. They still also demnaded unconditional surrender from Japan. -
North Vietnam
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Japanese surrdender by signing the agreement in Tokyo Bay. This ended World War 2 in the Pacific. The independence of Vietnam was also proclaimed on this day. Ho Chi Minh quotes that all men are created equal and have rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and these are all undeniable truths. -
Iron Curtain Speech
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When Winston Churchill didnt get reelected for Britain's Prime Minister, he went on a trip with Harry Truman to make a speech on March 5. He gave his speech in front of 40,000 people at the Westminister College in Missouri. He also earned a degree from the college. His speech was known as the start of the Cold War. He changed the way democrats saw the communists. -
First Indochina War
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The United States and Great Britian were were siding with the French against the Soviet Union and China who were providing the rebels with training and equipment. This caused the division of Vietnam into the Communist North and non-Communist South -
Marshall Plan
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The Marshall Plan was also known as the European Recovery Program. It used $13 billion to recover the economic finances in Europe. It boosted up the confidence of the people in Europe greatly because it was a success. Their country's future was bright. -
Containment Policy
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Geroge Kennan wanted the United States to stop Soviet expansion. If the Soviet Union didn't expand, then its social system would be down, he believed. The Containment Policy dealt with two topics, military and economics. The U.S. and its Allied wanted to stop the spread of communism. -
Berlin Blockade
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The Soviet Union wanted to put a certain number of times France, Germany, and the United States could come to Berlin. They blocked every canal and road so none of the Western Allies could pass. Three years after World War 2 ended, this was the first huge battle of the Cold War which led to trouble throughout the city of Berlin. -
Berlin Airlift
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Berlin was located in the Soviet zone but diveded into four different sections. The Russians soon wanted Berlin all for themselves, so they blocked every possible way from western-occupied Germany to western-occupied Berlin. They thought this would get rid of Britain, U.S, and France for good because they cannot get food. The U.S. and its allies figured out a new way, the air. This lasted for more than a year. -
NATO
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NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Europe was politicaly divided because of the conflict of the Western nations. -
Soviet Union tests A-Bomb
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The code name for the atomic bomb was "First Lightening." They tested the bomb on animals that were close to being human-like to see the result. The United States had a spy plane fly over Siberia and felt the radioactivity of the explosion so they announced to America that the Soviets had a bomb, too. A German man was arrested while helping the U.S. build a bomb for giving the Soviets nuclear secrets. -
People's Republic of China founded
SourceMao Zedong states the actuality of the People’s Republic of China. China, the largest nation of Asia, losing the communism was critical blow to the United States. -
Korean War - American Involvement
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75,000 soldiers from the North Korean army went across the 38th parallel. This invasion was the first military action taken place during the Cold War. It was war between them and the Americans against the forces of communism. When the war came to an end, nearly five millions civilians and soliders lost their lives and still to this day the Korean peninsula is divided. -
Julius and Ethal Rosenberg
SourceThese two are a married couple who were put to death through and electric chair. They were convicted of using spies to gain information about the government; in this case they wanted to know about the atomic bomb of the Soviet Union. This act is known as espionage. They were arrested in the same year and put on a brief trial and claimed they were not guilty. They were executed in New York. Some people thought the punishment was just and other unjust. -
Eisenhower Presidency
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Dwight D. Eisenhower was the leader of the of the invasion of the Nazi-occupied Europe that took place on D-Day. Republicans persuaded him to run for president, as he did and won. During his presidency, he ended the war in Korea, strengthened the social security, and maintained all the tensions with the Soviet Union and all the weapons. -
Nikita Khrushchev
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Nikita led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he planted nuclear weapons 90 miles distant from Florida. He was known for his speeches, as in one of them, he took of his shoe and shook it at the United Nations. -
Iranian coup d'etat
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Tehran newspapers publish the Shah's command. The Shah began to gather around the streets as another coup began. General Zahidi came out to be a part of this movement. -
Warsaw Pact
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A defense organization for the Soviet Union to be in command over the member states. The members were: Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Hungary, Romania, East Germany, Czech, and Bulgaria. They defended themselves and each other from any invasion or attack outside the pact. -
Suez Crisis
SourceGamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal leading to the the Suez Crisis. Israelis came together by French and British forces, and that involved the Soviet Union into the fight. This ruined their relationships with the United States. British, French and Israeli governments removed their troops. -
Hungarian Revolution
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Hungarians and all of Eastern Europe were controlled by Communist Russia. Whoever dared to challenge the rule of Stalin and Russia better have been prepared for the consequences. All the wealth was taken away from the Hungarians by the Russians because they were under control by Moscow -
Sputnik
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Sputnik was the world's first artificial satellite. It means satellite in Russian and was launched at 10:29PM in Moscow. It was 22 inches long was 184 pounds. It orbited the Earth once ever hour and 36 minutes at 18,000 miles per hour. -
Cuban Revolution
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Fidel Castro led the guerrilla forces and they fought against the government army. With only 80 members, Fidel and his brother Raul sailed from Mexico to Cuba landing on Las Coloradas Beach. The people who survived got more weaopns and gathered more men and organized themselves better. The battle lasted three years throughout the towns and to the mountains. -
U2 Incident
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The USSR shot a plane in the air and it turned out to be an American spy plane. Eisenhower had to come clean to the Soviets that he had been flying a spy plane for several years. He was charged with espionage and ten years in prison. He was released two years later. That U-2 plane caused tensions between America and Russia during the Cold War. -
Kennedy Presidency
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John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States. He was 43 years old. He was raised in a wealthy family and had great education. He provided federal support for the growing civil right movement. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. It caused great shocked and he is still one of the most loved presidents in American history. -
Bay of Pigs
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A CIA financed and trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and tries to collapse the communist government of FIdel Castro. This attack was unsuccessful. -
First Man in Space
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Yuri Gagarin was the first Russian man to ever go to space. The United States and the Soviet Union were in some sort of competition to see who could explore space first, and the Soviets took that victory home all thanks for Gagarin for traveling in that small craft. His flight lasted 108 minutes and that got him a permanent spot in every history book. -
Berlin Wall
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The Berlin Wall is to this day the most powerful symbol that represents the Cold War. It was built by East Germany to keep Western fascists from coming to their side. On November 9, 1989 the head communist announced that the East side could freely cross to the West side whenever they please to. -
Checkpoint Charlie
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Checkpoint Charlie is a a museum where all the evidence of the Berlin Wall lies. All the documents about the attempts of the escapes from East to West are in the museum. It was the greatest and most famous point in all of the Cold War and it basically ended the war when the wall broke down. -
JFK Assassination
SourceOur 35th President was assassinated while driving 10 miles in a convertible through Dallas, Texas at the age of 36. He was with his wife and John Connally and his wife. As they were waving to the crowd, three shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. He did not have a clean record. He was discharged from the U.S. and later married a Soviet woman and was allowed to return back. He's tried and failed to kill a former general. He killed an officer an hour after killing the general. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
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This was the expansion of the Vietnam War. Military planners had planned out an attack on the North but our 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson was worried that nobody would like the idea of the expansion. Senator Barry Goldwater was judging Johnson for not taking the expansion more fiercly. -
SALT I
SourceSALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. The United States and the Soviet Union had a negotiation agreement to have restraints on their armaments. Lyndon said that the Soviet Union was constructing a limited ABM defense system around Moscow. This system allowed one side to strike and stop the opponent from retailing. -
Vietnam War - American Involvement
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There were harsh attacks on more about one hundred cities of the towns in South Vietnam. President Johnson called a halt to bomb North Vietnam that spread out to the South, as well. -
Tet Offensive
Source70,000 North Vietnamese forces launched the Tet Offensive in over 100 cities of South Vietnam. The Tet Offensive was named after the lunar new year holiday Tet. They attacted because they wanted to stir up rebellion against the South Vietnamese people and also to persuade the United States to gain support of the Saigon regime. -
Nixon Presidency
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Richard Nixon was our 37th President and was the only one to resign from office. He was already going into his second term but did not want to face his Watergate scandal. He did have such achievements like withdrawing United States troops from a war in Vietnam. But his scandal brought down his repuation and the government. -
Apollo 11
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Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first humans ever to land on the moon. But Armstrong was the first one to actually step foot on the moon about six-and-a-half hours later after landing. His famous quote was "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This misson was known as Apollo 11 eight years after former President Johnson made a goal for someone to step foot on the moon. -
Detente
SourceDetente is a French word that stands for "release from tension." This represents the relationship that has been improving between the United States and the Soviet Union after the harsh Cold War. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
SourceIn Tiananmen Sqaure, Chinese troops were killing and arresting a total of 10,000 people protesting for pro-democracy. The West was surprised by this action and notified the United States to be against it. The protesters and marchers were mainly young students who piled into the center of Beijing. They wanted to escape Chinese force. All this drama was broadcasted all throughout the United States. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
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When Eastern Berlin and Western Berlin were finally allowed to be united again, 2 million people came to the wall with hammers and picks and knocked down the wall. They all celebrated with champaign that their city was finally reunited as one for so many years. It was the greatest street party in history. This was when the war was really over. -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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11 Soviet republics; Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan said they are no longer a part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet flag flew over Moscow for the last time. They wanted a Commonwealth of Independent States and that is what they did.
