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Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution took place in 1917 when the peasants and working class people of Russia revolted against the government of Tsar Nicholas II. They were led by Vladimir Lenin and a group of revolutionaries called the Bolsheviks. The new communist government created the country of the Soviet Union. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself from direct contact with the West and non-Communist-controlled areas. -
Potsdam Conference
The meeting at Potsdam was the third conference between the leaders of the Big Three nations where an agreement was made. It concerned the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its borders, and the entire European Theatre of War territory. -
The Atomic Bombs
In August of 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombs were intended to cause Japan to surrender to the allied forces and to bring about the end of WWII -
The Hollywood Ten
Ten Hollywood figures banded together in protest, refusing to cooperate on First Amendment grounds, and were in turn held contempt of Congress. This began the infamous “blacklist,” which denied employment to those deemed un-American in their thoughts. -
The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine demonstrated that the United States would not return to isolationism after World War II, but rather take an active role in world affairs. The United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. The Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
NATO
The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe. NATO stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviets started experimenting with nuclear technology in 1943, and first tested a nuclear weapon in August 1949. Many of the fission based devices left behind radioactive isotopes which have contaminated air, water and soil in the areas immediately surrounding, downwind and downstream of the blast site. -
Korean War
Communist North Korea invades South Korea, which is defended by U.N. forces, while North Korea is defended by China. The war ends in a stalemate, with 36,000 Americans killed -
Khruschev Takes over
Khrushchev Takes Over for Stalin. During World War II, Khrushchev mobilized troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and at Stalingrad. After the war, he helped to rebuild the devastated countryside while simultaneously stifling Ukrainian nationalist dissent. -
Eisenhower’s Massive Retaliation Policy
President Eisenhower adopted a foreign policy of massive retaliation. This policy sought to counter the growing Soviet threat and it viewed nuclear weapons as a means of deterring war and as a first recourse should deterrence fail. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army, which he charges with being soft on communism. In April 1954, McCarthy, chairman of the Government Operations Committee in the Senate, opened televised hearings into his charges against the Army. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. -
Hungarian Revolution
The people of Hungary stood up against the oppression of Soviet rule. This sent shock waves through eastern and central Europe that reverberated for decades. -
U2 Incident
An international diplomatic crisis erupted in May 1960 when the USSR shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot. The incident derailed an important summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. This was built to prevent people from leaving from Communist East Germany. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
Detente under Nixon
President Nixon pursued two important policies that both culminated in 1972. In February he visited Beijing, setting in motion normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China. In May, he traveled to the Soviet Union and signed agreements that contained the results of the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks and new negotiations were begun to extend further arms control and disarmament measures. These developments marked the beginning of a period of détente. -
The Reagan Doctrine
During the early years of the Reagan presidency, Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified. Reagan entered office deeply suspicious of the Soviet Union. -
Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech
This speech by President Ronald Reagan to the people of West Berlin contains one of the most memorable lines spoken during his presidency. This speech delivered a message of freedom and prosperity -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall ended 40 years of division between the capitalist west and the communist east. This reunited Germany and foretold the coming collapse of the Soviet Union.
