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Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United States senator from Missouri from 1935 to 1945 and briefly as the 34th vice president in 1945 under Franklin D. Roosevelt. -
Iron Curtain
formed the imaginary 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 symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
Yalta/Potsdam Conferences
held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. -
Novikov Telegram
the Soviet ambassador to the USA, Nikolai Novikov, warned that the USA had emerged from World War Two economically strong and bent on world domination. -
Long Telegram
One man who had first hand knowledge was a Foreign Service officer, George F. Kennan. In 1946, while he was Chargé d'Affaires in Moscow, Kennan sent an 8,000-word telegram to the Department—the now-famous “long telegram”—on the aggressive nature of Stalin's foreign policy. -
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee is also known by his pen name Unam. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War -
Marshall Plan
On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. -
Mao Zedung
Mao Zedong was a Chinese politician, Marxist theorist, military strategist, poet, and revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China. He led the country from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976, while also serving as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party during that time. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. -
Berlin Airlift
one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
Domino Theory
The domino theory is a geopolitical theory which posits that increases or decreases in democracy in one country tend to spread to neighboring countries in a domino effect. -
Commonform
A Bozeman, Montana-based designer and producer of handmade, modern, everyday brass jewelry. They prioritize accessibility, offering high-quality and affordable pieces. Their designs are simple and timeless, focused on subtlety and longevity. -
US/UN Coalition Forces Arrive
On June 27, 1950, the United States officially entered the Korean War. The U.S. supported the Republic of Korea (commonly called South Korea), in repelling an invasion from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (commonly called North Korea). -
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Korean War
The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. It began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea and ceased after an armistice on 27 July 1953. -
Jacobo Arbenz
Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th President of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the second democratically elected President of Guatemala, from 1951 to 1954. -
Chinese volunteers
China also sent 600,000 civilian laborers to Korea. They entered Korea and worked in logistical supply, support services, and railroad and highway construction. Thus, a total of 3.1 million Chinese “volunteers” eventually participated in the Korean War. ¹ The course of the war was never the same after China intervened. -
North Korean Invasion
North Korea aimed to militarily conquer South Korea and therefore unify Korea under the communist North Korean regime. Concerned that the Soviet Union and Communist China might have encouraged this invasion, President Harry S. -
Peace Treaty
On July 27, 1953, military commanders from the United States, North Korea and China signed an armistice agreement that ended the hostilities of the Korean War. -
Revolution in Guatimala (United Fruit Company)
On June 27, 1954, democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was deposed in a CIA-sponsored coup to protect the profits of the United Fruit Company. Árbenz was replaced by decades of brutal U.S.-backed regimes who committed widespread torture and genocide. -
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh, colloquially known as Uncle Ho or just Uncle, and by other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary, nationalist, and politician. He served as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and as president from 1945 until his death, in 1969. -
Ngo Dihn Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam and later the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until his capture and assassination during the CIA-backed 1963 South Vietnamese coup. -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was a major conflict of the Cold War. -
Warsaw Pact
a collective defence treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania (Albania withdrew in 1968). -
Space Race
a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. -
Sputnik Launch
first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries became depleted. -
Great Leap Forward
a five-year plan of forced agricultural collectivization and rural industrialization that was instituted by the Chinese Communist Party in 1958, which resulted in a sharp contraction in the Chinese economy and between 30 to 45 million deaths by starvation, execution, torture, forced labor, -
Viertcong
The Viet Cong was an epithet to call the communist movement and united front organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. -
Construction and Fall of the Berlin wall
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer, pronounced [bɛʁˌliːnɐ ˈmaʊɐ]) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; West Germany) from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). -
Non-Aligned Movement
was founded in 1961 with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation. In its first three decades, the Movement played a crucial role in decolonization, formation of new independent states, and democratization of international relations. -
JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to as JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president -
Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
known as the October Crisis in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis, was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba -
Krustchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
The Gulf of Tonkin incident was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. -
Tonkin resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, Pub. L. 88–408, 78 Stat. 384, enacted August 10, 1964, was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident -
M.A.D
Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy which posits that a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender with second-strike capabilities would result in the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. -
Brinkmanship
the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict. -
SALT
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were a series of bilateral conferences and international treaties signed between the United States and the Soviet Union. These treaties had the goal of reducing the number of long-range ballistic missiles (strategic arms) that each side could possess and manufacture. -
Star Wars
In a 2005 interview with History, Lucas clarified. "I love history, so while the psychological basis of Star Wars is mythological, the political and social bases are historical." That comes as no surprise, considering the Empire purposely mirrors the Nazi Party during World War II. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States 2nd Air Division, U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against North Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
Mujahideen
mujahideen, in its broadest sense, Muslims who fight on behalf of the faith or the Muslim community (ummah). Its Arabic singular, mujāhid, was not an uncommon personal name from the early Islamic period onward. -
Cultural Revolution
formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China. It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976. -
Vietnamization
(in the Vietnam War) the US policy of withdrawing its troops and transferring the responsibility and direction of the war effort to the government of South Vietnam. -
1st Man on Moon
Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, -
Kim Il Sung
Kim Il Sung was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as Supreme Leader from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Afterwards, he was declared eternal president. He held the posts of the Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. -
Paris Peace Accords
The Paris Peace Accords, officially the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam, was a peace agreement signed on January 27, 1973, to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. -
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. -
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. -
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Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Soviet-controlled Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. -
Operation Storm 333
The Tajbeg Palace assault, known by the military codename Operation Storm-333, was a military raid executed by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan on 27 December 1979. -
Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent conservative figures in American history. -
Grobachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. -
Chernobyl
began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union. -
Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
The final and complete withdrawal of the Soviet 40th Army from Afghanistan began on 15 May 1988 and ended on 15 February 1989, under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov. The Soviet military had been one of the main combatants in the Soviet–Afghan War since its beginning in 1979. -
Berlin Wall
The 155-kilometer-long Berlin Wall, which cut through the middle of the city center, surrounded West Berlin from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989. The Wall was designed to prevent people from escaping to the West from East Berlin. -
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991