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Winston Churchill presents his "Iron Curtain" Speech.
Slide 7Beginning in 1946 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to areas under Soviet control as "languishing behind what he called an Iron Curtain."There was this idea that Europe was separated by an Iron Curtain with Communist dominated countries on the wrong side of that curtain and relatively democratic nations on the other side gravitating towards the United States. -
NATO is formed.
Slide 7
In 1949, all of the countries banded together to form what was called the North Atlantic Trade Organization, also known as NATO. NATO was a mutual defense organization. Ifsmaller countries were attacked, bigger countries would help them fight back. -
Warsaw Pact is established by the Soviets.
Slide 7In 1955, the Soviets responded to NATO with the creation of the Warsaw Pact that banded together various countries.Europe, and to some extent, the broader world was divided into armed camps. -
Sputnik is launched.
Slide 10
The launching of the Sputnik satellites in 1957 created the possibility of space-based weapons affecting the airspace of the United States. -
Cuba is taken over by Fidel Castro.
Slide 13
Fidel Castro took over Cuba and began practicing communism there. His communist ties were rejected by the United States, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union and became a part of America's biggest rival in the Cold War. -
John F. Kennedy is elected to be President of the United States.
Slide 13
John F. Kennedy won against Richard Nixon in their very close election 1960. Kennedy was a brilliant rhetorician who inspired a generation of young Americans and was a great leader during the Cold War. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion occurs in Cuba.
http://www.education.miami.edu/ep/littlehavana/Monuments/Virgin1/The_Virgin_Mary/Bay_of_Pigs/bay_of_pigs.html
The Bay of Pigs was one of the most important political decisions in the history of the United States. The U.S. wanted to stop communism from reaching our country, so Cuban exiles launched invasion again Cuba. The Bay of Pigs still affects the U.S. today because we do not have a good relation with Cuba. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs in response to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. This attack by Fidel Castro was a response to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. After this, the United States were not allowed to enter or attack Cuba. -
President Kennedy is assassinated
After Kennedy's assassination in Texas in 1963, the United States became fully involved in the Vietnam War. There are many conspiracies surrounding the reasoning for Kennedy's assassinations. -
The U.S. becomes involved in the the Vietnam War through the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/vietnamwar/p/gulfoftonkin.htm
After Kennedy's death, President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, began increasing military aid to South Vietnam. On August 2, 1964, the attacks began and this helped lead to greater American involvement in the Vietnam War. -
President Nixon resigns from being president of the United States.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/8/newsid_2492000/2492685.stm
President Nixon is the first to ever resign from presidency. He resigned because of the Watergate Scandal which affected America and their trust in the government. -
The Berlin Wall is demolished.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm
The Berlin Wall divided East and West Germany and signified the boundary betweent democracy and Communism during the Cold War. On November 9, 1989, the borders were opened and Germany unified into a non-Communist state, which positively affected the United States. -
The Cold War ends.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/59e.asp
Gorbachev provided new leadership in the Soviet Union. He also initiated agreemants in the United States and introduced a democratic political process in the the Soviet Union as they were no longer allied with Cuba. Improved realtions with the United States brought an end to the Cold War.
