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Yalta Conference
WWII was nearing its end so the big three of the Allies met in Yalta. FDR went into the meeting basing his thoughts on the Wilsonian Principles. He was wanting to preserve peace after the war and spread his democratic ideals. However, Stalin had other ideas. He wanted to mostly control Eastern Europe. This added to the tensions that would later become the Cold War. Germany was also divided among the Allies as well as Russia declaring war on Japan. The United Nations was also created. -
Churchill Gives Iron Curtain Speech
After the end of WWII the Cold War was nearing as a result of the differences between the US and the USSR. This was evident in Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech. Despite the US' interests, the USSR was controlling east Europe and installing governments loyal to them. This made a steep divide between east and west Europe where the rest of the Allies supported democracy. Churchill named this divide the Iron Curtain. This divide was evidence that tensions were extremely high. -
Truman gives Truman Doctrine
At the start of the Cold War, the USSR was supporting communist revolutions in Greece and Turkey. The anticommunists in those countries needed support. This prompted President Truman to announce the Truman Doctrine. This stated that the US would support free peoples resisting communism. This was the essence of the policy of containment. Truman then gave lots of funding to both Turkey and Greece. The US would later interfere in other places to stop the spread of communism. -
The Hollywood ten put on trial
The Red Scare had swept across America. The people feared that communists spies had plots against them and the government. The HUAC was created which investigated Americans who could be communists. They helped fuel the flames of the red scare. They held a widely publicized hearing where ten people from Hollywood were put on trial for being communist. They ended up being jailed along with other people the HUAC later tried. These people were black listed from the industry. -
Operation Vittles (Berlin Airlift)
Although Berlin was in East Germany, it was still divided up among the Allies. This split Berlin into west and east.The USSR wanted the rest of Berlin so they created a blockade to starve West Berlin. President Truman would not let West Berlin fall and had the plan to deliver supplies via airlift. This airlift helped to bring lots of much needed supplies to the city and also took some people out. Truman declared that a war would be started if a plane went down so the Soviets didn’t counter this. -
The Marshall Plan
After WWII, Europe was having an economic depression. This could led to a global depression if no actions were taken. Bad economic conditions also sometimes drove people to communism which the United States was heavily against because of the policy of containment. This caused George Marshall to create his Marshall Plan which would help fund the rebuilding of Europe. The US sent billions of dollars to Europe to help rebuild it and it worked. The economy of East Europe started to improve. -
Election of 1948
The Republicans chose Thomas Dewey for their candidate and the Democrats chose Truman; however, the democrat party was split at this time and everything seemed hopeless for Truman. Truman went on a speaking tour around the country and was able to save the election for him and he won the election. While president, Truman would face pressure from both republicans and democrats that disagreed with him. He would contain his stance on containment of the Soviet Union. -
NATO Created
West Berlin's survival became a symbol of resistance against communism. This inspired other West European countries to also resist. The United States had also been helping build West Europe up and had lots of influence there. The US created a pact among most of the West European countries. This pact, NATO, was an alliance that said that they would protect one another in the event of an attack. This helped guarantee the survival of democracy in the area. The USSR countered with the Warsaw Pact. -
North Korea Invades South Korea
After WWII, Korea was split at the 38th parallel with the communist north backed by the Soviets and the south backed by the US. The north invaded the south with a surprise attack and war was started. Keeping up with the policy of containment, Truman immediately sent troops and funding to south Korea. The north was winning at first until MacArthur led the south up near China. However, China got involved and helped lead the north back to the 38th parallel. An armistice was then declared. -
First ICBM created
During the Cold War the US and USSR were engaged in an arms race to see who could develop better quality and quantity of weapons. The Soviet Union was ahead at the time and were able to create the first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). This meant that they could now bomb America from much farther distances. This fact heavily scared Americans and showed how importance the arms race was.The government then pumped even more money into sciences so that the United States could catch up. -
Sputnik launched by Russia
Part of the Cold War was the space race. Both the US and the USSR wanted to be ahead of the other in terms of technology. The Soviets were ahead and this was evident in the launch of their first satellite, Sputnik. The thought that a Soviet device overhead scared America and made the fact that they were behind significant. This caused the government to pump more funding and resources into science and education. Some of this made its way to colleges. Advancements were made with the new funding. -
U-2 incident
The US had developed a special plane that was extremely fast and could fly at very high altitudes. The US used these to spy on the Soviet union. Unfortunately, one of these spies was shot down by the Soviets. In the event of getting shot down, these spies are meant to take a cyanide pill so that information can't be extracted from them. However, for some reason this spy didn't. The USSR used him as an example and put him on trial. They also used him as an excuse to cancel a peace conference. -
Election of 1960
The Republican Seasoned politician, Richard Nixon, was going up against the young Democrat, JFK. This was during the Cold War and those ideas were the big ideas discussed. What made this election special was the fact that it was the first election with nationally televised debates. Nixon was a very good debater. However, JFK was extremely knowledgeable on how to act on TV and Nixon had little experience on that. This caused JFK to appear better and helped him just barely win the election. -
Berlin Wall Built
Berlin had been divided after the war and it was located in East Germany. This cut off West Berlin from the rest its allies and left as a land of democracy surrounded by communism. In comparison to its other communist half, West Berlin seemed a lot better off and less restricted. People could very clearly see the difference and it showed the failure of communism. This caused lots of people to escape from East Berlin to the West. To stop this, a wall was built overnight separating the halves. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
A revolution in Cuba occurred where Fidel Castro took over and turned Cuba communist. He was backed by the USSR and America was extremely against this. They wanted to contain communism and wouldn't let this stand. JFK signed a plan created under Eisenhower. Under this plan, Cuban nationalists would be trained by the CIA and unleashed back to Cuba to take it back. They would be backed up by the US. However, the US didn't back them up and it became a huge failure.