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Yalta conference
The Yalta Conference was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. Stalin refused to break up his dynasty, causing friction which is believed to have led to the bloodless stalemate known as the Cold War. -
Yalta Conference: Main points
Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification.
Creation of a reparation council which would be located in the Soviet Union.
Churchill alone pushed for free elections in Poland.
Roosevelt obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the UN.
Stalin agreed to enter the fight against the Empire of Japan.
Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and brought to justice.
A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to be set up. -
Postdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, in Postdum. The same mayor powers of Yalta conference met at this conference. They had agreed to decide how to administer Germany, which had surrendered unconditionally nine weeks earlier, on May 8. The aims of the conference also included the establishment of a postwar order, issues of peace treaties and the study of the effects of war. -
Postdum conference: Main points
1: Setting up of a tribunal to try senior Nazi leaders for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials.
2: Democratization of Germany, and the elimination of all Nazi influence in Germany, known as de-Nazification
3: East Prussia, including the city of Konigsberg, to become part of Russia; Polish border to be moved about 200 miles west to the Oder-Neisse line.
There were lots of agreements covering other things as well but these are the most important. -
First Indochina War
the First Indochina War is said to have begun in French Indochina on 19 December 1946 and to have lasted until 1 August 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Việt Minh opponents in the South dates from September 1945. -
Period: to
The Cold War
The Cold War was a state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States with NATO among its allies, and powers in the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union along with the Warsaw Pact. This began after the success of their temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with lots of economic and political differences. It's named Cold War because it was psychological war, not physical. -
Truman Doctrine
he Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman (Elected in 1945 before Roosevelt government) which stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere. Historians often consider it as the start of the Cold War, and the start of the containment policy to stop Soviet expansion. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the American program to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. The goals of the United States were to rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again -
Berlin Blockade
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 Allied control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food, fuel, and aid, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city. The blockade was lifted in May 1949 and resulted in the creation of two separate German states. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. It was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. It ended on 27 July 1953. -
Stalin's death and Hungarian uprising
Stalin died on 5th March, 1953. By 1955 Khrushchev emerged as leader. There were riots in Poland in June 1956 but single party Communist rule was restored and there was no Soviet intervention. But in Hungary Prime Minister Imre Nagy withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact and threatened to end single-party rule. On 4th November, 1956, Soviet forces invaded; 30,000 Hungarians were killed. Nagy (Hungary's president) was executed. -
War in Vietnam
The 1954 to 1959 phase of the Vietnam War was the era of the two nations. Coming after the First Indochina War, this period resulted in the military defeat of the French, a 1954 Geneva meeting that partitioned Vietnam into North and South, and the French withdrawal from Vietnam, leaving the Republic of Vietnam regime fighting a communist insurgency with US aid. During this period, North Vietnam recovered from the wounds of war, rebuilt nationally, and accrued to prepare for the anticipated war. -
The Geneva Agreement
The Geneva Agreements of 1954 arranged a settlement which brought about an end to the First Indochina war. The agreement was reached at the end of the Geneva Conference. A ceasefire was signed and France agreed to withdraw its troops from the region. French Indochina was split into three countries: Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built this year. It was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. -
Indonesian–Malaysian Confrontation
The Indonesian–Malaysian Confrontation during 1962–1966 was Indonesia's political and armed opposition to the creation of Malaysia. It is also known by its Indonesian/Malay name Konfrontasi. The creation of Malaysia was the amalgamation of the Federation of Malaya (now West Malaysia), Singapore and the crown colony/British protectorates of Sabah and Sarawak (collectively known as British Borneo, now East Malaysia) in September 1963. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side, and the United States on the other, in October 1962. It was one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. It is also the first documented instance of the threat of mutual assured destruction (MAD) being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement. -
President Kennedy changed US policy
During his early months in office, Kennedy moved slowly on civil rights issues. He did not want to lose the support of southern members of Congress. Later in his term, Kennedy became a much stronger supporter of civil rights. He wanted American society to put into practice the principles of freedom that U.S. leaders preached to the world. He decided it was time for the government to take action in support of civil rights. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks that were launched against military and civilian commands and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed to take place. President Nixon wanted to finish the war quickly so he USA was forced to withdraw. -
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring ) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and all members of the Warsaw Pact, with the notable exception of Romania, invaded the country to halt the reforms.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVIp5lUJhCs -
Détente
The term is often used in reference to the general easing of geo-political tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States which began in 1971, as a foreign policy of U.S.The period was characterized by the signing of treaties such as the SALT I and the Helsinki Accords. A second Arms-Limitation Treaty, SALT II, was discussed but never ratified by the United States. There is still ongoing debate amongst historians as to how successful the détente period was in achieving peace. -
End of the Détente
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that was to shore up a struggling allied regime led to harsh criticisms in the west and a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, which were to be held in Moscow. Jimmy Carter boosted the U.S. defense budget and began financially aiding the President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
The 1980 American presidential election saw Ronald Reagan elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente. Negotiations on SALT II were abandoned and Détente ended -
Poland’s people rebelled
he Polish crisis of 1980–1981, associated with the emergence of the Solidarity mass movement in Poland, challenged the Soviet control over the satellite countries of the Eastern Bloc. For the first time however, the Kremlin abstained from military intervention unlike on previous occasions such as the Prague Spring of 1968 or the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and thus left the Polish leadership under General Wojciech Jaruzelski to impose martial law to crush the opposition on their own. -
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. Perestroika is often argued to be the cause of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War. -
Glasnost
Glasnost was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. Introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s, Glasnost is often paired with Perestroika (literally: Restructuring), another reform instituted by Gorbachev at the same time. The word "glasnost" has been used in Russian at least since the end of the 18th century. -
Revolutions of 1989 (Collapse of Communism)
Revolutions of 1989The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist states in various Central and Eastern European countries.
In this year the Berlin Wall felt.
The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. One feature common to most of these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil resistance demonstrating popular opposition tof one-party rule and contributing to the pressure for change. -
Collapse of Communism
The Soviet Union was dissolved by the end of 1991, resulting in 14 countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) declaring their independence from the Soviet Union and the bulk of the country being succeeded by the Russian Federation. Communism was abandoned in Albania and Yugoslavia between 1990 and 1992, the latter splitting into five successor states by 1992.
