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Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill, former Britain Prime Minister, went to Fulton, Missouri to make a speech about how the Soviet Union and its Communism are dangerous enemies to the US, Britain and Democracy. This speech changes many people's opinions about the Soviet Union, who was a great ally during WWII. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman, president after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, addressed Congress so that the US foreign policy be changed to include that we will help countries whose freedoms are threatened by Communism. Congress approves and we assist Turkey and Greece from each caving in to communism. -
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Cold War
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Berlin Blockade
Germany, now controlled by the Soviets, cut off West Berlin, which was controlled by the other allies. The Soviets didn't want a West Germany that works closely with the western Allies, so they attempted to prevent supplies from coming in. In about 5 weeks, there would not be enough supplies/food. The problem was solved when the US, UK and France airlifted thousands of tons of supplies and food using their planes. -
Creation of NATO
The foreign ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States signed the North Atlantic treaty to form a kind of aliance. One of the most important parts was Article 5: "An armed attack against one or more of the European signatories or the North American signatories, would be considered an attack against all of them" -
McCarthyism
While Americans were worrying about communism outside our country, a Senator named Joseph R. McCarthy decided to captialize on this for his political career. He made a speech detailing that there were many communists in the State Department that were going to derail American beliefs. This led into a huge witch hunt for years to find communists across the country. -
Korean War starts
75,000 soldiers from Soviet-backed North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to pro-Western South Korea (Republic of Korea). The US was involved by July. As far as our country was concerned, this was a battle against communism itself. It ended on July 27, 1953. -
Vietnam War starts
The Vietnam war was a long, expensive war that had the Communist regime in North Vietnam against South Vietnam and the US. The US got out of the war when US civilians grew in opposition to it and President Richard declared his withdrawl in 1973. -
Sputnik Launch Successful
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the US population was shocked because of the danger this can pose one day. While Sputnik was in itself, harmless, many worried that the Soviet Union could make a weapon/strategic station out of a future satelite. This caused the US to compete in the 'Space Race' where the US and Soviets raced to be the first on to get a man on the moon. -
Berlin Wall started being built
A wall was built to block the pro-Western West Berlin from the rest of Germany, because many of Germany's smartest were moving there. Over 100 people were killed trying to climb the wall. -
Cuban Missle Crisis Starts
A crisis that almost caused thermonuclear war. It started for the US when reconnaissance photographs revealed Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba. This caused a 13-day standoff between the US and Cuba with nuclear weapons. On October 28th, Khrushchev announced that he would dismantle the installations and return the missles to the Soviet Union, easing the tensions. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
Communism began to falter in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia, letting Germans in the Soviet parts of Berlin and Germany find a way to the West. Soldiers at the border were letting people cross, from orders from the goverment. Germans celebrated and even chipped parts of the wall off. They took down the wall and its piecies became decorations. -
Collapse of Soviet Union
The collapse of the Soviet Union was caused by economic and political reasons. Many people were no longer in support of communism in Russia. Also, the Soviet Union had lost the Arms Race against the United States. Also, the communist/socialist economy couldn't sustain the war as well as capitalism.
