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Iron Curtain
In 1945 at the end of WWII, instead of pulling his troops out of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia, Stalin let the troops remain and installed communist governments. Stalin did this because he knew Russia's western border was weak, and he wanted a buffer zone of countried on that border to protect from attack. This divided Europe in a line that became known as the Iron Curtain. -
The Causes of the Cold War
Extreme differences caused the Cold War. Soviet Russia was a one party dictatorship, communist, believed capitalism was evil and the US wanted to spread it, wanted reperations from Germany, scared of the US atomic bomb and angry the US had invaded Russia to stop communism. The US was democratic, capitalist, believed communism was evil and Russia wanted to spread it, wanted reconstruction for Germany, scared of Russia's conventional army, and angry about the Nazi-Soviet pact. -
Mao Zedong and the Communist Control of China
By 1945 Mao Zedong and his communist followers controlled much of Northern China having won the peasants loyalty with literacy promotion and improved food production. The Nationalists under Jiang Jieshi controlled southwestern China helped by 1.5 billion in aid from the US, although much of the money was taken by a few officers. -
Korean War
After WWII Korea was divided on the 38th parallel because the Japanese north of this surrendered to the Soviet forces while the Japanese to the south surrendered to the American troops. The north became communist, set up by the Soviets, and the south capitalist, supported by Western powers. -
US Containment
The US was worried because they saw the Soviet empire growing. Truman adopted a plan of containment to prevent communism from spreading by forming alliances and helping weak countries resist soviet advances. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was the US plan to help support countries that rejected communism, hoping more countries would then reject communism and the Soviet Union wouldn't be able to grow. It caused controversy because of how it interfered in other countries affairs. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan suggested in 1947 was created to help Western European countries that were in ruins after WWII. Congress passed the bill in 1948 after Czechoslovakia was annexed by Russia. The help would be given to countries not in the Soviet Union, and would strengthen those countries so they could resist the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
When the US and allies withdrew troops from Germany hoping to allow reunification, the Soviets who wanted Germany divided blocked all highways, railways and waterways into West Berlin. The US and allies then had to fly supplies constantly to the people living there so they wouldn't starve. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed by the US, Canada, and ten other Western nations after the Berlin blockade to prevent against Soviet attack. If one nation in the Treaty was attacked all wouold respond. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The Soviet Union lifted their blockade on East Berlin because they couldn't keep the US and England from sending in support. -
Arms Race
On August 29th 1949 the Soviet Union succeded in detonating their first atomic bomb, following the US and matching the US's weapon in power. -
Mao Zedong and the Communist Control of China
After a Civil war that started in 1946, the communist beat the nationalist despite larger numbers and US aid(given to stop communism)with popular support and defectors from the nationalist party, who defected because of the collapsing economy. Mao Zedong declared China the People's Republic of China. The nationalist leaders fled to Taiwan and created Nationalist China with the US' help, while the Soviets helped the People's Republic of China(stop capitalism), intensifying the Cold War. -
Arms Race
President Truman promoted the building of a more deadly thermonuclear bomb that would destruct by the fusion of atoms. This was the Hydrogen(H) bomb, and was thousands of times more powerful than the A-bomb. This bomb would be much stronger than any weapon the Soviet Union had. -
Korean War
After the Americans and Soviets had removed most of their troops from Korea in 1949 the Soviets supplied north Korea with tanks, airplanes, and money, hoping the US wouldn't defend South Korea, and on June 25 1950 attacked South Korea. Truman kept his policy of containment and decided to help south Korea. South Korea asked the UN for help, and because the Soviet Union was protesting Nationalist China at the UN, they weren't at the UN so the UN sent mostly American troops to defend South Korea. -
Korean War
North Korea controlled the entire penninsula except a small area called Pusan. However, later that September MacArthur(American general) launched an attack that caused half the North Koreans to surrender and the other half to retreat. The UN troops pursued the retreat into North Korea almost to the Chinese border. -
Korean War
The communist Chinese felt threatened by the UN troops and an American fleet off of their coast, so they sent 300,000 troops into Korea to push the UN and South Korean troops out of North Korea. It was succesful, so then the Chinese went into South Korea capturing the capital. -
Korean War
The UN troops succeded in gaining back control of South Korea. -
Arms Race
The US detonated their first Hydrogen bomb called Mike, because hydrogen bombs have thousands of time times the power of an atomic bomb, giving the US more nuclear power than the Soviet Union. -
Korean War
The UN troops and the North Koreans signed a cease-fire(not a peace treaty) that remains in the present day. The border was set almost exactly where it had been before the war and the 4 million deaths. -
Arms Race
The Soviet Union followed the US in succesfully detonating a hydrogen bomb in Kazkhstan so they would have the same nuclear power as the US. -
The Warsaw Pact
Created after NATO because the Eastern Europeans saw NATO as a threat, Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Albania, Romania, and Bulgaria joined. It completed the divide of the world between the Soviets and the US. -
Arms Race
Secratary of State Dulles threatened the Soviet Union saying if they attacked the US's interests or supporters the US would retaliate instantly through by any means. This put the US and the Soviet Union on the brink of war and caused both countries to stockpile nuclear arms and build airforces to carry these weapons, something that would go on for four decades. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
After Eisenhower ordered a trade embargo with Cuba, Fidel Castro, dictator of Cuba, went to the Soviet Union for economic and military help. Disliking this, the CIA started training anti-Castro Cubans who had been exiled. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The CIA trained anti-Castro Cubans invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. They didn't recieve the air support they thought they would from the US(wanting to stop communism) so the were easily defeated. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
After the failed Bay of Pigs attack Krushchev(Soviet leader) thought the US wouldn't resist if the Soviets expanded into Latin America. He built 42 secret missle sites in Cuba. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
An US spy plane found the missle sites and because Cuba was so close to the US, President Kennedy demanded the Soviets to remove them, and announced that the US would put a naval blockade on Cuba so the Soviets couldn't build any more. A nuclear war seemed iminate, but Krushchev removed the missles and the US agreed not to invade Cuba. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
After the death of Braschev and the quick deaths of his two succesors, the commitee that helped run the state choose a younger leader. Gorbachev at 54 was the youngest soviet leader since Stalin. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
In 1985 Gorbachev introduced a new policy of Glasnost, or openess. He thought the stagnant economy could only be moved by a free flow of ideas. Gorbachev blamed the problems with food and necesities, people had to stand in long lines to get food and other basics, on central planning. Under central planning officials told farms and factory managers how much they could produce and what they could charge for it. To fix this Gorbachev introduced perestroika, economic restructuring. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
In 1986 to revive the economy, Gorbachev gave local managers more authority over their farms and factories. He also allowed people to open small privately owned buisness's. This was not to done to get rid of communism but to create a more efficient and productive economy. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
In 1987 Gorbachev introduced another new plan called democratization. This would slowly open up the political system. The plan let voters choose from a list of candidates for a new legislative body instead of approving candidates picked by the Communist party. In December, realizing the Soviet economy could't keep up with the US in the costly arms race(especially with Reagans $2 trillion plan) Gorbachev signed an agreement with Reagan banning nuclear misslies with ranges 300-3,400 miles. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
After Hungary reformed it allowed East Germans into the counrty and the went from Hungary into west Germany. In response the East Germany government closed the borders completely which caused massive protests causing the leader Honecker to resign on October 18th. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The new leader of East Germany thought he could restore Germany by opening the Berlin wall so on November 9th 1989 he did. By the end of the year the communist party did not exist. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
The reforms Gorbachev made to move forward caused unrest in the Soviet republics besides Russia as the non-russians decided they wanted to rule themselves. The first challenger was Lithuania who declared independence in 1990. Gorbachev put an economic block on Lithuania reluctant to use stronger methods. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
Gorbachev attacked civilians in Lithuanias capital, Vilnius, in hopes other republics wouldn't secede. This ultimately damaged his popularity. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
Boris Yeltsin was elected and became the Russian Federations first elected president. He supported faster reforms and didn't support the attack in Lithuania. -
The Fall of the Soviet Union
Communist hardliners kept Gorbachev at his vacation home. They demanded that he resign as president, and the next day they sent tanks and armored vehicles to to Moscow. The people were no longer afraid so they protested at the Russian parliament building. Yeltsin then declared the decisions of the communist comitee to be illegal, and when the hardliners ordered the troops to attack they refused, and the next day the military withdrew from Moscow. -
The Fall of the Soviet Union
By December the communist party collapsed and all the republics declared their independece.
