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Period: to
Cold war
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Separation of Berlin
The separation of Berlin began after the collapse of Germany in 1945. Germany was split up into four zones were each of the four superpowers controlled a zone. After the break down of reparation agreements the French, British, and American zones merged together making the western zone. The Soviet Union who controlled the eastern zone built the Berlin wall to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the west. -
Soviet atomic bomb test
On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. It came as a great shock to the United States because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weapon knowledge so soon. Previously, the United States had used two atomic bombs on Japan to cause them to surrender during World War II. The impact that the possession of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union had upon the United States was that it caused Americans to question their own safety.President Truman respo -
"Bomber Gap"
In July 1957 the Soviet Union flew their Bear and Bison bombers past American observers multiple times tricking the Americans into believing they had more bombers and were stronger than they really were. The US knew that the Soviet Union had bombers but they were not sure how many the had posing the question of a “Bomber gap.”The US flew their U-2 plane over the Soviet Union and got information to state that the bomber gap did not exist. -
Peace Corp
John F. Kennedy Brought in the idea of the Peace Corps in 1960 to help third world countries, financially, educationally, and physically. Many of the people in these countries are dying from starvation, famine, and disease. The volunteers go over these countries and teach children how to read and write, and others help with jobs, such as building wells and public buildings, such as schools.One of the big reasons John F. Kennedy proposed this idea was to halt communist governments so he asked th -
Bay of Pigs
On the 17th of April 1961 1,300 exiles armed with US weaponry landed at Bahia de Cochinos on the southern coast of Cuba hoping to gain support from the local populations, cross the island to Havana, and overthrow Castro. They were quickly defeated. Castro took over all US businesses in Cuba which lea to John F. Kennedy to authorize the bay of pigs invasion. -
Cuban missile crisis
According to Nikita Khrushchev’s memoirs, in May 1962 he conceived the idea of placing intermediate range missiles in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying missiles. He also presented the scheme as a means of protecting Cuba from another United States sponsored invasion. The Soviet Union began building secret missile bases in Cuba. On October 16, President Kennedy was shown photographs of the missile installations in Cuba. On October 26, -
Six day war
In 1967, tensions between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria escalated to a war in the Middle East. Ever since it had become a country in 1948, Israel’s Palestinian neighbors were hostile because Israel was located in the area that they had previously established as their homeland. Palestinian troops were seen attacking Israeli civilians as well as their farmland and then escaping back to their borders. Israel responded with counter-attacks such as the Syrian fighter planes shot down in April 1 -
Operation Babylift
The Vietcong begun to execute a military campaign do bring down South Vietnam. The captured South Vietnam’s second largest city Da Nang before attacking Saigon from all three sides. In the two-day fall of Saigon, over 65,000 Vietnamese left the country. The war left tens of thousands of children orphaned and homeless. Humanitarian groups in Vietnam urged the American government to take action, the U.S started a mission deemed Operation Babylift. The U.S. military would fly 70,000 orphans out of -
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
On the 25th April 1986 reactor four was shut down for some routine maintenance and so that technicians could run a test that, in case of a power outage, the turbines could produce enough energy to keep the cooling system running until the backup generators came online. However, in order to get accurate results, the safety systems were shut off as well. The reactors power level dropped at 1am and because the safety systems were turned off the reactor went out of control and exploded at 1:23am. Th -
Fall of the Soviet Union
In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Sov