-
Truman Doctrine
Greece was having a civil war and might face turning communist. If Greece were to turn communist, Italy or France might be next. To prevent this, Truman released the Truman Doctrine. It gave a total of $400 million between Greece and Turkey.This was the first example of Containment. The US learned that they could not wipe out communism completely, but they could prevent it from spreading. -
The Marshall Plan
It was a program sponsored by the United States. The Marshall Plan gave over $13 billion in aid to help rebuild the damage caused by WW2 in Europe. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was an effect of the Soviet's cutting off road and rail traffic to West Berlin. The U.S still wanted to keep West Berlin alive needed to think of a peaceful way to get food and other supplies to Berlin. For 11 months they used Aircrafts to supply East Berlin with food, medicine and coal. This went on until Stalin lifted up the Soviet's blockade on May 12th, 1949. -
Creation of NATO
It was an alliance between United States, Canada, and Western European countires. If there was an attack on one of them, then there would be an attack on all. West Germany was a part of it and US said that they could rebuild their army again but under tight restrictions. -
Rosenberg Spy Case
A married couple were believed to be spy's for the Soviet Union and to be sent to destroy the United States bygiving the Soviet Union classified information. This event caught a lot of public attention. It made the people question the security that they were thought to believe they had. The Rosenbergs were later electrocuted in 1953. -
The Korean War
The war started with the North Koreans (Communist) invading South Korea (non communist). United States was on SK side and they fought NK. When the war was over, Korea was divided into North and South along the 38th parallel. -
Creation of the Warsaw Pact
It was a communist alliance between USSR and Eastern European countries. East Germany joined, and they could not rebuild their army and become a military power. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam war started because South Vietnam didn't want communism and the North did. The US got involved because they didn't want communism to spread in Vietnam and the countries nearby. -
Soviet launch Sputnik
Sputnik was the first orbital satellite launched in space to orbit the earth. The launching of Sputnik increased the paranoia in the United States because the US believed there was a missle gap between them and the Soviet Union. It also further increased the tensions between the two world powers. -
Nikita Khrushchev visits the USA
Krushchev was the opposite of Stalin when it came to the kind of relationship they wanted with the US. He wanted a good erlationship and to get along with the United States. He visited many cities in the US before he had his summit with the president. -
U-2 Spy Plane Controversy
Francis Gary Powers dissapeared when he was flying the plane.The president made an announcement that a weather plane had veered off course and supposedly crashed somewhere in the Soviet Union. Khruschev captured Powers alive and Eisenhower had to publicly admit that it was a US spy plane. This event is belived to be the reason why the Cold War lasted longer. -
Bay of Pigs
It was an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba, hoping to overthrow Castro. Eisenhower gave permission to the CIA to train hundreds of Cuban exiles, secretly. When Kennedy found out about this, he went along with it. The invasion turned into a disaster. Everything went wrong. There were Soviet jet aircraft and tanks and 20,000 Cuban troops. -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
The wall divided the west (democratic) and east (communist) Germany. The wall was build to not allow mostly people from east berlin to move to west berlin. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The Soviets were secretly building missile bases in Cuba and some had missles ready to launch which could reach US cities withing minutes. A picture was taken by a American U-2 plane that showed evidence of the missiles placed in Cuba. The crisis ended when Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba and in return USSR would remove the missles. -
US sends a man to the moon
The United States was the first country to have a man on the moon. It was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 ship. -
Six Day War
It was fought between Israeli vs. Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Israel launched bombs to the three Arab states and it gained a lot of land. -
Nixon Visits China
Nixon was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949. It was importnat because the U.S. was looking to improve relations with a Communist country during the Cold War. -
USSR Invades Afghanistan
USSR invaded Afghanistan hoping to create a communist country and to get to India. By controlling Afghanistan the trade with India would be easier and they had manu useful resources that USSR wanted to be in control of. This war lasted for nine years and USSR surrendered. -
German Reunification/Fall of Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall marked an end to communism in Europe. Soon after the fall of the wall, other communist governments fell as well. Germany becomes a unified country again. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Gorbachev got appointed as the new communist leader and he created all these programs to reform USSR. The Soviet economy wasn't doing well, so Gorbachev gave his people freedom of speech and other freedoms. They used their freedom to criticize Gorbachev of his failures to improve the economy. On december 25th he resigned and USSR got divided into 15 independent nations.
