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Hiroshima Bombing
The United States dropped the atomic bomb, Little Boy upon Hiroshima on August 6th 1945. The US dropped the bomb to swiftly end the war against Japan and to save as many American lives as possible. This bombing sparked the Cold War, however the Cold War did not start for another two years it showed the soviet union what a nuclear weapon was capable of and the “important” of one for protecting a nation. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union in 1947 in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. However the Molotov Plan failed because the Marshall Plan created by the US also aided to European countries but was more successful and allowed the Europeans to become allied to the US during the Cold War. The Soviet Union also believed that the Marshall Plan was an attempt to weaken the SU. -
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Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of the United States, Great Britain and France to travel to their sectors of Berlin, which lay within Russian occupied East Germany. Germany and Berlin would remain a source of tension in Europe for the duration of the Cold War. After the Berlin Blockade Europe became divided into two opposing armed camps. The US-backed NATO on one side, and the USSR Warsaw Pact on the other. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed. NATO is a formal alliance between the territories of North American and Europe. Its main purpose was to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation and strengthen the Western Allies. -
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North and south Korea due to the spread of communism during the Cold War. This war was an important in development for the Cold War because it was the first time that the two superpowers , the United States and the Soviet Union had fought a 'proxy war ' in a third country. The proxy war (a war instigated by a major power which does not itself become involved) strategy would be a feature of other Cold War conflicts, for example the Vietnam War. -
Joseph Stalin's Death
Joseph Stalin was the second leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin led his country through post-war reconstruction and was in charge when the Soviet Union created their first nuclear weapon (1949). Stalin was giving a state funeral and then buried in Lenin's Mausoleum. Stalin's death hardly affected the Cold War. Stalin died in the year 1953 and the Cold War did not end until 1991, however his death did slowed the Soviet Union down since they had to get another leader (Nikita Khrushchev). -
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Vietnam War
The aim of the Vietnam War was to prevent Communist domination of South-East Asia. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy convinced that Communist China was actively supporting North Vietnam, approved a US military campaign in Vietnam to help the nationalist government stave off the Communist rebellion. The Vietnam War can be considered a proxy war. Although the Soviet Union and the United States did not directly go to war, they each supported a different side in the war. -
Bay of Pigs
In 1961 the United States sent trained 1400 Cuban exiles to Cuba to try and overthrow Fidel Castro's government. However failed miserably. This invasion was significant to the Cold War because the United States was trying to prevent communism from taking hold in the Americas and establish a non-communist government friendly to the United States. -
Nuclear Arms Treaty
The Nuclear Arms Treaty was signed on July 1st 1968, however wasn't entirely effective until March 5th 1970. The objective was to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. This treaty was put into place because of the Nuclear Arms Race, which has a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for nuclear weapon superiority. -
Falling of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin.The fall of the Berlin Wall served as a symbol of the country's unification and the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the Cold War.