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The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a revolution established by the Russian empire for social and political reasons. This was the first communist revolution. It was significant because it was the formation of the first communist party, the Soviet Union. The Russian Revolution was the groundwork for the Cold War. -
Iron Curtain
The "Iron Curtain" was a non-physical border that ran across Europe. This border separated the Soviet Union from the allied European countries. Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany was under the Soviet Union's Sphere of Influence. -
Potsdam Conference
The Postdam Conference was a conference held with President Truman, British prime minister Winston Church, and the dictator of the soviet union Joseph Stalin. President Truman and Churchill were on one side of the divide, determined to secure political freedom and democratic governments throughout post-war Europe. However, Joseph Stalin had other plans, he was determined to dominate all of Europe and impose communism on its nations. -
Atomic bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The Manhattan Project had produced the world's first nuclear explosion. In an attempt to invade Japan without any American casualties, Truman decided to drop a bomb on Japan to have Japan surrender. A bomb was first released on Hiroshima. A second bomb was dropped on Japan which lead Japan to surrender and put an end to WWII. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
In China, communist revolutionary, Mao Zedong, prevailed in a decades-long civil war against the Chinese Nationalist government. Nearly 500 million Chinese fell under Communist rule, for decades to come, Moa would be the linchpin of revolution in Asia. Chinese Communism started on October 1, 1949. -
Long Telegram
George F. Kennan spent years observing what the Soviet Union leader wanted as an American diplomat stationed in Moscow. Washington was at a loss to explain the hostility. In an 8,000 word dispatch to Washington, known as the Long Telegram, Kennan succeeded in understanding the Soviet Union's intentions and purpose. Kenna's solution to this problem was the United States going under containment. -
Hollywood 10
Begining in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee, investigated communist influence in Hollywood. The committee was concerned with the power of movies to persuade audiences with subversive messages. Movie stars and other industry professionals were called to testify, most witnesses cooperated. However, a small group who became known as Hollywood 10 refused to answer questions; citing protection under the first amendment. The Hollywood 10 were convicted of contempt and sent to prison. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was similar to the Marshall Plan. This system was established by the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov to help aid the Eastern Europe countries to rebuild them. Previously the Marshall Plan had been proposed to the Soviet Union but rejected the offer as they believed the United States would make an effort to get rid of Communism in the Soviet Union. -
Truman Doctrine
The president, Harry Truman, went before a joint session of Congress to request aid for the countries of Greece and Turkey. British couldn't afford to support the pro-Western governments of the Meditteranean in their fight against communism. If the U.S couldn't take up the task of supporting these nations the whole region would be in danger of falling against communist rule. The address sent a clear message to the Soviet Union and represented a dramatic change in U.S foreign policy. -
Alger Hiss case
In 1948, former Communist, Whittaker Chambers, accused a former State Department employee, Alger Hiss, of spying for the Soviet Union. Alger Hiss was convicted, not of treason, but of purgery, and sentenced to five years in prison. His supporters said he was a victim of the communist hysteria. Others saw him as part of a communist conspiracy to destroy the United States. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the economic assistance to Europe. George Marshall, Secretary of State, warned that under the disastrous conditions Western Europe would turn Europeans to communism as an alternative to starvation and death. The act was passed and food was distributed. Machinery and technical support spurred new production. Homes and businesses were rebuilt additionally. Twelve billion dollars were lent to Western Europe. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was the order of all land access into the city of West Berlin to be sealed off. Roads and railways were shut down, the shipments of goods languished to border crossings, and the power to the city was turned off. Stalin was determined to force the Western allies out of West Berlin. Willing to let Berlin die of starvation. -
Berlin Airlift
The United States and Great Britain arranged the Berlin Airlift, to resupply the beleaguered city. Day and night planes carried in food, coal, and medical supplies. Planes would land and drop supplies into West Berlin. More than 2 million tons of cargo were delivered to Berlin during the 15-month operation. -
NATO
The Berlin Blockade underscored the need for a united defense against Soviet aggression. In 1949, the United States and Canada joined with ten European nations to form a military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO. A rebuilt, rearmed, West Germany would join the alliance in 1955. In response, the Soviet Union and its satellites formed a competing alliance, the Warsaw Pact. -
First Soviet Bomb Test
In August of 1949, the Soviets stunned the world when they successfully tested their own atomic bomb. The test was given the name of "First Lightning". The design of the atomic bomb was similar to the United States' design. -
Rosenberg trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested in connection with the plot to pass U.S bomb secrets to the Soviets. The Rosenbergs denied the charges and claimed they were being persecutors of Jews and for their left-wing views. The evidence suggested they played a small but material role in the spy ring. The Rosenbergs were convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Protests erupted and made claims of anti-Semitism. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when the Communist army of North Korea launched a blistering attack against its neighbor South Korea. The North Korean invasion was the first military challenged of the Cold War. Following WWII, Korea was temporary divided at the 38th parallel and occupied by the United States in the South and the Soviet Union in the North. The Korean War ended when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, separating the North and the South. -
Army–McCarthy hearings
Senator Joseph McCarthy pitted himself against the U.S Army; in an investigation of charges and counter-charges, concerning clout, favoritism, and communist cover-ups. The ensuing Army–McCarthy hearings tore away the senator's mask of self-righteousness. The hearings were a media circus and in the end inconclusive. But for the tens of millions of viewers who tuned in to watch, McCarthy was revealed to be an errant, blustering tyrant. Overnight McCarthy's immense national popularity evaporated. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and its satellites formed a competing alliance, the Warsaw Pact, due to NATO. Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union were in the Warsaw Pact. -
Hungarian Revolution
In the Capital of Budapest, students and workers demonstrated against the repress of policies of the country's Stalinist government; demanding an end to the Soviet military occupation, free elections, and the return to power of their deposed prime minister Imre Nagy. The riot was fueled with the Hungarian secret police opening fire on a crowd of demonstrators; symbols of Soviet enslavement were destroyed. Hungarian resistance fighter wore partisans, hunted down and killed government officials. -
U2 Incident
The U2 had revealed that the Soviets were greatly exaggerating their nuclear capabilities. A U2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet air space. The White House had devised a cover plan claiming that the U2 was on a weather mission originating in Turkey for NASA and had gone off course; the next day stating the pilot lost consciousness after losing oxygen, violating Soviet air space on accident. Powers was convicted of espionage against the S.U. and sentenced to 10 years. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Plans were set in motion for an armed invasion of Cuba. The covert mission took its name from the main landing ground, on the Bay of Pigs. The CIA had armed and trained a band of Cuban exiles for the covert operation. President Kennedy approved the plan, but then he crippled the operation by refusing air and naval support. The invasion force was crushed; the Kennedy administration humiliated. -
Berlin Wall
A wall in Berlin was constructed of bob wire and concrete twelve feet high and a hundred miles long, isolating West Berlin. East German border patrols had orders to shoot to kill and they did. The wall was a hateful thing, Nikita Khrushchev admitted, but the East German economy would have collapsed. A much-hated Berlin Wall finally settled the nagging German question and averted war in Europe; the Berlin Wall physically and ideologically divided Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Khrushchev sent ships to cross the Atlantic bound for Cuba. They carried military hardware, Soviet troops, and nuclear missiles, capable of striking anywhere in the U.S. The crisis turned critical and the US military forces prepared for a possible invasion of Cuba. It was the greatest emergency troop mobilization since WW2. Fidel Castro united with Khrushchev to launch a preemptive nuclear strike if the U.S was to mount an invasion. -
Assassination of JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States from January 1961 up until his assassination in November 1963; he was assassinated in Dallas Texas. The official government investigation included that a lone gunman was responsible, Lee Harvey Oswald, an American communist with ties to the Soviet Union and Cuba. Two days after the assassination, Oswald was gun downed. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
In Czechoslovakia, a communist reformer named Alexander Dubcek sought to put a new face on socialism through his Prague Spring political reforms. However, Soviet-led forces of the Warsaw Pact, countries including the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Hungary invaded Czechoslovakia to place an end to this. The Soviet Union was under Leonid Brezhnev, who created the Brezhnev Doctrine, which allowed the right to violate the power of any country that turned away from communism. -
Nixon visits China
In 1972, President Nixon embarked on a diplomatic trip that came to symbolize detente. When he touched down at Capital Airport near Beijing, Nixon became the first American president to be welcomed in the communist people's Republic of China. It was a historic opening in the Cold War. During the week of diplomacy and cultural exchange, two formers enemies made great progress toward normalizing relations. -
Reagan elected
Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter. He was best known for his conservative Republicanism, his passion for anti-communism, and his appealing personal. The Cold War balance of power had shifted dramatically, in favor of the Soviet Union during the 1970s. Reagan vowed to change that, he made no secret of his desire to destroy communism. -
SDI announced
In March 1983, President Reagan proposed the creation of a space-based missile defense known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. The plan was to send satellites up into space, have them patrol the "heavens" and zap incoming Soviet missiles with lasers. The press quickly dubbed the controversial plan "Star Wars". The Soviets saw this as an immediate threat and were stretched to their breaking point. Fully half of its economic output was needed to keep pace with the U.S. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
Regan and Gorbachev meet for the first time in November 1985 at a Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. The mood was tense during official discussions. Gorbechev was ready to negotiate an arms reduction on the condition that Reagan abounded Star Wars. In private the two leaders forged the beginnings of personal relationships that would transcend ideology, geopolitical differences, and the Cold War itself. Geneva did not produce any arms limitation agreements, but it provided a historic breakthrough. -
'Tear down this wall' speech
In 1987, President Reagan traveled to West Berlin to seek common ground on human rights. In front of the Berlin Wall, he made his appeal. Reagan demanded Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to take down the Berlin Wall. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
After nearly 30 years, the Berlin Wall was breached. Within a year the future of divided Germany was settled once and for all. In 1990, the country was united and the German people voted to establish a single democratic government.
