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Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917 which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the rise of the Soviet Union. Wilson aided the side opposing Lenin's forces causing tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was a meeting between Truman, Churchill and Stalin concerning post war Europe. Truman and Churchill both pushed for peace, however Stalin had plans to dominate Europe and convert it to communism. -
The Atomic Bomb
The Manhattan Project led to the development of the first atomic bomb which was used to end the war with Japan. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Stalin believed the power to be unbalanced between the nations and began the development of the Soviet atomic bomb. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet and communist geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. -
Alger Hiss Case
Alger Hiss was a government official accused of being a soviet spy. He was eventually convicted and sent to prison in 1950. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first international crises when Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
Berlin Airlift
In response to the Soviet blockade, the Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European countries formed as a defense against the Soviet Union -
Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviet Union were now officially in possession of nuclear weapons. -
Hollywood Ten
The Hollywood Ten were ten movie stars who refused to answer questions from a judge about their possible Communist affiliation. All ten were convicted and sent to prison. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border, and was resolved on July 27, 1953. -
Rosenberg Trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who spied for the Soviet Union and were tried, convicted and executed by the United States government. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy who claimed to have the names of communists working in the state department. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. -
Geneva Conference
The Geneva Conference was a conference among several nations that took place in Geneva, Switzerland from April 26 – July 20, 1954. It was intended to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the First Indochina War. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellites in response to the formation of NATO. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a nationwide revolt against the communist government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies. -
U2 Incident
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the premiership of Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba which was unsuccessful due to lack of support from the Kennedy Administration. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier built by the Soviet Union that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
Assassination of Diem
The arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh in November 1963. -
Assassination of Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the U.S. 2nd Air Division, U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and their allies. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Assassination of RFK
On June 5, 1968, 42-year-old presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
was a joint invasion of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact nations; the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany and Poland. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago is where tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters gathered to battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
Election of Nixon
The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. -
Kent State
The Kent State shootings were the shootings on May 4, 1970 of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces -
Nixon Visits China
Nixon's time in China was the first time a U.S. president had visited the country. Nixon's arrival in Beijing ended the 25 year silence between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. and China. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
President Richard Nixon of the USA ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam after the National Security Affairs advisor to the president, returned to Washington from France with a draft peace proposal. -
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of the capital of South Vietnam by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. -
Reagan Elected
Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. His representation and television presence gave hi the upper hand against his opponent. -
SDI
Reagan's proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks developed anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries such as the Soviet Union -
Geneva Convention With Gorbachev
The leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union held a summit conference to discuss international diplomatic relations and the arms race. -
Reagan's Speech
Reagan called for the Soviet leader to tear down the wall dividing east and west Berlin, opening the Iron Curtain -
Fall of Berlin Wall
As the Cold War came to a close, Reagan's speech with rallied support from all of Germany forced Gorbachev to take down the wall dividing East and West Germany.
