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Yalta Conference Started
The purpose of the Yalta Conference’s purpose was to bring together the Big Three Allied leaders. The Three Allied leaders involved in this conference were Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt. They discussed Europe’s postwar reorganization of the nations conquered and destroyed by Germany. The Yalta Conference helped lead to the Cold War by giving the Soviet Union control over Eastern Europe because at the conference, the Soviet Union was given the right to control Eastern Europe. -
Creation of the United Nations
The United Nations quickly became a battleground between communist and non-communist countries. “The forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations, an organization conceived in similar circumstances during the first World War, and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles ‘to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security’” (‘History of United Nations’). The UN’s goal was to maintain world peace and prevent another war after WWII. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
Japan and America were at war with each other for a long time during WWII, and the years since these bombs were dropped, many historians believed that the bombs were dropped for two reasons, “first was to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end and spare American lives,” and second was ”to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union” (History.com). -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan, created by the U.S. Sec of State George Marshall, was created designed to rebuild Western Europe from the massive amounts of destruction caused by WWII. The United Stated gave 12 billion dollars of economic assistance to aid the rebuilding of Western Europe. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to U.S. aid for European countries, especially the democratic portions of Germany, the Soviets block all land and water access to the capital, Berlin, which was located in the Soviet (eastern) part of the country. Without help, the residents of Western Berlin will be cut off and starve to death. -
North Koreans Crossed 38th Parallel
The 38th parallel was given this name because of the 38° N latitude the line it sits at. This line separates North and South Korea. North Korea crossed the 38th parallel in 1950 into South Korea, so the United Nations forces, led by the US, came to aid South Korea. However the communist China and USSR gave military support and weapons to North Korea. -
End of Korean War
The Korean War ended on July 27, 1953; the war ended when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which separated North and South Korea and returned peace between the two .The end of the Korean War was significant the Cold War because it stopped North Korea from invading South Korea and preventing the main goal of the USSR: to spread communism. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact, also known as the Treaty of Friendship, was a defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland. It was signed by the Soviet Union and seven Eastern Bloc satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact in relevant in the Cold War because these satellite states signing this pact became a symbol of Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, and this pact was very against American capitalism. -
Space Race
The U.S. and the USSR had been competing to show who was most technologically advanced by participating in the ‘Space Race’. Whichever country made it to space first would prove their dominance and power and would be the more powerful country. The USSR’s Yuri Gagarin was the first man to travel to space and back. Later, President of the United States, John F. Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon by then end of the 1960’s, and went through with it putting Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
Fidel Castro, a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician, overthrew the Cuban government on January 1st, 1959. Castro implemented a communist regime with the support of the USSR. In response to this, the United States trained over 1,000 exiles to overthrow the new communist regime. These exiles invaded in spring in what is known as the “Bay of Pigs Invasion”. Unfortunately for the U.S. this invasion failed, and all diplomatic relations were cut. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union launched missiles into Cuba and John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States at the time, told the Soviets that they must remove them or they will go to war. Kursechev withdraws the missiles and there was so nuclear war. This effected the Cold War because of the amount of fear implemented that a nuclear war almost occurred. -
USSR vs USA in Olympics
The United States had been dominant in basketball since 1936, but the USSR beat the American Basketball team in the 1972 Olympics. This was a massive event because the U.S. had won consecutively and then they suddenly lost to the USSR in the last second 51-50. Despite the loss on the basketball court, the Americans made up for their loss in ‘The Miracle on Ice’. The Soviets were considered to be the best hockey team in the world, nearly unbeatable.Yet the US team somehow beat them. -
Falling of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built by the East Berlin government to stop people from entering West Berlin. West Berlin was still controlled by Western democracies despite being located inside the Soviet controlled East Germany. The Berlin Wall finally got torn down on November 9, 1989. The falling of the wall signified the collapse of communism in eastern Europe. This marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. -
End 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” (‘Fall of the Soviet Union’). This marks the complete end of the Cold War.
