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Iron Curtain Formed
A "wall" between Eastern and Western Europe was formed after the end of World War II. On the Eastern side, a mob of Communist nations, who all were in alliance or under the control of the Soviet Union. The main wall was in Germany, splitting into East and West Germany. http://csrmedia.education.asu.edu/Lectures/SS3/HistoryCore/Basic9/index.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain -
The Second Red Scare
Red ScareLectureAfter World War II, many Americans were terrified of a Communist rise in Eastern Europe that they believed would spread throughout the world. It was thought that the Soviet Union had thousands of sleeper spies in the United States, there only to gather information on how to infiltrate our government. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin blockade, or Berlin airlift occured during the iron curtain era. West Berlin was under Soviet control, and the Soviets were not getting supplies there, so the citizens were getting the rough end of the deal. The western allies then flew supplies over the wall and dropped them into the Western part of Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade -
Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil WarThe Civil War in China was fought for about 30 years intermittently, but ultimately ended in 1950. The war brought about another strong Communist force in the world, which scared Americans even more. Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Chinese Party (CDC), was soon seen as an ally to the Soviet Union. The Soviets had supported the CDC throughout the war, and was condemned for it in 1952 by the United Nations. -
Space Race
LectureSpace RaceThe United States and the Soviet Union were in competition in everything across the globe, and the space race may have been the most important of any of them. These two countries were each trying to be the first to do anything in space. The beginning was the launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and more or less ended with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in the Summer of 1975. The Soviets did beat the US in the race to have the first human in space, but the US had the first human to walk on the moon. -
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Kennedy Elected
1960 ElectionLectureAfter Dwight D Eisenhower's presidential term ended in 1960, a new election took place and put one of the most famous presidents, John F Kennedy, into office. Kennedy was one of the main policymakers with the Soviets during the Cold War. He was elected over Richard Nixon, his Republican opponent, by 84 electoral votes. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
LectureBay of PigsIn 1961, not even a full year after Kennedy was elected, the CIA attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow their dictator, Fidel Castro. Before Castro took office, Cuba had been an ally to the US, but when he came in, Cuba's links to the US were replaced with links to the Soviet Union. This operation was planned under Eisenhower, but once Kennedy took office, he was informed of the plan and gave his approval. The mission was a complete failure and only strengthened Castro's administration. -
Berlin Crisis
Berlin Crisis of 1961Up to this point, the Western Allies, including the US, had kept a military presence in West Berlin. The Soviets demanded the withdrawl of said armed forces, and in return, they would allow all of East Berlin to communicate with West Berlin. The Western Allies decided to remain in West Berlin, no matter what the Soviets said. After some back and forth between the leaders of each country, the Berlin wall was built to keep anybody and everybody from crossing the border from West to East Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile CrisisEarlier on, the US put nuclear missiles in Turkey and had them pointed at Moscow. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion had failed, the Soviets did the same thing, "to deter any future invasion attempt."In October of 1962, the US found the Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba from a U-2 plane picture, and then blockaded the island of Cuba, and called it a "quarantine" for legal reasons. The blockade was challenged a couple times, but towards the end of the month, Kennedy agreed to remove all US missiles. -
French Withdrawl
WikipediaIn 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by many of the Western Allies to form NATO. NATO was an organization that wanted to keep peace through out the world, and they didn't do much until the Korean War. During the Cold War, NATO would perfrom maritime excercises in fear of a communist arousal. In 1966, however, NATO had a rogue country, more or less, in France. France's president, Charles de Gaulle, slowly withdrew France from NATO's command little by little over the year. -
Czechoslovakia Invaded
WikipediaIn 1968, Czechoslovakia attempted to increase its freedom of the press, speech, and movement, in an liberalization they called the Prague Spring. It also helped the economy a small amount, and kind of withdrew from the Warsaw Pact that Czechoslovakia had with the Soviet Union. The Soviets retaliated with a full invasion of Czecholsovakia with their other Warsaw Pact allies. This invasion forced an initial 70,000 Czechs to flee, followed by 230,000 more. -
Reagan Elected
LectureWikipediaIn the fall of 1980, Jimmy Carter was up for re-election against Ronald Reagan. Reagan was a Republican from California who promised to strengthen the nation's military and also wanted to "confront the Soviets everywhere". He won the election, and he and Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were publicly against the Soviet Union. Calling it an "evil empire", Reagan predicted that Communism would be left on the "ash heap of history" once he was done with it. -
Soviet Union Dissolution
WikipediaThroughout the 80's, Mikhail Gorbachev had started to reform his stubborn ways, and signed treaties with Reagan and other countries, partly to attempt to fix the Soviet economy's problems. By the late 80's, most of the Soviet allies had started to break away with protests and uprisings. This ended the Iron Curtain in Europe, and it was clear that the USSR was destined to fail. By Christmas in 1991, the USSR was declared officially dissolved.
