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Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was established March 12, 1947. It was presented by president Truman and established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. -
Marshall plan
President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. -
Berlin airlift
Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. -
Formation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. -
Start of Korean war
The President and other top officials saw the conflict as an opportunity to declare war against communism. Therefore, with support from the United Nations, the United States moved to establish peace, and remove the communist invaders from South Korea. -
End of Korean war
Thus ended the third largest war in American history, with no clear-cut victory on either side and with neither side completely satisfied with the situation, but willing to accept it as the end of a conflict unprofitable to the policies of both the Communist and non- Communist worlds. -
Formation of Warsaw pact
The Warsaw Pact, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
U.S. foreign-policy promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression. To stop the spread of communism the US realized that poor countries would appeal/like communism. -
Sputnik launched into orbit
The Soviet Union launched the earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first. -
U-2 incident
An American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet air space. On the first day of the Paris summit, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stormed out after delivering a condemnation of U.S. spy activities.