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Russian Communist Revolution
Occurred through May of 1917 to November of 1917. The fact that Russia was a communist country created tension between them and the US because they had different view points. The Russians could have wanted to become more free and their leaders wouldn't allow that. Therefore the US could not have done anything to help them. Which relates to the Cold War because again it is a battle between two different political view points. -
Treaty of Versailles
This treaty was signed and ended WWI. Its 15 parts and 440 articles reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. It ended hostilities between the allies and Germany. This treaty actually built up the Cold War when it came to conclusions. Specific weaponry was limited and some countries' boarders were being divided. It all played out due to the amount of pressure that was put on Germany after WWI through financial demands for reparation for WWI damages. -
League of Nations
This organization was used to maintain peace around the world and prevent future wars. The League of nations was supported by both the U.S. and Soviet Union. -
Yalta Conference
This conference lead to the Cold War because it gave the Soviet Union control over Eastern Europe. This caused the West to fear the Soviets because the Soviets would spread communism Europe. -
Nuremberg Trials
Occurred from 1945-1946.These trials were after WW II. These trials were against Nazi Germany and what they did to innocent people during the Holocaust. Since Germany lost WW II, there remained only two super powers, The Soviet Union and The United States. Because these were two big controllers, this led to the conflicts and problems that started the Cold War. Leaving Germany out. -
United Nations
The United Nations became a battleground between the communists and the non-communists. The United Nations was the second attempt to being a collective security system in such a short amount of time. Since the Security Council was not able to maintain peace and security throughout the Cold War, that led to the division of the East and the West in Europe. -
Iron Curtain Speech
This speech was given by Winston Churchill. This speech of his said that the Soviet Union put up this "Iron Curtain" so that the government that was used in Britain, which was democracy, would not be spread into Russia. The reason for the Cold War that played a major role, was the differences between wanting democracy and communism. Britain who was under control of the US used democracy while Russia used communism. -
Baruch Plan
This plan was created by Bernard Baruch, a US adviser. He created this plan with the fear of the Soviets in mind. This plan stated that the US would maintain its nuclear weapons monopoly until this proposal was up and working. But the Soviets rejected this plan. Therefore later on the US rejected a Soviet counter proposal for a ban on all nuclear weapons. Later in 1949 the Soviets successfully tested a nuclear device. The next race was on who could create even more advanced nuclear weapons. -
General Assembly
Occurred from 1946 to 1947. The General Assembly is the main deliberative body of the UN. The Cold War escalated quickly because the Soviets and the U.S both had seats on the UN security council. Both nations interfered with the UN's basic peacekeeping mission. They used the UN as a propaganda platform during the war. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
This event occurred from 1946 until 1950. Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China. This was a battle between the Communist party and the Nationalist Army. The two started out on the same team, then turned against one another. The two ended up fighting an all-out civil war by 1946 due to the mistrust of one another. The effort of trying to create truce was very hard to come by. This battle was between 2 political powers, communism & democracy. -
Truman Doctrine
In a speech Harry Truman asked Greece and Turkey for assistance to prevent communist domination of the two nations. This became known as the Truman Doctrine, the official declaration of the Cold War. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan reduced the influence and power of communist parties in Western Europe. Both the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan drove the separation of the East and West. -
Berlin Airlift
This event occurred from June of 1948 until May of 1949. Germany was divided into zones controlled by the U.S, Britain, Soviet Union, and France. The west decided to separate government in their zones and this caused the Soviets to stop Western traffic to and from Berlin. The West airlifted supplies over the wall for a year. The U.S was successful and the wall was taken down. -
NATO Created
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was the first peacetime military alliance the US joined that was outside of the Western Hemisphere. This organization was created by the US, Canada, and other Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. This was created to keep the spreading of communism out of these countries. -
Joseph McCarthy Speech
This speech was accusing 205 people in the State Department that they were members of the American Communist Party. Truth was then told that these 205 people were not apart of that party, that some have been proven as alcoholics or sexual deviants. He did this to become chairman of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate so he could continue to investigate other government departments and their workers. This shows how much the US stressed their containment policy against communism. -
Korean War
This war lasted from 1950 to 1953. This war is known as the "forgotten war". During the Cold War, Korea struggled to extinguish communism. It was the first armed conflict in the Cold War.This war showed that America was willing to send troops to contain communism. -
Warsaw Pact
It was the Communist counteraction to NATO. The Warsaw Pact came to be a military treat, a sign of Communist dominance, and opponent to American capitalism. The signing of the pact became a symbol of Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe. -
Sputnik Launched
Sputnik was the first satellite into space, put up there by Russia. This was the start of the Space Race making Russia ahead of the US. This showed the advances in technology that Russia had the US did not have (up until Apollo 11... then the US became the first to land a man on the moon.) -
Fidel Castro Proclaims Communist Cuba
Fidel Castro was not a subtle man. Castro attacked Cuba,and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Later he returned to Havana where he soon took over as prime minister. During his rule in 1961 he declared himself a Marxist-Leninist, by that time Cuba was becoming more dependent on the Soviet Union for economic and military support. This is because they were now under communism rule. In 1962 the US discovered the missiles that were stationed there, setting fear of WW III under way. -
Nuclear Deterrent
Nuclear Deterrent is the credible threat of retaliation to forestall enemy attack. This theory came into play in the Cold War within the 1960s. This was not helpful to the US in the Cold War because the Soviet Union was now advanced enough in technology that they even had weapons of their own. They both knew that if one person used nuclear weapons, the other could attack with the same method or even worse. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Cuban nationalist Fidel Castro drove his army into Havana to overthrew General Batista the nation’s American-backed president. U.S. State Department and the CIA attempted to push Castro from power. The CIA launched an invasion of Cuba but Castro’s troops outnumbered them and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting. -
Building of Berlin Wall begins
This wall was built to separate east and west Berlin. The purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
This was a military stand off between the Soviets and the United States military. This was over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba which was less than 100 miles away from the US shoreline. The US decided to create a blockade around Cuba. In the end the soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles in exchange for the US not to invade Cuba. Not only this, but President Kennedy agreed to also remove the missiles from Turkey as well. (Technology race) -
U.S. sends troops to Vietnam
21,000 more U.S. troops were sent to Vietnam. The new U.S. troops were to join the U.S. Marines secure U.S. airbases and facilities. These forces would soon transition from defensive missions to direct combat operations. As the war escalated, more and more U.S. combat troops were sent to South Vietnam. In 1969 there were over 540,000 American troops in Vietnam. -
Apollo 11
This event occurred during what was known as the "Space Race". This so happened to be a very important project for the US because the plate that the rocket took off on, is the same plate that the US Missiles were placed on. The power that the plates had to make Apollo 11 reach the moon, was very exciting news for the United States and their use of missiles. The rocket reaching the moon means that the US had the technology before the Soviets did, to be the first ones to land a man on the moon. -
Non-Proliferation Agreement
This agreement is very important. The cause of creating this treaty was to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and other highly advanced technological weapons. This treaty helped during the Cold War because without this treaty, at any time during this Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union could have set fire on each other. -
Kent State Shootings
At Kent State University, students gathered on May 4th to protest against President Richard Nixon's decision of sending US troops to fight in the Vietnam War. The north part of Vietnam was controlled under the Soviet Union, using communism. The south part of Vietnam was controlled by the US, using democracy. So technically the Vietnam War was a continuation of the Cold War. Fighting between communism and democracy (The Soviet Union vs The US). -
SALT I
SALT I, as it is commonly known, was the first of the Strategic Arms Limitation talks between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev, who was the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. They met with U.S. President Richard Nixon to come up with a treaty that would contain the arms race. The treaty was finalized. The two treaties signed that day were the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. -
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capital city of South Vietnam which fell to North Vietnamese forces. This marked the end of the Vietnam War. This means that the US lost this war and that the political government of communism was spread to south Vietnam, getting rid of the democracy in the south as well. -
Deng Xiaoping
Served from 1978 to 1989. In January of 1979, he met with President Jimmy Carter and together they signed historic new accords that reverse decades of US opposition to the People's Republic of China. Together they signed an Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology and Cultural Agreement. (This can relate back to the holding of using high advances in weapons against others). The US being friendly with China (even them being communists) helped release tension towards the end of the war. -
Pope John Paul II
Served from 1978 to 2005. Pope John Paul traveled to Poland for a nine-day-visit that produced an spiritual awakening in Poland and the birth of the Solidarity trade union. This trip lead to the collapse of communism in eastern and central Europe. He went on this journey to put out the message that these people had rights to be free and that they were capable for getting themselves out of communism. He not only hated communism but also the idea of nuclear weaponry. -
SALT II
SALT II and continued for seven years. Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter finally signed the SALT II treaty. SALT II set more specific regulations on the different missiles and limits were set on the number of strategic launchers, and the various types of missiles. -
Margaret Thatcher
Served as a Prime minister from 1979-1990. She was remembered as one who "helped end the Cold War", but most people remembered her as the "Iron Lady". She had believed that this war should not and could not have been won by anyone. She not only opposed Soviet communism but also fought a war to maintain control of the Falkland Islands. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
Occurred from 1979 to 1989. The Soviet Union sent thousands of troops to Afghanistan to replace Taraki and Amin. The Soviets immediately assumed that there was complete military and political control of Kabul and other large portions of the country. This was the Soviets' first military expedition beyond the Eastern bloc since World War II and marked the end of improving relations in the Cold War. The Soviets wanted Afghanistan but the US didn't agree with the idea of them being communist. -
Berlin Wall
Thousandths of people from east Germany fled to the democratic west. In response to this, communist east Germany built a wall between them and the west. This caused Berliners to be trapped on one side or the other. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. -
Lech Walesa
Served from 1990 to 1995. Walesa first came into prominence in Poland in 1980 when he took over the leadership of a strike of shipyard workers. Poland’s communist government agreed to the union’s right to exist. This was called the “Solidarity” movement in Poland, a broad-based movement designed to remove communist control over labor organizations. -
START I
This was the first treaty to provide for deep reductions of U.S. and Soviet strategic nuclear weapons. This relates to the Cold War because it overall just limits the use of nuclear weapons, such as missiles and war heads. It does not completely get rid of the weapons but there is a limitation on the amount being used. -
START II
START II was a bilateral treaty between the U.S and the Soviets on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It bans the use of multiple independently target-able reentry vehicles on intercontinental ballistic missiles. START II never actually came into force. The U.S. Senate did not ratify the treaty until 1996 mostly because the parallel process was moving so slowly in the Russian Duma. -
MAD
Mutual assured destruction is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. MAD was seen as helping to prevent any conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union.
