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Formation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or more commonly known as NATO, was the organisation formed by the US with democratic European states to function as a mutual defence treaty against the Soviet threat during the Cold War. NATO initially consisted of twelve states: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. These states were all required to come to aid of one another in the event of a Soviet attack. -
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Korean War
The Korean War was initiated when the North Korean crossed the 28th parallel and overran most of South Korea. The US quickly intervened by launching an amphibious assault on the west coast of the Korean peninsula coordinated with UN forces. The KPA army retreated into the northern provinces. In reaction to this, The Peoples Republic of China sent an army across the Yalu river, inciting more conflict. After stalled talks, Eisenhower orchestrated an armistice between the combatants. -
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Dien Bien Phu
The battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climax of the confrontation between France's expeditionary forces and the Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. Boosted by Chinese aid, the Viet revolutionaries mounted assaults on the French encampments in the Dien Bien Phu valley before overrunning their invaders by mid 1954, prompting the signing of the Geneva accords by France and North Vietnam. -
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Hungarian Uprising
In late 1956, the Hungarian peoples revolted against the Russian influence, by forcing their soviet installed leader, Imre Nagy, to adopt democratic ideology such as freedom of speech, the individual rights, and to remove the country from Russia's sphere of influence. As a result of popular demand, Nagy, due to the pressures of nation-wide unrest, left the Warsaw pact. The Russians responded to this by invading with 100 tanks, and installing a new communist governing body in Hungary. -
American Spy Plane Incident
On May 1, 1960, the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace whilst flying on a mission over Russian territory. The fallout of the incident resulted in the cancellation of the Paris Summit, which was scheduled to discuss the ongoing situation in divided Germany, and negotiate the possibility of an arms control or test ban treaty, all of which would in turn imbue the tensions between the USSR and the United States. -
Berlin Wall Construction
On August 13, 1961, the Berlin wall was constructed by the USSR, in conjunction with the East German government, to prevent emigration from the communist half of the city to West Germany. Many families were affected by the decision to build the wall, which would go on to last for 29 years. The majority of the construction was undertaken by Eastern German soldiers, who were also responsible for manning the wall and enforcing the boundary it created between East and West. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the Cold War at its zenith. Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the USSR, secretly funded the construction of missile sites on Cuba to deter future American invasion attempts. After a US spy plane discovered the sites, the White House sanctioned a naval blockade of Cuba, preventing any missiles from reaching the island. A tense period of diplomatic discourse followed, resulting in Khrushchev agreeing to remove the missile sites in Cuba and not arm the nation. -
SALT I
The SALT I , or Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (I), was the first of two documents which signed by both the USSR and the US in an agreement to try to limit the implementation of strategic defence systems and the accumulation of nuclear warheads by both nations. Perhaps the greatest flaw of the SALT I was the failure to address the usage and production of MIRV's, which in affect allowed for both nation s to manufacture this technology against the intentions of the treaty.