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Soviets Test Nuclear Bomb
SourceThe Soviets successfully tested an atomic bomb. On September 3 of that year a spy plane flying near Siberia picked up radiation reading from the blast which led the U.S. to find out that the Soviets too had the bomb. This led Truman to order the development of a theoretical hyrdogen bomb which was much stronger. This was significant as it was part of the arms race in that both countries now had the bomb. -
Korean War
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This was a war where North Korea attacked South Korea. The U.S. fought for South Korea in hopes of taking North Korea and removing communism. Eventually the country remained split with the North being communism, and the South remaining free. Communism was the main prupose of the Cold War, so this was what the U.S. thought was neccessary. -
Vietnam War
SourceThe Vietnam War was a War that killed 3 million people and over half of them were civilians. North Vietnam fought South Vietnam in an attempt to make one communist country. The U.S. backed South Vietnam however in 1973 they were removed and in 1975 the whole country unified as a communist country. This was a huge part of the cold war as the U.S. was trying to stop the Soviets from spreading communism. -
Sputnik is Launched
SourceSputnik was about the size of a beachball and it was the first satellite sent into space, it was sent into space by the Soviets which started the space race. This was an orbiting satellite which proved that we could launch things into space such as weapons. It was used to observe Earth and the solar system. This was the beginning of the space race which ended when the U.S. landed a man on the moon. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Source The Bay of Pigs Invasion was orchestrated by the CIA who took American trained Cubans and made them fight against Castro however they failed within 24 hours and surrendered. This was important to the Cold War as the U.S. failed to remove Castro as the previous dicatator was more favorable in allowing U.S. control of Cuba while Castro wanted more of a self-government. This led to Cuba becomming communist. -
Starfish Prime
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Starfish Prime was the codename of a test of a hydrogen bomb explosion in space. It was detonated 400km above the Pacific Ocean. It could have potentially destroyed the world. It was roughly 100 times stronger than that of the bombs dropped on Japan. It destroyed about 1/3 of satellites in lower Earth orbit. This was a U.S. test to see how they could attack
Russia with nukes from space. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
Source The Soviets had nukes in Cuba within launching range of the U.S. They did this as the U.S. had missles in Turket that were in launching range of key cities in the Soviet Union. The Soviets and the U.S. were then in a 13 day political standoff that very nearly ended in full out nuclear war. This was significant to the cold war as this was a part of a arms race to essentially protect against attacks by intimidation. -
Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviets tried to invade Afghanistan, however many people living there resisted the atheist or Christian Soviets as they saw it as a direct violation of Islam. This caused the U.S. to intervene and help the rebels fight back. They were given shoulder fired rockets from the U.S. in 1987 which allowed for them to shoot down Soviet aircrafts with ease. This led to the Soviets to withdrawl troops in 1988 into February of 1989. The U.S. stopped the Soviets from spreading communism to Afghanistan.
