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Russian Communist Revolution
A communist revolution in Russia, also known as the October Revolution, that brought the Bolsheviks and Lenin into power. The Russian Communist Revolution ended January 1st, 1918. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty at the end of WWI between Germany and the allies. In the treaty, Germany had to take blame for causing all the losses and damage (war guilt clause). This treaty forced Germany to disarm, take substantial territorial losses, and to pay war reparations. Germany started printing money to pay off debt which caused them to go into hyperinflation. Germany went into an economic depression, and Hitler came into power. These dictatorships helped cause WWII. -
The League of Nations
The League of Nations came into play after WWI. Their task was to ensure that war would never break out again. Soon it was seriously weakened, as the U.S. congress failed to ratify the treaty of Versailles. In 1930's when the nations were not pleased, the other major powers declined to enforce it. The league had no power, and it was unable to take action. The league ended in 1939. -
Yalta Conference
The three big leaders, Franklin D. Rooselvelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. The conference took place in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea. The conference ended on the 11th of Feburary, 1945. -
United Nations
The UN is an organization that promotes international peace and cooperation. This was the replacement peace organization for the League of Nations. The UN was constantly being blocked out in the Sercurity Council because of Cold Was rivalries. -
Nuremburg Trials
These were the trials of Nazi leaders conducted after World War II. The Allies tried former officials for war crimes and punished those that were convicted.The Nuremburg Trials ended October 1st, 1946. -
General Assembly
One of the six principle organs of the United Nations and the only body where everyone is able to vote. The first session was January 10, 1946, located in London. There were 51 countries represented. As of 2006 there was 192 members of the General Assembly. -
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Chuchill's speech that used the term "Iron Curtain" to descibe the division between Eastern and Western Europe. The Berlin wall was the concrete version of the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain divided commusism and democracy. -
Baruch Plan
This plan was for the interantional control of atomic weapons. This plan failed and it resulted in a huge nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. -
Marshall Plan
The United states made a plan that would assist with recovery efforts for Western Euorpe after WWII. The Marshall Plan provided $13 billion in loans to deteriorated countries in Western Eastern Europe. But only the Westen Europe took it. The Soviet Union thought it was a trick, so they said no. -
Truman Doctrine
This would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or intenal authoritarian forces. The Truman Docterine effectivly moved U.S. froeign policy away from its usual stance of widthdrawal from regional conflicts that did not directly involve the U.S., one of the possible interventions in far away conflicts. -
Berlin Airlift
After WWII, the allies partitioned the defeated Germany into a Soviet zone, American zone, British zone, and a French zone. The Russians got mad because they wanted Berlin, so they closed all highways, railroads, and canals from Western Germany to Western Berlin. The Russians believed this wuld drive Britain, French, and the U.S. out of the city. But instead of leaving, they supplied their people with food, clothing, etc by airplane. The Soviets dropped the blockade in 1948, one year later. -
NATO Created
The United States and eleven other nations established NATO, a mutual defense pact aimed at defending each other against the Soviets and eastern Europe. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong, declard the creation of the People's Republic of China. The fall of China into communism made the U.S. end ties with the People's Republic of China. This was the start of the Chinese communist party. -
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Korean War
The Korean war at first was just between North and South Korera, but then the conflict soon became international when the United Nations joined to support South Korea and the Peoples Republic of China supported North Korean. This was divided South and North Korea and brought the Cold War to Asia. Today North and South Korea are still divided and still hate eachother. -
Joseph McCarthy Speech
A speech at the Women's Republican Club in Wheeling, WV that addressed the inssue of communism. He claimed that he had a list of over 200 members of the Department of State that were communist. He never was able to produce solid eveidence of any commusnists, but his speech provided an explanation for problems in America's Cold War Policy, and it freaked people out. -
Warsaw Pact
A mutual defence organization that put the soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states, such as soviets Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. The treaty called on member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force and to set up a unified military command under Marshall Ivan S. Konev of the Soviet Union. -
Sputnik Launched
The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite. This satellite carried a radio transmitter. This event was the start of the space age and the U.S.- U.S.S.R. space race. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
The intent of the failed invasion was to provoke popularity for an uprising against Fidel Castro. The bay of pigs was not originally John F. Kennedy's idea. Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration planned the invasion, which was handled by the C.I.A. During Kennedy's presidency, Eisenhower gave Kennedy the project and Kennedy strongly declined it. Kennedy was right, considering the fact that the invasion was a huge failure for the U.S. -
Fidel Castro Prolaims Communist Cuba
Castro declared, "I am a Marxist-Leninist and shall be one until the end of my life." He also announced that Cuba would be communist and have a communist government. -
Building of Berlin Wall begins
The building began two days after sealing off freepassage between East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East Germany wanted to make it permanently closed off to the West. The Berlin Wall stood as the symbol of the Cold War, a literal "Iron Curtain" dividing Europe. -
Berlin Wall
The German Democratic Republic started to build the Berlin Wall August 31, 1961. The wall was barbed wire and concrete, that separted Eastern and Western Berlin. The main purpose fro the wall was to stop Western democracy supporters from entering Eastern Germany and understanding the communist state. The wall fell November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens are aloud to cross whenever they want. That night people came and tore it down. -
MAD
The date for this event is approximately 1962. This stands for "Mutually Assured Destruction" and it means that both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would definitavely be destroyed in the event of a nuclear war. This helped prevent conflict because both countries were afraid of being destroyed. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A fight between U.S. and U.S.S.R. about the pressence of missiles in Cuba. Khrushchev placed Soviet missiles in Cuba and Kennedy negociated to get the missiles out without starting a nuclear war. This ended the 28th of october, the same year. -
Nuclear Deterrent
During the Cold War the Soviet Union and the United States got it a huge nuclear arms race. Soviets thought that a nuclear war was possible. In the mid 1960s, the U.S. adopted nuclear deterrence, which is the credible threat of retalitaion to prevent enemy attack. the U.S. wanted to make their threat convincing, so they developed many nuclear weapons that could be used on the U.S.S.R. Both countries would not attack eachother because of fearing eachother's weapons. -
U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
President Lyndon B. Johnson, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, decided to escalate the Vietnam Conflict by sending U.S. troops to be on the ground. On March 8, 1965, 3,500 U.S.marines were sent to Vietnam. They were the first U.S. troops to arrive in Vietnam. -
Non- Proliferation Agreement
This agreement was aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. During the arms race, this treaty was a major success because it set a precident to follow for nuclear weaponry. It was a scary time because of the nuclear war threat, but this treaty was for international cooperation to prevent proliferation of weapons. -
Apollo 11
The first spaceflight that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. They were both Americans. The space race ended with this event and America won. -
Kent State Shooting
Members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd at Kent State Univeristy, killing four students, nine students were wounded. The people that were shot were protesting the Cambodian Campaign that was Nixon's policy. This caused trouble in the U.S. during an already tense time over the U.S. role in Vietnam. -
SALT I
A treaty signed by Nixon and Breznhev that was a attempt to control nuclear weapons. Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. agreed to limit nuclear missiles. SALT stands for "Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty". Talks of this treaty began in November of 1969. They came to the conclusion that nuclear weapons can't be eliminated completely, but they could limit the development of them. -
Fall of Saigon
The capture of Saigon, the capital of North Vietnam, by the people's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. This marked the end of the Vietnam war and the reunification of Vietnam as a communist country. -
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a high school worker, studying a program in France, when he joined the CCP in 1924. After the war with Japan in 1937, he was appointed political commissar of a local division. He became a CCP Secretary General in 1952. In 1956 he was promoted to Secretary of China. During the Tiananmen Square Massacre, much criticism was put onto him, which forced him to resign in 1992. -
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II believed that Communism was a moral evil. Both the Pope and Ronald Reagan thought that overcoming communism in the world was possible. He went to Poland for nine days in 1979. The Pope spirtually awakened Poland with a speech and inspired them the start the Solidarity union. This was the turning point in undermining communism. -
Margaret Thatcher
When Margaret Thatcher came into power, people believed that the Cold War could not be won and that anti communism was morally wrong. Soon after she left the office, the Berlin Wall had fallen and Eastern Europe was liberated. A year later the Soviet Union fell. Her leadership was instrumental to democracy's defeat of communism. The Soviet's called her the "iron lady" while in office. -
SALT II
This treaty set more specific regulations on different missiles. Limits were set based on launchers and missiles. Each side was limited to 2400 weapons systems. This treaty was never ratified, even though Brezhnev and Carter signed it. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
The Soiviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan and took complete control of Kubal and other parts of the country. This was an attempt for Moscow to slow the Afghan war and maintain a socialist government on its border. This was the only time Soviets invaded a country outside of the Eastern Bloc. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall fell after the East Germany Communism Party announced that citizens could cross throughthe Berlin Wall into Western Berlin. That night people took anything they had and tried to tear down the wall so they don't have to be separated anymore. -
Lech Walesa
Lech Walesa was a technican in 1967 for Lenin's shipyard. He was a member of the illegal strike committee in Gdarisk shipyard in 1970. Soon he was fired. A couple of years later, after he got out of prison, he applied again and got a job as a simple worker. While Walesa was just a chairman of Solidarity Trade Union at the time, he played a key rule in Polish politics. In 1990 Walesa won presidency, and became the president of Poland for 5 years. -
START I
The first treaty to provide deep reductions of the U.S./U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons. This limited arms, but it was very complicated. START stands for "Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty". -
START II
This was a continutaion of START I, a treaty that limited nuclear weapons. It is for "The Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensve Arms" between the U.S. and Russia.
