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Russian Revolution
Vladamir Lennin used to works of Karl Marx and his Communism ideology to overthrow the Russian Government, and led a group called the Bolshevik's in the siege for control of Russia. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was the discussion of peace and the spread of Democracy over post war Europe, and the ending of Wold War 2. President Truman and Winston Churchill were on the side of Democracy, as Joseph Stalin wanted to dominate all of Europe, and spread Communism to all it's nations. -
The Atomic Bomb
The United States dropped two Nuclear Bombs on the the Japanese Empire in the cites of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. These new weapons of mass destruction changed the future in the way of warfare. Joseph Stalin was aware of the Atomic Bomb, but was fearful of President Truman's ability to use them if needed against the Soviet Union. -
The Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was Joseph Stalin's "buffer zone" which included the domination of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the eastern zone of Germany. This was used to prevent Russia from being directly hit by an attack from the Western Powers. -
The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was America's foreign policy established to counter the Soviet Union expansion of communism, and was the request from Truman to aid the countries of Greece and Turkey from Soviet Union influence. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was Secretary of State George C. Marshall's plan to economically aid post-war Europe. Marshall wanted to prevent the desperation of hunger, poverty, and chaos, which could tip the Europeans to pursue the idea of Communism. The United States and many other countries donated 13 billion dollars to help rebuild the war torn country. -
The Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union in 1947 in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. -
The Hollywood 10
The Hollywood 10 were members of the Hollywood film productions that denounced the tactics employed by the HUAC. These prominent screenwriters and directors received jail sentences and were banned from working for the major Hollywood studios. -
The Berlin Blockade
The first crisis of the Cold War, the Soviet Union blocked off Western Allies railways, roads, and canals access to the sections of Berlin that were controlled by the Western Powers. Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union hoped that the blockade would drive western powers out of West Berlin, and starve it's people into submission. -
The Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was the Allied Powers response to Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Unions Blockade of Berlin. The planes flew in food, coal, and medical supplies. Over 2 million tons of cargo were sent into West Berlin over the 15 month span, and a plane was landing in Berlin every 3 minutes. The Airlift soon caused the Soviet Union to lift the Blockade in 1949 -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATO was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that was constructed to have a united defense against Soviet aggression. The United States, with Canada, joined 10 other European countries in the fight against the spread of communism. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviet Union successfully built and exploded their first Atomic Bomb in 1949. This frightened the Allies because they estimated that the Soviet Union would not possess the capability to build the bombs so soon. -
Alger Hiss Case
The Alger Hiss case was the case against Alger Hiss who was on trial and accused of being a soviet spy in 1948 and was convicted of perjury in 1950 after Whitaker Chambers, a former Communist Party member, appeared before the House Committee on UN American Activities HUAC to denounce Alger Hiss. -
Korean War
The Korean War was the war between South and North Korea. Split by the 38th Parallel, South Korea, backed by the United States and democratic, was fighting against North Korea, back by the Soviet Union and was communist. The Korean War represented an important shift in the U.S. foreign policy, and Under Truman, military expenditure increased rapidly, laying the foundations for the so-called military industrial complex that existed throughout the Cold War. -
The Rosenberg Trial
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage for their role in passing on Atomic Bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. They were sentenced to death row on August 6th. -
McCarthy Army Hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Battle of Dien Bien Phu, was the engagement in the First Indochina War that consisted of a struggle between French and Viet Minh (Vietnamese Communist and nationalist) forces for control of a small mountain outpost on the Vietnamese border near Laos. -
The Geneva Conferance
The Geneva Summit of 1955 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Held on July 18, 1955, it was a meeting of "The Big Four": President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization (also known as the Warsaw Pact) was a political and military alliance established on May 14, 1955 between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries who were the Soviet Union Satellites. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 or the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 was a nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956 -
The U2 Incident
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the premiership of Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
The Berlin Wall
During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on 13 August 1961. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. Soviet powers brought nuclear weapons to the island of Cuba, only 90 miles off of the coast of Florida -
The Assination of Diem
President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and killed by a group of soldiers. The death of Diem caused celebration among many people in South Vietnam, but also lead to political chaos in the nation. It was later revealed that American officials met with the generals who organized the plot and gave them encouragement to go through with their plans. -
The Assination of JFK
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while driving down a road in Fort worth, Texas, by a sniper in the library overlooking the road. Kennedy was shot twice, once in the neck, and once in the back of the head. The shooter was Lee Harvey Oswald, who was killed by a nightclub owner and and a gangster, Jack Ruby. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the codename for an American bombing campaign during the Vietnam. This operation marked the first American attack on North Vietnamese and represented a major expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. -
The Tet Offensive
In late January, 1968, during the lunar new year (Tet) holiday, North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against 100 cities, army bases, and U.S. embassy's in South Vietnam. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr. is Assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, after going there in support of an African American Civil Rights movement. King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to the Hospital, where he later died. -
Assassination of Ryan F. Kennedy
On June 5, 1968, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election, and died the next day while hospitalized -
Riots of Democratic Convention
On this day in 1968, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. Although the Soviet Union's action successfully halted the pace of reform in Czechoslovakia, it had unintended consequences for the unity of the communist nations. -
Election of Nixon
President Nixon was put in office on November 5th, 1968. Nixon won the election over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon became president after LBJ told America that he would not run for the presidency after his failure to control the war in Vietnam. -
The Kent State Protest
The Kent State massacre was the shootings on May 4, 1970 of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard during a mass protest against the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. 12 people were wounded, and 2 students were killed -
Nixon Visits China
President Richard M. Nixon arrived in China for an official trip to establish a diplomatic peace talk. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949. Nixon's arrival marked the first time the United States and China had have communications since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. -
The Cease Fire of Vietnam
The cease fire of Vietnam was the agreement between North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the U.S. to relieve American POW's and let the country of Vietnam handle the war themselves. This was Nixon's plan to remove America from the conflicts of the Vietnam War -
The fall of Saigon
The fall of Saigon was the capture of the capital of Vietnam by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. North Vietnamese forces steamrolled through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon. Televised broadcasts captured the fall of Saigon, which marked the official end of the Vietnam War. -
Reagan's Election
Ronald Reagan was elected as the 40th US president from 1981 to 1989. Raised in small-town Illinois, he became a Hollywood actor in his 20's and later served as the Republican governor of California from 1967 to 1975. -
SDI Announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative , also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. -
Geneva Conference With Gorbachev
The Geneva Conference was president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which resulted in some produced agreements between the two nations. However, the meeting boded well for the future, as the two men engaged in long, personal talks and seemed to develop a sincere and close relationship -
Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" Speech
On June 12, 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan made one of his most famous speeches, in which he appealed to then Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." Reagan was talking about the Berlin wall that divided West democracy Germany, and East Communist Germany. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders.
