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The Iron Curtain Speech
In a famous speech declared by British prime minister, Winston Churchill, during the cold war, he condemned the Soviet's communist policies in Eastern Europe and announces, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” The purpose of the speech was to make stronger alliances between the U.S. and Great Britain to win the fight against communism. -
Hollywood Ten Hearings
In October 1947, 10 Hollywood film members publicly announced secret tactics that HUAC has taken during its fight and denouncement of communism influenced by the media, specifically film. As a result, these ten outspoken film members were banned from working at major film studios. -
The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was a request by current President Harriet Truman in which he wanted to offer U.S. support to Greece and Turkey to prevent them from becoming communist nations. His announcement of this ordeal became known as the official declaration of the Cold War. -
The Molotov Plan
After the Soviets heard news of the Marshall Plan, foreign Russian minister, Molotov, made it clear that the Soviet Union and its satellites rejected it. Molotov was adamant in demanding that the Soviet Union have complete control and freedom of action over any Marshall Plan funds Germany might receive. -
Alger Hiss Case
As mass hysteria grew within the United States about potential communistic threats, ex-communist, Whittaker Chambers, took before HUAC and accused a man named Alger Hiss of perjury and his secret communist background. Hiss denied the charge but Soviet spy accusations soon became a popular topic. He attended 2 trials in which he was both claimed guilty, and consequently, American citizens began questioning neighbors, co-workers, and even friends of their potential communist identity. -
The Berlin Airlift
Postwar Europe resulted in Germany being divided up into 4 partitioned zones; each occupied by the U.S., France, Britain and the Soviet Union. This resulted in a divided Berlin in which the Soviets soon cut off all aid and goods coming into anti-communist regions from foreign nations. In response, British and U.S. forces created the Berlin Airlift in which they flew in tons of cargo to suffering regions in Germany in order to provide economic aid. -
The Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin, which lay within Russian-occupied East Germany. Eventually, the western powers instituted an airlift that lasted nearly a year and delivered much-needed supplies and relief to West Berlin. -
First Soviet Atomic Bomb Test
The Soviet Union successfully tests their first atomic bomb in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan in order to test the blast's effects and amount of destruction it can do to the average civilization staged with mock buildings, bridges, etc. They also placed animals worn with different materials to see how mammalian species similar to humans will react with certain materials intact, becoming known as the "First Lightning." -
Chinese Civil War of 1949
After the end of WWll, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China which divided Chinese communists from the Chinese nationalist party run by Chiang Kai-shek. Tensions between these two parties grew into military clashes and deployments within the country as the divided China fought over superior political control. -
NATO
The actions of further Communist expansion in Europe pushed the U.S. and 11 other Western nations to from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This alliance provided a connected defense for anti-communist military forces. In response, the Soviets and its satellites formed the Warsaw Pact as their military defense in 1955. -
Korean War
The first military action enacted in the Cold War occurred when North Korea, Communist governed, invaded the 38th parallel with 75,000 Korean soldiers into South Korea. In response, America offered military aid in defense of Soviet-backed peoples of North Korea to the South as the fight across the parallel continued. The U.S. and South Korea ended up losing the "forgotten war" but the divided line between two fornlorned governments remained intact. -
Rosenberg Case
American couple, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, is accused of selling U.S. nuclear weapon plans to the Soviet Union and, as a result, Judge Kaufman charges them with prosecution but leaves out treason since the U.S. wasn't at war with Russia at the time. The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death row on April 6. -
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the first battle enacted in the Indochina War by the French in which French forces won Vietnam control. After this victory, Vietnamese war commander, Viet Minh, ordered military troops to hide in secluded caves in the mountainside to overlook French camps. With Chinese aid, Vietnamese troops eventually threw over the French government which tempted French forces to opt out of the war. -
Geneva Conference
The Geneva Conference existed to solve conflict between French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina as well as other problems in Asia. Representatives from the U.S., Great Britain, China, Soviets, and France met up and signed Geneva agreements to these issues. The agreement stated that France had to withdraw military forces from North Vietnam where Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army-McCarthy hearings were televised Congressional castings in which already-notorious McCarthy would accuse people of being communists in favor of military security to win an influential post. The term 'McCarthyism' was soon coined to mean false publications of treason and accusations with insufficient evidence. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven other European countries including Romania, Hungary, Albania, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Czechoslovakia signed a treaty called the Warsaw Pact in which called for aid if any member was attacked by an outside, anticommunist force. The reason for its existence was to support and protect Communist nations in Eastern Europe. -
The Invasion of Hungary
Previous tensions between the Soviet Army grew as Communist protesters in Hungary demanded for a democratic party and freedom from Soviet oppression. In response, Soviet tanks and troops arrived on this day and street-fighting broke out which led to a success in Soviet invasion. Hungarian prime minister, Imre Nagay, declared the invasion to a defeat after asking the Soviets to withdraw and threatening to abandon the Warsaw Pact. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was created to cope with the end of WWll, acting as a European recovery program in which gave $13 million to finance economic development in Europe from 1948-1951. The plan redistributed confidence in European civilians as their trust in their economic future became great again. -
U-2 Spy Incident
In May 1960, the Soviet Union fired at an American U-2 spy plane in the Soviet's air space and captured the American pilot, Francis Gary Powers. President D. Eisenhower was forced to admit that the CIA had been spying on the Soviet Union for years and, as a result, Eisenhower was sentenced to prison for 10 years for espionage. This incident only increased tensions between the U.S. and S.U. during the Cold War. -
Bay of Pigs
After Fidel Castro took over the Cuban government and overthrew American-supported president, General Batista, the U.S. suspected Castro of a communist background and wanted to take power away from him immediately. The CIA trained 1,400 Cuban exiles to invade Cuba, but the invasion failed as Castro's troops quickly outnumbered American forces in less than 24 hours. -
The Berlin Wall
The communist government of East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete wall in order to keep out Western fascists from entering East Berlin and undermining the socialist state. The antifascist-wall served to deflect Eastern and Western ideas from deflecting one another and wasn't shut down until 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. Kennedy explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. -
Assassination of Diem
On November 1, President Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were assassinated by enemies who had first seized key military installments, secured surrender of Nhu's forces, and demanded resignation of Diem and his brother. Before this leadup, the president and his brother thought warnings of the attack to be a part of Nhu's part, but they were wrong. -
Assassination of JFK
JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy make a public outing in Dallas, Texas sitting comfortably in a convertible and waving to the standby crowd with pride. Little did they know Lee Harvey Oswald would soon shoot Mr. Kennedy and nearby governor Connally 3 times. 30 minutes, later, JFK was announced dead at Dallas Parkland Hospital. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave congress the power to expand U.S. forces in the Vietnam War. Running up to this decision, LBJ feared that his call to expanding the war would lose supporters of his campaign. However, by the time N. Vietnam established control over most of S. Vietnam, people argued that LBJ didn't enter war aggressively enough. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a strategic bombing campaign in which U.S. aircrafts bombed targeted locations in North Vietnam for 3 years straight. This continuous bombing was meant to put on more pressure for northern communist forces and give them a smaller chance to wage war. -
Tet Offensive
Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. General Vo Nguyen Giap, leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam, planned the offensive in an attempt both to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its support of the Saigon regime. -
Assassination of MLK
American civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by an unknown figure. His death gave rise to many angry African Americans who followed his civil lead but also to a national mourning that we still celebrate today. -
Assassination of RFK
Senator Robert Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by the 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He died a day later. -
The Invasion of Czechoslovakia
On the night of August 20, 1968, about 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia in order to restore the country's Communist reputation. This brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia was called the "Prague Spring" and though no match for the Soviet Union's massive army, Czechoslovakian liberals protested peaceful demonstrations but was soon overrun. This defeat lead to the revoking of liberal reforms and the beginning to a "normalization" era run by Gustav Husak. -
Riots at Democratic National Convention
Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters battle police forces in the Chicago streets amidst a Democratic Party disagreement about America's stance on Vietnam. These riots reassured U.S. citizens to keep their safety intact without the unrestrained power of the national government on its Cold War policies. -
Election of Richard Nixon
Winning a close presidential election, Richard Nixon promises American voters to bring America together again. The people, weary of anti-war and civil rights protests, became opportunistic in Nixon's name as president. -
Kent State Shooting
As a result of President Nixon's announcement of expanding the war into Cambodia by the U.S., massive numbers of protests erupted on school campuses throughout the country. Protesters at Kent State University in Ohio drew out an "anti-war" demonstration by setting fire to the ROTC building, prompting the governor to dispatch 900 nat'l guardsmen to the campus. 28 guardsmen shot fire at a crowd, killing 4 students and wounding nine. -
Nixon Visits China
A dramatic turn of events occurs when President Nixon decides to visit the communist People's Republic of China to re-establish political relations between the U.S. and communist China. Nixon thought his diplomatic ideas to the PRC would make the S.U. more agreeable with U.S. policies as well as create a wider division between these two powerful communist nations. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
A ceasefire goes into effect in Saigon, Vietnam at 8 AM. The Saigon government had initially rejected the ceasefire but negotiations collapsed and both sides of Vietnam drew out to an endless chain of retaliation with South Vietnam receiving aid from the U.S. -
Fall of Saigon
The North Vietnamese Army had reached Saigon, and knowing their presence would be unwelcome, U.S. troops quickly withdrew to avoid being stuck in a battle that wasn't really theirs. Saigon government was announced "dissolved at all levels" by President Minh who renamed the city 'Ho Chi Minh City' after their revolutionary leader. -
Election of Ronald Reagan
After defeating Carter in the 49th presidential election, Ronald Reagan promised American voters that he would destroy communism. Reagan proposed the 'National Security Directive 75' which was a 1.7 trillion dollar investment designed to rule back communism in order to encourage political change within the Soviets. -
Announcement of SDI (Star Wars)
In a form of defense against nuclear missile attacks from the Soviet Union, the Reagan administration came up with SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative)- an anti-missile system installed in outer space that would zap unknown enemy missiles if detected. This concept, however, was extremely unrealistic (popularly known as "Star Wars") and was mainly designed to intimidate and scare off Soviets which it successfully did so. -
First Geneva Conference
New, young and educated Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan hold a Cold War meeting in what is now known as the Geneva Summit. They surprisingly developed personal diplomatic relations and discussed the limiting of nuclear weapons in the arms race. -
Tear Down This Wall speech
At the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech in which called for the Soviet leader, Gorbachev, to open up the divided barrier separating West and East Berlin. On his call to seek common ground on human rights, Gorbachev was shocked to receive this challenge from a once-perceived nemesis. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
The division between communist West Germany and socialist East Germany fell apart after thousands of East Berliners rose up against communism motivated by Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech. On November 9, 1989, the East German Communist Party declared all citizens the freedom to cross the border whenever they pleased.
