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Cold War Events
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Berlin Blockade/ Airlift
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. It was significant in the Cold War because this was the start of the Cold War. -
Korean War
On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 Soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This war was significant because it gave the US reason to increase its military expenditure four-fold. -
Creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact
In 1949, the prospect of further Communist expansion prompted the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was significant because it made the USSR struggle. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “satellite,” was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic. It was significant because it made the U.S. put a man on the moon faster because they were afraid. -
Bay of Pigs
On January 1, 1959, a young Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro (1926-) drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973), the nation’s American-backed president. It was significant because ultimately, the Bay of Pigs invasion failed. However, that was just the beginning of our problems. -
Creation of the Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. It symbolised the difference between the western democrats and the eastern communists and the way they thought Germany should be lead. -
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. It was significant because the Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the few times that the ‘rules’ of the Cold Warwere nearly forgotten. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The significant part of this war was that this was the first war the United States lost. -
Disarmament Agreements
During the late 1960s, the United States learned that the Soviet Union had embarked upon a massive Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) buildup designed to reach parity with the United States. It was significant because it was about discussing missle defense strategy. -
Gorbachev's Reforms
When Mikhail S. Gorbachev (1931-) became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, he launched his nation on a dramatic new course. It is significant because the USSR's economy started to struggle. -
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Nearly twenty-five years ago, the Soviet Union pulled its last troops out of Afghanistan, ending more than nine years of direct involvement and occupation. It is significant because this was the first time the soviets invaded a country outside the eastern block. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, 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. It is significant because this marked the end of the Cold War.
