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Postwar Occupation and Division of Germany
The Allies issued a unilateral declaration on June 5, 1945, that proclaimed their supreme authority over German territory. The Allies would govern Germany through four occupation zones, one for each of the Four Powers (the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). The establishment of zones of occupation had been decided at a series of conferences. -
Formation of the Eastern Bloc
At the end of World War II and later into the 1940s, the Soviet Union oversaw the establishment of Communist regimes throughout central and Eastern Europe. Over the next four decades, those regimes constituted what was informally known as the Eastern bloc. -
Enactment of Marshall Plan
President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. The Marshall Plan generated a resurgence of European industrialization and brought extensive investment into the region. It was also a stimulant to the U.S. economy by establishing markets for American goods. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The crisis started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Communist Revolution occurred after the Chinese Communist Party leader, Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward in January of 1958-1960 failed. The Great Leap Forward was an attempt made by Mao to transform China into a society that was able to compete with other Western nations within a short period of time. Mao having felt the Soviet leadership came too far into a revisionist direction, he gathered his wife, Jiang Qing, defense minister, Lin Biao, and troops to attack the Soviet Union. -
Korean War
The Korean War erupted after the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel that divided North and South Korea. The North Korean Army stormed South Korea with its Soviet tanks. Seeing that South Korea was being overrun, the United States came to their aid. The Korean War ended on July 27th, 1953. -
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt led by Communist leader Fidel Castro to overthrow the dictatorial leader of the Cuban government, Fulgencio Batista. Castro and his army fought for the freedom they believed they deserved but were denied to them, even after attempted legal pushes for change. On January 1st, 1959 Batista and some of his supporters fled Cuba, marking the end of the Cuban Revolution. -
Overthrow of the Guatemalan Government
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, code-named Operation PBSuccess, was a covert operation carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. Eisenhower justified the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, because of the communist threat the country had posed to the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. -
Vietnam War
Because Communism had taken control of North Vietnam, the United States was afraid of it spreading to South Vietnam, then eventually the rest of Asia, and an massive Communist takeover. With this fear, the United States sent money, supplies, and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese government. The went on until April 30th, 1975, when President Richard Nixon ordered the retreat of his troops in Vietnam. -
Hungarian Uprising
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and the Hungarian domestic policies imposed by the USSR. The university students in Budapest appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary with the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful attempt by United States-backed Cuban exiles to overthrow the government of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Increasing friction between the U.S. government and Castro's regime led Eisenhower to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961. Even before that, however, the CIA had been training anti-revolutionary Cuban exiles for a possible invasion of the island. The invasion plan was approved by Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy. -
Building the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Germany from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on August 13, 1961, to prevent its population from escaping Soviet-controlled East Berlin to West Berlin, which was controlled by the major Western Allies, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A situation initiated from the American discovery of the Soviet's missile activity in Cuba. Kennedy ordered the Soviet Union to dismantle and remove its missiles from Cuba. When it refused, the U.S. formed a naval “quarantine” around Cuba, intercepting all Cuban-bound Soviet ships and turning away those thought to be or confirmed to be carrying weaponry. It ended on October 28th, 1962 when Nikita agreed to dismantle and remove missiles from Cuba if the U.S.'s respects Cuba's territorial control. -
Rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization
At its first summit meeting in Cairo in 1964, the Arab League initiated the creation of an organization representing the Palestinian people. The Palestinian National Council convened in Jerusalem in May, 1964. After concluding the meeting, the PLO was founded, with the purpose of liberating Palestine, achieving Palestinian self-determination, and securing the return of the refugees. It was conceived at an Arab League summit in Cairo, and backed the use of armed struggle to achieve its goals. -
Overthrow of the Allende Government in Chile
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military coup in Chile that deposed the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. The U.S. feared that Allende would push Chile into socialism, and therefore lose all of the US investments made in Chile. Before Allende took office, Richard Nixon gave the order to overthrow Allende. -
Soviet War in Afghanistan
The Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) was a conflict wherein insurgent groups known collectively as the Mujahideen, as well as smaller Marxist–Leninist–Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and the Soviet Army throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
he Tiananmen Square protests, also known as the June Fourth Incident in China, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. The protests started on 15 April and were forcibly suppressed on 4 June when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Five days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled. This marked the falling of the Iron Curtain and one of the series of events that started the fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe -
Fall of the Soviet Union
On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, thereafter replaced by the Russian tricolor. Earlier in the day, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state. -
9/11 Attacks
19 militants involved with the Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and attacked the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism.
