Cold War. The Cold War got its name because of the long confrontation between the United States and the Soviet union, This lasted forty four years and neither of the two ever declared war on the other.
By PhoenixM
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Greek Civil War
Resistance fighters of Greece had to give up their arms and release prisoners as stated by the Varkiza agreement when the British showed up. The British forces opened fire on over a hundred thousand protestors starting the Civil War between British forces and the Communist resistance fighters. To prevent the complete destruction of Greece, the resistance fighters surrendered and negotiated a treaty. All communist were captured and had voting rights removed. -
Formation of the Eastern Bloc
During the opening stages of World War II, the Soviet Union formed the Eastern Bloc. After Vladimir Lenin came to power he formed Russia into a communist state, later on Joseph Stalin took charge. Stalin wanted to increase communist influence in Europe. The Eastern Bloc refers to the group of communist states of central Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The Eastern Bloc was made up of the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. -
Postwar Occupation and Division of Germany.
After the unconditional German surrender that ended World War two, The Allies decided to split Germany into four zones at the Potsdam Conference. The four zones were occupied by America in the South, the United Kingdom in the Northwest, French in the Southwest, and the Soviet Union in the East. The capital city of Germany, Berlin, was also split into four zones despite it being in the soviet controlled area. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt by the Soviets to limit the United States, Great Britain, and France's ability to enter their sections of Berlin. The blockade left around two and a half million people with no food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and other basic goods. The Allies created an airlift designed to deliver vital supplies to the citizens of Berlin. The airlift lasted for eleven months. This airlift is noted as being the first major conflict of the Cold War. -
Enactment of Marshall Plan
President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act in 1948, also known as the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was a U.S. program that provided aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War two. More than $15 billion was spent in the relief efforts. One of the big effects of the Marshall Plan is that is helped to slow the spread of Communism while trying to get more of Europe to become Democracy's. The Marshall Plan can be cited as the beginning of the Cold War. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
Chiang Kai-shek joined forces with Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party following the Japanese invasion of China at the start of World War two. When the war ended the Communist party and Nationalist party turned on each other. The Communists defeated the Nationalists in 1949 and Mao Zedong declared China a Communist state by the name of the Peoples' Republic of China. Chiang fled to what is now Taiwan after the revolution, he was wanted for being a Nationalist. -
Korean War
The war began when 75,000 North Korean troops flooded across the 38th parallel, a boundary between the soviet backed North Korea and the Democratic backed South Korea. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. American troops entered the war on the South's side, after three years of a stalemate the war came to an end when an armistice was reached. The Korean War is known as the Forgotten War because of the lack of attention it received. The war was Democracy versus Communism. -
Overthrow of the Mossadegh Government in Iran.
The 1953 Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah. The overthrow was orchestrated by the United States and the United Kingdom. Mossadegh has sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, a British corporation, to limit the UK's control over Iranian oil. The British began a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil and eventually the UK got help from the CIA. -
Cuban Revolution
Fidel Castro attempted to take down the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista with a raid on Santiago army barracks. The raid failed and Castro was imprisoned, upon being released Castro fled to Mexico where he begin to organize an invading force of Cuban exiles. The invasion quickly led to many dying, the survivors decided to employ guerrilla warfare. This style of war led to Castro's forces rapidly expanding, which later made overthrowing Batista and making Cuba into a one-party socialist state. -
Overthrow of the Guatemalan Government.
In 1954, the CIA sponsored the overthrow of the Guatemalan Government, this put an end to the civil war in Guatemala. This then installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala. The U.S. got involved to both prevent the spread of Communism in Latin America and to protect the profits of the United Fruit Company. The Fruit Company was highly profitable and used exploitive techniques to turn a profit. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam war was between the Communist North and the South backed by the United States. The war was long and costly, more than three million people died. Due to the death toll, cost, and lack of support from American citizens who opposed war on moral grounds, the United States decided to sign the Paris Peace Accords and withdraw from the war in 1973. The war ended with the Communist North seizing control of the South. The country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam a year later. -
Hungarian Uprising
Thousands of protesters flooded the streets demanding a democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression. In response, the Soviets set Imre Nagy, a former premier who had been removed from the party for his criticisms of Stalinist policies as the New Premier. Nagy tried to restore peace and asked the Soviets to remove troops, they did. Nagy then abolished the one-party rule and withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. The soviets sent in troops to crush the uprising, they did so with ease. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a attack launched by the CIA to push Fidel Castro out of power. The invaders had been Cuban exiles who had received training from the CIA, however they were outnumbered and the attack failed. The Bay of Pigs was the site of the attack, but Castro was prepared. To make things worse, some of the invading ships had sank and backup paratroopers had landed in the wrong place. The CIA tried to keep this a secret but a radio station broadcasted every detail to Cuba. -
Building the Berlin Wall
Communist on East Germany began the creation of the Berlin Wall. The wall would put an end to citizens of East Germany escaping from the Soviet-controlled East to the Democratic West. The Berlin Wall was a Soviet attempt to drive out the United States, Britain, and France. The Berlin wall stood as both a physical and ideological barrier separating the East communist from the Democratic West. The significance held by Berlin was that it was the German Capital during World War two. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for 13 days, it was a political and military standoff over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba. Cuba, being only 90 miles from US shores, was of great interest to the American government. In response to Soviet missiles in Cuba, the US set a naval blockade around Cuba. Nuclear war was narrowly avoided when the US agreed to never invade Cuba if the Soviets removed their missiles, the US also secretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. -
Overthrow of the Allende Government in Chile
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military coup in Chile that removed President Salvador Allende from office. The president was a socialist, the U.S. feared loosing investments in Chile, the presidency of Allende created a economic war for the Untied States. By order of Richard Nixon, a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule. The U.S wanted to avoid the spread of Communism and socialist as well was keeping their economy healthy. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
At Tiananmen Square a group of students led a demonstration protesting for freedom of speech, democracy, constitutional due process, and many other freedoms. There were about a million people who assembled to protest. The Chinese government reacted by sending troops armed with assault rifles and escorted by tanks, they then fired at the demonstrators who attempted to block the militaries advance to Tiananmen Square. Thousands were killed and even more were wounded by the oppressive government. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Boris Yeltsin wanted a change with the relations they had with the West, to help thaw out the Cold War political reforms inside the Eastern Bloc led to the Berlin Wall would being opened to all freely for the first time since it was erected. Over the weekend over 2 million people moved from one side to the other, some had spent time to begin breaking the wall using their own tools. The fall of the wall had untied Berlin once, the fall of the wall is also noted as being the end of the Cold War. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union had fallen once the Soviet flag was lowered once Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan had opted out of the Union. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia Had also declared their independence from the USSR. Only Kazakhstan remained with Russia. The main causes for the fall of the Soviet Union was the wrecked economy from too much military spending and radical reforms implemented by Gorbachev too quickly. -
9/11 Attacks
On September 11th, 2001, 19 militants associated with al Qaeda highjacked four planes and carried out suicidal attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the two towers collapsed killing just shy of 3,000 people. The third plane hit the Pentagon just out side of Washington D.C. The passengers of the fourth plane had fought the hijackers causing the plane to crash in a field in Shanksville Pennsylvania.