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Suez Canal
Summary: The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Suez Isthmus and separates Africa and Asia. Significance: Route for energy, commodities, consumer goods and componentry from Asia and the Middle East to Europe End Date: Don't know -
Red Scare
Summary: A Red Scare is a society or state's fostering of public fear about the advent of communism, anarchist, or other leftist ideologies. Significance: Americans feared additional radical foreigners like those during the Red Scare, which resulted in increased immigration restrictions. End Date: 1920 -
Truman Doctrine
Summary: President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. Significance: It shifted US foreign policy from one of disengagement from regional conflicts not directly involving the US to one of prospective participation in distant wars. End Date: June 30, 1948 -
Marshall Plan
Summary: On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948, and it became known as the Marshall Plan. Significance: It generated a resurgence of European industrialization and brought extensive investment into the region. End date: December 1951 -
Berlin Blockade/Airlift
Summary: 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. Significance: The Berlin Blockade exposed the deep ideological differences separating East and West. End Date: May 12, 1949 -
Space Race
Summary: The Space Race was a rivalry in the twentieth century between two Cold War adversaries, the United States and the Soviet Union, to attain superior spaceflight capacity. Significance: It showed the world which country had the best science, technology, and economic system. End Date: 07/17/1975 -
U-2 Incident
Summary: On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces Significance: It caused the collapse of a summit conference in Paris between the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. End Date: 05/01/1960 -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Summary: On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles attempted a disastrous assault in the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's south coast. Fidel Castro rose to power in an armed uprising against Cuban tyrant Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Significance: The unsuccessful invasion bolstered Castro's administration, which went on to openly declare its determination to embrace socialism and pursue deeper connections with the Soviet Union. End Date: April 20, 1961 -
Berlin Wall
Summary: The Berlin Wall was built by the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War to prevent its population from escaping Soviet-controlled East Berlin to West Berlin Significance: Berlin wall was the only city that was divided physically by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its allies in the Eastern Bloc and the West. End Date: 11/09/1989 -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Summary: Cuban Missile Crisis is major confrontation that brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to war over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba. Significance: The Soviets offered to remove their nuclear missiles from Cuba if America pledged not to invade Cuba End Date: October 29, 1962 -
Non proliferation treaty
Summary: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is a landmark international treaty whose goal is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology. Significance: Promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to advance the goal of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. End Date: 03/05/1970 -
Perestroika and glasnost
Summary: Perestroika was a political reform campaign inside the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s that was mainly linked with CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost openness policy change. Significance: Enhanced openness and transparency in Soviet government structures and operations Glasnost demonstrated the Gorbachev administration's dedication to allowing Soviet residents to publicly examine their system's faults and potential remedies. End Date:1991