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Iron Curtain Speech
Given by the former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, in Missouri, in which he called for an Alliance of the American people against communism -
Molotov Plan
The Soviet Union rejected and responded to the Marshall Plan by creating their own economic union in the East.The nations of Eastern Europe would rebuild their postwar economies according to a plan set forth by the Communist parties of each participating nation. -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman received $400 million to provide economic help to nations threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology, mainly helped Greece and Turkey -
Marshall Plan
A plan created by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to rebuild post war-devastated Europe. Any European nation could receive USD to rebuild their economies as long they spent it on American products. $17 billion was given in aid -
Berlin Blockade
The Soviet Union divided Germany into four zones controlled by Americans, Soviets, British, and French.The capital city of Berlin was also divided in a similar manner. When western nations agreed to create West Germany and a common currency, the Soviet Union closed off all road and rail access to the western occupation zones in Berlin. This created a supply problem for the western occupiers. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Blockade cut off two million West Germans from a supply chain of necessities. To avoid giving up the West or fighting the Soviets, Truman launched the Berlin Airlift which would send two million tons of supplies over a period of ten months. -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a treaty created by Truman out of fear that nations could not resist a Soviet attack. This linked the US and western Europe. -
The Soviet Union Tests the Bomb
The American monopoly on weapons of mass destruction was ended when the Soviet Union made it public news that they had completed the first test of their bomb. Each superpower was armed with enough destructive power to destroy the world. -
Warsaw Pact
When Eastern European leaders met in Warsaw, they signed a military alliance with the Soviet Union as the leading power and pledging to defend one another. This was in response to the NATO -
Invasion of Hungary
a Budapest protest demanding more freedoms and threatening to return to a parliamentary democracy caused the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev to dispatch the Soviet army and round up the protesters/execute their leaders. Returning Hungary to its former status as a Soviet-style communist nation. -
Berlin Wall
A 15-foot high concrete wall that was constructed to seal off the border between East and West Berlin. It had East German soldiers in watchtowers with orders to shoot anyone attempting to get over the wall and enter West Berlin. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Leader Alexander Dubcek had restored freedoms to Czechs that were lost in WWII; however, the Soviet Union quickly sent in Warsaw Pact troops and tanks and restored Czechoslovakia as a communist nation.