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Period: to
Cold War
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Potsdam Coference
The three powers, US., Great Britain, and USSR, come to Potsdam, Germany for a meeting on the punishment for the Nazi Gemany. Stalin for USSR, Truman for U.S., and Churchill and Attlee for Great Britain. They reduced Germany's size by 25% and slpit Germany into 4 parts. -
Iron Curtain
It started right after WWII. USSR took over half of Europe til the End of Cold War -
Truman Doctrine
A speech given by Harry Truman, to aid Greece and Turkey with military and economic aid. This is to prevent them from falling into Sovet control. Turkey and Greece are big rivals, so it was important to aid them both equally, even if Greece is having a civil war. This speech was considered as the start of the Cold War -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan's purpose was to aid the European countries after the World War II. United States wanted to help them and prevent the spread of communism. We supplied food and supplies. We also helped rebuild thier cities since they got bombed by the germans. -
Berlin Air Lift
USSR took control of Germany after WWII, They blocked the railroads, roads, and waterways from the Allies from the West. The Allies came up with an idea to carry cargo in planes. They carried in more fuel and food than they had done by railroads. the USSR were embarrased and gave up control and kept East Berlin and gave the Allies West Berlin. -
Formation of NATO
NATo is short for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's an international military alliance. Any countries in the group may agree or disagree to respond and defend any countries to any attacks made by anyone out of the group. Their rival is the Warsaw pact. -
Korean War
The war was between North Korea, supported by China and USSR, and South Korea supported by United Nations. They were fighting to take control of the whole Korea Peninsula. The 38th parallel, which is latitude 38 which is the middle of Korea, has been fought over for land. The 38th parallel marks the border of Norht and South Korea after the war. The countries still have cross- border skirmishes. -
Stalin Dies
Stalin was at his house close to Moscow. Stalin went to bed and did not come out the next mourning. The guards were too scared to check on him since he ordered them not to disturb him. Peter, a deputy commandent, ent in the room and saw him lying on his back on the floor. He called for doctors. The doctors came to treat him, but it was too late. Stalin died with a stroke from high blood pressure. -
Warsaw Pact formed
A defense treaty with eight communist countries/states. USSR started the treaty. USSR's purpose of the treaty was to take military control in eastern and central Europe. The Pact ended when USSR resigned. -
Suez Crisis
Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. Isreal invaded Egypt since they thought that the canal doesn't belong to them. Great Britain and France joined them the day after Isreal attacked. U.S. was trying to tell the invaders to stop. The invasion ruined the relationship between U.S and Great Britan & France. Invasion ended November 7th, 1956. -
Sputnik 1 and 2
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite to orbit the Earth. It was a 58cm diameter sphere with 4 radio anttennas broadcasting signals. Sputnik 2 was the second satellite to orbit Earth, but this time they sent the satellite with a dog in the satellite. The dog, theoretically, died from heat and stress. Both of the satellite were set by the USSR -
U-2 Incident
A U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet's airspace. It was two weeks before the East-West Summit in Paris. It was a big embarrassment for the US. US tried denying their purpose but the Soviet got the photos from the plane and interrogated the pilot. -
Shoe-banging incident
During a UN General Assembly, Nikita Khushchev, Russian representative, got mad in protest of a Philippine delagate that he picked up his shoe and banged it on his desk. Boland, Assembly President, was trying to calm down the crowd after an uproar. It didn't happen. Boland got so mad that he hit his gavel so hard to declare meeting adjorned that the head of the gavel fell off -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The invasion was an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro after Castro won the Cuban Revolution. The CIA planned to train a special group just to take out Castro, called Brigade 2506. They planned to attack at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. The invasion was a failure. Most of the troops were captured and interrigated and later sent back to US -
Berlin Wall
Built between East Berlin and West Berlin by East Berlin. East Germany was attempting to prevent emigration to West Germany and other Western Europe countries. November 9, 1989, East Berlin announced that the citizens can cross over to West Berlin after some civil unrest. They took down the wall afew weeks later -
Cuban Missle Crisis
USSR and Cuba agreed to build missle sites in Cuba. The missles were pointed at the U.S. Earlier the U.S. had missle in Italy and Turkey, all aiming at Moscow. U.S. put a blockade from USSR adding more missles in Cuba. U.S. and USSR had a meeting and they both greed to remove their missles and not to invave Cuba. This crisis started the nuclear hot line between them. -
Assasination of Kennedy
Kennedy was the president of US at the time. It happened in Dallas, Texas. There was a parade and the car that the president was in was a open-top limo. JFK was shot in throat from behind. The shooter was Oswald. There are many theories about who else was involved. -
USS Pueblo Incident
USS Puenlo was a spy-ship for the Navy Intelligence. The ship was captured by North Korea because North Korea stated that the ship went into their territorial waters. The ship's crew was taken and tortured. The United States were trying to get their crew back. North Korea later gave back the crew but kept the ship. Crew was released at December 23, 1968 -
Tet Offensive
The biggest military attack in the Vietnam War. The attack was lauched by Viet Cong against US and South Vietnam. They attacked with 80,000 troops against 100 towns and cities, and the southern capital. The attack shows that Viet Cong can launch mass attacks -
SALT I Agreement
SALT is short for Stragetic Arms Limitation Talk. The negotiation was to limit the amount of submarine-launched ballistic missles and intercontinental missles. Another agreement was to limit the number of sites protected by anti-ballistic missle system to two each. This inproved the relations between US and USSR. -
UN Resolution 2758
UN recognized the People's Rebublic of China as "the only legitimate representative of China to the UN." Which ended Rebublic of China's membership. US voted against the resolution but most of the countries voted in favour. -
Nixon visits China
One of the biggest turning points of the war. China and US had a bad relationship for 25 years and Nixon ended it by visiting China. This visit had caused the People's Republic of China to change sides of the war to join US against the USSR -
The B-59 Submarine Incident
The might be the closest to the start of a nuclear war. It was during the Cuban Missle Crisis. There was a Soviet sub close to Cuba and the USS Beale, American destroyer, was dropping fake charges to warn the sub to surface. The sub captain thought they were live and started load the nuclear torpedo and ready to attack. The senior officers of the sub cancelled the launch and went back to Russia. -
SALT II
Short for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. This agreement banned new missle programs and limited the amount of missles and planes. Six months after the treaty has been signed, USSR invaded Afghanistan and deployed a Soviet bridgate to Cuba. US backed out of the treaty. -
Vietnam War
There was a war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Communist countries and South Vietnam was supported by U.S. South Vietnam and U.S. used a lot of air support, but it wasn't enough to keep North Vietnam out. North Vietnam won the war, making all of Vietnam a communist. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
The Iranian students, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the United States Embassy in Tehran. They wanted the Shah back for trials for his crimes during his rule. The Shah was in United States for Medical Treatment. US tried a resue mission which failed. When the Shah died, Iraq invaded Iran. Iran released the hostages to go back to US. Ended Jan 20, 1981 -
The 1979 NORAD Computer Glitch
NORAD is a computer system that detects incoming missles. US recieved a warning that Soviet Union lauched a barrage of missles to North America. They scramble 10 interceptor planes and ordered the president's "doomsday" plane to take off. Later they found out that the similator of the missle barrage was running. -
U.S. and USSR Olympic Boycotts
When USSR invaded Afghanistan, U.S. boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, USSR. Many other countries, espacially the Allies from WWII, boycotted too. The USSR and may communist countries boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angleles, USA. -
Korean Airlines Flight 007
Was one of the tensest point of the war. The plane, holding 269 people, was flying from New York to Seoul, Korea, while refueling at Anchorage. It was flying over the prohibited Soviet airspace. It was shot down by a Soviet inceptor and went down to the Sea of Japan. Soviet thought it was a spy plane. The plane was supposed to go around the airspace but went right through it. -
The 1983 Nuclear False Alarm
Lt. Colonel Petrov was in charge of a bunker, Serpukhov-15, where the Soviets use their satellite-based detection system for missles. The satellite thought that it spotted a missle launch in Montana, but it was a glint of sunlight off of the clouds. Petrov thought is was a false alarm since it reported 5 ICBMs because he said the US would send hundreds of missles instead of 5. If he reported the alarm, it could of started the nuclear war. -
US invades Grenada
The invasion was called Operation Urgent Fury. They invaded Grenada because of the presence of the Soviets and Cubans. They attacked with the Carribean Peace Forces. The total amount of troops that invaded was 7,300 troops. After the successful invasion, they replaced the government. -
Able Archer 83 Exxercise
The exercise was suposed to similate how a conventionalattack on Europe by the USSR could be done by a US nuclear attack. Normally, similations are common during the Cold War. The US airlifted 19,000 soldiers to Europe. The alert status was DEFCON 1. USSR noticed the moves and noticed that the steps was the same as USSR would have predicted for a nuclear offensive. USSR readied their nuclear weapons and warned Poland and East Germany to ready their interceptor planes. The similator was over. -
Chernobyl Disaster
The worst nuclear power plant accident in history. It was listed at level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Thats the worst for damage on the list. Only one is a level 7 and thats the nuclear plant in Japan caused by earthquake. It was caused by a power surged whiched caused pipes to burst and make fires. Many cities around the plant had to be evacuated. Many of the cities are still abandoned -
Tianamen Square Massacre
Almost a million Chinese citizens, most of them are young students, crowded in central Beijing in protest. They protested for Democracy and to get rid of Communism. The Chinese troops went in and started shooting the citizens. More than 300, possibly up to a thousand, were killed. 10,000 people were arrested. It shocked the U.S. and Western Europe. -
Dissoving of the Soviet Union
In August 1991, USSR tried to get rid of Mikhail Gorbachev and re-establish the USSR after some political unrest. On December 26, 1991, USSR declared the end of USSR. They gave the nuclear missle codes to Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. This made 15 new countries. The flag is now the tri-colored stripes.
