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Russian Revolution
This Revolution started on March 8, 1917 ending on November 7, 1917. The working class of Russia were driven to start the Russian Revolution due to poor working habits, no or little amounts of food, little pay, young men being forced into the war and to fight with no shoes or weapons. After the Russian Revolution, a new government took over, the Petrograd Soviet (Bolsheviks) and the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks was a communist group that England and the United States wanted to defeat. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference started on July 17, 1945 and ended on August 2, 1945. This conference was about discussing and negotiating the terms for the end of World War II. This is when they agreed to split Germany into four sections. Tensions had occurred during this conference, which was that Stalin wanted to dominate all of Europe and then impose communism on the nation. -
The Atomic Bomb
During the end of World War II, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. This lead to Japans surrender in the war. However, the Soviets were upset with the development and usage of their atomic bombs. They felt as if their army would be impediment if they started to use atomic warfare. The development of atomic weapons would change warfare because it developed a growing sense of fear in the world. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the name of a boundary that had separated Europe into two different sections after the end of World War II. This was the Soviets attempted to block itself from surrounding none Soviet controlled areas to act as a shield for them. The areas effected by the iron curtain was Poland, Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the Soviet Union -
Hollywood 10
The Hollywood 10 was a group of individuals that did not want to corroborate with the committee when asked about being involved with the Communist party. They refused to answer any questions and stated they were protected under the first amendment. They ended up being convicted and sent to prison for contempt. -
Molotov Plan
This was a system that the Soviet Union had created in a means to provide aid to rebuild countries in Eastern Europe that were tied to the Soviet Union. Poland and Czechoslovakia. They were trying to stop Europe from relying on America for aid -
The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was a foreign policy that was created to give aid to Greece and Turkey. It was made to counter the expansion of the Soviet Union as well. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a massive economic assistance to help the economic recovery of Europe after World War II. This plan was created to try and stop communism from starting in Europe. If they helped better their cities they would not want to turn to communism. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift started as the same time as the Berlin Blockade and ended on May 12, 1949. This is when the U.S. would fly plans into East Berlin to deliver supplies to the people living their because Stalin had ordered a blockade around them and cut off access to the supplies they needed to survive. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was when Stalin was trying to block out Western Allies railways, roads, and canals to sections of Berlin that were under Western control. The U.S. said they would stay in Berlin no matter what the Soviet Union did. They started the Berlin Airlift to help the people in East Berlin. -
Alger Hiss case
The Alger Hiss case was when Wittaker Chambers had accused Alger Hiss, a former state department employee, of spying for the Soviet Union. He was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge. This case caused people to fear that he was part of a communist conspiracy to destroy the United States -
NATO
NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty organization. This was created by the United States, Canada, and a couple Western European countries. They wanted to have security against the Soviet Union. This caused the Soviets to respond back creating their own treaty know as the Warsaw Pact. -
Soviet Bomb Test
This was when the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. The United States had not believed they would develop nuclear warfare so soon so it came as a great shock to them. -
Korean War
The Korean war was fought between North and South Korea. It was divided at the 38th parallel with the United States occupying the South and Soviet's in the North. Truman's decided to take action due to the aggression of North Korea. He believed the aggression created a danger to the security of the nations. Truman agreed with MacArthur to cross the parallel. When the crossed, China struck his army. Truman kept this a limited war instead of letting MacArthur have a raged out war against China. -
Rosenberg Trial
The Rosenberg Trial took place in March of 1951 and they were executed on June 19, 1953. The Rosenberg's were arrested in connection with a plot to pass United States bomb secrets to the Soviets. They said that they were being persecuted as Jews and for their own views. The evidence collected showed they played a small role in the spy ring. They were sentenced to die by electrical chair. -
Army- McCarthy hearings
The Army-McCarthy hearings was a series of hearings that investigated conflicts between the United States army and Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was a senator that defined the era of political persecution and claimed he had a list of 205 communist working in the state department. Through these hearings he was exposed as a fraud. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
This battle is the first engagement in the Indochina War between the French and Viet Minh. They were battling for a mountain on the Vietnamese border near Laos. Dien Bien Phu's roads were all cut so no food or supplies could get in by the Vietnamese and French, making it only acceptable by air. The Viet Minh general surrounded the base with up to 40,000 men and heavy artillery. The Viet Minh won this battle and thus led to end of this eight year war. -
Geneva Conference
At this Conference in Geneva it marked a turning point in the United States involvement in Vietnam. The French brought up their the war going on in Vietnam. In the agreement, the French had to withdraw their troops from Northern Vietnam. This made Vietnam temporarily split at the 17th parallel. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a treaty signed by the Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites. This treaty was a defense organization that had put the Soviets in charge of the armed forces making them under a unified military command. It called for the member states to defend any member that has been attacked by an outside force. It was signed in Warsaw by the Soviets, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. -
Hungarian Revolution ]
The Hungarian revolution was a revolt against the Hungarian People's republic government and policies imposed by Soviets. This became the first major threat to Soviet control. The revolution quickly spread through Hungary when first started causing the government to collapse. -
U2 Incident
The USSR (Union Soviet Socialist Republics) shot down an American U-2 spy plane and captured it's pilot. President Eisenhower was forced to admit that the Central Intelligence Agencies (CIA) have been flying spy missions over the USSR for years to the Soviets. The pilot of the plane was sentenced to 10 years in prison but after serving two years, he was released in exchange for a captured Soviet Agent. This caused even more tension between the United States and Soviet Union. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
On April 17, 1961 the Cuban exile brigade began its invasion at a isolated spot known as the Bay of Pigs. From the beginning the invasion was a disaster. The CIA wanted to keep the invasion as quiet as possible. However, they failed to spot a radio station on the beach that broadcast ever detail to listeners across Cuba. Backup troops landed in the wrong spot and Castro's army pinned the invaders on the beach and invaders surrendered after less than a day of fighting. -
Berlin Wall
East Germany began to build a concrete and barbed wire wall separating it from West Germany. The wall was to keep "fascists" from entering Eastern Germany. The wall stayed until November 9, 1989 when East Germany said citizens could cross the border whenever they wanted. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During October, this was a dangerous confrontation between the Soviets and the United States that almost resulted in a nuclear warfare. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles on Cuba. Kennedy let Americans know of the missiles and said they were going to enact a naval blockade around Cuba. He also stated, the United States would use military force to stop what could be a threat to national security. The Soviets removed the missiles in exchange for the United States not to invade Cuba. -
Assassination of Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem was the president of South Vietnam. Diem and his younger brother had been arrested by Army of the Republic of Vietnam when they had a successful overnight siege. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam had executed the brothers in the back of a military vehicle on their way back to military headquarters. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States. On November 22, 1963 he was assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas while in a convertible. Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. A half hour after the shooting, Kennedy had been pronounced dead. Lyndon Johnson, who was the vice president, had been sworn in as president due to the assassination. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution had occurred on August 7, 1964, which authorized President Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression". This was the cause for America's involvement in the Vietnam war. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a code name used for an American Bombing during the Vietnam war. United States military aircrafted targets throughout North Vietnam. They were trying to put pressure on the communist leader in North Vietnam and to lessen the North's capacity to wage war on the United States government in South Vietnam. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a series of coordinated attacks on over 100 South Vietnam cities done by the Northern Vietnamese. These attacks were designed to stir up commotion in South Vietnam and to start a rebellion. They wanted this to scale back American's involvement in Vietnam. This led to success on getting America to withdraw from Vietnam. However, due to these attacks, there was heavy causalities and it did not start a rebellion among the South Vietnamese as they had hoped. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee on April 4th. MLK had led the non-violent civil rights movement since the 1950's. He was assassinated on the balcony of the hotel they had been staying at. His wife, Coretta Scott King had carried on King's non-violent protests in order to get justice for what had happened to her husband. African Americans, even white's, had mourned King's death. -
Assassination of RFK
Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy, was assassinated at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles. Right before he was assassinated he won the California Presidential Primary. He announced to the supporters there that the country was ready to end its division he was shot immediately by Palestinian Sirhan and died a day later. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1968. Czechoslovakia had protesters trying to stop the invasion with non-violent tactics and public demonstrations. -
Riots of Democratic convention
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, thousands of people battled police in order to protest the Vietnam War. There was also protesters there to support McCarthy and the withdrawal of troops in Vietnam. The policeman that were there to keep the protesters in control ended up beating many protesters as well as cameramen and doctors trying to help. -
Election of Nixon
John F. Kennedy had defeated Nixon in the presidential campaign eight years before this. Finally, in 1968, he defeated Hubert H. Humphrey. Many people believed his political career was over but in 1968 he proved those people wrong and became appealing to the republican party. Nixon had won the nomination that had happened at the Republican National Convention on Miami beach. -
Kent State
In May of 1970, the Kent State shooting took place. In which, four Kent state university students were killed while nine were injured. They were part of a group of people that were their to protest the Vietnam war when an Ohio national guard opened fire on the crowd. Due to this incident, a student-led strike took place which had lead to the temporary closure of school's and university across the country. -
Nikon visits China
Then President, Nikon went to visit the People's Republic of China in February of 1972. Officials in North Vietnam feared that the United States and China was going to make a deal behind their backs. Their fears were confirmed when Nikon had promised to reduce United States military force in Taiwan. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
On this day, a ceasefire goes into effect. However, before the cease-fire deadline, the North and South Vietnamese still fought and tried to take back villages. Due to this 25,000 South Vietnamese had died and 45,000 North Vietnamese had died as well. -
Fall of Saigon
The South Vietnamese president, General Duong Van Minh, surrendered Saigon then the North Vietnamese army took it over. They renamed it the Ho Chi Minh city to dedicate it to their leader. -
Reagan Elected
In the 1980 elections, Ronald Reagan had won against George W. Bush. He got 489 electoral votes, carried 44 states, and had 50.7% of the Population voting for him. -
SDI Announced
The SDI is the Strategic Defense Initiative, which is also known as Star Wars. They intended to develop a sophisticated missile system that would prevent missile attacks from other counties. Although the technology for this was out of our reach and we wouldn't have been able to create it for awhile the Soviets feared it. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
After eight years, Reagan and Soviet leader, Gorbachev, meet at Geneva for a conference. They came to no big agreements but they had engaged in a long, deep conversation that lead them to have a close relationship. Gorbachev wanted a better relationship with the United States so he was able to pursue his domestic reforms. -
"Tear Down This Wall" Speech
This speech was given to the people in West Berlin when Soviet Union leader, Gorbachev, allowed them to get ride of the Berlin Wall that stood standing for almost 30 years. President Nikon delivered this speech in which he stated to "Tear down this wall!" to signify an end to the Cold War. Citizens started to tear down the walls with whatever they could. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On this day, East Berlins Communist party had stated that citizens were free to cross over the country's border. On both sides, many citizens waited at the wall drinking beer and champagne waiting for the gates to open. More than 2 million East Berlin citizens visited West Berlin when the gates open for a festival in the streets. They used hammers and picks to chip away at the wall. On October 3, 1990 East and West Germany were officially reunited after almost 45 years.
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