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The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union meet in the German town "Potsdam" to discuss the fate of Germany after the war. -
The United States drops two atomic bombs on Japan to get them to end the war, one on Hiroshima, and one on Nagasaki.
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The Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control.
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In a speech made by Bernard Baruch, the term "Cold War" is used for the very first time. This name sticks with the war for the rest of its existence.
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12 nations came together and formed this organization after World War II with three goals: deterring Soviet expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the Continent, and encouraging European political integration
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Korea was occupied by Japan until the end of WWII. After the end of WWII, Korea was divided by the U.S. to the south and Russia/China to the North similar to what happened in Germany. The two countries were divided at the 38th parallel. This was to ensure a buffer zone between the two superpowers. On June 25, 1950, the North invaded the south pushing all the way to the tip of the peninsula in a matter of months.
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Ho made false promises to reunite South and North Vietnam. When it became obvious the Chinese were assisting Ho, the government of the south asked the Allied countries for assistance. The allies agreed because they wanted communism gone. However, because the U.S. was fighting against North Vietnamese, the Soviets decided to back them up. This way the Soviets weren’t directly fighting the U.S. The fighting escalated until in 1968 there were about 550,000 Allied troops there assisting the south.
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The Sputnik crisis was the American reaction to the success of the Sputnik program. It began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. President Dwight D. Eisenhower referred to it as the “Sputnik Crisis”. Although Sputnik was itself harmless, its orbiting intensified the continual threat the United States watched for from the Soviet Union The same rocket that launched Sputnik could send a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world in no time.
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This event is extremely important to the Cold War because it was one of the few times the Soviets did direct physical damage to an American. They saw that he was flying low enough to hit with a missile so they did. Then they kept Powers as a prisoner. This was huge in the U.S. because the Soviets were holding one of our men. It caused outrage. Because, of this event, tensions between the Soviet Union and the U.S. continued to climb.
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A U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba discovered nuclear missile sites under construction. These missiles would have been capable of quickly reaching the United States. President Kennedy convened a small group of senior officials to debate the crisis. This group was known as ExComm and they met almost continuously for the next two weeks. The group was split between those who wanted a military solution, such as an invasion or airstrikes, and those who wanted a solution to remove the missiles.
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The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Countries started signing it in 1968 and it came into effect in 1970.
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It was fought between Soviet-led Afghan forces against multi-national rebel groups called the mujahideen's. The Soviets led the Afghans because they were communist and had good resources. The rebels were backed by the U.S. to combat the Soviets without having to declare war on them.
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When Mikhail S. Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, he launched his nation on a dramatic new course. His dual program of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) introduced huge changes in economic practice, internal affairs, and international relations. Within five years, Gorbachev's revolutionary program swept communist governments throughout Eastern Europe from power and brought an end to the Cold War (1945-91).
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The new leader, Egon Krenz, decided against violence and instead ordered a relaxation of travel restrictions to the West in order to try and defuse rising tensions. A politburo member named Schabowski briefed the media on November 9, 1989, on the swiftly written decree he misinterpreted what it said, announcing that East Germans could freely use all border crossings to "permanently exit" the nation.
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On December 3rd, 1989, the Cold War officially ended when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met with US president George Bush aboard a Soviet ship docked at Malta's Marsaxlokk harbor.
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