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Yalta Conference
The meeting between U.S. U.K. and Soviet Union. The purpose was to discuss Europe's postwar reorganization. They agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and set up in the conquered nation four zones of occupation to be run by their three countries and France. Stalin also agreed to permit free elections in Eastern Europe and to enter the Asian war against Japan. -
Potsdam Conference
Another meeting with big three. (Truman, Churchill, and Stalin) The leaders arrived at various agreements on the German economy, punishment for war criminals, land boundaries and reparations. Big Three also issued a declaration demanding “unconditional surrender” from Japan. -
United Nations
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. -
UN Atomic Energy Commission
This is to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy. It to extend between all nations the exchange of basic scientific information for peaceful ends, control of atomic energy to the extent necessary to ensure its use only for peaceful purpose, elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction, and effective safeguards by way of inspection and other means to protect against hazards of violations and evasions. -
Long Telegram
George Kennan, the American charge d’affaires in Moscow, sends an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state. Kennan’s analysis provided one of the most influential underpinnings for America’s Cold War policy of containment. -
The Iron Curtain
the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. It is one of the major causes of the Cold War. -
Containment Policy
Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. It was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. -
Truman Doctrine
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. The Truman Doctrine effectively reoriented U.S. foreign policy, away from its usual stance of withdrawal from regional conflicts not directly involving the United States, to one of possible intervention in far away conflicts. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. Give economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. U.S. goals were rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous once more, and prevent the spread of communism. -
Soviet Blockade in Berlin
It was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the competing ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe. Berlin airlift in response. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European states. NATO’s essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. Political: promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict. Military: committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. -
NSC-68
National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68) was a 58-page top secret policy paper by the United States National Security Council presented to President Harry S. Truman. It was one of the most important statements of American policy that launched the Cold War. -
The Korean War
Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea's behalf. American feared it would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites signed the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. (Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria). On May 9, 1955 to make West Germany a member of NATO and allow that nation to remilitarize. The Soviets obviously saw this as a direct threat and responded with the Warsaw Pact. -
Mutual Assured Destruction
It's a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. One's population could best be protected by leaving it vulnerable so long as the other side faced comparable vulnerabilities. In short: Whoever shoots first, dies second. -
U2 Spy Plane Incident
USSR shot down an American U-2 Spy plane. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) was forced to admit to the Soviets that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been flying spy missions over the USSR for several years. The U-2 spy plane incident raised tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets during the Cold War (1945-91), the largely political clash between the two superpowers and their allies that emerged following World War II. -
Brinkmanship
Describe the tactic of seeming to approach the verge of war in order to persuade one's opposition to retreat. It was an effective tactic because neither side of a conflict could contemplate mutually assured destruction in a nuclear war, acting as a nuclear deterrence for both the side threatening to pose damage and the country on the 'receiving end'. Ultimately, it worsened the relationship between the USSR and the US.