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Yalta Conference
The leaders coordinated the Western Allies’ European strategy with the Soviet Union’s activities on the eastern front, but most of this conference was devoted to postwar issues rather than military strategy. -
United Nations
Internation organization to settle world problems and avoid armed conflicts.Created a platform for USA to argue with USSR -
"Sinews of Peace" Winston Churchill speeck
Churchill predicted the Cold War, sounded its early warning, and defined the central problems that would occupy the leaders that followed him. As a result, the "Sinews of Peace" is widely regarded as Churchill's most famous peace-time address -
Truman Doctrine
Truman's address outlined the broad parameters of U.S. Cold War foreign policy: the Soviet Union was the center of all communist activity and movements throughout the world; communism could attack through outside invasion or internal subversion; and the United States needed to provide military and economic assistance to protect nations from communist aggression. -
Marshall Plan
the Marshall Plan was intended to rebuild the economies and spirits of western Europe, primarily. Marshall was convinced the key to restoration of political stability lay in the revitalization of national economies. Further he saw political stability in Western Europe as a key to blunting the advances of communism in that region -
NATO
Mililtary alliance providing mutal help if attacked USA, Britian, France, Canada, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway -
Berlin Airlift
The incident solidified the demarcation between East and West in Europe; it was one of the few places on earth that U.S. and Soviet armed forces stood face-to-face. It also transformed Berlin, once equated with Prussian militarism and Nazism, into a symbol of democracy and freedom in the fight against Communism. -
Berlin Blockade
the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under allied control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food, fuel, and aid, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city. -
Arms Race (USSR successfully tested 1st atomic bomb)
During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union became engaged in a nuclear arms race. They both spent billions and billions of dollars trying to build up huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Near the end of the Cold War the Soviet Union was spending around 27% of its total gross national product on the military. This was crippling to their economy and helped to bring an end to the Cold War -
Communist Mao Zedong takes control of China
China would seek the friendship of "the Soviet Union and the new democratic countries." Mao also claimed that communism would help end reputation as a lesser-developed country. -
Korean War
For the major world powers the war was a proxy conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, one of many that would mark the Cold War. While not directly committing forces to the conflict, the Soviet Union provided strategic planning, weapons and material aid to both the North Korean and Chinese armies -
Hydrogen Bomb
After the Soviet atomic bomb success, the idea of building a hydrogen bomb received new impetus in the United States. In this type of bomb, deuterium and tritium (hydrogen isotopes) are fused into helium, thereby releasing energy. There is no limit on the yield of this weapon -
Joseph Stalin Died
Put up the iron curtain and started the cold war -
Warsaw Pact
Military alliance o communits block nations: USSR, East Gernamy, Albania, Czech, Poland, Hungary, & Romania -
Egypt took control of Suez Canal
Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-70) nationalized the canal in July of that same year, initiating the Suez Crisis. The Israelis soon were joined by French and British forces, which nearly brought the Soviet Union into the conflict, and damaged their relationships with the United States. In the end, the British, French and Israeli governments withdrew their troops in late 1956 and early 1957. -
Space Race (USSR placed 1st succesful satelittle in orbit)
During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union engaged a competition to see who had the best technology in space. This included such events as who could put the first manned spacecraft into orbit and who would be the first to walk on the Moon. The Space Race was considered important because it showed the world which country had the best science, technology, and economic system -
Nikita Khrushchev comes to power
Despite their concern, Khrushchev's rise to power did initiate a period in which tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began slightly to ease, as he called for "peaceful coexistence" between the two superpowers. -
U-2 Incident
On May 1, 1960, the pilot of an American U-2 spyplane was shot down while flying though Soviet airspace. The fallout over the incident resulted in the cancellation of the Paris Summit scheduled to discuss the ongoing situation in divided Germany, the possibility of an arms control or test ban treaty, and the relaxation of tensions between the USSR and the United States. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The results were disastrous for the United States. The government looked weak and the CIA inept. It also seemed to strengthen Castro's government within Cuba and caused him to look to the Soviet Union as a military ally. -
Berlin Wall
The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West.To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Both the Americans and Soviets were sobered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The following year, a direct “hot line” communication link was installed between Washington and Moscow to help defuse similar situations, and the superpowers signed two treaties related to nuclear weapons. -
Nixon visits China
The United States could use closer diplomatic relations with China as leverage in dealing with the Soviets, particularly on the issue of Vietnam. In addition, the United States might be able to make use of the Chinese as a counterweight to North Vietnam -
SALT I
the first of the Strategic Arms Limitation talks between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev, who was the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, met with U.S. President Richard Nixon in November of 1969 to come up with a treaty that would contain the arms race. -
Vietnam War (Fall of Saigon)
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism. -
SALT 2
Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter signed the SALT II treaty. Since the two countries had developed different strategies, with the U.S.S.R. focusing on larger warheads and the U.S. concentrating on missiles with a greater accuracy, specifications of the previous treaties had to be changed. -
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
It was a watershed event of the Cold War, marking the only time the Soviet Union invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc—a strategic decision met by nearly worldwide condemnation -
INF Treaty
The INF Treaty is the first nuclear arms control agreement to actually reduce nuclear arms, rather than establish ceilings that could not be exceeded -
Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power
Gorbachev won the presidency, but by 1991 his domestic critics were pillorying him for the nation's terrible economic performance and faltering control over the Soviet empire. In December 1991 he resigned as president, and the Soviet Union dissolved -
German Reunification
Signaled the end the the cold war. -
U.S.S.R. Breakup
Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. I
