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Creation of the United Nations
The name "United Nations",came from United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt was first used in the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers. -
Yalta Conference: Cold War Begins
In February, 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met again. This time the conference was held in Yalta in the Crimea. With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong negotiating position. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries. -
Truman Doctrine
On March 12, 1947, in an address to Congress, President Harry S. Truman declared it to be the foreign policy of the United States to assist any country whose stability was threatened by communism. His initial request was specifically for $400 million to assist both Greece and Turkey, which Congress approved. The Truman Doctrine was followed by the Marshall Plan later that year. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism -
HUAC
The Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was originally established in 1937 under the chairmanship of Martin Dies. The main objective of the HUAC was the investigation of un-American and subversive activities -
Red Scare
From the end of World War II and continuing into the 1960’s, the threat of communism was in the minds of all Americans. Since the fall of Germany, communist Russia has been a major player in the control of power in the world.Joseph McCarthy was a United States Senator representing the state of Wisconsin.Eventually, the "Hollywood Ten," as these protesting witnesses came to be known, were found in contempt of Congress and went on to serve jail terms. -
Communist take over in Czechoslovakia
In 1947, Stalin summoned Gottwald to Moscow; upon his return to Prague, the KSČ demonstrated a significant radicalization of its tactics. the 12 non communist ministers resigned, allowing communist leaders to come in and take over. -
Berlin Blockade Begins
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) 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 Allied control. -
NATO is Created
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was born shortly after World War II ended. The alliance contains 12 countries from the Atlantic and are all Non-Communist. -
Communist Control of China
China became Communist after the Communist party won the civil war in 1949. Mao Tse-tung, the new leader, needed allies to bring about a new China. He sought help from the Soviet Union. China and the Soviet Union entered a mutual defense treaty in 1950; -
Soviets use first A-Bomb
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project. -
Korean War Begins
The Korean War was a war between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. -
Warsaw Pact Formed
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty between eight communist states of Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The founding treaty was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union and signed on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw. -
Sputnick Launched into Orbit
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. -
Fidel Castro takes over Cuba
Fidel Castro becomes leadeer of Cuba in 1959. shortly after cuba becomes communist scaring the United States because Cuba is only 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Cuba could possibly be holding nuclear weapons. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1959-1975) was bloody, dirty, and very unpopular. In Vietnam, U.S. soldiers found themselves fighting against an enemy they rarely saw, in a jungle they couldn't master, for a cause they barely understood. These pictures offer a brief glimpse into life during the Vietnam War. -
U.S. Spy Plane shot down by Soviets
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May 1960, during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower and during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union.The United States government at first denied the plane's purpose and mission, but then was forced to admit its role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its intact remains. -
John F. Kennedy Elected President
John Kennedy captured the Democratic nomination despite his youth, a seeming lack of experience in foreign affairs, and his Catholic faith. On May 10, he won a solid victory in the Democratic primary in overwhelmingly Protestant West Virginia. His success there launched him toward a first ballot victory at the national convention in Los Angeles -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading combatants within three days. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis (known as the October Crisis in Cuba or Caribbean Crisis was a confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other in October 1962, during the Cold War. In August 1962, after some unsuccessful operations by the US to overthrow the Cuban regime, the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of nuclear missles. -
Gulf of Tonkin
In the Gulf of Tonkin incident, North Vietnamese torpedo boats supposedly attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, off Vietnam, in a pair of assaults on August 2,1964. It was the basis for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which committed major American forces to the war in Vietnam. The resolution passed the House of Representatives unanimously, and passed in the Senate with only two dissenting votes. -
Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon
Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. The first steps by humans on another planetary body were taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. The astronauts also returned to Earth the first samples from another planetary body. Apollo 11 achieved its primary mission - to perform a manned lunar landing and return the mission safely to Earth - and paved the way for the Apollo lunar landing missions to follow. -
President Nixon extends Vietnam War
In April of 1970 President Richard Nixon extended the Vietnam War into Cambodia. This frustrted many Americans. -
Kent State Massacre
On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics.
