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The Cold War
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Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
The term iron curtain represents the physical boundary that separated Europe after WWII.The Soviet Union worked to isolate itself and its dependent European allies from the and non-communist areas. Winston Churchill gave his iron curtain speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Churchill praised the US in effort to urge the US to create a closer relationship with Britain. He warned against the expansionist policies of the Soviet Union and spoke of “communist fifth column" in Europe. -
Truman's Doctrine
The British government said that it would no longer provide military and economic assistance to the Greek gov. Truman worried that if the communists prevailed in the Greek civil war, they would be influenced by Soviet policy. Congress provided $400,000,000 worth of aid to the the Greek and Turkish governments. Congress established that the US would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, formerly known as the European Recovery Plan, was signed by President Harry Truman on June 3, 1948, and ended in December of 1951.The plan was originally devised by Secretary of State, George C. Marshall. The U.S. funded program was created to rehabilitate and revitalize European economies. The United States feared that Europe's broken economies would lead them to communism. Aid was offered to most European countries, even those controlled by the Soviet Union. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The Soviet forces in eastern Germany began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the west, and soon declared that the Allied powers had to right to be in Germany. On June 26, the US organized an airlift and transported food and crucial supplies to the city.The blockade was lifted in May 1949 when Germany split into two separate states known as the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic -
Creation of NATO
12 nations established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to coordinate the military defenses of f member nations against possible Soviet aggression. The treaty said that if one of the nations was attacked by the Soviet, every other nation in the treaty would be involved. In December of 1950, Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed the Supreme Commander of NATO military forces.The organization ensures that the treaty is followed. -
McCarthyism
A senator named Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred communists had infiltrated the United States government. His accusations were proved to be untrue, but it created strong political tension. The hunt for infiltrators was known as McCarthyism. Many refer to McCarthyism as the second Red Scare. McCarthyism was harsh on writers and entertainers, whom many could not work, may were blacklisted. By 1954, the paranoia died down, and entertainers were able to work again. -
Korean War
The Korean war began in July of 1950 when about 75,000 soldiers from the North Koreans people army crossed the boundary between the pro-communist Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north and the anti-communist Western Republic in the south. By July, American troops entered the war with the anti-communist southern Korea. The fighting continued back and forth with huge amounts of casualties. In July 1953 the war ended with 5 million soldiers and civilians dead. -
Vietnam War
It was a conflict between the communist government of North Vietnam,and their Allies in South Vietnam. The government of South Vietnam and the United States. The main conflict was the desire of North Vietnam .The South Vietnamese government, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. The Soviet Union and China made weapons and supplies. The casualties were very high and the US stayed in the war for nearly 15 years. The US withdrew from the war in 1973. -
Launch of Sputnik
The Soviet Union launced Sptunik I, which was the world's first artificial satelite. Sputnik was about the size of a beach ball. It weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. The launch created new political, military, technological, and scientific developments.Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard. The Sputnik launched led to the creation of NASA. -
Building of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier that surrounded West Berlin and prevented access to it from East Berlin and next to the areas of East Germany. The East German troops vegan to tear up streets to install barbed wire fences through Berlin. The Berlin wall was orginally made of cinder blocks which was later replaced by concrete walls with Barbed wires on the top. The reason for building the wall was due to East Germans that fled to West Germany, which threatened to destroy their economic capibility. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. In 1962, the soviet Union was behind the United states in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. On October, 15 .1962 the crisis spread to the United states when photographs revealed the construction of Soviet missiles In cuba. On October 22, Kennedy announced the missile installations to the public. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
In December, 1991 the soviet union split up into 15 different colonies. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, and evidence capitalism over socialism.The United States Celebrating that its enemy was brought to its knees, and the ending of the Cold War.The breakup of the Soviet union transformed the entire world political situation, causing the world to to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe.
