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Berlin Blockade and Airlift
The Soviet occupation forces in eastern Germany began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West. This was a turning point in post World War 2 Europe. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. -
Space Race
This is where the US and Soviets had an intense rivalry about space and who can get the farthest first. Soviets started with the lead with Sputnik 1, however when they kept competing it actually brought them together and made the International Space Station. -
U-2 Reconnaissance Plane
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.The Soviets convicted Powers on espionage charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. -
Bay of Pigs
A young Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista, the nation’s American-backed president. The CIA launched a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. -
East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall
In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. -
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
In January 1967, President Lyndon Johnson announced that the Soviet Union had begun to construct a limited Anti-Ballistic Missile defense system around Moscow. The development of an ABM system could allow one side to launch a first strike and then prevent the other from retaliating by shooting down incoming missiles. Johnson therefore called for strategic arms limitations talks, and in 1967, he and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin met at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
At the end of December 1979, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country. This event began a brutal, decade-long attempt by Moscow to subdue the Afghan civil war and maintain a friendly and socialist government on its border. -
Reunited Germany
This is where East and west Germany reunited. Also, East Germany was no longer Communist and this was evidence that the WarSaw Pact’s days were numbered.
