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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference took place in the Soviet Union and in the conference Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed how Europe would be divided between there countries. The Soviet Union, which was led by Stalin, took control of Eastern Europe and right then the Cold War began. -
Stalin's Speech
Stalin delivered a speech and spoke of his ideas publicly. He stated his plans of making Eastern European nations into communist governments in which he also stated were incompatible with capitalist governments. -
Truman Doctrine
On this date President Harry S. Truman announced to congress about the American policy known as the Truman Doctrine. The Truman doctrine was a pledge to send economic and military aid to Turkey and Greece after their governments had been threatend by those who supported Soviet communists. The purpose of this was so that these countries would be able to break through communism and remain with their own forms of governments. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan was sighned by President Truman in the year of 1948. This was a program which sent economic aid to Europe so it could recovery and rebuild after most of it was destroyed in WWII. $13 billion were sent to Europe and Truman believed this would be enough for bad conditions to lessen which would help nations to not turn to communism -
Berlin Blockade
After Western leaders began to plan the creation of a democratic government in West Brelin the Soviets created a wall that blocked all routes that imported supplies into West Berlin. The reason for this was so that Western forces left Berlin but the Western leaders refused to do so and soon found a way to supply West Berlin. -
NATO
On April 4th of 1949 a military alliance was formed by the US, Canada, and other European nations. This group was called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, It's purpose was to counter Soviet Power in Europe. 6 years later the Soviet Union formed their own alliance with other Communist nations known as the Warsaw Pact. -
Ending of Berlin Blockade
After 11 months the Berlin Blockade was called of by the Soviets as they saw the Berlin airlift was a success. The Berlin airlift brought supplies to West Berlin by air. -
Korean War
The Korean War began as North Korea, that was contolled by the Soviets, attacked South Korea, which under US contol. The reason for this attack was to join the North and the South of Korea into one Communist government. The US faught back with the help of the UN. This battle went on for three years ending on July of 1953. Neither side gained anything and everything was left as it was in the beginning. -
SALT I & II
After years of Cold War both the US and the Soviets entered a arms race. They competed with weapon developments and both created advanced nuclear weapons. This came to worry both sides so on May of 1972 the US and the Soviets came to an agreement known as SALT I. This agreement restricted the number of nuclear weapons each side held. 6 years later SALT II was signed as well which was created with the same purpose as SALT I. -
Soviet Union Collapses
By 1985 the Soviet Union had a new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev who soon changed the political system of the Soviets seeing that communism was no longer working for the nation. By 1989 Eatern European nations began revolting against Soviet control and Gorbachev allowed them to fight for indipendence as he saw that the Soviet Union could no longer afford to sustain these nations under there control. By 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and at that the Cold War ended.
