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Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of revolution among the people of Russia. It took place in 1917 when working class Russians revolted against the government of Tsar Nicholas II. It was led by Vladimir Lenin and a group of revolutionists called the Bolsheviks. -
Potsdam Conference
The Big Three, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. They negotiated terms for the end of World War II. They discussed post war borders of Berlin and how to handle Germany. War criminals were also discussed, and later action was taken on them. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On Augusta 6th and 9th (1945), the United States dropped two nuclear bombs. One on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. This swiftly ended the war and caused Japan to surrender. The bombs killed nearly 170,000 people, who were all mostly civilians. It also put a rattle in the soviet army because Stalin believed the "balanced has been undone" -
Long Telegram
The Long Telegram outlined the US policy on controlling the Soviet Union, they were to do this through Containment. Therefore, it outlined the United States' foreign policy for the next 40 years to come. It was mainly a sum of how the Soviet Union saw the rest of the world -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain is a imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas, starting at the end of World War II in 1945-46 until the finishing moments of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and its allied states. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union to provide aid to rebuild and recover countries in Eastern Europe that were aligned to the Soviet Union. It can be seen to be the Soviet Union's version of the Marshall Plan, which for political reasons the Eastern European countries would not be able to join without leaving the Soviet sphere of influence. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was a foreign policy declaring immediate military/economic aid to Greece. He did this to prevent Greece from going into submission to Turkey. Great Britain stopped supplying aid so the US used $400,000,000 of there own money to help support Greece. The whole point of the Truman Doctrine was to support and protect countries that were being taken by the Soviet Union. The Marshall plan was implemented to give nearly $12B in aid to Western Europe. -
Hollywood 10
The Hollywood Ten was a band of members that, by public opinion, did not follow the "American Way". The HUAC questioned them excessively to try and get a conviction or admittance. They were heavily questioned and avoided answering flat out. Most were put on a blacklist so that they could be silenced. Some were thought to be communist because they voted commie in the Great Depression. Some went on to make movies under fake names. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American Plan to help aid Western Europe after the war. The US gave nearly $100B in today's money to help rebuild and recover countries in need, such as Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Only Russia and its satellite states did not accept the payment. The plan was meant to ensure the safety and stability of the 16 countries it helped. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt by the Soviet Union to stop France, Britain, and the U.S. from going into Berlin. Eventually, the U.S. made the "Berlin Airlift" where they airlifted needed supplies into West-Berlin. -
Berlin Airlift
The Soviet Union blocked off West Berlin from the U.S. In response, the U.S. Implemented the Berlin Airlift to provide West Berlin with supplies and food. The U.S. eventually won this little "standoff" and the Soviet Union let up. -
NATO
NATO was formed after WW2 in an effort to recoup after the aftermath that was WW2. It promoted cooperation among European Countries and the US. It was created under the influence that the Soviet Union was the world's greatest threat at the time. It helped the allies promote peaceful discussions, quick resolutions and ensured that if any NATO country were to be attacked, other NATO allies would defend the invaded country. -
First Soviet bomb test
The RDS-1 was the first nuclear bomb the Soviet Union tested. It was built off stolen information from the Manhattan project. Meaning the bomb was a plutonium based implosion device. It was tested on the Semipalatinsk test site. The bomb lead the soviets to build hundreds to thousands of bombs. -
Chinese Communist Revolution (proclamation signing)
Mao Zedong lead the Chinese Revolution resulting in the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. This caused the Nationalists to kill the communists putting the country in a second civil war -
Alger Hiss case
Alger Hiss was a "accused" Soviet spy. He was tried for espionage but was only convicted of perjury. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was eventually found to be a spy years later. The Rosenbergs on the other hand were found guilty and executed by electric chair. They were convicted of giving bomb secrets to the soviets. -
Rosenberg Trial
The Rosenbergs (Julius & Ethel) were Russian spies that took valuable information regarding nuclear formulas from the Manhattan Project. They were caught and convicted, and ended up being executed by the electric chair. There were many people for, and against the killing of the two spies, but with the ongoing spy ring and with the information these two possed; they were executed to set an example. -
Korean War
Korean war started when North Korea invaded South Korea. The North quickly overran the South, causing the Americans to get involved. It was NK, China and Russia against the US and NATO nations. The US sent in troops to back the SK and defend against the invading NK. Troops pushed back and forth from NK to SK. The war ended up creating the DMZ line where no weapons were allowed. -
Battle Of Dien Bien Phu
It consisted of the French and the Viet Minh fighting. The Viet Minh fought and destroyed the french in a decisive battle. The french base ended up being overrun. -
Army-McCarthy hearings
Joseph Mccarthy was a wisconsin politician that said that he had a "list" of some 200 sum employes of the state department that were communist. He flaunted it and accused many, possibly destroying some reputations. In the end, after questioning by John G Adams and other political delegates disproved mccarthy. Mccarthyism is now a coined term for someone who accuses someone with no basis for evidence. -
Geneva Conference
Was a conference that took place in Geneva, Switzerland. The Conference was intended to settle disputes between the indochina french resolutions and the Korean war. The Geneva Agreements were signed. As part of the agreement, the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw pact was a treaty signed with Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, in agreement to give the Soviets full control of military satellites. This was a "power move" by the Soviets to try and regain control of Europe. It also said that if any Warsaw Pact country were to come under attack by NATO, the countries would come together and fight to defend it. -
Hungarian Revolution
Uprising in Hungary in 1956, following a speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in which he attacked the period of Joseph Stalin’s rule. In the unrest it brought, people began attacking and revolting. The rebels won in the beginning, and Imre Nagy became premier, agreeing to establish a multi-party system. Hungary appealed to the UN for help, but to avoid war, they denied. Nagy was executed for treason when stalin regained control, but slowly the country regrasied to the mean. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure. Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. policymakers since he seized power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. -
U2 Incident
Over Soviet airspace, a american U2 spy plane was shot down. Francis Gary Powers (the pilot) was captured, and interrogated. He was sentenced to 10 years, but after serving less than 2, the soviets traded him to the Americans for a captured Soviet Spy. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. Although the Soviet Union’s action successfully halted the pace of reform in Czechoslovakia, it had unintended consequences for the unity of the communist bloc. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall, dividing East and West was built to separate the populus. The Russian East sealed off from the West, and no passage was granted. Many people tried to cross and many were killed. This prompted the Berlin airlift and spiked tensions between the allies and the Red Army. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Leaders of the US and Soviet Union engaged in a thirteen day long standoff. The SU had missiles stationed in Cuba just 90 miles away. It was agreed that the SU would move the missiles away if the US promised to not invade Cuba and remove missiles from Turkey. -
JFK killed
JFK was gunned down by Lee Harvey Oswald while he was in a motorcade in Dallas Texas. Harvey was murked by a dallas club owner after. Vice president Johnson took his replacement. -
Nixon visits China
Nixon arrived in Beijing making it the first time in 25 years to break the isolation china had since imposed. It was a strong strategic move for the Nixon Adm. It was a smart move that still to this day is important because our ties with China are some of the most important to this date. -
Reagan Elected
Ronald Reagan was elected on Nov. 4 1980. He was the Republican Nominee who defeated Jimmy Carter. Reagan Destroyed Carter in electoral votes with 489, despite only having 50% of the pop vote to Carters 41%. Reagan's campaign was aided by democrats due to the popularity of Carter. -
SDI announced
The Strategic Defense initiative was a system intended to protect the US from Foreign missile attacks. The United States Department of Defense would oversee it. A wide array of advanced weapon concepts, including lasers particle beam weapons and ground- and space-based missile systems were studied, along with various sensor, command and control, and high-performance computer systems were needed to handle it. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
The Geneva Summit, the first meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, was held on November 19 and 20, 1985. The two leaders met to discuss the Cold War-era arms race, primarily the possibility of reducing the number of nuclear weapons. Hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting was the first American-Soviet summit in more than six years. -
Tear down the wall speech
Reagan made a dramatic speech to the world about the wall. It was also a reminder that despite the Soviet leader’s public statements about a new relationship with the West, the U.S. wanted to see action taken to lessen Cold War tensions. Happily for Berliners, though, the speech also foreshadowed events to come: Two years later, on November 9, 1989, joyful East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990. -
Fall of Berlin wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin.
