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Yalta Conference
World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. -
Arms Race
Competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, especially between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. -
Truman Doctrine
The principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection. -
Marshall Plan
American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $13 billion. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin, which lay within Russian-occupied East Germany. -
Berlin Airlift
A military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air. -
COMECON
An economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to South Korea's aid -
Joseph Stalin Dies
March 5, 1953, Kuntsevo Dacha, Moscow, Russia -
Nakita Khrushchev comes to power
Khrushchev begins his rise to power march 20th -
Warsaw Pact
military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe -
Vietnam War
It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (1946–1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. In 1973 a “third” Vietnam war began—a continuation, actually—between North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement.
Nov 1, 1955 - Apr 30,1975 -
Space Race
20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals. 1957 - 175 -
Sputnik
Sputnik launched into orbit -
Fidel Castro
Governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 -
U-2 incident
United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. -
Kennedy and the Cold War
John F. Kennedy pledged to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism. -
Yuri Gagarin
First Human to go into space. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. -
Berlin Wall
Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962 over the presence of missile sites in Cuba. -
Vietnamization
Policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War -
Détente
Period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union -
Nixon Resigns
President Nixon resigned from office in August of 1974. -
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anticommunist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War. -
Glastnost
Soviet policy of open discussion of political and social issues. Instituted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s and began the democratization of the Soviet Union. -
INF Treaty
Treaty between USA and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles. -
Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power
Gorbachev elected president of the Soviet Union March 14 -
German Reunification
East and Wes Germany Unite -
U.S.S.R Breakup
The fall of the Soviet Union included ethnic conflict, a lack of support for the idea of communism and economic troubles caused by a focus on arms.
