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The Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was the cause of the Berlin Wall. It was when the Soviet Union attempted to limit the ability of the other allies to travel to their sectors of East Germany. The Berlin Wall was created to keep East Berliners in communism. -
The Truman Doctrine
When Congress was asked for $400 million in military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey by President Truman. He did this to contain the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan was a very similar program where European couuntries were supported. The United Nations was created to avoid and major future conflicts. -
NATO
NATO, or The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 and is an intergovernmental military alliance that was created to defend Western Europe from any Soviet threat. -
Senator Joseph McCarthy
In 1950, a list of 205 State Department Members who were Communist party memebers was claimed to be held by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. Jules and Ethel Rosenberg were the start of the red scare which is where the McCarthy Era began. Jules and Ethel Rosenberg were Russian spies that were convicted and killed. -
Korean War
The Korean War started when North Korean troops swept across the 38th Parallel into South Korea. The 38th Parallel was a demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. UN forces came to help South Korea defend their land. When it seemed that the UN had been defeated, General Douglas MacArthur launched an attack on Inchon, which was behind North Korean lines. This forced North Korean troops back over the 38th Parallel. After many years of fighting, an armistice was signed in July 1953. -
Warsaw Pact
The military alliance formed by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union made the others in the alliance follow their policies. -
Vietnam War Begins Continued.
The draft began, and more than 500,000 troops were sent to South Vietnam. -
Vietnam War Begins
Ho Chi Minh was the communist leader of the Vietcong in North Vietnam. The Vietconng were guerrila fighters that, in 1954 forced the French out of Vietnam. As more and more South Vietnamese joined the Vietcong due to discontent with Diem, the leader of South Vietnam, the US sent advisors to South Vietnam. In August 1964, President Johnson announced that a US ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was made to prevent any further attacks. -
Cuban Missile Crisis Continued
JFK wanted NASA to build intercontinental atomic missiles to attack Russia in case war broke out. The Soviet Union stopped their ships at the last second and an agreement was made. Krushchev would leave Cuba if the US didn't attack Cuba. Che Guevara was basically Castro's co-leader. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, began to supply Cuba with large amounts of aid. This worried the US so JFK approved a plan for the exiles of Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba. The 1,200 exiles landed at The Bay Of Pigs and were quickly overpowered and jailed. After this invasion in 1962 the Soviets began building missile bases in Cuba and that the Soviets were moving atomic missiles to Cuba. -
The Tet Offensive
In 1968, the Vietcong launched surprise attacks all over South Vietnam. Guerrillas stormed cities everwhere in South Vietnam. It is known as the Tet Offensive because it took place during the Vietnamese New Year, Tet. -
The Salt Agreement
The Salt Agreement was an agreement between the US and the Soviet Union. SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Act. It limited the amount of missiles and warheads each country could have. They also agreed that they would talk before one wants to go to war in order to avoid war. -
Glasnost
When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in Russia, he backed glasnost. Glasnost is the Russian term for speaking out openly. He believed that citizens would find solutions to many problems using glasnost. -
Communism Collapses Continued
As more and more protests began, the fall of communism began. It was not long before communism was totally eradicated in Europe. -
Communism Collapses
In 1981, Ronald Reagan began his fight against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and communsim. In case the Soviets launched missiles at the US, Reagan wanted a new weapons system to kill the missiles from space. The nickname of this project was Star Wars. In 1972, Nixon went to Russia in hopes of reducing tensions between superpowers, which is otherwise known as détente. As more and more people in the soviet union realized that communism was not the way and began protesting. -
Works Cited
Davidson, James West., and Michael B. Stoff. The American Nation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall in Association with American Heritage, 2005. Print.
