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The Cold War
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End of WWII
World War 2 finally came to an end on the 8th of May 1945, when Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. News quickly spread about the death of Adolf Hitler and the guns fell silent. Winston Churchill the then prime minister announced Victory in Europe. -
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Berlin Airlift
It started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded the rail road, streets, and water way to Allied-controlled sections of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom started airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. The blokade ended on May 12, 1949, when Soviet forces lifted the blokade on land access to western Berlin. -
The formation of NATO
In 1949, further Communist expansion made the heads of several nations to meet and discuss what to do about it. the main head was the United States and about 11 other Western nations came to the meeting. they decided to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization otherwise known as NATO. -
Communists win Chinese Civil War
Communist forces confronted the enemy, the Japanese, beginning with the "Hundred Regiments Campaign" in North China in 1940, led by Peng Dehuai. When the war ended in 1945 the Communists had (according to Wei) about 2 million men in militia units and more than 900,000 regular troops. -
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Vietnam War
The U.S. government viewed American involvement in the war as a way to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of a wider containment strategy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. The US part of the war ended with the truce in January 1973. -
Soviets launch first satellite
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball -
Berlin Wall Built
During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on 13 August 1961. -
US and China establish diplomatic relations
Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping's January 1979 visit to Washington DC, where he had a series of important exchanges which continued until the spring of 1989. This made several agreements. especially scientific, technological, and cultural interchanges and trade relations. Since early 1979, the United States and China have had hundreds of research projects and cooperative programs under the Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anticommunist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War (1978–92) and remained in Afghanistan until mid-February 1989. -
USSR collapses
The Collapse of the Soviet Union. After his inauguration in January 1989, George H.W. Bush did not automatically follow the policy of his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, in dealing with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet Union.
