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Chinese Civil War (between Jiang Jieshi and Mao Zedong)
Chinese civil war is the tale of a failed state in which numerous domestic political and military factions are vying for power, while aggressive foreign powers are impinging on Chinese sovereignty, and at the same time the entire world is plunged into the Great Depression, WWII, and the early stages of the Cold War. Given the huge size of China, in both population and geographic scope, and the chaos that followed the fall of the last dynasty, it is no surprise that this is a very complicated tal -
Berlin Blockade
Coming just three years after the end of World War II, the blockade was the first major clash of the Cold War and foreshadowed future conflict over the city of Berlin. -
Berlin Airlift
Instead of retreating from West Berlin, however, the U.S. and its allies decided to supply their sectors of the city from the air. This effort, known as the “Berlin Airlift,” lasted for more than a year and carried more than 2.3 million tons of cargo into West Berlin. -
National Security Council Report NSC-68
Argued that the best course of action was to respond in kind with a massive build-up of the U.S. military and its weaponry. -
Korean War
Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. -
President Truman fires General MacArthur
The firing of MacArthur set off a brief uproar among the American public, but Truman remained committed to keeping the conflict in Korea a "limited war." -
Formation of the Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.