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In attempt to end WWII, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. One dropped in Hiroshima and one dropped in Nagasaki. The two atomic bombs together eventually caused Japan to surrender WWII.
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After WWII, control of Germany was divided between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Berlin was located in the Eastern Soviet sector, but since it was the country’s capital city, its control was also divided between the Western powers and the USSR. In June of 1948, the USSR attempted to gain control of the entire city by cutting off all surface traffic to West Berlin.
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The Soviet Union had begun research on its own atomic bomb program in 1943. Aided by information and plans stolen from the Manhattan Project by Soviet spies, the USSR was able to develop its own nuclear weapon within only a few years after the end of World War II.
In August of 1949, it conducted a successful test of a 20-kiloton bomb years ahead of American predictions, effectively creating the nuclear arms race between the two super-powers. -
On November 1, 1952 at 7:15am local time (October 31, 1915 hours GMT), the United States tested its first thermonuclear device (hydrogen bomb) on the island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands about 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. Code named Ivy Mike, the device was detonated remotely from a distance of about 30 miles.
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After WWII, Korea was split into two territories, which made people mad. Eventually, North Korea invaded South Korea causing the Korean war.
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It was a constant race for the US and USSR to build the first rocket ship to go into space. In 1957, the Soviets launched the first Sputnik.
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Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, was considered an important sphere of influence by both US and Soviet leaders. When nationalist forces created North Vietnam in 1956, the USSR and China recognized and backed the new communist country while the US became committed to stopping the spread of communism in the region and backed South Vietnam.
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Known as Big Ivan to the Soviets and as Tsar Bomba in the US, RDS-220 was the largest nuclear weapon ever built. Designed as a 100 megaton hydrogen bomb, its yield was reduced by 50% when it was tested. The device was air-dropped from an altitude just above 34,000 feet over the Mityushikha Bay test site on Novaya Zemlya Island on October 30, 1961.
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Late on August 12, in an effort to stem the tide of defectors, Soviet Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. Construction of the Berlin Wall on the border between East and West Berlin began on August 13. The first construction of a barbed wire and concrete block fence was created in just two weeks.
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On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was briefed by the CIA that an American U-2 spy plane had taken photographs of Soviet nuclear missile launch sites under construction in Cuba. He formed a group of advisors that would later become the Executive Committee (Ex Comm) to develop the US response. Over the next 13 days the Cuban Missile Crisis would unfold, bringing the US and the former Soviet Union the closest we have ever been to nuclear war
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The largest land-based missile ever deployed by the US, the Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. The Titan II could launch from its underground silo in just 58 seconds and it carried the W-53 warhead with a yield of 9 megatons.The Cuban Missile Crisis prompted the US and USSR to set up a direct line of communication between the two countries to enable rapid and direct communication between them in crisis situations which might impact the security of either country.
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As in Korea, the US and the USSR avoided direct warfare by backing the opposing governments and forces. The war was immensely unpopular in the US, which finally withdrew the last of its forces and aide to South Vietnam in 1975. North Vietnam ultimately prevailed in the war and Vietnam was unified into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.
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In early November of 1983 the world may have come closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. NATO was conducting what it considered a routine exercise named Able Archer, a simulation designed to train and test the procedures for shifting from conventional to nuclear warDeclassified in 2012, the moderately redacted report concludes that the intelligence community did not “attach sufficient weight to the possibility that the war scare was real”.
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On May 5, 1987, the last active Titan II ICBM came off alert at Launch Complex 373-8, Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. While missile crews would continue to pull custodial alerts at the complex as deactivation progressed, this day marked the end of the operational life of the largest land based missile in the US arsenal.
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In June of 1987, US President Ronald Reagan stood at the infamous Brandenburg Gate, part of the Berlin Wall, and challenged the Soviet General Secretary: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” A little less than 18 months later, millions of Germans celebrated as thousands of their compatriots tore down the Berlin Wall—one of the most iconic symbols and enduring images of the Cold War.
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On December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. The president of the Russian Republic, Boris Yeltsin, formed the Commonwealth of Independent states. After 45 years, the Cold War, the longest war in US history, was over.