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Russian Communist Revolution
WW1 led to this revolution in Oct. 1917 because Germany's defeating Russia created fear of Russian gov't to lead.
system broke down as communists took over (the Bolsheviks)
-As the Cold War got underway, the Soviet Union and the U.S. emerged as superpowers with much of the rest of the world falling in behind one or the other. A protracted nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union would last until the USSR finally collapsed in 1991. -
Treaty of Versailles
Germans were ordered to sign the treaty drawn up by Allies
German reparations would come to over $30 billion dollars
forced to assume full responsibility for causing the war
Germany lost territory, reduced the size of its military, & accepted blame for the war
- This lead to resentment and opened a door to Nazism. Was Signed to stop WWI. -
League of Nations
The League of Nations is an international organization established to try and solve many of the worlds problems after World War I.
-The US did not join, but the Soviet Union did so this was a start to the tension building between them. -
Yalta Conference
FDR, Churchill and Stalin met at Yalta
Russia agreed to declare war on Japan after the surrender of Germany, FDR and Churchill promised the USSR concession in Manchuria and the territories that it had lost in the Russo-Japanese War
-helped lead to the Cold War by giving the Soviet Union control over Eastern Europe. At the conference, the Soviet Union was given the right to control Eastern Europe. This led to the Cold War because it made the West feel that the USSR was expanding communism -
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization formed in 1945 to increase political and economic cooperation among its member countries.
-Both the United States and Soviet Union held vetoes, the Security Council could not act without their joint permission -
Nuremberg Trials
A series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war after World War II
judged from the Allied powers (Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, U. S.); hearings of 22 major Nazi criminals. As a result, 12 Nazis were sentenced to death. Also, countries and individuals can be held accountable for their actions during a war. -
Baruch Plan
The US wanted to establish an international control over the development and spread of nuclear weapons by controlling and inspecting nuclear production facilities.
The US would also keep its monopoly on nuclear weapons until every aspect of the plan was up and running.
-This plan was also an attempt to keep nuclear weapons from being used against each other in the cold war. -
Pope John Paul II
The efforts of the anti-communist leader, Pope John Paul II did not make the fall of the Soviet Union unavoidable.
-he did help to end the Cold War faster and the fall of Soviet communism, in Eastern Europe.
-promoted Christianity and religious freedom under threat of a regime attempting to end atheistic totalitarian rule -
General Assembly
towards the end of the Cold War, Soviet and Eastern Europe blocs have formed economic issues of disagreement between industrialized countries (Northern Hemisphere) and less-industrialized developing countries (Southern Hemisphere).
-The general assembly passed many resolutions to these issues in the cold war. -
Iron Curtain Speech
The Iron Curtain was a speech presented by Sir Winston Churchill and was also the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1992. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and its allied states. -
Truman Doctrine
counter Soviet political expansion during the Cold War
Truman hoped to stop the spread of communism, limiting the system to countries in which it already existed
-It was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.Truman told Congress that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." -
Marshall Plan
American aid to Western Europe
gave over $12 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II
-was known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S. program providing aid to W. Europe following the devastation of WWII.Soviet Union refused to accept aid from the Marshall Plan, or allow any of their satellite states to do so because of their belief that the Marshall Plan was an attempt to weaken Soviet interest in their satellite states. -
Berlin Airlift
the U.S. and its allies decided to supply their sectors of the city from the air
-the Soviet blockade had failed. It had not persuaded West Berlin to reject their allies in the West, or prevented the creation of a unified West German state, in the cold war the Soviets were losing control of their side of Berlin and Europe. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
When the People’s Republic of China was created, an announcement ended the civil war between Chinese Communist Party and Nationalist Party, & completed the long process of governmental changes in China begun by Chinese Revolution of 1911. The “fall” of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades. -
NATO Created
A military alliance between 29 North American and European countries (USA (superpower), Canada, W. Europe, if anyone attacked all others help.) It's primary purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western Allies' military for any possible invasions of western Europe by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. -
Nuclear Deterrent
The US believed an enemy can be deterred from using nuclear weapons as long as the know they can be destroyed as a consequence.
-The US used this as a strategy in the Cold War to keep it a cold war and avoid using nuclear weapons. -
Joseph McCarthy Speech
Senator McCarthy attacked Truman administration - accused more than 200 Americans of being members of the Communist Party
-Senator McCarthy spent time trying to expose communists and other “loyalty risks” in the U.S. government. In the suspicious atmosphere of the Cold War, insinuations of disloyalty were enough to convince many Americans that their government was packed with traitors and spies. -
Korean war
as a product of the Cold War, Korea had been split into two sovereign states
both governments (U.S. & SU) claimed to be the only legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent
- Korean War was fought between South Korea and communist North Korea. It was the first major conflict of the Cold War as the Soviet Union supported North Korea and the United States supported South Korea. The war ended with little resolution. -
Warsaw Pact
Soviet Union (USSR) (superpower) and satellite nations in E. Europe. often invoked into E. and W, blocs: 2nd world. Propaganda wars were how they competed and nuclear arms race, space race.
- Called cold war because no actual fighting done during war. -
Sputnik Launched
Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I
was the world's first artificial satellite
-As a result, the launch of Sputnik served to intensify the arms race and raise Cold War tensions. During the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were working to develop new technology. -
Fidel Castro Proclaims Communist Cuba:
Following nervous tension between the US and Cuba, the Cuban leader declares that he is a communist after establishing close relations with the Soviet Union, who were providing Cuba economic and military aid.
-the US severed all diplomatic relations with Cuba and proceeded with the Bay of Pigs Invasion which failed. This built the tensions between the US and the Communist states of Cuba and the Soviet Union. -
MAD
Mutual Assured Destruction states that full scale use of nuclear weapons would cause complete destruction and annihilation of both the attacker and defender.
-Another strategy used to avoid the use of nuclear weapons. -
Berlin Wall
guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin
Soviet Union had half (East) while the other side(West) went to the United States, France, and Great Britain.
- As the Cold War began to thaw, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations that citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959
-The invasion is considered part of the Cold War because the United States was trying to prevent communism from taking hold in the Americas. -
Building of Berlin Wall
Prevents the mass movement of people from East to West.
West Germany received financial help through the Marshall plan (USA) & helped to rebuild after the devastation of WWII. East Germany suffered under a communist system after control of Soviet Union had been established. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba to annoy and scare the United States
enacted blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. had prepared military if necessary to neutralize this threat to national security
- It was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
US first sent troops to Vietnam in 1965 in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident of August 2&4, 1964.
conflict was intensified by Cold War.< 3 million people (incl <58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and <half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians
-The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of the domino theory of a wider containment policy. -
Non-Proliferation Agreement
The UK, US, and Soviet Union agree to not assist other countries/nations in obtaining or making nuclear weapons.
- helped to avoid nuclear warfare during the cold war. -
Apollo 11
spaceflight that landed the first 2 people on the Moon
destination was the Sea of Tranquility.(U.S.) Mission was Cold War maneuver, President JFK thought that NASA could overtake the Russian space program and put a man on the moon.
-During the Cold War the US & Soviet Union engaged a competition to see who had the best technology in space.The Space Race was considered important because it showed the world which country had the best science, technology, and economic system. -
Kent State Shootings
unarmed students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces.
-protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces in Cold War. -
SALT (I/II)
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were intended to restrain the arms race in strategic ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons,
-This treaty was to decrease the tensions between the nuclear states of the US and Soviet Union to avoid mutual destruction. -
Fall of Saigon
capital of South Vietnam was captured, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
event marked the end of the Vietnam War
start of a transition period leading to the formal reunification of Vietnam into a socialist republic, governed by the Communist Party of Vietnam
- The US lost to the Soviet Union (58,000 American military personnel died) and Vietnam also fell to communism. -
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was the communist leader of the Peoples Republic of China.
- was communist but wanted to have closer ties with the West ,which was very different from what the USSR wanted, signed accords with US President Jimmy Carter, relationship grew and US granted full diplomatic recognition to the PRC. -
Margaret Thatcher
When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, the West believed that the Soviet union should not and could not win the Cold War and that anti-Communism was wrong.
-By the time she left office, the Berlin Wall had fallen and Eastern Europe was liberated. A year later, the Soviet Union and communism in Eastern Europe fell, democracy and freedom advanced. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
the SU sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan, gained complete military and political control of Kabul and most of the country
attempt by Moscow to end the Afghan civil war and maintain socialist government on its border during Cold War, the only time the SU invaded a country outside the Eastern Bloc
-During cold war Soviet Army invaded Afghanistan to prop up the communist government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan they feared the loss of communism in Afghanistan. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
The Cold War, between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, was the period of “non-hostile belligerency" in which several events nearly brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war.
-On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski announced that East Germans would be free to travel into West Germany, starting that night. The weakening of the Soviet Union. -
Lech Walesa
Lech Walesa helped bring down the Communist government in Poland, which influenced reforms against Communism throughout Eastern Europe.
-He led an anti-Communist organization (1980), which fought for political, economic and civil rights to improve conditions.
The collapse of Communism brought down the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. -
START (I/II)
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was an agreement betweem the US and USSR to reduce and limit strategic offensive arms.
-This was another way to keep the fighting 'cold' to void nuclear warfare.
