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Stalin gives a speech saying that the two world wars were caused by capitalism. He states that communism and capitalism cannot coexist.
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Winston Churchill gives his "Sinews of Peace" speech. He describes Soviet power as an "Iron Curtain" descending on Europe.
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In response to the West's NATO, the Soviets form the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact was a communist military alliance between the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe communist governments.
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Soviets begin to block all access to West Berlin. The blockade lasts 11 months.
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Britain and the US deliver provisions such as food and medical supplies to West Berlin in the Berlin Airlift. The Soviets end the blockade on May 12 1949.
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Canada, the US, and ten other European nations join to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was an anti-Soviet military alliance created to extend America's nuclear deterrence through Western Europe.
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The Soviet Union tests their first atomic bomb. This comes as a shock to the United States, who weren't expecting the Soviets to have already developed nuclear technology.
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The United States detonate their first hydrogen bomb. This weapon is a thousand times more powerful than any atomic bomb.
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Nine months after the United States tested their first H-bomb, the Soviet Union developed one of their own. Both countries were trying to develop weapons faster than the other, and the arms race began.
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The Soviet Union launches the world's first satellite, Sputnik. The Space Race begins.
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Explorer I, the United States' first satellite, is launched. Competitiveness in space exploration continues.
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The United States threatens war after the Soviet Union places nuclear weapons in Cuba. Both sides are close to starting a nuclear war.
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After the Soviet government began to crumble, and its republics declared independence, the Soviet Union finally fell. The Cold War was officially over.
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