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The United States and the Soviet Union attend the Yalta Conference after World War II to discuss what to do with Germany. The country is divided and East Germany is controlled by the Soviet Union and made a communist nation
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The Soviet Union successfully tests its first atomic bomb, which the U.S. calls Joe 1. In addition to the U.S., there are now two countries in the world with nuclear weapons.
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Korea invades South Korea, starting the Korean War. The U.S. gets involved in the war to try and stop the spread of communism.
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North and South Korea agree to end fighting in the war. The country is still divided, though, and North Korea remains communist.
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After Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953, there was a fight to see who the next leader of Russia would be. Nikita Khrushchev becomes the leader of the Communist Party and his rival, Lavrentiy Beria, is executed three months later.
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Communist North Vietnam invades South Vietnam, which is not communist. The United States will eventually join the war in Vietnam to try and stop the spread of communism.
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Fidel Castro becomes the president of Cuba after a revolution that overthrows Fulgencio Batista. Castro does not say that Cuba is communist, but Cuba becomes an ally of the Soviet Union.
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The U.S. discovers that the Soviet Union has put nuclear missiles in Cuba, 90 miles from the U.S. President John Kennedy demands that the missiles be removed and after 13 days of tense negotiations, Khrushchev agrees.
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After taking control of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, North Vietnam wins the Vietnam War. The country is united as a communist nation.
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Mikhail Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Union and works for a new era of peace. Over time, he signs treaties and policies that help bring an end to the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
