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The Iron Curtain Speech
This speech was performed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It condemns the Soviet Union policies in Europe. An iron curtain has descended over the continent. -
The Truman Doctrine
An American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical spread during the Cold War. It was announced by president Harry S. Truman -
The Molotov Plan
A system created by the soviet union in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. -
The Marshall Plan
An American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over twelve billion dollars in economic support in effort to rebuild Western European economies after the end of WWII. -
The Berlin Blockade
During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. This event was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. -
The Berlin Airlift
At the end of WWII, Soviet and British military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled Eastern Germany. -
NATO
Stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty. -
The Soviet Atomic Bomb Test
The Soviet's exploded their first atomic bomb. This came as a great shock to the US because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to posses nuclear weapon knowledge as soon as they did. -
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu
This was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. -
The Geneva Conference
This event was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to settle outstanding issues in the Korean peninsula and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina. -
The Warsaw Pact
It was formerly the treaty of co-operation, friendship, and mutual assistance. It was a collective treaty among the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in central and eastern Europe during the cold war. -
The Invasion of Hungary
This was a nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People's republic and its Soviet-imposed policies. -
The Berlin Wall
During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. -
Assassination of Diem
This event was a major turning point in the war in Vietnam. It was the brutal murder of the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, and his powerful brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu. -
Assassination of JFK
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot twice, and an hour after his death Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
This resulted from president Lyndon Johnson announcing that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson then dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
This event was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the US 2nd Air Division, US Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. -
1968
The year 1968 is considered to be one of the worst years in American history and is commonly associated with unrest and the Counterculture of the 1960's. Consisting of much violence and unrest. -
Tet offensive
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War launched by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. -
Assassination of MLK
James Earl Ray was born in Alton, Illinois, on March 10, 1928. A confirmed racist and small-time criminal, Ray began plotting the assassination of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. He shot and killed King in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Assassination of RFK
Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, after defeating Senator Eugene McCarthy in the California and South Dakota presidential primaries, he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, and died the following day. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
An invasion of Czechoslovakia by four Warsaw Pact nations- The Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland. -
Riots at Democratic National Convention
On this day, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
The Election of Richard Nixon
The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial presidential election.The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, won the election over the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. -
Kent State Shooting
The shooting occurred at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in the United States and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard. -
Nixon visits China
In an amazing turn of events, president Nixon decides that it would be best to Travel to Beijing, China for a week of talks. He believed this would be the best first step in normalizing relations with the communist People's Republic of China. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
On January 15, 1973, President Richard Nixon of the USA ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam. The decision came after Dr. Henry Kissinger, the National Security Affairs advisor to the president, returned to Washington from Paris, France with a draft peace proposal. Combat missions continued in South Vietnam. By January 27, 1973, all warring parties in the Vietnam War signed a ceasefire as a prelude to the Paris Peace Accord. -
Fall of Saigon
This event was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam -
Election of Ronald Reagan
The contest was between incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, former California Governor Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home marked by high unemployment and inflation, won the election by a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate. -
Announcement of Strategic Defense Initiative
A proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of mutual assured destruction. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative. -
Tear Down This Wall Speech
"Tear down this wall!" is a line from a speech made by US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin, calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961. -
Fall of The Berlin Wall
After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere.
