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Truman as President
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United Nations Established
In 1945, a world peacekeeping organization called the United Nations was formed. This name was coined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his “Declaration of United Nations”, when 26 of the allied countries signed the charter following WW1. The United Nations was in many ways a successor to the League of Nations, another organization formed in the midst of WW1. Soon after the declaration of the new organization, fifty nations signed the charter. The primary goals... (Continued in document). -
Iron Curtain Quote
On March 5th, 1946, Winston Churchill, one of, if not the most loved and popular prime ministers of Britain—Winston Churchill—gave a speech regarding the situation in Europe. In his speech, Churchill condemned the Soviet Union’s policies, proclaiming that “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” (In reference to Europe). This proclamation referred to the ideological boundary dividing Europe in twain. (Continued in document). -
Truman Doctrine Instituted
In 1947, President Truman created and employed the Truman Doctrine, a policy that provided political, military, and economic aid to all democratic nations, given that the nation in question was under pressure from an external force. Truman instituted this in response to the United Kingdom stating that they would stop aiding the Greek government in their fight against communist rebels. Truman petitioned Congress to provide aid to Greece as well as Turkey in their fight against communism. (Cont.). -
Berlin Blockade Instituted
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first aggressive acts and one of the first crises of the cold war. As background, following WW2 and the defeat of Nazi Germany, four allied nation took control of Germany, evenly splitting it up. Also, although it resided in Russia’s area, Berlin was divided, half going to Russia and half going to the other countries. As the communist half of Berlin floundered, the capitalist half flourished. In response to this, Russia formed... (Continued on document). -
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Berlin Blockade
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Soviet Union Atomic Bomb Tests
On August 29, 1949, the United States, and therefore all of the countries associated with NATO discovered that the Soviet Union had been testing atomic bomb technology, and had just succeeded with its first atomic bomb. It came as a great shock to the United States because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weaponry so soon after its introduction. This realization made Americans question their safety, as the Soviet Union could use their bombs... (Continued in document). -
Chinese Civil War
Soon after WW2, as the allied nations were occupying Berlin, in 1949, civil war broke out in China. Mao Zedong, a communist leader in China, led a rebellion against the prior government. He then took control of the Chinese government and instituted a communist republic in its place. Russia appreciated this new communist country, and so quickly allied with China. This was important because China would quickly become a world power and an important member of the Warsaw Pact. (Continued in document) -
Korean War Begins
On the 25th of June, 1950, the first conflicts of the cold war began in Korea. The once-whole Korea had been split between the United States and the Soviet Union along the thirty-eighth parallel (a line drawn along the thirty-eight degree north latitude) following World War II, having been being liberated from Japan just after the Second World War. Both countries had promised to reunite Korea, but... (Continued in document). -
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Korean War
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Eisenhower as President
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Vietnam War Begins
During the 1940s, a communist leader in Vietnam named Ho Chi Minh, fought against France for Vietnam’s independence. Eventually, the Vietnamese people earned their freedom in 1954. After that, Vietnam was declared two countries by an international peace conference, the communist Ho Chi Minh given control of North Vietnam, and the noncommunist Ngo Dinh Diem was gained control of South Vietnam. Because South Vietnam had a relatively weak economy... (Continued in document). -
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Vietnam War
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Sputnik 1 Launched
By the late 1950s, both America and the Soviet Union had compiled huge numbers of nuclear technology. The two forces seemed evenly matched, but one event would change the game completely. In 1957, the Soviet Union succeeding in launching the world’s first man-made artificial satellite into a low orbit. This shocked the whole world, but especially surprised America. Immediately, America considered this a possible breach of security, thinking that... (Continued in document). -
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Kennedy as President
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Bay of Pigs Assault
In Cuba in 1959, a communist dictator named Fidel Castro led a revolution and overran the local government. Castro would proceed to convert Cuba to a communist nation. Part of this transition included Castro taking control of private businesses, forcing many thousands of people to flee to the United States. Because Castro’s Cuba was communist, it received huge amounts of monetary aid from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union continued... (Continued in document). -
Berlin Wall Built
In Germany, the Soviet Union may had lifted the Berlin Blockade, but it still did not want all of its people and skilled laborers to evacuate to West Germany. To combat this, Soviet leader Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall to prevent the escape of East Germans. The wall was constructed in a mere four days, and soldiers and tanks stood guard during the construction of the wall... (Continued in document). -
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Berlin Wall Standing
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Cuban Missle Crisis
In America, a mere year after the miserable failure at the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy decided it was time to act. The Soviet Union and Cuba feared future invasions by the United States, regardless of how fruitless the prior attempt had been. Because of this, the Soviet Union had continued to ship dangerous weaponry—even nuclear weapons perhaps—at a higher volume than before the Bay of Pigs Assault. Cuba also started secretly building missile bases... (Continued in document). -
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Johnson as President
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Nixon as President
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President Nixon Meets With Communist Leaders
In America, after Nixon withdrew all American troops from Vietnam, he strove to promote peace even more, in order to appease his people. Nixon wished to end the war in its entirety, so he did the unthinkable. In 1972, Nixon shocked all of America by visiting China, one of the United States’ biggest rivals at the time. Nixon went around the country, meeting with the communist leaders of the government and other such dignitaries, including meeting with... (Continued in document). -
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Ford as President
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Carter as President
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Soviet Union Breaks Détente
Although the policy of détente continued through the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, détente came to a sudden and unexpected end when, in 1979, the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan. The hope of this endeavor was to support a fledgling communist government take control, but in actuality, the Soviet army simply wasted ten full years as the Afghanistan army, using American donated weapons, fought the Soviets, lending heavy losses. (Continued in document). -
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Reagan as President
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Gorbachev Elected in Russia
In 1985, a new Soviet leader rose to power by the name Gorbachev. Gorbachev supported reform and endorsed such freedoms as free speech, a first for the Russian people, who had been generally oppressed and even killed for talking badly about anyone in power, for years. This new openness gained Gorbachev the love of his people. Gorbachev hoped that allowing people to speak freely would provide solutions to the nation’s problems. One of Gorbachev’s first plans... (Continued in Document). -
Reagan's Berlin Address
In 1987, President Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. This speech was one of the last elements of the cold war, as it directly led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, a physical representation of the “iron curtain”, and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall was near the end of the Soviet Union. In his speech, Reagan thanked Gorbachev for all he had done to try to support peace, but told him that if he wanted peace, he needed to... (Continued in document). -
Berlin Wall Torn Down
The Berlin Wall had become a symbol of the cold war soon after its construction—a construction that separated families and friends overnight. In June of 1987, a speech was given by United States President Reagan calling on the people of Berlin and Gorbachev to open the gates of the Berlin Wall and tear it down. Two years later, In November of 1989, thousands of East and West Berliners acted upon this proclamation... (Continued in document). -
Soviet Union Falls
Although the people of the Soviet Union respected Gorbachev for his allowance of free speech in the Soviet Union, the economic troubles induced by the failure in Afghanistan eventually led to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was doing a good job of increasing the Soviet Unions’ economic stability, but he was too focused on fixing the problems to focus on the other countries in the Eastern Bloc... (Continued in Document).
