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Establishment of the "Iron Curtain"
The "Iron Curtain" is a term used to describe the boundary that separated the countries between the Warsaw Pact and the Nato countries, beginning after World War II ended in 1945 and until approximately 1991. This curtain created a physical and ideological division after World War II, essentially depicting the division within Europe. The purpose of the curtain was for the Soviets to block off itself and its satellites from any western or non-Soviet controlled countries. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, officially known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), was a financial recovery effort where the United States provided $13 billion to Western Europeans countries to aid in rebuilding their economies after World War II. This effort helped build relations with European countries and built spirits after such a devastating war. -
The Berlin Airlift
Essentially, after World War II, Germany was divided into terrotories that military forces of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union occuppied. Berlin was also divided into sections amongst the Allies. The Soviet Union built the "Berlin Wall" which set up a physical division in Berlin. In order to provide to the people living in East Berlin, the Allied forces utilized airplanes to drop food, clothing, and medicine into East Berlin. -
NATO Formation
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in order to unify and strengthen the military and economy of Western European countries as a defensive system in case of a possible invasion by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. -
The Korean War
In an attempt to occupy more land, the USSR tried to take over Korea. The United States tried to stop the Soviets by overtaking the southern portion of Korea, where the two forces met at the 38th parallel. This event gave the U.S. a reason to increase its military expenditure. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a treaty that established a collective defense system where the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states created a rival system against the Allied Powers. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War exposed the tensions between the Allied Forces and the USSR. North Vietnam was allied with the USSR while South Vietnam was allied with the United States. The United States feared that if they lost this war, then more countries in Southeast Asia would fall under communism. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was an important event during the Cold War, especially because of the increasing tension between the United States and the USSR. The United States craved to be the first country to accomplish this extreme scientific advanement, but it was ruined when the USSR completed the task first. -
U-2 Plane
A U.S. U-2 Plane was discovered and shot down when flying within the airspace of the USSR. At first, the United States denied the purpose of the plane, but were foced to admit its role when the Soviets produced the planes' remains and its surviving pilot. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs refers to the U.S. invasiomn of Cuba, funded by the United States' CIA, in 1961 in an attempt to overthrow the communist leader, Fidel Castro. The launch began in Guatemala and was defeated within three days of the attack by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. Cuba was an ally of the USSR, because of their similar communist governments and political perspectives. -
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a physical wall that was built by the German Democratic Republic in order to keep Eastern Germans from fleeing to the West for 28 years. This wall was a tangible symbol of suppression of human rights by the East. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day stand-off between U.S. and USSR leaders in Cuba concerning the Soviets' ballistic missiles they were intending to launch into the United States. This event was the closest the Cold War was to becoming a nuclear war. Eventually the USSR leader, Nikita Khrushchev, and U.S. President, Kennedy, decided that the USSR would dismantle their weapons and return them to the USSR. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
As the Cold War began to thaw across Europe, the spokesperson for the East Berlin's Communist Party publicly expressed a change in the city's relations. With this, Germans sat on top of the wall and began to destroy segments of it, until it was gradually completely torn down. This event symbolized the Cold War coming to an end and barriers and tensions between countries being broken. -
Dissolution of the USSR
On December 25, 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignment, declaring his office extinct. The following day, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved through declaration of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Within this declaration, all fifteen repbulics of the Soviet Union were acknowledged as independent and followed the Commonwealth of Independent States. -
The Non-Proliferation Treaty
This treaty's purpose is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapon and weapons technology, to further the goal of nuclear disarmament, and to promote the cooperation of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. This treaty joined five countries: the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, and China.
