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Yalta Conference, Cold War Begins
In early 1945 when World War II in Europe was drawing to a close, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin agreed to meet to discuss war strategy and issues that would affect the postwar world. All three leaders came into the meeting with issues and desires they felt needed to be addressed.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2072.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrbcO2FoiDo -
United States first used atomic bomb in war
The nuclear age had truly begun with the first military use of atomic weapons in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A destructive masterpiece that weighed about 10,000 pounds and had a yield approximating 21,000 tons of high explosives, the atomic bomb unleashed catastrophic damage on the Japanese cities and introduced a weapon of mass destruction to the world. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9odsuIcUk5w -
Soviets explode first atomic bomb
The Soviet weapons program began in 1943 during World War II. Lead by physicist Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov, the program was initiated by reports gathered by Soviet intelligence about the Manhattan Project in the U.S. It was mostly an intelligence operation until the end of the war, reaching its pinnacle with the creation and launch of the Soviets first atomic bomb at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan.
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/Sovwpnprog.html -
The construction of the Berlin wall began.
The Berlin wall was not only built for the defensive reasons but the for wall separating East and West Berlin, the wall was foremost built to prevent residents of East Berlin from leaving to live in West Berlin which was part of west Germany. The system of preventing emigration was common among the countries of Eastern Europe, which were communist states dominated by the Soviet Union. The wall stood from 1961 to 1989. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqySsC7ihSI
http://www.audifaz.com/coldwar/bui -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The US discovered that the Soviet Union was sending nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis started on October 14th, of 1962, and lasted for 38 days. It is viewed as the time when the Cold War became the closest to an actual nuclear clash between the US and the Soviet Union; it could have established into WWIII. It is said to be caused by poor communication between the US and thew Soviet Union. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo8SMzM8X-U
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/colc.html -
SALT 1 was signed
SALT stood for Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
The ABM Treaty which is an anti-ballistic missile defenses.
This is so each side was allowed to have only 100 ABMs on each of two sites.
The Interim Treaty which puts limits on the number of ICBMs which stands for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
The Basic Principles Agreement which is an agreement that laid down some important rules for the conduct of nuclear warfare.
Link: http://www.coldwar.org/articles/70s/SALTIandII.asp -
SALT 2 was signed.
Salt II was the second treaty between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which resulted from the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty I also known as SALT 1. The primary goal of Salt II was to replace the Interim Agreement with a long-term Treaty providing limits on strategic offensive weapons systems. The treaty was signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The treaty of Salt II lasted through 1985. Link: http://www.history.com/this-day-i -
Period: to
U.S. invades Grenada.
The Invasion of Grenada was in1983. The United States-led invasion of Grenada, a Caribbean island nation. The invasion resulted in a renewal of constitutional government. This event was very controversial because of the charges of American domination, Cold War politics, the involvement of Cuba, the unstable state of the Grenadian government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/25/newsid_3207000/3207509.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdEl5YVOcFM -
Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles by signing treaty
In December, President Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, leader of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, came to the agreement of signing a treaty, to take away all the medium and short-range nuclear missiles. The treaty said that there would be destruction of the missiles between 500 to 50,000 kilometers. The INF treaty was the first nuclear arms control agreement that made less of the nuclear arms. Link:
http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/inf2.html -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Soviet Union fell and then the Berlin Wall collapsed. Hungary is now independent. The wall was a symbol of dictatorship, economic downfall, and an unworkable system. This was not a good symbol for the people. This ended the communist government in East Germany, causing Germany become back together as one. Link: http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm -
The Cold War Ends
In December of 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into fifteen separate countries, thus ending the Cold War that had raged on between the two superpowers since WWII. The west rejoiced in the Soviets demise hailing the event as a victory for freedom, triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and proof that capitalism beats socialism any day. Link: http://www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-2kx549Mf0
