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The Nuclear Arms Race
It was a competition between the USSR and America, basically to see who could build the most nuclear bombs quicker. The USSR built nearly 45,000 nuclear warheads, and the US built around 35,000. Some say it started with the Manhattan project; the project where America built 3 Nuclear bombs, tested one, and dropped two more on Japan. -
Yalta Conference
Basically, when the cold war begins. Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt, and Stalin met at Yalta. Plans to divide Germany into 4 places were agreed upon. -
UN Created
Since the Legue of Nations failed to prevent World War 2, the UN was created. It originally had 5 permanent members, but grew to almost every nation the world. The point of the UN is to keep peace between nations to prevent a world war 3. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held in Potsdam, Brandenburg (Germany). It involved leaders of the USSR, Britain, and the US. The goals of the conference were how to deal with punishment for Germany, establish post-war order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of war. -
World War II ends
Japan surrenders, and the U.S has won the war. -
The Red Scare
A period of time where the US was fearful of Communism. Joseph McCarthy was a senator who sparked fear in Americans by claiming that many US government officials were communists. The hollywood 10 were also a part of McCarthyism. The Hollywood 10 was a group of celebrities who were brought to trial for being Pro-Communism. -
HUAC
HUAC was an investiage committee, whos first chairman was Edward J. Hart. The point of HUAC was to find Pro-Communist people in america, also targeting Hollywood Actors (hollywood 10). Many Actors were 'blacklisted' and lost their career in acting entirely. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was a policy set by a speech that president Harry Truman gave, saying that the US would support Greece and Turkish economic and military interests to prevent them from falling to Communism. Many people often consider it the start of the Cold War. -
CIA
The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is a civilian intelligence agency of the US government. It is oftened used to gather intel instead of the US military to prevent causing wars. It was formed in 1947 -
Marshall Plan
It was a large scale program by America to aid Europe. America aided by giving support to rebuild European econimies post-world war 2. The US gave almost 13 billion dollars in support. The Marshall Plan was eventually replaced with the Mutual Security Plan of 1951. -
Berlin Blockade/Air Lift
During Post-world war II in germany, the Soviet Union blocked the western Allies' railway, road, and access canals to Berlin. The soviets aim was to force western powers to allow the soviet zone to supply Berlin with food and fuel, gaining them control of Berlin. As a response, the US government started dropping supplies into Western Berlin to keep them from falling to communism. The US Sent over 200,000 flights in one year. -
NATO
NATO, formed in 1949, (North atlantic treaty organization) is an intergovernmental alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in 1949. The headquarters for NATO is in Brussels, Belgium. It has 28 involved countries that are allied. -
Korean War begins
War between communist and non-communist forces in Korea. End of world war 2 split Korea in half with the 38 Degree line, creating North and South korea. North Korea was beating South Korea badly, until the Americans stepped in. North Korean forces were pushed back, basically to the 38 Degree line. So the war didn't win territory for either country. -
Warsaw Pact
Also known as "Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance", was a defense treaty between 8 communist countries in eastern Europe. The Political Consultative Committee handled politics, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces handled assigned multi-national forces, hedquartered in Warsaw, Poland. Started in 1955, and ended in 1991. -
Vietnam War
A cold-war era conflict that took place in Vietnam between Communist North Vietnam, and US Supported South Vietnam The Vietnmese fighters were the Viet Cong, who used guerrilla warfare tactics. The US and South Vietnam used air-warfare to overpower North Vietnam. Back home in the US, many people were against the war (The hippie movement), and many people were beginning to question the government. US involvment ended in 1973 after the Case-Church ammendment was passed. -
Space Race
The space race was a competition between the USSR and the US, where both sides were trying to get objects into space before the other side could. Russia launched Sputnik, which was the first satellite to orbit the Earth. The US responded to that (with the NASA program) by 1-upping them and sending Neil Armstrong to the moon, as he was the first man on the moon. It started in 1957 and ended in 1975. -
U2 Crisis
The U2 Crisis happened during the cold war and it involved the US and Russia. A US spyplane was targeted and shot down over USSR airspace. To the US, it was an embarrasment. The plane was over Russian airspace for surveillance. -
Bay of pigs
Unsucessful action by CIA trained Cuban Exiles to invade southern Cuba in attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barriar that divided berlin into 2 parts, creating east and west Berlin. There were guard towers that watched over the wall. The wall fell in 1989, on November 9th is when it was said to have "fallen". -
Cuban Missle Crisis
Was a 13-day long conflict between America, Soviet Russia, and Cuba during the cold war. After the unsucessful invasions by America (bay of pigs, Operation Mongoose), the Cuban government began secretly building ICBM and IRBM missles, which obviously when discovered by America it scared the crap out of them. It ended when president JFK reached an agreement with Krushchev.
