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Atomic Bombing of the Japanese Cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombs were used at the end of WWII in order to defeat the Japanese Empire without having to expend countless lives in an invasion of the Japanese home islands. An alternative motive to the use of the atomic bomb was to show the Soviet Union the military strength that the United States possessed. This met the U.S. goal of keeping Japan out of Soviet control, and began a prolonged period of agression between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R known as the Cold War. -
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The Cold War
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The Truman Doctrine
In a speech on March 12, 1947, President harry S. Truman first announced his foreign policy decision which soon came ot be known as the "Truman Doctrine." This foreign policy decision promised military and economic aid to the countries Greece in Turkey, which were in danger of falling to the forces of Communism. -
Berlin Airlift
In a move to establish their supremacy concerning the German capital of Berlin, the Soviet Union instituted a blockade to cut off all supplies to the city. Western Allies led by the United States responded with a successful airlift campaign that supplied the city with necessary supplies for over a year, which resulted in the end of the blockade by the Soviet Union. -
NATO founded
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed with the promise of mutual defense, under the premise that an attack upon any country would be considered an attack on any member country as a means of solidarity in the face of Soviet aggression. The original twelve NATO members were the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Canada, and Portugal. -
Soviet Union Explodes FIrst Atomic Bomb
On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union brought about the successful detonation of their own atomic bomb, which allowed them to seriously begin the process of nuclea parity with the United States, as it was the only nation at that point other thatn the U.S. which possessed nuclear weapons. -
Warsaw Pact is Formed
The Warsaw Pact was formed as a response to the NATO alliance, and operated along similar constraints in that all member countries would come to the aid of one another in the event of an attack by n external threat. Original member countries of the Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a war fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia over the spread of Communism from North to South Vietnam. Early in the war the U.S. sent military advisors to aid the South Vietnamese, and regular combat troops arrived in 1965, including ground, sea, and air units. The United States withdrew from the conflict in 1973, although the war did not officially end until the fall of Saigon in 1975. -
Soviet Union Launches Sputnik
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union became the fist country in history to launch an artificial satelite into outer space. Not only was this a monumentous scientific achievement, it ignited fears throughout the West that the Soviet Union would be able to translate this success into a space-based military advantage. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
In response to the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles located in Cuba, the U.S. instigated a naval and air blockade of the country to prevent the Soviet Union from supplying the missiles with the nuclear warheads necessary to complete the missiles. During this two week period, the world came dangerously close to witnessing an armed conflict between these two nuclear powers, however the situation was ultimately resolved once the missiles were removed from Cuba. -
Detente
Detente was a preiod of relaxed tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the period of the Cold War. Detente officially began during the Nixon administration, and lasted until the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. -
Soviet Union Invades Afghanistan
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 in order to assist the local Communist regime in suppressing the anti-communist guerilla freedom fighters known as the mujahideen. During the nine year period defined as the Soviet-Afghaistan War, the mujahideen received a great deal of financial support from Western countries such as the United States, which greatly aided in the insurgency. Soviet involvement in the area came to be known as the "Soviet Vietnam" due to its negative societal effects. -
Election of Ronald Reagan
The election of Ronald Reagan heralded a resurgence in Cold War tensions that signaled an end to the earlier period of detente. Policies indicative of this change in foeign policy include substantial increase in defesnse spending, as well as the implimentation of the Reagan Doctrine, which promised military and financial assistance to countries attempting to resist Soviet aggression (i.e. U.S. involvement in the Soviet-Afghanistan War). -
Election of Mikhail Gorbachev to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Election of Mikhail Gorbachev signaled a change in Soviet policies, which more than anything else contributed to the end of the Cold War. Amongst these changes were the polices of perestroika and glastnost, internal Soviet reforms instituted by Gorbachev in order to introduce limited personal and political freedoms into the Soviet Union. -
Attempted Soviet Coup d'état
On August 19, 1991, Communist hardliners hostile to the Gorbachev reforms attempted a coup in order to take over the country and wrest control from the reformers within their own government. The coup ultimately failed after a two day period, and paved the way for the dissolution of the Soviet Union later that year. -
Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Cold War officialy ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. The Commonwealth of Independent States was established in its place, which took the place of the Soviet Union as the guiding force in the area, although with far less power than the Soviet Union had possessed.
