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Yalta Conference
The February 1945 Yalta Conference was the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany's unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. -
The Iron Curtain
"Iron Curtain" is a term used to describe the boundary that separated the Warsaw Pact countries from the NATO countries from about 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The Iron Curtain was both a physical and an ideological division that represented the way Europe was viewed after World War II. To the east of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the former Soviet Union. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Berlin Airlift begins (ends May 19, 1949) This was a turning point in post World War 2 Europe. -
Korean War
The Korean War, "Korean War" began when North Korea invaded South Korea.The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China, with assistance from the Soviet Union, came to the aid of North Korea. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. The Warsaw Pact is the name commonly given to the treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, which was signed in Poland in 1955 and was officially called 'The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance'. -
Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition where the US and Soviets had an intense rivalry about space and who can get the farthest first. Soviets started with the lead with Sputnik 1, however when the kept competing it actually brought them together and made the International Space Station. -
U-2 Reconnaissance Plane
This is where the US’s CIA had a plane trying to spy on the Soviets and the Soviets shot it down and this lead to an embarrassing conference between US and Soviets. (Embarrassing for the US) -
Bay of Pigs
This where the US tried to invade Cuba but failed miserably, this embarrassed the US. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's CIA, Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. The invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. -
Reagan visits the Wall
This when Reagan visited the Berlin Wall, this showed continued commitment to the people of West Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
This was the the closest to the US and the Soviets actually fighting. This includes nuclear warfare also. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba. An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in July 1962 and construction of a number of missile launch facilities started later that summer. -
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
This was one of the first steps to slow the arms race. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. The two rounds of talks and agreements were SALT I and SALT II. -
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, or the Liberation of Saigon, depending on context, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
The US and the Soviets each back a different side and this led to the US boycotting the 1980 Olympics. The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups fought against the Soviet Army and allied Afghan forces. -
Reunited Germany
This where East and west Germany reunited, East Germany was no longer Communist, and this was evidence that the War Saw Pact’s days were numbered. -
Dissolution of the USSR
The once-mighty Soviet Union had fallen, largely due to the great number of radical reforms that Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had implemented during his six years as the leader of the USSR. However, Gorbachev was disappointed in the dissolution of his nation and resigned from his job on December 25.
