-
Period: to
Cold War
-
Poland
The Soviet Union managed to dominate the People’s Republic of Poland. This lead to Poland being seized by communists and ultimately making Poland a communist country.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/History_of_Poland_%281945-1989%29 -
Berlin Airlift
After the end of WWII, Germany was dived among the Allies and the Soviet Union had another plan in mind for the use of Germany. The Soviet Union blockaded the Western Allies’ railway road and canal to through the areas surrounding Berlin. This was one of the first major crisis during the Cold War.
http://www.spiritoffreedom.org/airlift.html -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established. NATO is an intergovernmental military agreement, to help protect and secure the countries that have signed the treaty.
http://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/ -
Atomic Bomb
The Soviet Union exploded their first atomic bomb. This event caused more tension throughout the U.S. during the Cold War because they were not the only ones with atomic bombs anymore.
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/40s/soviet_atomic_bomb_test.asp -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a defense treaty signed by eight communist countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe. This pact was the communist equivalence to the NATO treaty.
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/formation-of-nato-and-warsaw-pact -
Satellite
The Soviet Union is the first country to be launch a man-made satellite into space and have it orbit the Earth. Sputnik, the satellite, caused more tension and competition between the US and the Soviet Union. This event also elevated the importance of the space race during the Cold War.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/4/newsid_2685000/2685115.stm -
Cuba
Fidel Castro pushed through the tensions within Cuba and came out as the premier of Cuba. Castro shifted Cuba’s government to a democracy. Cuba become the first Western country to “fall” into communism.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98822/Fidel-Castro -
Bay of Pigs
The US government helped Cuban exiles in overthrowing Castro and the communist government within Cuba. The attack back fired, within 24 hours after the United States launched the Bay of Pigs, Castro counterattacked and captured many of the soldiers trying to overthrow his government. It took almost two years to free the prisoners of war from Castro.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was built to be a physical division between East Germany and West Germany during the time of the Cold War. This wall was symbolic for the division of the world between communism and democracy. The wall was also a way to prevent the citizens of East Germany, the communist side, from fleeing to the west.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest point in the Cold War where the Soviet Union and the United States almost started a nuclear war. The Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons within Cuba in case the United States wanted to try and invade Cuba again. The United States didn’t believe that Cuba should be allowed nuclear weapons and tried to “blockade” the Soviet Union from depositing them. In the end, the Soviet Union did not leave the nuclear weapons within Cuba.
https://history.state.gov/miles -
Vietnam
The United States commits 50,000 soldiers to the war in Vietnam, sending the draft rate, to one of the highest rates it has ever been in the United States. The point of having soldiers in Vietnam’s civil war was to show that communists had more to fear and they could not just overtake a country because they had more weapons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/28/newsid_2754000/2754033.stm -
Afghanistan
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan during Afghanistan’s civil war. After invading, the Soviet Union took complete control over Afghanistan’s military and government. The Soviet Union was trying to force Afghanistan into becoming socialist and joining forces with the Soviet Union. The United States and many other countries did not approve of this.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/soviet-invasion-afghanistan -
Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev established the words glasnost and perestroika into the Soviet’s vocabulary. Gorbachev started to reconstruct the Soviet Union towards democracy with these new principles he put in place.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/238982/Mikhail-Gorbachev -
Destruction of the Berlin Wall
In November, East Germany began to allow unrestricted migration back into West Germany. Then in December, tensions between countries began to ease. This allowed for competition to settle down as well. The Soviet Union began its decline as a country, leading to their hold in Germany shrinking. Thus, the Berlin Wall was finally able to be demolished.
http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/fall-of-berlinwall.htm -
End of the Soviet Union
After the slow decline of the Soviet Union, the country was disintegrated and split into fifteen countries. Democracy ended with a triumph over communist countries. Communism never was able to take a firm root within the Soviet Union and didn’t carry on for much after the Soviet Union disappeared. Gorbachev became president of Russia for the first few years and tried to issue a two-policy reform for destroying the Soviet Union’s economic standing.
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the
