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Truman Doctrine and Containment
Containment was an American policy of keeping the Soviet Union influence contains within existing boundaries. Truman asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey. With the US aid, Turkey and Greece were able to put down communists revolts. The Truman Doctrine provided assistance and was a program of helping nations menaced by communist expansion. -
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Marshall Plan
George Marshall proposed a large-scale plan to help Europe rebuild its economy and resist pressure to turn communist. And, this was the process of the Marshall Plan. Stalin pressure Eastern Europe countries to refuse to accept America aid. George Marshall feared that Europe's hungry & homeless might support communist revolutions and the Marshall Plan provided $12 billion in aid to Western Europe between 1948-1952. -
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The Arms Race
The Soviet launches Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. Nikita Kruschev Soviet premier, said that soviet factories were turning out new rockets "like sausages." With the American fear, if Soviets could lung a satellite, their atomic missiles could reach the US. However, the US worried about a missile gap and they decided to create the NASA in order to establish an American space program that would compete with the Soviets. -
Cuban Missiles Crisis
The Soviets feel bold enough to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. Since John F. Kennedy decide how to approach the situation, he decided on a naval "quarantine" to block Soviet ships delivering missiles. The US & Soviets reached the settlement. The USSR withdrew the Cuban missiles and the US withdrew missiles it had on the Soviet border in Turkey which was the closest two sides came to nuclear war. -
Vietnam War
By 1961, many South Vietnamese came to distrust their US-backed government and they felt that it favored wealthy landowners. Many peasants joined the Vietcong, who were guerrillas that opposed Diem and later on, Vietcong become communist. The Vietcong was then supported by North Vietnam. American leaders were worried that if South Vietnam fell to communism, neighboring nations would follow like a row of dominoes which became an idea known as the domino theory. -
Berlin Wall
About three million East Germans fled to West Berlin to find a better life over the next 12 years. By August 1961, East German soldiers began building a wall of concrete and barbed wire across Berlin. The Berlin Wall sealed off West and East Berlin. It then became a symbol of the Cold War -
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Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
In 1989, communism fell in one country after another in Eastern Europe, leading to the end of the Cold War. By the end, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin served as president of Russia and began to rebuild its economy, introducing a free-market system. The US & Western Europe nations provided economic aid to Russia in the hope that the former communist states would become portable trading partners. -
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Fall of the Soviet Union
By 1990, unrest led to a flare-up of old rivalries between ethnic groups. Some of these groups bold demanded self-rule. Mikhail Gorbachev allowed reforms. And, also, new political parties were allowed to form, and for the first time, groups could openly oppose the communists.
