The Cold War

  • Russian Revolution

    Russian Revolution

    The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917 and eventually led to the rise of the Soviet Union.
  • Iron Curtain

    Iron Curtain

    The name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War 2 in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991.
  • Potsdam Conference

    Potsdam Conference

    Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and U.S President Harry Truman met in Potsdam, Germany to negotiate terms for the end of World War 2.
  • Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima/ Nagasaki

    Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima/ Nagasaki

    The U.S dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 129,000 people.
  • Truman Doctrine

    Truman Doctrine

    An American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.
  • Molotov Plan

    Molotov Plan

    A system created by the soviet union in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union.
  • Hollywood 10

    Hollywood 10

    10 motion-picture producers and directors who appeared before the HUAC. They refused to answer questions of their possible communist affiliations and after spending time in prison they were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood Studios.
  • Berlin Airlift

    Berlin Airlift

    At the end of the World War 2, U.S, British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany.
  • Marshall Plan

    Marshall Plan

    An American initiative to aid Western Europe in which the U.S gave money in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War 2.
  • Berlin Blockade

    Berlin Blockade

    One of the first major international crises of the cold war where the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road and canal to the sectors of Berlin under Western control.
  • NATO

    NATO

    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization created by the U.S, Canada and many Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
  • Soviet Bomb Test

    Soviet Bomb Test

    The Soviet Union exploded it's first atomic bomb and it came in a shock to the U.S because they were not expecting it.
  • Alger Hiss Case

    Alger Hiss Case

    Alger Hiss was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet Spy and convicted of prejury in connection with this charge.
  • Korean War

    Korean War

    The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United States came to aid South Korea while China came to aid North Korea.
  • Rosenburg Trial

    Rosenburg Trial

    Julius Rosenburg was arrested a few weeks after the Korean War began. The legal charge of which they were convicted was vague. They were held captive for giving the so called "secret of the atomic bomb" to the USSR.
  • Battle of Dien Bien Phu

    Battle of Dien Bien Phu

    Decisive engagement in the first Indochina War that consisted of a struggle between French and Viet Minh forces for a small mountain outpost.
  • Geneva Conference with Gorbachev

    Geneva Conference with Gorbachev

    The Geneva Conference was a conference among several nations that took place in Geneva, Switzerland, in order to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina
  • Geneva Conference

    Geneva Conference

    A conference among many nations in order to settle issues resulting from the Korean War and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina.
  • Army-McCarthy hearings

    Army-McCarthy hearings

    A series of hearings held by the United States Senate for the purpose of investing conflicting accusations between the U.S Army and the Senator.
  • Warsaw Pact

    Warsaw Pact

    A political and Military alliance between the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries.
  • U2 Incident

    U2 Incident

    A spy plane that was shot down by a Soviet surface.
  • Bay of Pigs Invasion

    Bay of Pigs Invasion

    14,000 Cuban exiles launched an invasion on the South Coast of Cuba.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    Cuban Missile Crisis

    A 13-day confederation between the Soviet Union and the United States concerning American ballistic missile deployment.
  • Assassination of JFK

    Assassination of JFK

    John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas riding in a motorcade in Dealey Plaza. He was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding with his wife.
  • Tonkin Gulf Resolution

    Tonkin Gulf Resolution

    Congress passed this authorizing the president to take any measures that he believed were necessary to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in South Asia
  • Operation Rolling Thunder

    Operation Rolling Thunder

    Operation Rolling Thunder was part of a strategic bombing campaign and the military aircraft attacked targets all around North Vietnam.
  • Assassination of MLK

    Assassination of MLK

    MLK was an activist leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. James was a conformed racist and small time criminal, he later confessed to this crime in March.
  • Riots of Democratic convention

    Riots of Democratic convention

    Democratic convention contributed to the tense national mood and when Martin Luther King was assassinated riots broke out.
  • Tet Offensive

    Tet Offensive

    Tet Offensive was one of the largest campaigns of the Vietnam War of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam.
  • Assassination of RFK

    Assassination of RFK

    Robert F. Kennedy (presidential candidate) was shot and killed in a Los Angeles hotel room after winning the California presidential primaries. He died the next day in the hospital.
  • Invasion of Czechoslovakia

    Invasion of Czechoslovakia

    The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague.
  • Election of Nixon

    Election of Nixon

    The United States Presidential election was held on November 5, 1968. The republic nominee won the election over the democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
  • Kent State

    Kent State

    The Kent State shootings were the shootings of unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
  • Nixon visits China

    Nixon visits China

    Nixon visiting China marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, which at that time considered the U.S. one of its foes, and the visit ended 25 years of separation between the two sides.
  • Ceasefire in Vietnam

    Ceasefire in Vietnam

    President Nixon of the U.S ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam.
  • Fall of Saigon

    Fall of Saigon

    The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.
  • Reagan Elected

    Reagan Elected

    Reagan was elected twice as President of the United States.
  • SDI announced

    SDI announced

    SDI was a proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks-as originally conceived, from the Soviet Union.
  • "Tear down this Wall" speech

    "Tear down this Wall" speech

    "Tear down this wall!" is a line from a speech made by US President Ronald Reagan, calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961.
  • Berlin Wall

    Berlin Wall

    A guarded concrete barrier that physically divided Berlin.
  • Fall of Berlin Wall

    Fall of Berlin Wall

    The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
  • Hungarian Revolution

    Hungarian Revolution

    A nationwide revolt against the government of the Hungarian People's republic.
  • Assassination of Diem

    Assassination of Diem

    Diem was a south Vietnamese Politician and after constant Buddhist protests and non-violent resistance, he was assassinated.