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The Russian Revolution
With the events of WW2, the citizens were tired of their imperialist ruler. In February a rally for a higher bread ration escalated into a full blown rebellion. Tsar Nicklaus was captured and jailed. After this the Russian people flirted with a democracy lead by Alexander Kerensky but it filed when Vladimir Lenin lead a communist movement, he returned to Russia from Switzerland and in October he launched his revolution overthrowing the Government and creating a Communist system -
The Potsdam conference
A gathering of the three biggest powers from the allied powers. Were the ideals of democracy and communism clashed when Stalin wanted a communist Europe, The US and Britain wanted to impose democracy across the world. -
Atomic bomb - Hiroshima/Nagasaki
Called the Manhattan Project, the Atom Bomb was invented. With Japan seeming to never give up, or at least not without keeping the emperor, Truman dropped two atomic bombs. One on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. Around 80,000 people were killed instantly. -
The Iron curtain
A term used by Winston Churchill to describe the Soviet sphere of influence. Dividing Europe into two separate parts. For the western countries it showed the Soviets will of imprisoning entire country's for communism, it scared a hole lot of westerners. -
Molotov Plan
This was a plan from the SU to combat the Marshal Plan. With the refusal for the SU and any of its satellites to accept aid from the US this plan was made to push that point of defiance. They thought that the Marshal Plan was meant to discourage Soviet interest in their satellites, which it kinda was. Proposed by foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov it was made to be a system of bilateral trade agreements which also established COMECON to create an economic alliance of socialist countries. -
Truman Doctrine
In this appeal, President Truman asked to help aid European countries who had been affected by WW2. This was pushed through congress by the fear of Soviet domination of countries looking for relief from poverty and starvation. All countries were a part of this except for the Soviet Union and its satellites. With the Marshal plan introduced, aid like nets, food, water, money for rebuilding, machinery and other supplys were given to Europe. -
The Hollywood Ten
Throughout the cold war people were being accused of "being a commi". Some cases got so bad the people were executed, but being one of the most influential businesses, in terms with American people, Hollywood was targeted by the Gov for investigation. The government asked people from Hollywood, directors and actors, to testify their innocence. Ten of these people refused and were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee. -
The Marshal Plan
The plan proposed to the US congress in 1947, was meant to provide 13 billion dollars of assistance to European country's affected by WW2(About 135 billion in today's dollars). Of course it was not only made as an economic assistance but also to discourage communism, The US believed that if a country was economically stable then it would not turn to communism. The act was passed in 1948 and operated for about four years after that. -
The Berlin Blockade
In response to the prospering west allied side of Germany, with the introduction of new forms of currency and a rebuilt economy, the Soviet Union blocked off Western allied railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control, Berlin being deep in Soviet territory. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. The Soviets claimed this was an act of economic imperialism. This did end in 1949. -
Berlin Airlift
Knowing that Germany and its capital Berlin was a symbol for the US's promise to aid Europe this plan was made in order to keep the US and its allies in Berlin. In this plan the US and its allies sent supply to the people in Berlin who had been cut off by the Berlin Blockade by the Soviet Union. Airplanes were send in day in and out to deliver supplies to the people in Berlin. At one point planes were going in and out every three minuets. Eventually the Blockade was lifted after 318 days. -
Alger Hiss case
Alger Hiss was an American official accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948. Hiss had been involved in espionage, which he had previously denied under oath to HUAC. A federal grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury. After a mistrial due to a hung jury, Hiss was tried a second time. In January 1950, he was found guilty on both counts of perjury and received two concurrent five-year sentences. This very public trial caused mass hysteria for "Communist spy". -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a international military alliance between several North American and European states based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. It's main purpose was to oppose the SU and Communism across the globe. -
Soviet Bomb test
Through spy rings and intelligence gathering as well as even capturing German scientists the Soviet Union tested its first Atomic Bomb. The project being accelerated and pushed from the bombs dropped by the US on Japan. The Soviets even build makeshift towns, bridges, and other buildings to test how it affected them. They also put animals in cages to see how the radiation affected them. They were all incinerated. -
The Korean War
This was a civil war between the northern communist Korea backed by the Russians and the Chinese.The US backed the south in this civil war.Korea divided at the 28th parallel General MacArthur was in charge of the US/UN/ROK forces and pushed past the 38th, pushing to the norther border where China fearing national security advanced and attacked. In 1953 a peace treaty was signed that ended the Korean War, returning Korea to a divided status essentially the same as before the war. -
Rosenberg case
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were United States citizens who were executed on June 19, 1953 after being convicted of committing espionage for the Soviet Union. They were accused of giving nuclear weapon designs to the Soviet Union; at the time the United states was the only one who had nuclear weapons. They were also accused of sending radar, sonar, and jet propulsion engines to the USSR. But they were sent to the electric chair for their interaction with the spy circle. -
Army-McCarthy hearings
McCarthy was a politician who built his career on accusing people of being communist. These Army trials were his attempt to gain back his dwindling political influence by accusing many different people of the military to favoritism, and Communist cover ups. These hearings revealed his self righteous movement as false and destroyed his career. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the decisive engagement in the First Indochina War (1946–54). It consisted of a struggle between French and Viet Minh (Vietnamese Communist and nationalist) forces for control of a small mountain outpost on the Vietnamese border near Laos. After this battle the French just kinda quit. They gave up their occupation of Vietnam and handed over the shit basket to the US. Mar 13, 1954 – May 7, 1954 -
Geneva Conference
This conference was a gathering of many major countries to talk about many different conflicts in Asia, mainly the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina. The agreement met would have Vietnam temporally divided at the 17th parallel. Free election would be held latter to decide who would be the leader for the hole country. But the southern Vietnamese leader back out of this due to he knew he would loose. -
Warsaw Pact
In response to the NATO pact the Soviet Union created a pact of their own to oppose. This Warsaw Pact, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense pact signed by the SU and seven of it's satellites. -
Hungarian Revolution
It started as a student protest for the communist policies, going through central Budapest to the Parliament building students used a van and speakers to attract thousands. A student delegation, entering the radio building to try to broadcast the students' demands, was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside they were fired upon by the State Security Police. This started a nation wide revolt leading to the collapse of the government. -
U2 Incident
This spy plane was shot down my a land to air missile over Soviet space. The US government tried to cover it up, but after the SU released images of the pilot, remains of the spy craft and photos taken of military bases there was no denying its military origins. This was of great embarrassment for the US. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
The US has trained and armed a band of Cuban exiles to invade the newly made dictatorial leadership of Cuba. Even though the new leader said not Communism, or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well planned economy. He was a communist and the US planned to invade. The invitation force crushed and the Kennedy administration humiliated. -
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin. Because of the difference in prosperity between the east and wast Berlin people were fleeing by the millions across the open border. So of course the SU puts up a wall and says anyone who want to get out, shoot. -
The Cuban Missile crises
President John F. Kennedy was informed of Soviet nuclear missiles being stationed in Cuba, only miles off the shore of the United States. There were several different options which were proposed. Leave the missiles, or attack Cuba and try to take them by force. Kennedy instead did a different option, a deal where US would take missiles out of Turkey and not invade if the SU took all missiles out of Cuba. It worked and there was no conflict. -
Diem murdered during coup
President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered during a coup by dissident generals of the South Vietnamese army. The US new about the plans to do so and said that they would not get in the way. And so in the back of an armored vehicle that was supposed to take them back to the palace the two brothers were killed -
John F. Kennedy Assassination
The 35th president of the united states was assassinated on 11/22/1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza.. Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Also known as the black check, this resolution passed gave the president Johnson the ability to use any means he believed necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. In essence the president could go to war without declaring it and would have as many resources as he would need. In a declaration of war the Congress has control but with this they let him do whatever he wanted. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a US Military bombing campaign over north Vietnam to hopefully discourage them from attacking South Vietnamese troops supported by the US troops. This was another attempt at "Limited war" and a thing called Victimizing. The US hope to slowly pull forces out of Vietnam and turn the full fighting over to the south. These bombings continued till around 1968, three hole years. -
Tet Offensive
During the Vietnam war, on the lunar new year (Tet), on January 30, 1968 the enemy struck almost every different major city and American maned place in South Vietnam. In three hours many of Vietnam's best fighters were lost, the same amount that the US lost in the entire war. But even though the US repelled the attack with the media reporting on the mass of the attack as a mental victory. And so it was with the peoples option changing almost over night. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Officially known as Operation Danube, the Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia was a joint invasion of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact nations. The Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany and Poland. Approximately 250,000 Warsaw pact troops attacked Czechoslovakia that night, with Romania and Albania refusing to participate. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
On April 4, 1968, Civil leader Marten Luther Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James earl gray, another crack pot who thought he had a caused. Mlk was shot at a motel in Memphis Tennessee, where he was then rushed to the hospital and was pronounced dead at 7:05 pm. -
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
On June 5, 1968 Robert F. Kennedy was shot dead at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan. The next day he died in the hospital. -
Riots at the democratic conventions
With the strong opposition for the Vietnam war along with many other causes in the previous two years people had become tired of the information of war being flung at them. Tens of thousands came to protest the Vietnam war at the Democratic convention o the Vietnam war. Then with the assassination of Marten Luther King people just stared to riot across the country. -
Nixon Election
On Tuesday, November 5, 1968 the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, won the election over the Democratic nominee. -
Kent state shooting
On May 4, 1970 four Kent states student protesters were shot dead and nine others wounded by the Ohio National Guard during a mass protest against the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.This was another event which changed the opinion of the US masses. -
Nixon Visits China
This seven day expedition into China by the President was a mark of his rapprochement to diplomatic relations between Chin and the US. With this, it ended a 25 year long silence with basically no communication between the two countries, nor any diplomatic ties. History accounts improved relations with the Soviet Union and the PRC are often cited as the most successful diplomatic achievements of Nixon's presidency -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
On January 15, 1973, President Richard Nixon of the USA ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam.This came after Dr. Henry Kissinger, the National Security Affairs adviser President Nixon returned from Paris with a draft for a peace treaty. -
Fall of Saigon
The capture of the South Vietnamese capital Saigon announced the end of the Vietnam War and rolled in the era of the formal reunification of Vietnam under the Socialist Republic. -
Reagan elected
Ronald Wilson Reagan was elected in 1981 and became the 40th president of the United states. Wining as the Republican candidate over the democrat's Jimmy Carter. His firm belief in destroying communism was one of the things that got him into office. He is known today as the man who beat communism. With the space and arms race he trumped the SU at both. He actually began a good relation with the newly elected leader of the SU and even got the Berlin wall torn down. -
SDI announced
The SDI was the Strategic Defense Initiative also called Star Wars. It was a proposal by the Reagan administration to have a space based missile defense system with a series of lasers to shoot down nuclear weapons before they could get to the US. Even if this was impossible the thought of this kind of technology being developed in the US scared the SU, who barley had the resources to keep up with the arms race as is but they could never make something like SDI -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
This was a first if the American people had ever seen one. For the first time the leaders of the SU and US got together to talk of an arms reduction and hopefully terms of cooled hostilities between the two global superpowers. Though no progress was made at the actual conference the world became optimistic seeing how the two world leaders got along swimmingly, Gorbachev being the first college educated and more "Liberal" SU leader. -
‘Tear down this wall’ speech
Most of his advisers highly discouraged President Reagan from this speech, the secret service had a melt down as they knew they would not be able to protect the President, but even so Reagan stood at the Berlin wall and declared that if the SU wanted peace then they would have to tear down this wall. He challenged to SU too see what they would do and this bold move had unexpected pay offs. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
After Reagan's speech there was really no other choice for the Soviet Union but to open the Berlin Wall, and as they did hundreds of thousands of people came pouring out into west Germany. And this turning point hit hard the entire communist world as the last thing Gorbachev did as leader of the SU was disband the entire SU. Communist country's all around the world fell as revolts gathered strength at the collapse of the SU and the Cold War was over.
