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The Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conferences purpose was deciding the post-war status of Germany. The Allies of World War II: the USA, the USSR, Great Britain and France, divide Germany into four occupation zones. The Allied nations agree that free elections wereto be held in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. -
VE Day
This marked the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
The Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
The Berlin Airlift
The crisis started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. The crisis ended on May 12, 1949, when Soviet forces lifted the blockade on land access to western Berlin. -
NATO is formed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed in response to the threat posed by the Warsaw pact during the cold war. NATO was originally created to defend western Europe against invasion by the Soviet Union. -
The Korean War
This was the first shooting confrentation of the Cold War. Korea represented a shift in the Cold War. The Communists took over in China in 1949, the Soviets detonated their atomic bomb. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. -
The space race
Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition. On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik , the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. In 1969 NASA sent the first men to the moon and returned them safely to earth. -
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was fought between communist North Vietnam and the government of Southern Vietnam. The United States lost the Vietnam War. It lasted for twenty years, something the US never expected when it joined in the fight. Not only did the US lose the war and the country of Vietnam to the communists, the US lost prestige in the eyes of the world. -
Soviet Invasion of Hungary
Hungary marked the failure of US attempts to liberate eastern Europe by encouraging the overthrow of Communist governments. The the Soviet use of force led to an erosion of its status and raised questions about whether they could continue their economic and military influence over the Warsaw Pact countries. -
The bay of pigs
The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The cold war had now spread to America's back yard. The escalation of US attempts to check the Communist regime in Cuba, with the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, led to a further acceleration of tensions and the Soviets planned on putting nuclear weapons in Cuba. This raised the prospect of an atomic war but both sides backed away. -
JFK is assassinated
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated during a visit to Dallas, Texas. His death caused intense mourning in the United States and brought Vice President Lyndon Johnson to the presidency. Kennedy’s untimely death also left future generations with a great many “what if” questions concerning the Cold War. -
The fall of the Berlin wall
The Soviets could not sustain themselves economically. After four decades, the Cold War was decided not by a military showdown but by the inability of the Soviet Union and their allies to provide for basic needs of their citizens. -
The end of the Soviet Union
Russia formally recognised the end of the Soviet Union. People all over the world watched in amazement at this relatively peaceful transition from former Communist monolith into multiple separate nations.
