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Russian Communist Revolution
There were two Russian Revolutions, one in 1905 that opposed czar Nicholas' will, so then the Russian Parliment was established. Bladimir Lenin and his followers launched revolutionaries against the provisional government. The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government biuldings and formed their own government with Lenin as the leader and he established the union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). -
Treaty of Versailles
One of the peace treaties created at the end of WWI. It ended the state of war between both Germany and allied powers. Signed on June 28th, 1919. Within this treaty the Guilt War Clause was one of the most controversial, this required Germany to take all responsability for the war which led to an economic depression. -
League of Nations
First meeting took place on January 16th, 1920. Born of the destruction and disillusionment arising from WWI. The idea of the League of Nations was to eliminate 4 fatal fawsof the old European States. -
Nuclear Deterrent
It states that even if you don't' intend to use nuclear weapons, you should have them because it will be a deterrent (prevents) other countries from attacking because you own them. This military doctrin increased prominence as a military strategy during the cold war with regard to the use of nuclear weapons. -
MAD
Mutual assured distruction is basically saying the nuclear weapons would destroy both sides and cause massive destruction. Either side, once armed, has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm. The theory was developed during the Cold War then the U.S. and USSR held nuclear weapons of such number and strength that they were capable of destroying the other side completely and threatened to do so if attacked. -
Yalta Conference
FDR & Winston Churchill and Stalin met to discuss the allied war effort against Germany and Japan and tried to settle some nagging diplomatic issues. Tensions over European issues (fate of Poland) foreshadowed the crumbling of the Grand Alliance that had developed between the U.S., Great Britian, and the USSR during WWII and hinted at the Cold War to come. -
Nuremburg Trials
These were a series of trials held by the Allied forces after World War II. They were held to punish the German leaders for the horrible things they did as well for war crimes that took place. In all 13 trials over 200 people were found giulty and punished.This led to the Cold War because of conflicts between the Soviet Union and the allies. -
Marshall Plan
This was the American intiative to aid Europe - where the U.S. gave economic support to help rebuild war devasted regions and European economies after the end of WWII. In order to prevent the spread of communism. The USSR rejects this help. This rejection indicated that Cold War frictions between the US and Russia were intensifying. -
United Nations
The United Nations was created to listen to disbutes from countries and make decisions. It was divided into 2 parts; the General Assembly where each country had a representative. The second part was the Security council which was limited to 5 nations and only had 15 members. United Natinos couldn't handle world affairs so it became a forum for discussion. The United Nations backed up South Korea in the Korean war because Russia was abesent during the meeting and couldn't veto the U.S. decision. -
Iron Curtain Speech
The Iron Curtain was an imaginary wall/dividing lline seperating the Soviet control/influence from other nations after World War II. It came about after Winston Churchill made a speech saying that the iron curtain descended across the continet. He says this because Stalin did not intend to keep his word in the Yalta agreement. -
Baruch Plan
The U.S. presents the Baruch plan for the international control of atomic weapons to the United Nations. The failure of this plan to gain acceptance resulted in a dangerous nuclear arms race between U.S. and Soviet Union during the Cold War. -
Truman Doctrine
This was an international relations policy set forth by the U.S. president Harry Truman in a speech which stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military care. This was to prevent them from falling inro the Soviet sphere. Historians often considered it the start of the Cold War. -
General Assembly
(United Nations) Intergovernmental organization to promote international co-opertaion. Main mission was to preserve world peace but was complicat because the cold war between the US, USSR, and their allies. -
Berlin Airlift
An attempt by Stalin to cut off all food and supplies from their zone into Western Germany. This caused tensions to increase but ended up to be a major failure. The U.S. flew shipments of supplies in until the Soviets surrendered. -
NATO created ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NATO was created to get rid of soviet expansion. After destruction of World War II the nations of Europe struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their securtity. The U.S. viewed an economically strong, re-armed, and integrated Europe as vital to the prevention of communist expansion across the continent. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the poeple's Republic of China( PRC). This caused a civil war between The Chinese communist party (ccp) and the Nationalist party. The Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek continued to recieve U.S. support as a sole option for preventing communist control in China. -
Joseph McCarthy Speech
Senatpr Joesph McCarthy claims that he has a list with the names of over 200 members of the Department of State that support communism. He never produced any solid evidence that there were even communists in the State Department. The months leading up to his speech had been trying ones for America's cold war policies. This speech had caused the Red Scare of the american people. -
Korean War
This was a war between the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea-communist) this was a result of the polictical divison within Korea. Supposedly the first "hot war" of the cold war. 55k American troops were killed in this conflict. N. Korea stormed S. Korea and the U.S. force stationed there. This ended by NK & the US signing a cease-fire that ended the issue. -
Warsaw Pact
Also known as the the treaty of friendship, this was a mutual defense treaty between the 8 communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, during the Cold War. -
Sputnik Launched
The Sputnik was a Russian Satellite and was the first satallite into space. It went into orbit at a speed of 18,000mph and coompleted a circut every hour and 36 minutes. The Sputnik put the Russians in first place during the Space Race. -
Fidel Castro Proclaims Communist Cuba
Castro lead a years-long guerrilla campaign that forced dictator Fulgencio Batista to flee Havana. Castro became the commander in cheif of Cuba's armed forces. On Febuary 16, 1959 Castro was sworn in as Cuba's youngest prime minister. He confiscated land and property owned by Americans, so U.S. turned agains him. He became allies with the Soviet Union. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
This was an invasion of the Cuban mainland by an anti-Castro cuban group trained by US military. JFK sent them to try and over throw Castro. They landed on the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the intent of igniting an uprising against Castro and it failed. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a dividing line between E. and W. Germany. Buildings behind the barriers were demolished, and the wide open area became known as "no man's land", or "the death strip". where guards in more than 300 sentry towers could shoot anyone trying to escape. Over 110,000 people attempted to escape over the wall. Between 5-10,000 actually succceeded. -
Building of the Berlin Wall
This was an effort to "stem" the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin. The communist gov. of E. Germany decides to construct this wall in order to divide East and West Berlin. This causes a shortterm crisis in the U.S. soviet blockade relations and the wall itseld came to symbolize the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crises
The Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba that could reach the U.S. this was a problem because Cuba is only 90miles off the tip of Florida. U.S. were going to set up a naval blockade of Cuba and were ready to use military force if necassary. This could havee created Nuclear war but we avoid it by neogotiating with Krushchev. He took missiles out of Cuba and U.S. promised not to invade Cuba and took missiles out of Turkey. -
U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
This was a response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In doing this, this escalated the Vietnam conflict. They ultimately wanted to protect the U.S. airbase in South Vietnam. The two communist China + USSR threatened to interviene if the US continued this. -
Non-Proliferation Agreement
This treaty obligates the 5-nuclear weapon states (USA, Russia, UK, France, and China) not to transfer weapons, other nuclear explosive devices, or thier technology to any non-nuclear-weapon state.. In the cold war arms race and concern of nuclear war the treaty was a major success for advocates of arms control because it set rules for international cooperation between nuclear and non-nuclear states to prevent proliferatoin. -
Apollo 11
It was the first manned mission to the moon. It helped the U.S. win the space reace between U.S. and Russia. After Apollo 11, Russia tried to land on moon where U.S. did but failed, causing U.S. to win! -
Kent State Shootings
Ohio National Guardsmen were on the Kent State college campus to maintain order during a student protest against the vietnam war. The National Guard suddenly fired upon the crowd of student protestors, the reason is still unknown! He killed four and wounded nine other protesters. -
SALT 1 & 2
The Strategic Arms limitation Treaty was issued to curtail the build up of nuclear weapons. SALT I was first strategic arms limitation talks between the USSR and the US, to contain the Arms race. SALT II set more specific regulations on the different missiles. Limits were set on the number of strategic launchers, & the various types of missiles. -
Fall of Saigon
Saigon is the capitol of South Vietnam and The Fall of Saigon is when the North Vietnamese Army had reached the city. The North Vietnamese Army took over Saigon with little resistance. This marks the end of the war and the defear of reunification of South Vietnam as a democratic natoin. -
Pope John Paul II
Helped immensely with the fall of communism during the Cold War. He strived to introduce democracy for native Poland. He also worked alongside president Reagan as well. -
Margaret Thatcher
She helped end the Cold War by working alongside Reagan. Her full and coregous support caused the deployment of the NATO cruise and Pershing II missilles in W. Europe happened. 8 years later the US and USSR signed the Intermidiate Ranger Nuclear Forced treaty. (Which marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War) She also brought democracy to Argentina by destroying the reputation of the junta. Restored economic liberty in the West. -
Soviets invade Afghanistan
The Soviets invaded Afghanistan to ensure that pro-soviet regime would be in power in the country. It was the first direct use of Soviet combat troops outside the region of the Warsaw pact. There were the Afghanistan rebels called Mujahideen and the Soviet supported Afghanistan rebels in order to try and overthrow the communist government and prevent the spread of communism. -
Deng Xiaoping
Deng's influence on the Cold War would be that he was the last of the "giants". Chain-smoking pragmatist who opened Xenophobic - isolated China from the world. Normalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. started "Open Door Policy" with the US. He made the famous comment, "...if you want to bring the intiative of the peasants into play, you should give them the power to make money." -
Fall of Berlin Wall
East German government officals stated during a press conference that travel through the border to the West was open. As the news spread on both sides of the Wall, huge numbers of people flocked to the Berlin Wall and celebrated. The boarder guards who had no instructions just let them through. -
Lech Walesa
He continued to involve himself in organizing free non-communist trade unions and in 1980 he and his friends founded Solidamosc (solidarity). In the recognition of the role he was playng in Poland's non-violent revolution he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990 was elected president of the Republic of Poland. -
START I/II
The U.S.-soviet strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) was the first treaty to provide for deep reductions of the US & soviet/russian strategic nuclear weapons. START II was a bilateral treaty between the US and Russia on the Reduction and Limitation of strategic offensive Arms.
