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WWII Ends in Europe but lines of the next war are drawn
The Yalta Conference takes place.
With the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, a call for truce is made.
Stalin and the British Divide up Europe.
The lines of the future Cold war are drawn. Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp -
Lines are drawn over Europe in the form of a Curtain.
Churchill's speech was deemed the actual start of the Cold War after displaying in his speech great concern for the Soviet Nations for creating an "Iron Curtain" of oppression and wanted to prevent the expansion of Communism further West than what it already had. The fear of communist expansion further increased in the United States even before the "start" of the "war" when during WW2 the lines were drawn.
Source http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/churchill-delivers-iron-curtain-speech -
Truman Doctrine
In the eyes of Truman, the Truman Doctrine opened doors nations to be able to call for help in preventing the expansion of external or internal "authoritarian forces" that may arise in the local area of the nation.
This was in lew of supposed communist activity taking place from within the govenrment of Greece and the U.S stepped in.
Source: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/truman-doctrine -
The Red Scare hits home during the "McCarthy Era"
As the Cold War started to reach into its mid years, the thought of communist sympathizers approaching home led to the constant fear of not knowing whether your own neighbor was a communist sympathizer. At the peak of the cold war, Joseph McCarthy and the U.S congress took action against supposed "Communist Sympathizers," which included innocent civilians and even multiple Hollywood actors.
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/global-citizen/mccarthy-era/ --Date of event took during year- -
Vietnam splits at the 17th after Geneva Conference
During this time in history Asia was having its own set of problems with Vietnam in regards to Mao and communism. As a result of the First Indochina war defeat from the French called for Treaties to be signed. One of the conditions was for France to completely remove itself from the nation, which they did. As a result the nation split at the 17th parallel after negotiations after Geneva accords ratified. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/geneva-conference-begins -
The Space race begins with Sputnik
With the launch of the Soviet Union's beach ball sized satellite, in the eyes of West and the United States this was a devastating blow to the nations ingenuity. This technological defeat was seen as not only alarming, but meaning the Soviet Union was ahead in an ideological war and the United States was being left behind. Source: http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/ -
Explorer I takes off
As a result of taking part in the space race, in direct response to Sputnik 1 was Explorer 1. With NASA not being established yet, it was the job of the U.S Army ballistic Missile agency to take it into space. Its primary instrument on board was a Cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment in earth orbit. Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/explorer-overview.html -
Cuba sides with the Hammer and sickle
After the take over of Cuba by Castro in January of 59' almost a year later on the 19th of December 1960, Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union, sending shock waves to Washington. Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/peopleevents/e_coldwar.html -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
After the failed attempt of a coup at the Bay of Pigs in 61' tensions the cold war began to heat up for the worst when U.S spy planes located Soviet ICBM nuclear war heads on the Island of Cuba.
As a result Washington decided on an embargo of Cuba by blocking off Cuba from the Soviet Union. At this moment, this has been the closest the nation has been close to Nuclear war in its entire history. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis -
Our boys go to war, with heavy resistance back home
With the longer the Vietnam war went on, the more negative press it received back home. As a mix of Anti-war movements striking the nation and and many within the army itself, the Vietnam war was deemed a very costly war with no end in sight. Those called to go to fight for the country were selected through the Draft system but the counter culture at the time through its movements heavily resisted by burning their draft cards in protest.
http://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/vietnam_draft.shtml -
Apollo 11, the next step for mankind
With everything taking place in Vietnam, the United States was fighting another war on a separate front. On the 20th of July mankind reached our celestial neighbor and claimed it not for a nation, but on behalf of the entire planet on the strides of human kind.
The act of landing man on the moon proved to be the crushing blow to the Soviet Space race. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html -
Cease-Fire from Saigon with Peace Accords
The amount of fighters the Northern Vietnamese had deemed to be overbearing to the South Vietnamese and what U.S called "combat advisers" that eventually pulled out. At the time of the cease fire, North Vietnam controlled 85 percent of the country. The Northern communist Vietnamese engulf the South and falls to Communist forces. The Peace Accords officially ended the Vietnam war. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cease-fire-goes-into-effect -
From Russia, With love
At the moment of his election he ran on the platform of reconstruction and reformation of what was the former Soviet Union. Through the Process of what was called "perestroika and glasnost."
Perestroika refers to the reconstruction of the poltical and economic system that was established by the Communist Party.
Glasnost meant for the openness in roles people had in the government of the former USSR http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/glasnostandperestroika.asp -
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall
From the remnants of the Iron Curtain implemented in Europe years earlier, as one of the last major remining scar of it, Gorbachev calls for the fall of the Berlin wall. The speech was given June 12th of 1987 and the wall eventually did fall on the 9th of November allowing unrestricted access between East Berlin and the rest of Europe.
Eventually on the 3rd of October Germany is reunited once more. http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/summer/berlin.html -
Fall of the Red menace
With the fall of the Berlin wall, Soviet expansion and any plans of it were seen as failures even before consideration. In december on 1991 the world watched as the Soviet Union fell apart. As a result, the Western world celebrated a victory for freedom and democracy prevailing as the superior ideology. http://www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp
