-
Russian Revolution
March 8 1917-November 7 1917
Communism was spreading, and the Soviet Union began to rise. Vladimir Lenin seized control of Russia; bank accounts and personal property were confiscated, stores and businesses were surrendered to the state. With the Russian Revolution came imprisonment without trial, and disappearance without explanation. -
The Iron Curtain
1945-1990 The Iron Curtain was a barrier enacted by the Soviet Union that divided Europe at the end of the second World War. It was a way to seal off their central European allies from contact with other non communist areas. -
Potsdam Conference
July 17 1945-August 2 1945
The Potsdam Conference was about securing political freedom and democratic governments throughout post war Europe. President Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met with their partner, the dictator of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. Their goal was peace and prosperity, however, Stalin had other plans to dominate all of Europe and impose communism on its nations. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings
August 6 1945-August 9 1945 The United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to receive Japan's unconditional surrender. The bombing on Hiroshima destroyed about 90% of the city, killing 80,000 immediately. The bombing on Nagasaki killed around 40,000 people. Japan's emperor announced Japan's unconditional surrender soon after. -
Hollywood 10
October 1947
The Hollywood 10 was a small group of people in the Hollywood film industry who publicly refused to answer questions asked in order to root out communists. They were convicted and sent to prison. -
Molotov Plan
The Molotov plan was a system made by the Soviet Union to provide aid for Eastern European countries tied to them politically and economically. They planned to rebuild the countries. -
Truman Doctrine
March 12 1947-July 12 1948 The Truman Doctrine was an appeal by the president to fight communism with capitalism; it represented a dramatic change in US foreign policy. Its ultimate goal was to fight back against Soviet communism spreading during the Cold War -
Berlin Airlift
June 1948 As a result of the Berlin Blockade, the US began flying in via aircraft to resupply the city. Too afraid of the risk of starting another conflict, the Soviets did not shoot them down and eventually gave in, opening back up access in an out of the city. -
Alger Hiss Case
In the Alger Hiss spy case, a former state department employee, Alger Hiss, was accused of spying for the Soviet Union. He was convicted of perjury in 1950. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan was a program of massive economic assistance, "the revival of a working economy in the world". It was a goal to aid Western Europe in rebuilding Western European countries' economies after the second World War. -
Berlin Blockade
Jun 24, 1948 – May 12, 1949 The Berlin Blockade was an attempt by the Soviet Union to block railways, canals, and essentially any US access to Berlin in order to hinder their ability to get supplies to the part of Berlin under their control. -
NATO
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was formed as a military alliance to defend against Soviet aggression. -
Soviet Bomb Test
Code named "First Lightning", the USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb at a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. -
Korean War
Jun 25, 1950 – Jul 27, 1953 Following the second World War, Korea was temporarily divided at the 38th parallel, and jointly occupied by the US in the South and the Soviet Union in the North. Regarding the aggression of North Korea toward South Korea, Truman decided to send troops to South Korea. Truman was determined that Korea should remain a limited war, and did not wish to engage in an all out war. -
Rosenberg Trial
The Rosenbergs were accused of being connected to a plot to pass US bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. They were sentenced to death by the electric chair in 1953. -
Army-McCarthy hearings
April-June 1954 Joseph McCarthy was a senator from Wisconsin who exploited the red scare for political gain. He claimed to have a list of 205 communists working in the state department. A respected Journalist, Edward R. Murrow, attacked McCarthy's tactics. With his support withering, McCarthy pitted himself against the US army. The hearings exposed McCarthy as a tyrant, and struck a fatal blow to his crusade. -
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Mar 13, 1954 – May 7, 1954 The battle of Dien BIen Phu was the confrontation of the first Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. -
Geneva Conference
Apr 26, 1954 – Jul 21, 1954
The Geneva conference was a meeting with several nations in Geneva, Switzerland in 1954. The intention of the conference was to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the first Indochina War -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was made in retaliation to the forming of NATO; the Soviet Union had its satellites form the competing alliance, otherwise known as the "Treaty of Friendship". -
Hungarian Revolution
Oct 23, 1956 – Nov 10, 1956 The Hungarian Revolution was a nationwide revolt against the Hungarian government and its Soviet-imposed policies. -
U2 Incident
The incident occurred during the Cold War, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down flying in Soviet airspace. Its pilot was captured by the USSR. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Apr 17, 1961 – Apr 19, 1961 The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506. -
Berlin Wall
Constructed: August 13, 1961 Destroyed: November 9, 1989
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, both physically and ideologically. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
October 16–28, 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union regarding American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. -
Assassination of Diem
The president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, was arrested and assassinated in November of 1963. His assassination marked the victory of a CIA-backed coup d'état led by General Dương Văn Minh. -
Assassination of JFK
The assassination of president John F. Kennedy took place on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He was riding in an open top convertible for a presidential "parade" when he was shot at and fatally wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution essentially gave president Johnson the power to do whatever he thought right to establish peace and security in southeast Asia. It gave the president ultimate power, leaving the decisions completely up to him and what he felt would be necessary. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
2 March 1965 – 2 November 1968 Operation Rolling Thunder was meant to persuade North Vietnam to cease its support for communism in South Vietnam without actually sending troops to North Vietnam. It was the most difficult air and ground battle of the Cold War and ultimately ended in a failure of strategic persuasion. -
Tet Offensive
Jan 30, 1968 – Sep 23, 1968 The Tet Offensive was a series of attacks on cities and outposts in South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese. It was an attempt to stir up a rebellion among the South Vietnamese and influence the US to step back from the Vietnam War. -
Assassination of MLK
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. took place on April 4th, 1968. The civil rights activist and leader was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was fatally wounded by James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary. Many believed that the assassination was carried out by a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, and that Ray's conviction was just a cover up, but it was never proven. -
Assassination of RFK
Shortly after winning the California presidential primaries, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a 24 year old Jordanian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan. The man was convicted of Kennedy's murder and sentenced to death in 1969, but ended up serving life in prison. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
20 August 1968 – 21 August 1968 The invasion of Czechoslovakia, also known as Operation Danube, was carried out by five Warsaw pact nations; the Soviet Union, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland and East Germany. Their goal was to stop Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms, and they were successful. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 28th, 1968, Vietnam War protesters fought police in the streets, while the democratic party struggled with an internal disagreement on what their stance was regarding Vietnam. The event took place live on television for seventeen minutes while the crowd chanted "the whole world is watching". -
Election of Nixon
In the 1968 election, Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, won against the the democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey. President Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore law and order to the nation's cities and provide new leadership in the Vietnam War. -
Kent State
On May 4th, 1970, unarmed college students of Kent State were shot by members of the Ohio National Guard. Four students were killed and nine were seriously injured during the Kent University mass protest against the Vietnam war. Some of the students who were shot had been protesting the Cambodian Campaign, while others had merely been walking by or observing. -
Nixon Visits China
February 21 - February 28, 1972 In 1972, Richard Nixon visited China as a strategic and diplomatic gesture that marked the culmination of the Nixon administration's rapprochement between the United States and China. His goal was to fix/better ties with China. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
After Dr. Henry Kissinger, the National Security Affairs advisor to the president, returned to Washington from Paris, France with a draft peace proposal, President Nixon ordered a ceasefire of the aerial bombings in North Vietnam. All warring parties in the Vietnam War signed a ceasefire as a prelude to the Paris Peace Accord. -
Fall of Saigon
The liberation of Saigon was the capture of the capital of South Vietnam. It was captured by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of Vietnam. North Vietnamese forces began their final attack on April 29th with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam suffering from artillery bombardment. The capture of the capitol was followed by an evacuation of the American civilian and military personnel in Saigon. -
Reagan Elected
Ronald Reagan, an American politician and actor, was elected to be the 40th president of the United States in 1981. He served two terms as president, from 1981 until 1989. -
SDI announced
The SDI, the Strategic Defense Initiative, was a missile defense system to protect the United States from attacks by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The concept was first announced publicly by President Ronald Reagan on 23 March 1983. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
On November 11, 1985, President of the United States Ronald Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their first summit conference. While no intense or important decisions were made, the two men had in depth personal conversations and bonded well. They developed a close relationship, which meant good things for the future. -
'Tear Down this Wall' Speech
"Tear down this wall" is a line from a speech made by president Ronald Reagan in front of the Berlin Wall calling to the Leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the barrier that had divided Berlin physically and psychologically since 1961. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, the leader of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens could now cross the border whenever they pleased. A huge crowd gathered at the border, and while some crossed in West Berlin freely, others brought tools and began to physically destroy the wall itself.
