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Yalta Conference
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in Russia in order to discuss what woulld happen during and after the war with German reparations, the Fate of Poland, the Partitioning of Germany, and the United Nations. -
Potsdam Conference
Discussions from the Yalta Conferene were continued. Germany and Austria was divided into four different zones, as well as Berlin. The Russian-Polish border was decided, and Korea had to be divided into Soviet and American zones. Truman spoke to Stalin about the first atomic bomb. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States drops the first and second atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki only two days apart. -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman gave a speech making a promise to help any country that was facing a communist takeover. Truman said the US would provide military, economic, and political assistance to the threatened nations. -
Marshall Plan
Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University proposing the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was a $13 billion foreign aid package to help Europe recover from the damage caused by WW2. The aid was rejected by Stalin and only given to Western European countries. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade cut off all rail and road access to the capital city which was located in the Soviet zone. This was the Russians response to the merging of the US, French, and UK partitions. People living in West Berlin had no food supplies and faced starvation. The Berlin Airlift also took place, brinig necessary items to the city by plane. -
NATO Formed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization consisted of ten Western Euopean nations. This organizations was an anti-Soviet military alliance that extened the threat of America's nuclear weapons to Western Europe. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty made up of eight Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe that existed during the Cold War. It was seen as a potential military threat and sign of Communist dominance. It was definitely an opponent to American capitalism. -
U2 Spy Plane
The United States flew the first U2 spy airplane over Moscow. The plane was suppose to fly high enough to stay out of reach of Soviet weapons and detected radar. In 1960, the first U2 spy airplane was shot down over Russian airspace. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution begun as a protest against Communist rule in Budapest. Soviet tanks entered Budapest and shortly after, a new government was formed introducing democracy. Hungary was under attack from the Soviet Union at this time and needed aid, but they fell to Russia on November 10. -
Sputnik
The Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik. Sputnik was able to orbit Earth and looked at as a technological advance for the Soviet Union. The United States feared the advancement and the launching of Sputnik started the space age and space race where a dog, Apollo 8, Apollo 11, and Neil Armstrong were all launched or landed on the moon. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The CIA trained a force of Cuban exiles and who aided by the US government and attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow the government. The government was Communist and ran by Fidel Castro. This attempt failed. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A Soviet nuclear missile base in Cuba was said to be spotted by a US spy plane. A naval blockade was set up and missiles were to be removed by Kennedy’s request. Russia agreed to remove the weapons and the US agreed not to invade Cuba. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the leader of the Soviet Union. Two years later, he announced his policy of glasnost he wanted followed. Glasnost dealt with the freedom of speech and his other policy was perestroika, restructuring a government and economy. -
Tiananmen Square
The death count was large and unknown when the government crushed anti-communist protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall was torn down. The Berlin wall had been built in 1961 during the Cold War and separated East and West Berlin. It was a symbol that showed the differences and conflict during the time period. Berlin was always the centerpiece or defining symbol of the Cold War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall stood for the loss of rights and freedom to many people and even affected those who tried to help free people in Germany during the Cold War. -
Malta Summit
The Malta Summit was a meeting between Mikhail Gorbachov and George H. W. Bush that referred back to much talked about at the Yalta Conference. Some people see the Malta Summit as the beginning of the end of the Cold War. -
Abolished
Russia recognized the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War had ended.
