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China's Civil War
A conflict in China between the Chinese Communists and Chinese Nationalists. -
WW2 End
Japanese surrender and the allies won. -
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was the name given to a policy announced by US President Harry Trumanon March 12th, 1947. The Truman Doctrine was a very simple warning clearly made to the USSR – though the country was not mentioned by name – that the USA would intervene to support any nation that was being threatened by a takeover by an armed minority. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. The Marshall Plan successfully sparked economic recovery, meeting its objective of ‘restoring the confidence of the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.’ -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift could be called the first battle of the Cold War. It was when western countries delivered much needed food and supplies to the city of Berlin through the air because all other routes were blocked by the Soviet Union. -
United Nations
Consist of the Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization! Primary purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western Allies' military response to a possible invasion of western Europe by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. -
USSR's First Atomic Bomb test
In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. The atomic explosion, which at 20 kilotons was roughly equal to “Trinity,” the first U.S. atomic explosion, destroyed those structures and incinerated the animals. -
Korean War
The underlying reason that the Korean War broke out was because it was just another episode in the ongoing Cold War between the USA and the USSR. On the surface, the Korean War seemed to be a war between South Korea and North Korea, but really the superpowers were just using it as a front to combat each other without actually going into a ‘hot war’ which – as both had the atomic bomb – would have been MAD (mutually assured destruction). -
H-Bomb
H-bomb hydrogen bomb; first used by America on the South Pacific; 1,000 X more powerful than the A-bomb. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Soldier who kept the nation at peace for most of his two terms and ended up warning America about the "military-industrial complex". -
MAD Plan
Mutually Assured Destruction! A doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender (see pre-emptive nuclear strike and second strike). -
Stalin's Death
Died from Cerebral Hemorrhage. -
End of the Korean War
North and South Korea had split after getting beat by the allied forces. -
SEATO
An Asian alliance, set up by Secretary Dulles on the model of NATO, to help support the anti-communist regime in South Vietnam. -
Warsaw Pact
A mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. -
Vietnam War
The causes of the Vietnam War were derived from the symptoms, components and consequences of the Cold War. The causes of the Vietnam War revolve around the simple belief held by America that communism was threatening to expand all over south-east Asia. -
Francis Gary Powers
An American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
On January 5, 1957, in response to the increasingly tense situation in the Middle East, President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) delivered a proposal to a joint session of the U.S. Congress calling for a new and more proactive American policy in the region. The Eisenhower Doctrine, as the proposal soon came to be known, established the Middle East as a Cold War (1945-91) battlefield. -
Fidel Castro took over Cuba
Established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008. -
John F. Kennedy
Youthful politician who combined television appeal with traditional big-city Democratic politics to squeak out a victory in 1960 -
Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961, an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the south coast of Cuba. -
Berlin Wall
During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on 13 August 1961. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
A dangerous moment in the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The actions taken by President John F. Kennedy's administration prevented the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida. -
JFK Shot and Killed
Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Johnson served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, receiving a Silver Star in the South Pacific. While Johnson was president the United States walked on the moon. -
Richard Nixon
Red-hunter turned world-traveling diplomat who narrowly missed becoming president in 1960. -
NASA's first moon landing
The Apollo 11 mission occurred eight years after President John Kennedy (1917-63) announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, took place in 1972. -
SALT
First Strategic Plan Limitations Treaty -
Gerald Ford
Ford enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942. He returned to civilian life in 1946, having earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal, and quickly resumed his law practice and civic activities. -
Sputnik
A soviet scientific achievement that set off a wave of American concern about Soviet superiority in science and education. -
Jimmy Carter
Supported civil rights, which hurt his early political career in Georgia. After a poor showing the 1966 governor’s race, Carter adopted a more centrist image, and he won election in 1970. He became known as a budget cutter while in office. -
Soviets Invade Afghanistan
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, invasion of Afghanistan in late December 1979 by troops from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anticommunist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War (1978–92) and remained in Afghanistan until mid-February 1989. -
Miracle on Ice
By February 22, 1980, the U.S. hockey team had already become the surprise story of the Lake Placid Olympics. They had blazed their way through the early stages of the competition, tying with a highly touted Swedish team before scoring four straight wins. -
U.S. boycott of the summer olympics
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Ronald Reagan
He cut taxes, increased defense spending, negotiated a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets and is credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War. -
Star Wars- Strategic Defense Initiative
The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, the Strategic Defense Initiative was the United States’ response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. -
Berlin Wall Falls
More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as “mauerspechte,” or “wall woodpeckers”—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. -
George Bush(Senior)
put together a team of advisers, including National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, Secretary of State James Baker, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, who generally worked well together. President Bush approached foreign affairs with his characteristic conservatism and pragmatism. -
Soviets Left Afghanistan
Soviets had withdrawal from Afghanistan. -
Tiananmen Square
In 1989, after several weeks of demonstrations, Chinese troops entered Tiananmen Square on June 4 and fired on civilians. Estimates of the death toll range from several hundred to thousands. -
Gorbachev Came to Power
Gorbachev was the secretary and was elected President. -
Boris Yeltsin
Emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
The collapse of the Soviet Union started in the late 1980s and was complete when the country broke up into 15 independent states on December 25, 1991. This signaled the end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.