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The Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. -
Nuclear Buildup Pt 1
Nuclear Arms Race atomic test series of 11 explosions at Nevada Test Site -
USSR development of Hydrogen bomb
On August 12, 1953, the Soviet Union tested its first fusion-based device on a tower in central Siberia. The bomb had a yield of 400 kilotons. On November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union exploded its first true hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site. -
Vietnam
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. -
Hungarian Revolt
A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days before in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on November 4, 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country. Nagy tried to restore peace and asked the Soviets to withdraw their troops. -
The Suez Crisis,
Britain along with France and Israel invaded Egypt to recover control of the Suez Canal, was arguably one of the most significant episodes in post-1945 British history. It's outcome highlighted Britain's declining status and confirmed it as a 'second tier' world power. -
Sputnik
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1. As a result, the launch of Sputnik served to intensify the arms race and raise Cold War tensions. During the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were working to develop new technology. -
U2 Incident
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred on 1 May 1960, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while performing photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory -
Berlin Crisis
In 1948, the Soviet Union sparked a crisis in the city by cutting off land access between West Germany and West Berlin, necessitating a year-long airlift of supplies to the stranded citizens before the Soviets reopened the passageways -
Bay of Pigs
On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. -
JFK
His decision led to a major escalation of the nuclear arms race. In June 1963, President Kennedy spoke at the American University commencement in Washington, DC. He urged Americans to critically reexamine Cold War stereotypes and myths and called for a strategy of peace that would make the world safe for diversity. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. ... Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. -
JFK assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. -
Six-Day War
In six days of fighting, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem, both previously under Jordanian rule. By the time the United Nations cease-fire took effect on June 11, Israel had more than doubled its size. -
Vietnamization
Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops". -
Nixon
Nixon focused on reducing the dangers of the Cold War among the Soviet Union and China. His policy sought on détente with both nations, which were hostile to the U.S. and to each other. He moved away from the traditional American policy of containment of Communism, hoping each side would seek American favor. -
Nuclear Buildup Pt 2
"Peaceful nuclear explosive." The test was the first test developed after the creation of the NPT, and created new questions about how civilian nuclear technology could be diverted secretly to weapons purposes (dual-use technology). India's secret development caused great concern and anger particularly from nations that had supplied its nuclear reactors. -
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds of talks and agreements: SALT I and SALT II.