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Truman Doctrine
An international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in his speech that was given on March 12, 1947. It stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from beocming subject to Communism. -
Policy of Containment
A United States policy to help prevent the spread of communism in other countries. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of actions by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam. -
Marshall Plan
The American program that was created to aid Europe. It stated that the United States would give economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) was an agreement between the Soviet Union and its satelite states. It was created by the Soviets to counter the European Economic Community (EEC). It provided close economic ties within its nations of Eastern Europe and provided monitary and resource aid, as well as investment and support. -
NATO
NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was established by the US and Western Europe following World War II. It originally consisted of twelve countries: the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, and Iceland. These countries agreed to come to the aid of any member who was attacked, and represented a common front against any territorial expansion by the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. -
Berlin Airlift Ends Blockade of West Berlin
Soviet Russia soon realized that their efforts in blockading Berlin were unsuccessful since the British and Americans were flying in supplies, and so the Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949. -
Creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
A republic in north central Europe on the North Sea; established in 1949 from the zones of Germany occupied by the British and French and Americans after the German defeat. -
Soviet Union Tests Their First Atomic Bomb
The Soviet Union explodes its first nuclear weapon at its testing range on the Kazakhstan steppe. Many historians consider this test the beginning of the nuclear arms race. -
The Communists Defeat Nationalists in China
October 1, 1949: Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which broke out immediately following World War II and had been preceded by on and off conflict between the two sides since the 1920's. -
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Korean War
A conflict that lasted from 1950 to 1953 between North Korea, aided by China, and South Korea, aided by United Nations forces consisting primarily of U.S. troops. -
Death of Joseph Stalin
Stalin suffered a terrible stroke on March 1st, 1953. The treatment for this was delayed as a direct result of his actions over the previous decades. He slowly died over the next few days, in agony. Finally, on March 5th, he died of a brain haemorrhage. -
Soviets Launch Sputnik I Into Space
On this day in history, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, the Sputnik 1, and beat the USA into space. -
Berlin Wall Erected
The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
Rise: Just past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers and construction workers rumbled through East Berlin. While most Berliners were sleeping, these crews began their construction, and finished by the very next morning. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
A 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side, and the United States on the other, in October 1962. It was one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and it is known as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
A joint resolution that the U.S. Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It gave President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal war declaration by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty. This included involving armed forces. -
President Lyndon B. Johnson Escalates Troop Numbers To Start Vietnam War
President Johsnon tried to put more pressure on the N. Vietnamese as if to give them a little scare, and make them back off. -
President Nixon Signs Agreement To Withdraw From Vietnam
The agreement advocates U.S. military and economic assistance to nations around the world struggling against Communism, but no more Vietnam-style ground wars involving American troops. -
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
In keeping with its previous suppression of rival political factions, the Soviets intended a show of force to prop up the Afghan Communist regime. However, the people of Afghanistan decided to fight back and it quickly escalated into a major conflict that continued for 10 years. -
Berlin Wall Torn Down
Fall: The fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. There had been signs that the Communist bloc was weakening, but the East German Communist leaders insisted that East Germany just needed a moderate change rather than a drastic revolution. East German citizens did not agree.
They eventually chipped the wall away, and East and West Germany were reunified on October 3, 1990.
