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Truman
Harry S. Truman formally committed the United States to the containment of Soviet expansionism in Europe. In 1947, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established. It was ratified in 1949. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin airlift was a 1940s military operation that supplied West Berlin with food and other vital goods by air after the Soviet Union blockaded the city. The operation lasted from June 1948 until September 1949. -
The Marshall Plan
President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe -
Iron Curtain
A notional barrier separating the former Soviet block and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989. The curtain had the ostensible purpose of keeping 'imperialist agents' from sneaking in and endangering a country saved from the greed of capital. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two North American. -
The North Korean Invasion
The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. -
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Korean War
The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first armed conflict of the Cold War era, and historians agree that communist North Korea would not have invaded South Korea in 1950 without the approval of Joseph Stalin. -
Jacobo Arbenz
The U.S. intervened in Guatemala in 1954 and removed its elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, on the premise that he was soft on communism. -
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict. -
The Domino Theory
The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a row of dominos. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. -
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The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. -
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide -
Sputnik Launch
The USSR launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. The satellite, an 85-kilogram (187-pound) metal sphere the size of a basketball, was launched on a huge rocket and orbited Earth -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Separating it from East Berlin and East Germany. -
1st Man on Moon
Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle -
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution, refers to a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979 -
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Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union, the DRA and allied paramilitary groups against the Afghan mujahideen, foreign fighters, and smaller groups of anti-Soviet Maoists. -
Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
The final and complete withdrawal of the 40th Army (Soviet Union) from Afghanistan began on 15 May 1988 and ended on 15 February 1989, under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov. The Soviet military had been one of the main protagonists in the Soviet–Afghan War since its beginning in 1979. -
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union -
Reagan
He and Thatcher provided mutual support in terms of fighting liberalism, reducing the welfare state, and dealing with the Soviet Union. Reagan started by escalating the Cold War with the Soviet Union, marking a departure from the policy of détente by his predecessors, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter