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Germany was split between the two global blocs in the East and West, a period known as the division of Germany. Over 10 million German-speaking refugees arrived in Germany from other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Hitler killed himself with a gun. His wife Eva committed suicide with him by taking cyanide.
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Greek communists unsuccessfully tried to gain control of Greece. The communists accepted defeat and the disbandment of their forces.
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Truman appeared before a joint session of Congress to make his case. Nations could adopt a way of life “based upon the will of the majority”.
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Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who announced it in a commencement speech at Harvard University. The Marshall Plan successfully sparked economic recovery.
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U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany.
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The USSR oversaw the installation of pro-Soviet governments in many of the areas it had taken from the Nazis during the war.
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the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. the United States had used two atomic bombs on Japan to cause them to surrender during World War II.
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a war between North and South Korea. China fought for the North, which was also assisted by the Soviet Union.
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an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti. the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991.
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a political and military alliance. a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.
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the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit.
