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Truman doctrine
In 1947, American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 12, 1948, when he pledged to contain threats in Greece and Turkey. U.S. Government believed that the Soviet Union supported the Greek Communist war effort and worried that if the Communists prevailed in the Greek civil war. -
Berlin Airlift
The Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, the United States begins a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city. The Russians had cut off access from the Allied zones of occupation in West Germany to West Berlin, which was in the Russian zone (what became East Germany). By spring 1949, the Berlin Airlift proved successful. -
Berlin blockade
The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin, which lay within Russian-occupied East Germany. Coming just three years after the end of World War II, the blockade was the first major clash of the Cold War and foreshadowed future conflict over the city of Berlin. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II. It was crafted as a four-year plan to reconstruct cities, industries and infrastructure heavily damaged during the war and to remove trade barriers between European neighbors as well as foster commerce between those countries and the United States. Goals of the Marshall Plan was to halt the spread communism on the European continent. -
NATO
The NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed in 1949. Its main purpose was to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation. -
Iron Curtain Speech
The soviets main goal was to shield itself from another invasion from the west. Russia fell victim to each of its neighbors in turn. The Germans invaded Russia during World War I and II. -
Communist take over China
In 1949, Mao proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China with the statement “The central government of the People's republic of China is established!”. Mao delivered his speech from the Gate of Eternal Peace, a symbol of ancient power purposely chosen to declare a new China. After decades of civil war and Japanese occupation, the country was in terrible shape. Roads, railways, farms and factories where in a shocking state of disrepair. -
Korean War
United states and the Soviet Union had withdrawn most of their troops from Korean. North Koreans swept across the 38 parallel in a surprise. South Korean asked the United Nations to intervene. -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975. -
Revolt in Hungary
The problems in Hungary began in 1956, when thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding a more democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression. 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 Soviets did so, but Nagy then tried to push the Hungarian revolt forward by abolishing one-party rule. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the first artificial Earth satellite that the Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit in 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. The Sputnik changed everything. -
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was a push by Mao Zedong to change China from a predominantly agrarian society to a modern, industrial society in just five years. Millions of Chinese citizens were moved onto communes and some were sent to farming cooperatives, while others worked in small manufacturing. Mao hoped to increase China's agricultural output while also pulling workers from agriculture into the manufacturing sector. -
Apollo program
The Apollo program was designed to land humans on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. The six missions that landed on the Moon returned a wealth of scientific data and almost 400 kilograms of lunar samples. Experiments included soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind experiments. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis was a 13 day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. -
Cultural Revolution
The red guards led a major uprising known as the cultural revolution. The goal was to establish a society of peasants and worked in which all were equal. The Red Guards shut down colleges and schools and are targeted anyone who resisted the regime.Many had to hard labor in remote villages. Chaos threatened farm production and closed down factories. Mao wanted the cultural revolution to stop. The army was ordered to put down the Red Guards. -
Revolt in Czechoslovakia
The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. In 1948, Czech attempts to join the U.S.sponsored Marshall Plan to aid postwar rebuilding were thwarted by Soviet takeover and the installation of a new communist government in Prague. Changes in the leadership in Prague led to a series of reforms to soften or humanize the application of communist doctrines within Czech borders.
