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Alger Hiss Case
In the year 1904 Alger Hiss was high ranked in the American government, as he was a government official. In this time he faced several accusations of being a Soviet spy. He was said to have secretly been a communist during his time in the American government. Though they started as accusations they were proven true and he was proven guilty on accounts of perjury, and received two five year sentences only serving three and a half. Til his death bed he claimed his innocence. -
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution took place in 1917 and got its name from the working class of Russia revolted against their government. This pushed the collapse to an empire which was then led by Tsar Nicholas II and then led to the rise of socialism giving more power to the then government due to the revolution and rebellion from the public. This revolution was so large it affected a few of the other countries. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam conference was held at the end of World War II and was the last meeting between the three nations which were the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union -
Atomic Bomb
In 1945 80,000 people lost their lives, cities and civilization in an instant due to the drop of an atomic bomb over the city Hiroshima. The view on dropping this atomic bomb was to hopefully stop a war that could've in turn, killed even more people than hundreds of thousands and was preventing total world destruction. The amount of damage was caused from a single 10 foot long atomic bomb. -
Iron Curtain
When World War II ended and the Cold War began and ended Europe needed to form a boundary that divided Europe into two separate areas that would separate the Soviet Union, from the non-Soviet areas. They wanted zero open contact with each other. The western parts of Europe were more democratic and the eastern parts were Soviet Union controlled. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
This was the engagement of the first war of Indochina. The french took over the Dien Bien Phu valley in 1953 and troops placed heavy artillery in caves of the mountains. -
Molotov Plan
When the Soviet Union came into place in Europe a bit of Europe needed fixing or rebuilding and realigning. So they created the Molotov Plan, however the Soviets denied this plan because they thought it was a secret attack to weaken Soviet interest in their satellite states due to what was proposed and by creating beneficiary countries. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was established by President Harry S. Truman. It was established to provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations that were or are under threat of external or internal authority forces. In this Truman had also asked that Congress support the Greek Government against communists. -
Marshall Plan
When devastation fell over Europe after World War II the U.S. created a program called the Marshall Plan designed to provide aid to Western Europe. The U.S. provided over $15 billion to help rebuild western Europe and its economies. -
Berlin Blockade
In 1948 the Soviet Union planned an attempt to limit the ability of France, Great Britain, and the U.S. by traveling to their sectors of Berlin. Through this they planned to create "West Germany". -
Nato
NATO stands for the "North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was created in 1949 by the U.S., Canada, and other Western European nations. It was created to provide security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance formed and entered into by the U.S. outside of the western hemisphere. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The Soviet bomb test was the first nuclear bomb test on the U.S. by the Soviet Union. It came as a surprise and shock to the U.S. as they were not prepared and didn't expect the Soviets to have atomic power and knowledge so soon. -
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was a bunch of British pilots who delivered food to the wrecked and isolated city of Berlin due to the Soviet Union. -
Hollywood Ten
The plight of 10 suspected communists. -
Korean War
When World War II ended Korea had divided the northern half into a communism, and the an American-occupied southern half. The Korean War was begun when the Korean communist army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the non-communist part of south Korea. -
Rosenburg Trial
This trial was based around a couple who were accused and committed of selling nuclear secrets of the U.S. to Russia. The couple was accused and prosecuted and sentenced to life. -
Geneva Conference
The Geneva Conference was put in place for several nations located in Geneva Switzlerand. It was to form a group and discuss the major issues that were left on these nations from the Korean War and the Indochina War. -
Army-McCarthy Hearing
The hearing of this time was to describe the period in the U.S. when there were extreme suspicions of conflicts and accusations towards anti-communists. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact actually brought good to many countries. It was a treaty signed between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union all to the agreement of peace, co-operation, and assistance. -
Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution was a national uprising after the Soviet Union crushed Hungary's economy. During this the Soviet Union announced that Hungary was pulling back from the Warsaw Pact. -
U2 Incident
This incident is important because it is about an American U-2 spy plane being shot down while it was performing observations and obtaining photographic footage(spying) of the Soviet Union. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis could have been the beginning of a nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union. There was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the two. -
Assassination of Diem
The day before his assassination Dinh Diems government was overthrown. Following this Dinh and his brother were captured and killed by a group of soldiers. Many people celebrated their deaths, however after they were assassinated there was a lot of political chaos. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was the authorization for president Johnson to take the measures necessary to retaliate in order to bring international peace and security in Southeast Asia. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Rolling thunder was a code name for an American codename for a bombing campaign during the Vietnam war. It was intended to put pressure on North Vietnam's communist leaders and reduce their ability to wage war against the U.S. whom was a supporter of South Vietnam. -
Tet Offensive
The tet offensive was a series of surprise attacks by the Vietcong which were rebel forces by the North Vietnam. These attacks were put onto cities, towns, and hamlets throughout South Vietnam. -
Martin Luther King Jr Assassination
Martin Luther King was a civil rights leader and was assassinated on the second floor balcony of his hotel stay in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassination was so abrupt and was taken place right before he had led a march in Tennessee. Riots broke out after his death for civil rights activists. -
John F. Kennedy Assassination
The assassination of John F. Kennedy was taken place as he was shaking hands with a 17 year old busboy. He was shot three times during random, but targeted fire at him. He was assassinated in Dallas, Texas and was shot three times. -
Invasion of Czechoscovakia
The reason for the invasion of Czechoscovakia was for the Soviet Union to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. The successful invasion halted the pace of reform, however the consequences for the unity of the communist bloc would be unexpected. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
The convention took place during a year of violence, political turbulence, and civil unrest. This convention followed after the assassination of MLK. There were over 100 riots following his death. -
Election of Nixon
Nixon won this election by promising to restore law and order to the nations cities and provide new leadership in the Vietnam War. -
Kent State
This was a massacre on unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard after a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces. -
Nixon Visits China
Nixons visit to China was important for several reasons. Top two being he was the first U.S. president to visit China's republic since it was established, it was also to improve relations with a communist country during the cold war. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
All countries involved in the Vietnam war signed a ceasefire due to Paris Peace Accord. -
Fall of Saigon
At this point and time North Vietnam was communist and so South Vietnam had other beliefs so the north forces captured the South Vietnam capitol. By successfully capturing Saigon it forced South Vietnam to surrender and helping in bringing an end to the Vietnam War. -
Reagan Elected
After Reagan's election there was a rise in communism. He was said to have started a new era. -
SDI Announced
SDI stands for Strategic Defense Initiative it was space based anti-missile system. It was put into place to protect America from the Soviet ICBMs. This system would redirect the Soviets missiles during their fight. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev
This conference was between U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. It was to meet for the first time and to hold a conference on the international diplomatic relations and the arms race. -
Tear Down This Wall Speech
This speech was performed by U.S. president Ronald Reagan. It was calling for the General Secretary of the communist party of the soviet union to open up the barrier which divided West and East Berlin since 1961. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
As the Cold War began to die down across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for Berlins Communist party announced that the relations between the East and West had finally reunited. The citizens were allowed to free the country's borders by midnight that night.