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Yalta Conference
SourceThe Yalta Conference took place in Crimea, Russia from February 4–11, 1945, during World War II. At Yalta, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin made important decisions regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. Soon enough, the Cold War became a reality to all. -
Berlin Declaration
SourceThe Berlin Declaration announced the surrender of Germany and all of its authority. This meeting was held by Soviet forces in Berlin. The following document declared the creation of the Allied Control Council. -
Potsdam Conference
SourceThe Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. After the Yalta Conference, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany. -
North Vietnam
SourceNorth Vietnam was founded by Ho Chi Minh and was recognized by China and the USSR in 1950. It is alsocommonly known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It was also the first Communist state in South-East Asia. Vietnam was unified under a communist government but remained impoverished and politically isolated. -
Iron Curtain Speech
SourceThe Iron Curtain was the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the west and non-Soviet-controlled areas. -
Marshall Plan
sourceThe Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Europe to rebuild European economies after the end of World War II. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous again, and prevent the spread of communism. -
Containment Policy
sourceGeorge F. Kennan, a career Foreign Service Officer, formulated the policy of “containment,” the basic United States strategy for fighting the cold war with the Soviet Union. Containment is a military strategy to stop the expansion of an enemy. It is best known as the Cold War policy of the United States and its allies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. -
Berlin Blockade
sourceThe Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
Berlin Airlift
sourceThe Berlin Airlift was a military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other needed goods into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin had cut off its supply routes. This is directly connected to the Berlin Blockade. -
NATO
sourceNATO’s essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. It promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict. -
Soviet Union tests A-Bomb
sourcethe Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. It came as a great shock to the United States because they were not expecting the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weapon knowledge so soon. Previously, the United States had used two atomic bombs on Japan to cause them to surrender during World War II. This caused Americans to question their safety. -
Second Red Scare
sourceAs World War II was ending, a fear-driven movement known as the Second Red Scare began to spread across the United States. Americans feared that the Soviet Union hoped to spread communism all over the world, overthrowing both democratic and capitalist institutions as it went. -
Korean War - American involvement
sourceNorth Koreans invaded South Korea. A few days later, Truman ordered U.S. troops to the aid of South Korea and convinced the United Nations to send military aid as well, in what was referred to in diplomatic circles as a “police action.” The UN troops, which were mostly American, were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Because the North Korean attack was such a surprise, the U.S. and South Korean forces were pushed into the far southern corner of the Korean peninsula by September. -
Eisenhower Presidency
sourceThe presidency of General Dwight David Eisenhower, from 1953 to 1961, was a Republican interlude during the Fifth Party System, following 20 years of Democratic control of the White House. It was a period of peace and prosperity, and interparty cooperation, even as the world was polarized by the Cold War. His main legacy is the Interstate Highway System. He also signed the Civil Rights acts of 1957 and 1960, completed desegregation of the United States Military. -
Nikita Khrushchev
sourceNikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a Russian politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
sourceJulius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, relating to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. In 1995, the United States government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA, which confirmed that Julius acted as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets, but did not provide definitive evidence for Ethel's involvement. -
Iranian coup d’état
sourceThe 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup, was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, masterminded by the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project) and backed by the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot"). -
Warsaw Pact
sourceThe Warsaw Pact (formally, the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance, sometimes, informally WarPac, akin in format to NATO) was a collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. -
Sputnik
sourceSputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit in 1957. It was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. -
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against the US-backed authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on January 1, 1959, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. The Movement organization later reformed along communist lines, becoming the Communist Party in October 1965. -
Kennedy Presidency
sourceJohn F. Kennedywas an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States until his assassination in November 1963. Notable events that occurred during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Police Week, the establishment of the Peace Corps, and the Space Race. -
U2 Incident
sourcesourceThe U-2 incident happened during the Cold War in 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the premiership of Nikita Khrushchev when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace. The aircraft, flown by Central Intelligence Agency pilot Francis Gary Powers, was performing aerial reconnaissance when it was hit by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) surface-to-air missile and crashed. -
Bay of Pigs
sourceThis was a failed military invasion of Cuba. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's CIA, Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the DRF and intended to overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban armed forces. -
First Man in Space
sourceYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth. Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash. -
Berlin Wall
sourceThe Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin. It was constructed by the GDR. It completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin.Its demolition officially began in 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls. Anyone who tried to cross the barrier was immediately shot on sight. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
sourceAlso called the June Fourth incident, it series of protests and demonstrations in China with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Although the demonstrations and their subsequent repression occurred in cities throughout the country, the events in Beijing. -
JFK Assassination
sourceJohn F. Kennedy was assassinated at 12:30 pm CST on a Friday in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot by a sniper while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, in a presidential motorcade. A 10 month investigation concluded that Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
sourcePresident Lyndon Johnson announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. -
SALT I
sourceThe Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers and provided for the addition of new submarine-launched ballistic missile aunchers only after the same number of older ballistic missiles had been dismantled. -
Prague Spring
sourceThis was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. It began when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until August when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country to halt the reforms. -
Vietnam War - American involvement
sourceThe role of the United States in the Vietnam War began after the Second World War and escalated into full commitment during what is termed the Vietnam War from 1959 to 1975. North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. The Tet Offensive played an important role in weakening U.S. public support for the war. -
Nixon Presidency
sourceHe was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 when he became the only U.S. president to resign the office. Although Nixon initially escalated the war in Vietnam, he subsequently ended the U.S. involvement in 1973, along with the military draft. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he initiated détente and the Anti-Bal -
Apollo 11
sourceApollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together they collected 47.5 pounds of lunar material for return to Earth. -
Détente
sourceThis is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation.The term is often used in reference to the general easing of the geo-political tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States which began in 1969, as a foreign policy of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford called détente; a "thawing out" or "un-freezing" at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War. Détente was known in Russian as "relaxation of tension" -
Iran Hostage Crisis
sourceThis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. 52 American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days after a group of Iranian students, belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who were supporting the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. President Jimmy Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that "the United States will not yield to blackmail." -
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
sourceThis was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from NYC to Seoul via Anchorage. The airliner serving the flight was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor near Moneron Island in the Sea of Japan. The interceptor's pilot was Major Gennadi Osipovich. The aircraft was en route from Anchorage tto Seoul when it flew through prohibited Soviet airspace around the time of a U.S. reconnaissance mission. -
Reykjavik Summit
sourceThe Reykjavík Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Höfði in Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland, The talks collapsed at the last minute, but the progress that had been achieved eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the US and Soviet Union. -
“Tear Down This Wall” speech
source"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge from the United States' President, Ronald Reagan, to the Soviet Union leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to destroy the Berlin Wall. Reagan challenged Gorbachev, who was then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to tear it down as an emblem of Gorbachev's desire to increase freedom in the Eastern Bloc through transperacny and reconstruction. -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
sourceThis was a result of the declaration of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union acknowledging the independence of the Soviet republics and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States, although five of the signatories ratified it much later or not at all. On the previous day, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachevresigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its powers to Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
sourceAfter several weeks of civil unrest in both the East and West Blocs, the East German govts announced hat all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side. Eventually, people began to tear down the wall and keep pieces for themselves as souvineres.
