-
Period: to
1945: World War II Ends and the Cold War Begins
-
Winston Churchill Curtain speech
Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, gave this speech to express the division of communist eastern Europe and Democratic -
US and Britain break the Soviet blockade of West Berlin with the Berlin Airlift
The end of the Second World War, U.S., British, and Soviet military forces divided and occupied Germany. Also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located far inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization is formed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. -
Period: to
korean war
the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. -
Vietnam War Begins
A protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. -
Warsaw Pact is formed
It was the Communist counteraction to North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Warsaw Pact came to be seen as quite a potential militaristic threat, as a sign of Communist dominance, and a definite opponent to American capitalism. -
US is defeated and humiliated at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba
The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure. -
Berlin Wall is Built
East German authorities begin building a wall–the Berlin Wall–to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War–a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
Vietnam War is over
President Richard M. Nixon assumed responsibility for the Vietnam War as he swore the oath of office on January 20, 1969. He knew that ending this war honorably was essential to his success in the presidency. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
the Wall completely cut off by land West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989 -
Germany is reunited
the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and East and West Berlin were reunited, and joined the Federal Republic as a full-fledged Federal City-State. -
Soviet Union Collapses (Establishment of the Russian Federation)
the Baltic states declared their independence from Moscow in early December the Republic of Belarus the Russian Federation and Ukraine broke away from the USSR and created the Commonwealth of Independent States
